Cracking the co-sell code: Trends, gaps, and how top teams are closing them

The idea of cloud co-sell sounds great in theory — align with AWS, Azure, or GCP sellers, unlock new pipeline, and accelerate deals through shared execution. And that promise has driven adoption across the board. But execution is where most teams stall out. According to the 2025 State of Cloud Marketplace & Co-Sell Report, while 71% of companies are engaged in co-sell, more than half report friction that limits their ability to scale. The problem isn’t just buy-in. It’s gaps in structure, tooling, and ownership.

In this post, we break down co-sell into a series of key trends, and for each, unpack the corresponding gap holding teams back, and how high performers are solving it.

Trend 1: Co-Sell is now a default expectation

Hyperscalers are leaning in hard. AWS, Azure, and GCP have built robust partner programs, and their sellers are now encouraged (even compensated) to co-sell with ISVs that help drive cloud consumption. For ISVs, this opens doors to new logos, committed spend, and faster procurement cycles.

The Gap:
While 71% of ISVs say they’re co-selling, only 32% have proactive, structured cadences in place with hyperscaler reps. That means most engagements are ad hoc — driven by urgent deals rather than coordinated strategy. Without predictable rhythm, field engagement becomes luck, not leverage.

The Fix:
Top performers treat co-sell with the same rigor as pipeline management. They establish weekly or biweekly check-ins with hyperscaler sellers, align around co-sell–ready accounts, and track progress through shared plans or joint trackers. Some teams formalize this via scheduled Slack syncs or lightweight deal review cadences.

Together, these systems turn field engagement from reactive outreach into a repeatable, high-impact motion — one that’s scalable, visible, and far more likely to drive real pipeline.

Trend 2: Partner portals are packed with possibility

AWS ACE offer deal visibility to both internal and cloud field teams, cloud rep routing, and co-sell program benefits when used effectively. On paper, they’re a co-sell accelerant.

The Gap:
Most teams are still submitting deals manually. It’s time-consuming, inconsistent, and error-prone — especially when data has to be copy-pasted from CRM into multiple portals. This slows the entire motion and limits scale.

The Fix:
High-performing teams reduce manual lift by automating submission workflows. For example, platforms like Clazar allow teams to bulk-create opportunities based on CRM triggers or metadata, review them centrally, and push them to cloud partner systems without duplicative effort. This not only increases submission volume but improves accuracy — and with it, field engagement.

Trend 3: Co-Sell unlocks better KPIs

One of the clearest signals in the 2025 State of Cloud Marketplace & Co-Sell Report is this: co-sell drives real outcomes. According to the data, among companies that report higher win rates, 77% are actively co-selling with hyperscaler partners. And it’s not just win rates — 69% of those seeing higher deal values and acquiring new logos are also running co-sell motions. The pattern is consistent: when co-sell is working, it’s working across the funnel — helping teams close faster, close bigger, and break into accounts that might otherwise be out of reach.

The Gap:
Despite the upside, most teams still don’t have a clear framework for identifying which deals should go through co-sell. Reps are left to guess:

• Will a hyperscaler seller care about this opportunity?
  
  
• Is it worth the effort to submit?
  
  
• Will the process slow me down or accelerate the deal?
  
  

This ambiguity leads to two suboptimal behaviors:

1. Co-sell avoidance — reps default to traditional sales motions to avoid perceived complexity.
   
   
2. Over-submission — teams push everything through the portal “just in case,” creating noise for partner teams and hyperscaler sellers alike.

Both approaches degrade trust and reduce impact.

The Fix:
High-performing teams take the guesswork out of co-sell by defining — and operationalizing — a "co-sell ready" profile. This includes a short list of clear, consistent criteria sellers can use to assess whether an opportunity is a good candidate for co-sell support.

Typical indicators include:

• Cloud budget influence: The buyer has a committed spend with AWS, Azure, or GCP — and your deal can help them burn it down.
  
  
• Named hyperscaler coverage: The account has a mapped cloud rep with whom you’ve engaged (or can engage).
  
  
• Procurement advantage: Transacting via marketplace could accelerate onboarding, legal review, or budget approval.
  
  
• Strategic account fit: The deal size, vertical, or product line aligns with hyperscaler sales goals or solution areas.
  
  

Some top teams use internal “co-sell scorecards” to prioritize which deals move forward. Others create short intake forms that partner managers can triage efficiently. The key is removing ambiguity and making qualification a shared responsibility between sales, partnerships, and RevOps.

This structured approach has two powerful effects:

1. It increases seller confidence and adoption — reps know when and how to use co-sell without second-guessing.
   
   
2. It improves the quality of field engagement — cloud reps get more relevant, higher-potential opportunities, making them more likely to lean in.
   
   

In short: better inputs create better outcomes. 

Trend 4: Everyone wants visibility into what works

Executives want to know which deals were influenced by cloud reps. AEs want to know if their submission is being worked on. Cloud partners want follow-up. Data-driven co-sell is a rising priority.

The Gap:
The current state usually has very little visibility. Submissions go into portals, but both ends don’t also see updated data in real-time. There’s limited reporting on outcomes, and therefore no learning loop. As a result, AEs lose trust, cloud reps disengage, and internal support weakens.

The Fix:
Leading teams build feedback loops into the system. They track when deals are picked up, which reps engaged, and whether that involvement changed the outcome. Some use partner engagement notes synced to CRM. Others use dedicated dashboards that pull submission data and cloud response into a central place. It doesn’t have to be complex — it just has to be visible.

Co-sell needs to be repeatable

What separates the top performers isn’t that they have every field wired — it’s that they start with structure, learn fast, and scale what works.

In 2025, co-sell isn’t optional. It’s fast becoming table stakes for SaaS teams who want to sell bigger, faster, and deeper into enterprise accounts. But turning intent into impact requires more than access to a cloud partner program. It requires clarity, cadence, automation — and a relentless focus on operationalizing what drives results. The good news? That playbook is already in motion. And it’s working.

Want the complete benchmarks and co-sell insights?
Download the 2025 State of Cloud Marketplace & Co-Sell Report — built from survey data and firsthand conversations with GTM leaders shaping the future of cloud sales.

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