Co-selling with Microsoft is the commercial practice of building working relationships with specific Microsoft field personnel — PDMs, enterprise account executives, Azure specialist sellers, and technical specialists — and consistently generating the high-quality co-sell opportunity submissions and prompt referral follow-ups that build the mutual trust that makes those field team relationships commercially productive for both the ISV and the Microsoft field team members who are investing their time in co-sell engagement.
Co-selling with Microsoft is the practice of an ISV partner enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program working jointly with Microsoft’s enterprise field sellers to pursue shared customer opportunities — submitting and receiving co-sell referrals through Microsoft Partner Center and coordinating joint sales engagement within Microsoft’s structured co-sell status framework.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is co-selling with Microsoft?
Co-selling with Microsoft is the practice of an ISV partner enrolled in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program working jointly with Microsoft’s enterprise field sellers, technical specialists, and partner development managers to pursue shared customer opportunities — submitting and receiving co-sell referrals through Microsoft Partner Center, coordinating joint customer sales engagement between the ISV’s sales team and the relevant Microsoft field personnel, and building the bilateral working relationships with specific Microsoft field team members that generate ongoing co-sell referral flow within Microsoft’s structured co-sell status framework (Co-sell ready, Co-sell Eligible, Azure IP Co-sell Eligible).
How does co-selling with Microsoft work through Partner Center?
Co-selling with Microsoft operates through Microsoft Partner Center — the web-based platform through which ISV partners and Microsoft field teams share and jointly manage co-sell opportunities. The co-sell process works in two directions. ISV-originated referrals (ISV to Microsoft): the ISV’s sales team identifies a qualified customer opportunity where Microsoft field engagement would accelerate the deal — for example, a customer with significant Azure committed spend or an active Microsoft account relationship — and submits the opportunity into Partner Center as a co-sell referral requesting Microsoft field engagement; the relevant Microsoft account team reviews the submission and, if qualified, assigns a Microsoft field seller to engage with the ISV’s team. Microsoft-originated referrals (Microsoft to ISV): a Microsoft account team identifies a customer need that an ISV partner’s product can address and shares the opportunity through Partner Center as a customer referral, creating a warm introduction that the ISV’s sales team can follow up. In both directions, the co-sell opportunity is tracked within Partner Center with shared visibility into the opportunity status and joint sales activity for both parties.
What co-sell status does an ISV need to effectively co-sell with Microsoft?
Microsoft uses a co-sell status framework that determines the level of Microsoft field engagement and commercial benefits available to an ISV partner. Co-sell ready is the entry-level co-sell status — it requires active Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program membership, a published listing on Microsoft AppSource or Azure Marketplace, and defined co-sell technical and commercial documentation; it enables the ISV to submit co-sell referrals through Partner Center and receive customer referrals from Microsoft field teams. Co-sell Eligible is an intermediate status tier for ISVs whose solutions meet defined performance and capability thresholds; Co-sell Eligible ISVs receive more proactive Microsoft field engagement. Azure IP Co-sell Eligible is the highest co-sell status tier for ISVs whose products run on Azure infrastructure and meet Microsoft’s commercial and technical requirements; Azure IP Co-sell Eligible ISVs receive the most proactive Microsoft field support, including eligibility for Microsoft co-sell incentive funding programs and prioritization by Microsoft field teams in relevant enterprise customer engagements. For most ISVs with a serious Cloud GTM strategy, Azure IP Co-sell Eligible status is the commercial co-sell status to pursue.
What are the most effective practices for co-selling with Microsoft field teams?
Effective co-selling with Microsoft field teams requires several practices. Building relationships with Partner Development Managers (PDMs) — Microsoft’s PDMs are the primary ISV relationship owners within the Microsoft partner organization; a strong working relationship with the ISV’s assigned PDM provides the internal advocacy, field team introductions, and program navigation support that make co-sell activity productive. Targeting Microsoft field engagement on the right opportunities — Microsoft field teams are most likely to engage on opportunities where the customer has a meaningful Azure commitment (MACC or Azure consumption) and where the ISV’s product runs natively on Azure. Preparing strong co-sell ready assets — the co-sell solution profile, pitch deck, and reference architecture should be designed to communicate the ISV’s value proposition in terms that Microsoft field sellers can quickly understand and present to customers. And delivering on Microsoft referrals — responding promptly to Microsoft-originated customer referrals and providing the Microsoft field team with timely opportunity status updates demonstrates the reliability that builds the field team’s confidence in referring the ISV’s product to additional customers.
How does ZINFI support co-selling with Microsoft?
ZINFI’s UPM platform supports co-selling with Microsoft through its centralized interconnect module, which provides bidirectional data synchronization between ZINFI’s partner pipeline management environment and Microsoft Partner Center. ISV vendors who manage their channel pipeline within ZINFI can submit co-sell referrals to Microsoft field teams and receive Microsoft-originated customer referrals within the ZINFI platform — without requiring the ISV’s sales team to maintain separate opportunity records in both ZINFI and Partner Center simultaneously. Co-sell opportunity data synchronized between ZINFI and Microsoft Partner Center ensures that opportunity status, stage updates, and Microsoft field engagement activity are visible within ZINFI’s pipeline management dashboards alongside the ISV’s other channel and direct pipeline activity. ZINFI’s business intelligence reporting layer produces the Microsoft co-sell program performance analytics — co-sell submitted pipeline, Microsoft acceptance rate, co-sell win rate, marketplace revenue attribution — that the ISV’s co-sell program leader uses to track co-sell status tier progress and optimize Microsoft field team relationship investment.