Viola-group podcast The Power of Co-opetition with Cloud Providers

The Power of Co-opetition with Cloud Providers

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Selling through a third party’s marketplace (such as one of the big cloud providers) is nice, but it’s not enough. Reach out to their Alliance team.
Make an effort to understand their incentive, what focus areas they are trying to promote and how you can create connections within their organization so other departments (like Product) will reach out to the Alliance team and ask to work with you.
Make sure you understand your partner’s sales incentives plan, and negotiate so their sales people get a larger commission from selling your product.
While cloud providers and system integrators are your natural collaborators and magnifiers, it’s also very likely they’ll copy you and become your competitors.

To differentiate, think about what you can build on top of your basic product that will stand out and add value to potential clients.
Stay on top of the cloud providers’ (and other 3rd parties’) changing priorities and create alignment so it will be in their interest to feature and promote your products. Consider an OEM model.
A strong champion in the organization can be a complete game changer.
Prioritize hiring sales people who’ve worked at one of the cloud providers.