AWS Marketplace

How to strategically package and price your solution in AWS Marketplace

Listing your software, services, or data products in AWS Marketplace can help you reach cloud-ready AWS customers. In this blog post, I offer best practices on how to package and price your solution in AWS Marketplace so you can get begin reaching AWS customers. I make suggestions depending on the type of solution you offer, how you sell your solution, and how you price your solution today.

Approaching your listing: The AWS Marketplace partner journey

Before you list your solution, it’s worth taking the time to strategize your sales motion over three dimensions: (1) the delivery method in which your solution deploys (Amazon Machine Image, server-based, SaaS, or machine learning, for example), (2) how you currently sell (high-touch or low-touch), and (3) how you price (usage or contracts, for example). I’ll also show you how to get started registering and selling your solutions in AWS Marketplace.

1. Product delivery method

AWS Marketplace enables partners to list using a variety of product delivery methods such as SaaS, Amazon Machine Image (AMI), container, machine learning, professional services, and data products. Start by reviewing the product delivery methods that AWS Marketplace supports to identify where your solutions fits.

Many partners today list their solutions using multiple delivery methods, if not all of them. The key is to identify your target customer. Think about which solutions your customers are using the most or which would be the quickest route to market.

You might offer a multi-tier web application that can be deployed on-premises on a single server or multiple servers or on a single container or multiple containers in the customer’s environment. Or you might offer it as a SaaS solution to remove the technical burden on your customers.

These are just a few examples, and you may package and offer your solution in all or some of them.

2. Product sales motion

How you sell can indicate which AWS Marketplace features are most valuable for you to adopt, since not all features are supported with all pricing models.

Here are a few key questions to think about:

  • Do all deals involve custom pricing?
  • Do you offer free trials?
  • Are you looking for self-service subscriptions that you can land and expand upon?
  • Do you authorize resellers today?
  • Does your product allow for instant access upon subscription?

For example, if you don’t offer a pay-as-you-go option today, listing in AWS Marketplace could help you acquire new customers through this model.

Low-touch sales motion

If your AWS Marketplace strategy is to launch your solutions and run marketing campaigns to drive traffic with an emphasis on self-service subscriptions, consider the following for your listings:

    1. Offer a free trial. Offering a free trial or a free tier for your product can help you attract customers to try before they buy. In some cases, this can get your sales team involved to “land and expand” when the timing is right.

To identify if free trials or free tiers are supported for your specific deployment type, review the product pricing page for your specific product type. For example, SaaS free trials have been available since May 2022. If you are looking to sell a SaaS contract solution, you should check out the blog post, How to create a free trial offer for SaaS contract products in AWS Marketplace.

    1. Have a low starting price point. Here are a few examples of ways to use low price points.
      • For SaaS subscription products, offer low usage-based pricing, such as charges per API call or per GB of storage.
      • For SaaS contract products, offer monthly contracts with a low price point or free tier.
      • For single AMI products, keep the hourly pricing low but offer annual subscriptions.
      • For container products, keep a low price per task or per pod hourly price.
      • For professional services, offer a free consultation.

These options offer your potential customers the opportunity to try out your products on a small scale and with a low barrier to entry.

High-touch sales motion

Some sellers have an AWS Marketplace strategy that involves using AWS Marketplace as a procurement mechanism for specific AWS customers that choose to transact via AWS Marketplace. This strategy is most popular if you are effectively using your co-sell relationship with AWS. For more information on effective co-selling, refer to step 3 of Best practices for driving traffic to your AWS Marketplace listing.

Here are best practices for a high-touch sales motion:

    1. Keep the price point on the higher end of average deals. This encourages the customer to request a private offer instead of buying the license from your public listing page.
      • A high price point filters out low-touch customers who are unlikely to add higher-priced solutions to their consolidated AWS bill.
      • If your product is $500 per user per year, for example, consider starting a bundle at 100 users, so the price point is $50,000.
    2. Encourage customers to contact you for custom pricing. At the end of your listing’s Product Overview section, provide a way for prospective customers to get in touch with you to discuss custom terms and pricing. For example, “If you would like to discuss custom terms and pricing with our team, please contact us at sales@awsmp.com or fill out a form at: https://exampleseller.awsmp.com/ContactUs.”

3. Product pricing model

Review the pricing models AWS Marketplace supports for your specific delivery method. Note that not all pricing models support AWS Marketplace private offers. If using AWS Marketplace private offers is part of your sales play, ensure this feature is supported for the pricing model you choose by reviewing the pricing models in the following section.

Consider these questions when choosing a pricing model:

  • Do you meter for a specific type of usage, such as users?
  • Are all deals contracts such as monthly, annual, or multiyear?
  • Do you offer Bring Your Own License (BYOL)?
  • Are private offers part of your sales strategy?

Be sure to review the pricing options for the specific delivery method you plan to go with. Pricing among the delivery methods varies.

Here are the specific pricing models for the product types AWS Marketplace supports:

    1. AMI product pricing
    2. Container product pricing
    3. Machine learning product pricing
    4. SaaS product pricing
    5. Professional services product pricing

If you are unsure or have further questions, I suggest you register as a seller and use the Contact Us form to request to speak with a member of the AWS Marketplace Business Development team.

Getting started with AWS Marketplace

To get started selling in AWS Marketplace, follow these steps:

  1. Required: Join the AWS Partner Network (APN). If you are already part of the APN, consider co-selling with AWS by participating in the APN Customer Engagement Program (ACE).
  2. Register as a seller in AWS Marketplace. For more information, review the AWS Marketplace blog post Checklist to successfully registering as a seller in AWS Marketplace.
  3. Review the AWS Marketplace seller workshop labs. The AWS Marketplace Solutions Architect team has published 14 self-service labs to help you integrate, package, and sell your products in AWS Marketplace. These labs provide step-by-step guides for publishing AMI, container, and SaaS-based products. They include code examples on billing integration and packaging, using the Quick Start for SaaS listings, and submitting product metadata using product-load-form spreadsheets, where required.
  4. Draft your product listing in the AWS Marketplace Management Portal. If you are looking to list a SaaS contract product, check out the blog post Best practices guide to successfully list your SaaS contract solution in AWS Marketplace.
  5. Develop your marketing strategy for the solutions you list in AWS Marketplace. You can do this in parallel with steps 1-3.
    1. Review the AWS Marketplace blog post Best practices for driving traffic to your AWS Marketplace listing.
    2. Sign up for the AWS Marketplace Academy, an online portal that provides self-service go-to-market resources to help you build, activate, and measure demand generation campaigns for your offerings in AWS Marketplace. To register for the AWS Marketplace Academy, do the following:

Conclusion

In this post, I offered best practices for packaging and pricing your products to sell in AWS Marketplace based on how your solution deploys and how you sell your solution today. I showed how to get started as a seller in AWS Marketplace and how to register for the AWS Marketplace Academy, which offers resources to create demand generation campaigns.

About the author

Juston Salcido is a Technical Business Development Manager focusing on helping independent software vendors (ISVs) understand how to list their solutions in AWS Marketplace. In his role, he provides ISVs with the best practices to use their current solution, pricing, and sales motions to build a successful listing in AWS Marketplace. Juston has over 10 years of experience working in the technology industry and 6 years of experience working at Amazon, 5 of which have been spent working in AWS Marketplace. Juston is located in Bozeman, MT, and enjoys golfing, playing softball, and traveling to compete in amateur billiards competitions.