Partners outside your portfolio still ask you how co-sell works. Here's where to send them.
IMS works with Microsoft partners that don't have a dedicated PDM, and with companies just joining the partner program, to get their co-sell motion working. The goal is a partner that's ready when a Microsoft seller or program team picks up the conversation. It starts with the free IMS Co-Sell Readiness Index (CRI).
Four kinds of partners this is built for.
Co-Sell Ready, still no deals.
The offer is live, and maybe a few referrals have arrived. None of it turns into pipeline, and no Microsoft seller knows them by name.
Working toward IP Co-Sell Eligible.
Not yet at the $100K in Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) or Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS), trailing 12 months, that IP Co-Sell Eligible requires.
New to the partner program.
Enrolling in Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace (open since Sept 28) or publishing a first transactable Microsoft Marketplace offer. They want to set it up right the first time.
Referrals arrive, and no one is ready.
A Microsoft referral or seller introduction comes in, and no one on the partner's side owns the 14-day window to accept, the seller conversation or the private offer.
Not the right fit: partners who need implementation or technical delivery, or whose own alliance team already has co-sell producing deals.
Four program checks that matter.
Partners often work on several at once.
A transactable Marketplace offer
A Microsoft Marketplace offer a customer can actually buy, with private offers ready.
A first Marketplace transaction
Deals billed through Marketplace, counting toward Marketplace Billed Sales (MBS).
Co-Sell Ready, then IP Co-Sell Eligible
Statuses that make the partner's solution visible to Microsoft sellers, with IP Co-Sell Eligible as the higher bar.
A planned Frontier Accelerate move
Enrolled in Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace, or ready to transition at renewal, with the first-anniversary $0 checkout on the calendar.
About ten minutes to a score. A readout if they want one.
They take the CRI.
Six dimensions, about ten minutes, no email required. It names the one constraint holding back the other five.
They get a readout.
A 30-minute call walks through the score and the first fixes. There's no obligation.
If they want help, IMS steps in.
IMS works inside their team as a fractional alliance leader on that constraint. Any paid engagement is between IMS and the partner.
What you can count on when you send someone.
Your relationship stays yours.
The partner can share their result with you. IMS doesn't contact you about a partner unless the partner asks us to. You never need to tell us who you send. If a partner already has a dedicated PDM, we work through that PDM.
Alongside Microsoft programs, not around them.
We point partners to Partner Center, Microsoft Learn and the benefits they already have, and help them use those well.
Alongside services partners.
IMS works on go-to-market and alliance operations. Implementation and technical delivery stay with the partner's services partners.
No referral fees or incentives.
IMS doesn't pay or offer anything of value to Microsoft employees for introductions. Partners pay IMS only if they choose to engage after the readout.
No exclusivity, no obligation.
The CRI is free, and the partner decides what happens after the readout.
Ways to send a partner.
1. Send a link.
Copy the CRI link, the 60-second partner overview video or the one-page overview (PDF), and share it however you normally would.
2. Share the reference card.
A 2-slide PDF with who to send, what happens and the links, ready to drop into a Teams chat or email.
3. Forward a short note.
Copy this, edit it to your voice, and send it.
Questions about IMS? Email sales@intelligentmodernsolutions.com.
Operators who have run the motion.
IMS is a fractional Microsoft alliance and go-to-market practice. Its leadership has built and run alliance motions across enterprise IT, partners and the cloud ecosystem for more than thirty years, most recently owning the full Microsoft co-sell motion for an enterprise software vendor.
