Show Notes
When you think about partnerships between two global tech giants, few are as powerful as AWS and Salesforce. In this episode of Inside Partnering, I sat down with Christopher Mercer, Global Manager of Partner Development for Salesforce at AWS. Christopher’s story is a rare one: he started his career at Salesforce, spent nearly a decade there, and then transitioned to AWS - where he now manages the very partnership between those two companies. It’s a unique vantage point that gives him insight into both cultures, sales motions, and the intricate web of customer needs that drive collaboration at scale. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The Perfect Intersection of Two Worlds Christopher calls his journey “a story of lucky intersections.” He first joined Salesforce right out of school as an inbound sales rep, then later became a Salesforce system administrator for a healthcare company - an experience that shaped his understanding of how Salesforce’s platform was used in real-world business workflows. Years later, after joining AWS, a colleague noticed his Salesforce background and asked if he’d be interested in leading the Salesforce partnership. “It was the perfect cross-section all over again,” he said. “I’d been on both sides—and suddenly had the chance to connect the dots.” Three Pillars of the Partnership Christopher breaks down the AWS–Salesforce relationship into three main areas: * Product Development – How each company’s technology complements the other. Example: customers building on AWS who want to connect data from Redshift or S3 into Salesforce Data Cloud, enabling richer customer insights and AI capabilities through Agentforce and Amazon Bedrock. * Co-Marketing and Co-Sell – Educating both Salesforce and AWS sellers on how to jointly tell the story. As Christopher puts it, “Sometimes it’s as simple as asking a customer, ‘Do you use Salesforce and AWS?’ If the answer’s yes, there’s a great conversation to be had.” * Customer Enablement – Empowering GSIs and end-customers to bring both ecosystems together. Many global SIs have separate AWS and Salesforce practices; the partnership aims to bridge those silos and unlock new value through integration. From Product Integration to Marketplace Momentum The partnership’s momentum accelerated with the Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) announced in 2023. Within a year, Salesforce reached over $2 billion in AWS Marketplace transactions - a remarkable achievement driven by cross-functional teamwork and customer demand. But it wasn’t just about procurement efficiency. Marketplace opened the door for deeper collaboration. Salesforce sellers found new opportunities to engage AWS teams, while customers benefited from simplified purchasing and the ability to apply their AWS spend commitments to Salesforce products. For AWS, it created a new path to co-sell opportunities and customer conversations around data, AI, and modernization. Co-Selling in the Age of AI When Salesforce launched Agentforce, AWS saw an opening for meaningful technical collaboration. Customers using Agentforce needed access to high-quality, first-party data, often residing in AWS data lakes or Redshift clusters. That’s where co-selling became essential. “Salesforce reps were hearing customers say, ‘Our data’s in AWS, can you connect us with our AWS rep?’” Mercer explained. “It was the perfect timing for our two teams to come together.” The combination of AWS compute, AI services like Bedrock, and Salesforce’s CRM and Data Cloud created an end-to-end story for customers - from infrastructure to insight. Listening to Customers Drives Innovation A theme throughout the conversation was customer feedback as the true north. From early success with Service Cloud Voice (built on Amazon Connect) to the latest integrations with Tableau and Data Cloud, many innovations came directly from customer requests. “Custo
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At Sage FUTURE in San Francisco, I sat down with Dan Miller, EVP of Financials and ERP at Sage, to talk about how Sage is thinking about AI, ecosystem partnerships, and the future of ERP platforms. One of the clearest themes from the conversation was this: finance leaders are not resisting AI. They simply want transparency, accountability, and confidence in the outputs. For partner leaders, ISVs, and ecosystem builders, that creates a very different opportunity than the generic “AI transformation” messaging dominating the market right now. Dan framed it around trust. “What finance and operations professionals really want is confidence in the tools that they’re deploying are doing exactly what they are expected to do.” That requirement shapes how Sage is building both its AI capabilities and its broader partner ecosystem. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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At Sage FUTURES in San Francisco, Gretchen O’Hara delivered a clear message to partners: the market is shifting fast - and the opportunity is massive. But despite the noise around AI, one thing hasn’t changed. Partners are still at the center of how businesses win. “The channel is one of the most important things because our partners are the ones that have the deepest industry expertise and are closest to customers that can really solve their unique, unique business challenges.” AI may accelerate execution, but it doesn’t replace the need for domain expertise, customer proximity, and trusted advisory. In fact, it amplifies it. Inside Partnering is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.