Co-selling opportunity management

Manage a co-selling opportunity as one shared buying process. Keep one current answer to who leads, what qualifies the stage, what the customer must do next, and what could stop the deal. Partner activity can create motion without progress when those answers live in separate conversations. A co-sell opportunity is a collaboration among multiple parties to sell products that meet a customer's needs.¹ Set the decision path before adding activity, then use each review to test whether the deal still follows it.

Start by making the opportunity clear to anyone who was not in the last customer conversation. A partner cannot manage a shared deal from a stage label that means something different to each team.

Create opportunity stages that fit the current sales process.² Give each stage a consistent, clear definition of what qualifies the opportunity for that stage.³ The seller and manager should agree on what moves a deal through the pipeline and on the exit criteria for every stage.⁴

Write those rules before reviewing an active opportunity. For each stage, record the customer evidence required, the action that moves the deal forward, and the condition that blocks movement. Keep the language short enough for both teams to use in a call.

Ask:

• What must be true for this opportunity to enter the stage?
• What customer action proves it can leave?
• Which partner owns the next action?
• What would make us move the deal back or stop it?

Advance only when the current stage has supporting evidence and the next action is agreed.

Set leadership before the partner adds people, resources, or meetings. The co-sell motion should tell everyone who drives the opportunity and what support the other side provides.

In AWS's model, every opportunity receives a co-sell motion and an Opportunity Quality score.⁵ The co-sell motion determines who leads the opportunity.⁶ Together, the motion and score determine how AWS engages on the deal and what the AWS Partner Central agent does to help.⁷

The motion should change the work plan. In the AWS Field-engaged motion, the opportunity is matched with an AWS sales team for direct collaboration, while the agent prepares research, tracks actions, and keeps the record current.⁸ In the Agent-engaged motion, the agent qualifies and enriches the opportunity with the partner and surfaces recommendations to strengthen the submission.⁹ In the Partner-led motion, the partner owns and drives the opportunity with support such as sales plays, customer insights, and resources.¹⁰

Use the score to judge the likelihood of field help. A higher Opportunity Quality score may increase the likelihood that an AWS field seller engages, but it does not guarantee engagement.¹¹

At the start of the deal, ask:

• Who leads the customer relationship?
• What does the partner need from the other team to move the opportunity?
• Which actions belong in the shared record?
• What support is available under this motion, and what remains with the lead?

Leave the call with one answer about leadership and one agreed next joint action.

Make each interaction produce a decision or commitment. Internal tasks can fill the calendar while the buying process stays still, so record what the customer must do next alongside what each selling team will do.

Salespeople should introduce mandatory deal-completion steps while they are still selling the deal.¹² Organize the follow-up around next steps so the deal can be project-managed.¹³ Know the next step in the sales cycle before selling the current step.¹⁴

After each meeting, write the next customer interaction, the outcome it must produce, and the person responsible for preparing it. Ask the partner to confirm its part while the discussion is fresh. Maintain mutual agreement and partnership through the prospecting phase so the next step remains a joint commitment.

Before changing the stage, ask:

• What needs to happen in the next customer interaction?
• Who has agreed to make it happen?
• What will we learn or decide there?
• What will we do if the customer does not take that action?

If the representative cannot answer what needs to happen in the next interaction, the deal has risk and there is a coaching opportunity.¹⁵ Do not advance on completed internal work alone.

A deal review should test the opportunity's quality, the evidence for its stage, and its next action. Give the partner a clear place to challenge assumptions before the deal reaches a late stage.

Use weekly deal reviews to check that qualification and stage movement are being handled correctly.¹⁶ Map the number of opportunities in every sales stage so the team can see where deals are accumulating.¹⁷ Use the business case to brief sales leadership on what is happening in the deal.¹⁸ Managers can help sellers see risk earlier and plan better while the opportunity is still active.¹⁹

Run the review in this order:

1. State the current stage and the evidence that supports it.
2. Name the next customer interaction and its intended outcome.
3. Surface the risk that could stop that interaction.
4. Decide what the partner, seller, and manager will do before the next review.

When several teams are involved, ask directly for the missing view. A review that ends with a cleaner record and a specific action is doing its job.

The next sales stage after same-side selling is commercial agreement.²⁰ Introduce the commercial steps while the teams are still selling, then attach each step to a person and a customer commitment.

In Microsoft Partner Center, use the Referrals workspace and select the Co-sell opportunities tab for the co-sell deal path.²¹ Partners can create a Services co-sell opportunity in the Referrals workspace and request help from the Microsoft Sales team.²² When the opportunity is created, add the user in the Partner Sales Contact field to the Opportunity Team.²³

If the deal is approved, an internal person converts it to an account, contact, and opportunity and assigns an internal salesperson as the opportunity owner when co-selling alongside the partner.²⁴ Keep the seller accountable for the opportunity and account when an executive joins the deal.²⁵

Before calling the deal ready to close, ask:

• Has the customer agreed to the commercial path?
• Does each party know its remaining action?
• Is the opportunity record current enough for a new participant to understand it?
• Who owns the next customer decision?

Use these checks when the record looks active but the deal is not moving:

• Do not push an opportunity to a later date unless the representative can defend why it will close then.²⁶
• Update next steps before the pipeline call. Prepare the deal and strategy before the call.²⁷
• Include external stakeholders who need to participate in the deal review call.²⁸
• Do not let planned activity contradict the current stage. Continuing demos after the demo work is complete is a coaching opportunity.²⁹
• Do not run the review from one person's view when several people are involved. Everyone involved in the deal should have a voice in the opportunity.³⁰