At Amazon Web Services' request, I created this partner marketing plan for their public sector group based at AWS offices in Herndon, Va.

1. Amazon Web Services
Public Sector Partner
Marketing Plan
Susan Fitzgerald
October 25, 2013

2. Partner of choice ′part·ner of ′choice
n 1. an important sales channel 2. a
vital source of new capabilities and
offerings 3. an indispensible business
collaborator

3. Who loves ya, baby?
Advocacy
In many technology and consulting
companies, there’s no partner
liaison to drive communications,
alignment and development of
marketing assets.
Capacity
Marketing and technology teams
lack capacity to create valuable
content in support of partner
marketing initiatives.
Mindshare
Companies often focus their
partnering efforts on a handful of
big brands, squeezing out other
partnerships that might prove more
fruitful.
Results
Too few learn about partner efforts
that pay off, keeping productive
alliances from the attention (and
resources) they deserve.

4. Category of one
Amazon Web Services helps its partners establish a profitable,
sustainable advantage in the public sector market.
As an AWS partner, your reputation
is associated with the company that
invented, and utterly dominates, a
new type of business.
We provide what you need to
capitalize on the greatest
opportunity for business growth of
our time.
We help you build your capabilities
and solutions at every level and
every opportunity.
Our ability to execute, the speed of
our innovation and the vibrancy of
the ecosystem surrounding our
platform puts your business ahead
of the curve.
An alliance with AWS launches
faster and produces better results
than an alliance with any other
cloud infrastructure provider.
The more you engage with AWS,
the more your business thrives.

5. Technology vs. consulting
Technology partner Consulting partner
Champion Team Individual
Vehicle Product Process
Alignment IT BU
Filter External Internal
Positioning Functional superiority Thought leadership

6. Value grid (a technology partner’s perspective)
Compute &
networking Storage Database
Deployment
&
management
Application
services Support
Large DW integration
Multi-source/logical
DW integration
Hadoop integration
Predictive & advanced
analytics
Enterprise adoption
Visual exploration
Rich dashboards

7. Value grid (a consulting partner’s perspective)
Compute &
networking Storage Database
Deployment
&
management
Application
services Support
Data governance
Security & privacy
Risk management
Regulatory
compliance
Backup & disaster
recovery
Data analytics
HR transformation

8. Unfair
Our strategy? Claim an unfair amount of our partners’ time.
They’ll be so busy building strong relationships with us (and pursuing leads
from AWS, and recommending AWS in the global public sector community)
that their other alliances will just have to go on the back burner.

9. Value building blocks
All partners Priority partners
Enable sales and marketing
teams
• Solution brief *
• Slides for sales deck *
• Proposal boilerplate *
• Joint marketing plan
•Account marketing campaign
•Mobile app
•Periodic report on partnership
activities and results
Share leads, customer feedback
and market intelligence
• Takeaways
• Marketing analytics
• Online survey
•Co-sponsored events
•Target buyer phone survey
Network with AWS leadership
and other alliance partners
• AWS solutions catalog/partner
newsletter/Hot Topics
• AWS World Wide PS Summit
post-day partner briefing
• AWS re:Invent Partner Summit
•Corporate visit
•Advisory council
Promote to customers, investors,
analysts and media
• Webinars (AWS or customer’s
own)
• Presentations at existing
conferences and field events
• Success stories
• Announcement PRs
• Partner award eligibility
•Video
•Dedicated event
•Dedicated landing page
•Original publication
•Dedicated analyst or journalist
briefings
* Playbook

10. Six signs of a priority partner
1 Has high-profile, long-term
customers.
2 Sells knowledge along with
goods and services.
3 Engages a consultative rather
than transactional selling style.
4 Cultivates a relationship of trust
with buyers and influencers.
5 Is capable of delivering in many
different IT solution areas.
6 Does not primarily compete on
price.

11. "I want the CIO of the Federal
Aviation Administration to
wake up every day thinking
about flight safety...I don't want
them to wake up and think, 'Is
the email up and running? Are
BlackBerries working?'"
Steven VanRoekel, US CIO
Remarks before the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee, June 11, 2013

12. What An animated video (with menu for browsing/skipping) explaining what
government needs to know about transitioning shared services to the
cloud
Why Influence decision-making to favor AWS and partner solutions
Who Federal CIOs, program managers, contracting officers
Issues Consolidation, cost reduction, collaboration, modernization, sustainability
Trends Big data, cybersecurity, mobile, hybrid cloud
Supporting parts Snippets (15 and 7 seconds) for forwarding via Instagram and Vine
Success stories
Customer email
aws.amazon.com landing page
Channels Sales teams; websites; Hot Topics; field events; PS Summit; partner and
AWS house lists; analyst briefing; AWS blog
When July 2014
Shared Services 2.0

13. What An interactive PDF showing the new ways state and local entities can
engage and empower citizens
Why Raise awareness of the accessibility, affordability and effectiveness of
AWS and partner solutions
Who CIOs, program managers and contracting officers at the state and local
levels
Issues Transparency, public safety, consumerization of services
Trends Big data, GIS, mobile, social, analytics
Supporting parts Success stories
Presentations
Sales cover letter
Customer email
aws.amazon.com landing page
Channels Sales teams; websites; Hot Topics; field events; PS Summit; partner and
AWS house lists; analyst briefings; AWS blog
When April 2014
Citizen at the Center

14. Fabinator
What A customized, mobile-friendly portal providing a curated view of AWS
Marketplace software and services
Why Improve AWS/partner adoption and function penetration rates within
universities and the businesses they enable
Who Heads of innovation, CS and IT departments at universities with
incubation programs
Issues Innovation, personalized learning, migration to cloud
Trends Distance learning, mobile, social
Supporting parts Links to existing, related university blogs
Dedicated Twitter feed
Sales cover letter
Customer email
aws.amazon.com landing page
Channels Sales teams; websites; Hot Topics; field events; PS Summit; partner and
AWS house lists; analyst briefing; AWS blog
When Rollouts beginning in May 2014

15. What A series of online guides and demo videos showing how even non-
developers can use cloud services and tools to operate efficiently
Why Create a strong nonprofit user community for AWS and its partners
Who Directors and VPs of not-for-profit organizations
Issues Cost reduction, ROI, collaborative research
Trends Mobile, social, analytics
Supporting parts External blogs
Dedicated Twitter feed
Sales cover letter
Customer email
aws.amazon.com microsite
Channels Sales teams; websites; Hot Topics; field events; PS Summit; partner and
AWS house lists; analyst briefing; AWS blog
When December 2014
What If...?

16. Dec
12/13
Jan
1/14
Feb
2/14
Mar
3/14
Apr
4/14
May
5/14
Playbooks
Success stories
Marketing analytics
Webcasts
Citizen at the Center
Fabinator
Dedicated WWW page (microsite)
Takeaways
Marketing calendar (the first six months)
Priority partner

17. Getting it done
Freelancer
Success story (~800 words)....................................................................................................$1,500
Article, report or white paper (~2,500 words).......................................................................... $5,000
Researcher
Questionnaire, survey universe, telephone
interviews, final report and incentive report.............................................................................$50,000
Videographer
Live action (talking head, local studio).................................................................................... $5,000
Animated................................................................................................................................. $15,000
Marketing associate/coordinator
Total compensation (including benefits).................................................................................. $75,000
Incremental program cost starts at $0. It all depends on the scale and speed
desired.

18. What success looks like
Qualitative Quantitative
Mid term
(2-3 years)
•Stronger network within target
accounts
•Better deal quality
•Greater awareness of alliance
•Reduced channel conflict
•Few unproductive relationships
•Greater lead flow from partners and
co-marketing initiatives
•Shorter sales cycles
•More AWS revenue per partner
•More revenue/margin for partners
Long term
(5 years)
•No channel conflict
•No unproductive relationships
•AWS exclusivity (formally or
informally) among all priority
partners
•Total amount of sales
•Significant share of PS revenue
sourced from partners

19. Our goal is to have 40% of
PS revenue come from
partners by 2018.
40%

20. www.makewaves.com