Tealium & AWS Partnership Summary
Tealium, a leading Customer Data Platform (CDP) with around 600 employees and 900 clients, has experienced its decade-long strategic partnership with AWS as central to its success, particularly through the AWS ISV Accelerate program. Specializing in consolidating customer data from various touchpoints, Tealium has built its entire infrastructure on AWS, leveraging this partnership and WorkSpan’s HyperScaler Edition to drive its growth and enhance customer outcomes.
The Challenge
As Tealium continued to grow, it faced the challenge of scaling operations and ensuring its co-selling strategy with AWS was both effective and efficient. The company needed to prioritize strategic deals, streamline its sales process, and ensure strong collaboration across the AWS ecosystem, including AWS sellers, GSIs (Global Systems Integrators), and other tech partners.
The Partner Strategy
Tealium’s partnership with AWS is characterized by a deep alignment with AWS’s principles and programs. Tealium’s approach to this partnership includes:
Customer Obsession - AWS operates as an “extension of the customer,” often being seen as part of the customer’s internal team. This close integration allows Tealium to better serve customer needs by aligning its offerings with AWS's broader strategy. Justin Davis from Tealium noted, “AWS really fulfills that role as customer coaching guide.”
Marketplace Utilization - AWS Marketplace is a significant enabler for Tealium, offering a payment method that simplifies purchasing and differentiates Tealium from competitors. “Our customers have advantages and incentives to buy through marketplace,” said Elizabeth Robillard of AWS. Davis introduces AWS Marketplace early in the sales process to avoid delays and enhance deal efficiency.
Early Engagement - Tealium has learned to involve AWS early in strategic deals, understanding which opportunities require AWS’s support. This early engagement is critical for success, as it allows Tealium to leverage AWS’s resources and high-level understanding of partner involvement effectively.
Ecosystem Building - Understanding the partner ecosystem within enterprise accounts is crucial. Tealium has focused on building strong relationships with GSIs and tech partners, with AWS playing a central role in coordinating these efforts. As Davis mentioned, “When you’re dealing with Tealium, you’re dealing with [AWS].”
Tealium primarily sells to LOB buyers, such as Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Digital Officers, who are often the end customers for their solutions. This focus on LOB buyers is crucial for driving business outcomes, as these stakeholders are directly responsible for the digital and marketing initiatives that Tealium supports.
While Tealium targets LOB buyers, the involvement of IT departments is also essential, especially for gaining budget approval and ensuring compliance with data security standards. This dual approach helps bridge the gap between business needs and technical requirements, making it easier to secure and execute deals. Co-selling with AWS helps Tealium build bridges between Marketing and IT.
AWS Expands the Buying Committee
“AWS is being tasked to meet and broker relationships with line of business leaders,” says Justin Davis, Tealium’s Global Cloud Alliances Lead.
This aligns well with Tealium’s focus on the CMO / CDO, and AWS’s ability to introduce and support relationships with IT stakeholders enhances the effectiveness of their co-selling efforts.
Industry-Specific Messaging
To effectively reach LOB buyers, Tealium has developed clear, concise messaging that speaks specifically to the industry’s case uses and and solutions, helping stakeholders easily understand Tealium’s value propositions. “We solve x for this vertical, and with AWS, we drive X outcome,” said Justin. “And that gets you through a lot of red tape.”
“One of the strategies that you've used that really has allowed you to punch above your weight is industry, really focusing on key industry use cases, and the SIs or GSIs who are already in those accounts.”Elizabeth Robillard, Strategy Lead, Global Co-sell Programs, AWS
Scaling with WorkSpan
Tealium successfully scaled its co-selling efforts by integrating WorkSpan, a platform that streamlines deal-sharing between partners. This tool has exponentially improved Tealium’s efficiency in registering and tracking deals within the AWS ecosystem. “WorkSpan has allowed our small team to drastically improve its KPIs when it comes to our partnership,” said Davis, highlighting the platform's impact.
“WorkSpan has been huge for us...it's a necessary tool- we have exponentially been able to scale how we share deals.”Justin Davis, Global Cloud Alliances Lead, Tealium
The Results
The partnership has been instrumental in Tealium's growth and market positioning. By aligning closely with AWS’s strategic goals, Tealium has been able to scale its sales efforts globally, particularly in key verticals such as finance and digital marketing.
The Tealium-AWS partnership has also helped enhance deal efficiency through early AWS involvement and the strategic use of AWS Marketplace, and build trust and collaboration within the AWS ecosystem, reducing risk and increasing the likelihood of success in complex enterprise deals.
Conclusion
Tealium’s partnership with AWS showcases how a strategic alliance built on trust, early engagement, and WorkSpan Hyperscaler Edition, can drive significant business outcomes. By leveraging AWS’s resources and aligning with its principles, Tealium has successfully scaled its operations and enhanced its market differentiation, making this partnership a key driver of its ongoing success.
