Create Co-Sell
Submit a co-sell referral to AWS, Azure, or GCP directly from a Salesforce opportunity using the Suger App.
Overview
A co-sell referral is how you formally ask AWS, Azure, or GCP to work with you on a deal. When you submit a referral, the cloud provider’s sales team can see the opportunity and engage to help you close it — for example, by introducing you to the right contacts, validating the opportunity, or contributing resources. In plain terms, you’re sharing a deal with your cloud partner so they can help you win it.
After adding the Suger App to your Salesforce Console, you can create co-sell referrals from opportunities with ease.
Prerequisites
- The Suger App must be installed, connected, and set up with the Suger widget on your opportunity pages. If you haven’t done that yet, work through the Getting Started and Salesforce Admin Setup steps first.
- You need the Suger User, Suger User - Cosell, or a cloud-specific co-sell permission set assigned to your Salesforce account. If you can’t see the Co-Sell button on an opportunity, your permission set is likely missing or incorrect.
Create a Co-Sell
- Navigate to the opportunity’s detail page and click the Co-Sell button at the top of the Suger App. If you don’t see the widget, it may not be added to your page layout yet.
- Choose the cloud partner you want to submit the referral to — AWS, Azure, or GCP — and fill the form with the necessary information. Required fields vary depending on which cloud partner you selected.
- Once all necessary information is filled in, submit the form to create the co-sell.
- You are all set!
What happens next
After you submit the referral:
- Suger creates a referral record in your Salesforce org, linked to the opportunity.
- The referral is sent to the cloud partner’s system — for example, AWS Partner Central (ACE), Azure Partner Center, or GCP Partner Advantage.
- The cloud partner reviews the referral and may accept, reject, or request more information.
- Any future updates you make to the Salesforce opportunity are automatically synced to the referral — you do not need to manually push updates to the cloud partner. Suger scans your pipeline once per hour and updates the referral based on changes to the linked deal.
- If the cloud partner scores or updates the referral on their side (for example, AWS assigning an engagement score), those updates appear on the referral record in Salesforce after the next sync.
Create Salesforce Records from a Suger Referral
For Suger (PRM) deal-reg referrals, you can create a linked Salesforce Opportunity or Account directly from the referral — no need to navigate away and create the record manually.
From the referral record (Actions sidebar):
On the referral’s detail page, the Opportunity and Account cards each show a Create button when no record is linked yet. Clicking Create opens a pre-filled form with fields populated from the referral’s customer and deal information (such as company name, contact, and deal amount). Review or adjust the values, then submit to create the record. The newly created Opportunity or Account is automatically linked to the referral.
After accepting an inbound Suger referral:
When you accept an inbound Suger referral, you are prompted to create linked Salesforce records as an optional next step. You can create an Opportunity, an Account, or both. Fields are pre-filled from the referral data where available. Skipping this step is fine — you can always use the Create button on the cards later.
Troubleshooting common issues
| Issue | Possible cause | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| No Co-Sell button visible on the opportunity | Suger permission set not assigned, or the Suger widget is not on the page | Check your permission set. If the widget is missing, add it to your page layout. |
| Only one or two cloud partners appear in the partner selector | Your permission set restricts co-sell access to specific clouds | If you need access to additional clouds, ask your Salesforce admin to update your permission set. |
| Form fields are blank — not pre-filled from the opportunity | Field mapping has not been configured | Field mapping is an optional admin setup. Contact your Salesforce admin to configure it. |
| Referral was submitted but does not appear on the opportunity | Sync between Suger and Salesforce is delayed | Referral records sync on a schedule. Refresh the page after a few minutes. If it still doesn’t appear, confirm the referral was created in the Suger Console. |
| AWS engagement score is not showing on the referral | The opportunity has not yet been accepted and scored by AWS | The engagement score appears on the referral record detail page once AWS has accepted and scored the opportunity. The field API name is Suger__AWS_EngagementScore__c if you want to use it in automations. |
| A referral created directly in AWS ACE is not showing in Salesforce | ACE referrals only sync to Salesforce after an update event | The referral appears in Salesforce after AWS accepts it or after you manually edit something. To link it to a specific opportunity, enter the Salesforce opportunity ID in the Partner CRM Unique Identifier field in ACE. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What’s the difference between a co-sell referral and a private offer?
A co-sell referral shares your deal with the cloud provider’s partner team so they can help you close it. A private offer is a custom-priced contract you send directly to a buyer. They serve different purposes — co-sell is about getting the cloud partner involved in the deal; a private offer is the actual transaction.
Q: Do I need to manually update the referral every time the opportunity changes?
No. Suger automatically syncs changes from your Salesforce opportunity to the referral once per hour. If you update the close date, stage, or any mapped fields on the opportunity, those changes flow through to the cloud partner automatically.
Q: Can I submit a referral to more than one cloud partner for the same opportunity?
Yes. You can submit separate co-sell referrals to AWS, Azure, and GCP from the same opportunity — just click Co-Sell again and select a different partner.
Q: Can I see the AWS engagement score on the opportunity page rather than just on the referral record?
Not by default, but it is possible. Your Salesforce admin can set up a formula field on the Opportunity object that pulls in the score from the referral record. The field API name is Suger__AWS_EngagementScore__c.
Q: What happens if I created a referral directly in AWS ACE instead of through Salesforce? Will it show up?
Yes, but not immediately. It appears in Salesforce after AWS accepts it or you manually edit something in ACE. To connect it to the right Salesforce opportunity, enter the opportunity’s Salesforce ID in the Partner CRM Unique Identifier field in ACE — Suger will then associate them automatically.