Actionable Insights
- Start Small and Align with Hyperscaler Goals: Begin with one hyperscaler (e.g., AWS, Azure, or GCP) and align your offerings to drive their cloud consumption, ensuring mutual value. Identify customer use cases that match their compute needs to accelerate deals.
- Leverage Existing Commitments: Ask customers about their unspent cloud commitments (e.g., $267 billion across major hyperscalers) to target opportunities where they’re motivated to spend.
- Engage Field Sellers Strategically: Hire or consult with experts familiar with hyperscaler ecosystems (e.g., former AWS or Microsoft reps) to navigate programs and build relationships with field sellers.
- Track and Share Results: Use PRM or CRM tools to monitor hyperscaler-sourced or -influenced deals, ensuring transparency and proper attribution to justify internal investment.
- Involve Finance Early: Prepare your finance team for unique hyperscaler transaction models, like private offers, to streamline operations and avoid surprises.
Why Hyperscalers Matter for Channel Success
In today’s rapidly evolving channel ecosystem, hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are reshaping how businesses deliver and scale solutions. As highlighted in a recent Baptie & Co. webinar hosted by Channel Focus, hyperscalers represent a massive opportunity for channel professionals, with over $267 billion in unspent cloud commitments driving customer behavior. By 2027, over 50% of hyperscaler marketplace sales are projected to flow through channel partners, with third-party vendor product sales expected to exceed $45 billion in 2025 alone (Canalys/TechTarget).
To help channel leaders navigate this landscape, Baptie & Co., the leading community for channel marketing excellence, brought together three industry experts: Trevor Burnett, VP of Marketing at Impartner; Harbinder Khera, CEO and Founder of MindMatrix; and Anthony D’Angelo, CRO at Unifyr. Their insights provide a roadmap for building effective hyperscaler programs. This blog post distills their advice into practical strategies to align with hyperscalers, engage their field sellers, and track results for maximum impact.
Understanding Hyperscaler Priorities
Hyperscalers are not just cloud providers; they’re ecosystems built on massive infrastructure for computing, storage, and networking. Their primary goal is to drive cloud consumption, as this fuels their revenue. As Harbinder Khera emphasized, “If you want their sellers engaged to co-sell your product, it should increase their computing, storage, or network usage.” For channel professionals, this means aligning your offerings with hyperscaler priorities.
Actionable Tip: Identify how your solution drives cloud usage. For example, if your software leverages AWS compute services, highlight this in your pitch to AWS field sellers. If you’re platform-agnostic, consider a hybrid model (e.g., AI on AWS, infrastructure on Azure) to appeal to multiple hyperscalers, as Khera suggested.
Starting Small: A Practical Approach
The webinar poll revealed that only 6% of attendees had extensive hyperscaler programs, while 33% were working on them but felt they had more to do, 28% were piloting, and 33% had no program. This diversity underscores the need for a phased approach. Anthony D’Angelo advised, “Start small with what’s achievable. Define what you can sell that drives their cloud computing.” For example, select one hyperscaler and a single target account with unspent commitments to test your strategy.
Trevor Burnett shared Impartner’s experience listing on the Azure Marketplace, noting the “long, arduous process” but emphasizing its value. By focusing on a specific vertical, like discrete manufacturing, Impartner gained traction with Microsoft’s field sellers. This targeted approach helps channel teams avoid overwhelming their resources.
Actionable Tip: Pull your top 10 customer use cases and map them to a hyperscaler’s compute needs. If none align, explore how your solution can indirectly support their goals, such as enabling faster deployments that increase cloud usage.
Engaging Hyperscaler Field Sellers
Hyperscalers employ thousands of field sellers, each with quotas to meet. Engaging them requires more than a generic pitch. As Burnett noted, having an “inside man” like a former Microsoft or AWS employee can be a game-changer. Impartner hired a consultant with Microsoft expertise to navigate the Azure Marketplace listing process, which proved invaluable.
Khera echoed this, suggesting channel teams hire or consult with hyperscaler veterans who understand internal programs like AWS’s ACE or Microsoft’s Co-Sell Ready. These programs often change quarterly, so staying updated is critical. D’Angelo added, “Be specific about the value you drive for their targets. Don’t show up with a generic deck.” For example, presenting a deal where a customer has unspent Azure credits can excite Microsoft sellers, as it’s an easy win toward their quota.
Actionable Tip: Identify one hyperscaler and a key account with existing commitments. Craft a one-pager tailored to a specific vertical or region, showing how your solution accelerates their sales. Consider designating a distributor as the seller of record (DSOR) for AWS, as suggested by an audience member, to leverage their relationships.
Navigating Private Offers and Multi-Party Deals
Private offers—customized pricing and terms transacted through hyperscaler marketplaces—are a powerful tool. They allow ISVs to offer discounts or flexible payment schedules while the hyperscaler handles billing. However, as webinar host Rod Baptie noted, “Private offers change the money flow, so involve your finance team early.” This ensures your organization is prepared for a model that differs from traditional sales.
Burnett highlighted Impartner’s use of private offers on Azure, which allows their sales team to offer tailored packages while still transacting through the marketplace. This increases visibility with Microsoft, as higher transaction volumes elevate your status. Multi-party private offers, where partners are included, are also gaining traction. Khera emphasized transparency and attribution in these deals, ensuring all parties understand their roles and rewards.
Actionable Tip: Start with a single private offer for a key customer with hyperscaler commitments. Work with strategic partners to validate them for multi-party offers, ensuring they aren’t cut out of the deal. Use tools like MindMatrix or Unifyr to track contributions and attribution.
Tracking and Sharing Results
To sustain internal support for your hyperscaler program, tracking and communicating results is essential. D’Angelo recommended focusing on metrics like hyperscaler-sourced or -influenced deals. “Track how this impacts your channel, not just for hyperscalers but for your executive team to justify resources,” he said. Tools like Impartner, MindMatrix, or Unifyr’s PRM platforms can help capture these metrics, ensuring transparency.
Khera noted that hyperscalers provide detailed reports on deal status and account mapping, though they don’t share unspent commit data directly. Intent data from third-party providers can help identify accounts with unused commitments, guiding your targeting efforts. Burnett stressed aligning internal teams to avoid conflicts, such as direct sellers undermining partners, by offering quota relief or incentives tied to hyperscaler deals.
Actionable Tip: Use your PRM or CRM to track hyperscaler-accelerated deals and share these wins with your CEO, CRO, and CFO. Highlight how tapping into unspent commitments (e.g., $267 billion across AWS, Azure, and GCP) drives revenue, justifying further investment.
Preparing for Channel Shift
A key challenge is that hyperscaler deals may shift revenue from traditional channels like distribution. Baptie warned, “You may see distribution revenues drop as customers buy through hyperscalers.” To mitigate this, involve strategic partners early and consider designating distributors as sellers of record, as suggested in the webinar.
D’Angelo emphasized educating your team on this shift. “It’s about deal acceleration and expansion upside,” he said. By asking customers about their hyperscaler commitments, your sales team can position your solution as the easiest path to utilize those funds, even if it means bypassing traditional channels.
Actionable Tip: Train your sales team to ask, “Do you have unspent hyperscaler commitments?” Use this to guide customers to marketplaces, and work with distributors to ensure they’re included in the ecosystem.
Seize the Hyperscaler Opportunity
Building an effective hyperscaler program requires aligning with their priorities, starting small, engaging field sellers, leveraging private offers, and tracking results. As Baptie & Co.’s Channel Focus community continues to explore these trends, their upcoming event from October 7-9, 2025, in Dana Point offers a chance to dive deeper into channel strategies. By following the insights from Trevor Burnett, Harbinder Khera, and Anthony D’Angelo, channel professionals can tap into the massive potential of hyperscalers, driving growth and staying ahead in a cloud-first world.