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Working with an Atlassian Marketplace partner can boost your growth exponentially. During Brighttail’s Ignite: The Marketplace Growth Conference last year, Atlassian Consultant Steve Cross pointed out just how significant the Atlassian partner ecosystem is. About 50% of Atlassian Marketplace sales are partner-driven, while some Atlassian Marketplace vendors experience up to 70% of their sales through Solution Partners.
Being able to get at the customers searching for solutions through the Atlassian Solution Partner program is a great way to get your brand out there and increase prospects. However, to be able to find an Atlassian Solution Partner who will want to work with you, you must know how these partners work, how they’re internally structured, and understand their process towards getting a customer.
The Atlassian partner ecosystem is a busy place, being able to attract the attention of a partner without disrupting their day-to-day requires that you know who you’re dealing with.
Below are some of the insights that Cross shared during his presentation.
The Structured Evaluation Process of the Atlassian Solution Partner
To attract an Atlassian Marketplace Solution Partners, you have to understand these solution partners’ “discovery” process – how they go about finding potential customers. This is beneficial to the Atlassian marketplace vendor because it helps you understand where you fit in. Here are their steps:
- They find a prospect, also known as “scoping” which is the first contact they make with a potential customer.
- They ask qualifying questions to figure out what their potential customer’s problems are and to know who has buying authority.
- The Atlassian Solution Partner gets a more “senior account manager” to explore the prospect’s problem.
- Different Solution Partners will call these roles different names, so don’t get caught up in the title.
- Based on the problem, the senior account manager sets up a meeting of the people who are most likely able to solve the problem along with decision-makers from the prospect’s side.
- During the meeting, they figure out possible solutions to the problem.
- The Atlassian Solution Partner then presents the best solution to the problem based on their previous experience.
After the solution is agreed upon, the Atlassian Solution Partner prices the solution based on several indicators:
- How many people need to be assigned?
- How long will the work last?
- Who needs to be assigned to the solution?
Once a price is decided, the Atlassian Solution Partner will sell the solution to the prospect through a Statement of Work (SOW). The SOW is a legal document outlining detailed explanations of tasks, agreed-upon milestones, assignment of personnel, where they are going to perform the work, and a vague timeline.
Strategies for Effective Pitching Solutions to Atlassian Solution Partners
Now that you’ve seen the workflow of how Atlassian Solution Partners work, it will not be a surprise if you will unlikely be able to find a Solution Partner who isn’t swamped with work. Being able to pitch your solutions without disrupting their work is key in getting a partner to even consider you.
Appfire’s Senior Vice President of Global Channel and Field Operations Colin Puckett also had a session at Brighttail’s Ignite: The Marketplace Growth Conference where he spoke about how to communicate with an Atlassian Solution Partner.
His advice is to understand how customers approach Solution Partners for solutions to their problems. Customers do not go to Solution Partners looking for apps, they go to Solution Partners to solve business problems.
When crafting a pitch for a Solution Partner, focus on how your products will benefit customers, not your product’s features. This simple challenge will help partners identify how your products can aid in complex, value-added solutions.
Building a Partnership-Driven Growth Strategy
The number of prospects looking for solutions through the Atlassian Solution Partner program is significant. Every Atlassian Marketplace vendor should be thinking about Solution Partners as an extension of their sales team as this allows you to tap into that market and grow your prospects too.
Here are some of the ways you can get partners to notice you:
- Provide comprehensive partner enablement kits. Comprehensive kits help give partners time back as they equip partners with critical information on the best ways to sell and promote your company’s products.
- These kits should highlight the usual problems that potential customers might face and how your product can solve them. They should also include tools training, certification modules as well and sales playbooks which include information on talking points, common objections, and best practices for closing a deal.
- Product demos. Having regular product demos will increase the chances of partners finding you.
- Marketing materials should be clear and concise, and focus on how your product solves potential customers’ problems.
Conclusion
Understanding how an Atlassian Marketplace partner works will guide you in effectively pitching your solution. The fact that Atlassian Solution Partners play such a significant role in getting customers means that building a partnership-driven growth strategy is probably a good idea but it will require you to gain their attention.
To learn more in-depth about how solution partners work, check out the full clip of Cross’s and Puckett’s sessions on our On-Demand Session and schedule a consultation with us!
Don’t miss out on our announcement for Ignite 2025 for more valuable marketing insights from experts across the Atlassian ecosystem!
