Labra for Co-sell connects your CRM with AWS Partner Central, helping your sales team manage AWS co-sell opportunities directly within its existing sales workflow.
This FAQ covers common questions about AWS co-selling, ACE, connecting Labra with AWS Partner Central, sharing and receiving opportunities, CRM synchronization, AWS Partner Central roles, and troubleshooting.
📒 Please note: This article focuses specifically on AWS co-sell with Labra. For detailed setup instructions, use the linked guides throughout this article.
Contents
🔗 Connecting Labra to AWS Partner Central
🤝 Sharing Opportunities with AWS
📥 AWS-Originated Opportunities & Leads
👥 AWS Partner Central Roles & Access
💰 AWS Programs, Credits & Co-sell Benefits
🛠️ Troubleshooting
☁️ AWS Co-sell & ACE Basics
What is AWS co-selling?
AWS co-selling is the process of AWS Partners and AWS sales teams working together on customer opportunities where both organizations can contribute to the customer’s success.
Through the APN Customer Engagements (ACE) program, Partners can share qualified sales opportunities with AWS, giving AWS visibility into their pipeline and creating an opportunity to collaborate with AWS sellers throughout the sales cycle.
Depending on the opportunity, co-sell collaboration may include account alignment, introductions, sales support, technical guidance, or coordination with AWS teams to help move the customer engagement forward.
As your organization progresses through the AWS Partner journey and becomes ACE eligible, co-selling can also become a two-way motion: in addition to sharing your own partner-originated opportunities, your organization can receive AWS-originated opportunity referrals.
📒 Please note: Sharing an opportunity with AWS does not guarantee direct AWS seller engagement on every deal. Providing complete, qualified opportunity information helps AWS understand the customer need, your proposed solution, and where AWS involvement may add value.
🚀 Learn more! Visit the AWS Partner Central Sales Guide to learn more about working with AWS on co-sell opportunities.
What is APN Customer Engagements (ACE)?
APN Customer Engagements (ACE) is the AWS Partner Network program that enables AWS Partners to collaborate and co-sell with AWS on customer opportunities.
Through ACE, Partners can share their sales opportunities with AWS, maintain visibility into joint pipeline, and collaborate with AWS teams throughout the sales cycle. Sharing opportunities gives AWS sellers visibility into where your organization is working with mutual customers and can create opportunities for AWS and your team to work together to help progress those deals.
As your organization builds its co-sell motion and becomes ACE eligible, ACE also becomes a two-way channel: in addition to sharing your own opportunities with AWS, your organization can receive AWS-originated opportunity referrals.
📒 Please note: You do not need to be ACE eligible to begin sharing partner-originated opportunities with AWS. In fact, AWS identifies ongoing opportunity sharing as part of the path toward becoming ACE eligible.
🚀 Learn more! Visit the AWS APN Customer Engagements (ACE) Program page to learn more about ACE, its benefits, and how to get started.
What is Labra for Co-sell?
Labra for Co-sell connects your CRM with AWS Partner Central, allowing your sales and alliances teams to manage AWS co-sell activity as part of their existing sales workflow.
Instead of manually entering and maintaining the same opportunity information in both your CRM and AWS Partner Central, Labra brings the ACE workflow directly into your CRM. Your team can create and share partner-originated opportunities with AWS, synchronize opportunity updates, and manage AWS co-sell information alongside the CRM records they already use.
Labra's Mapping Manager also allows your organization to define how CRM fields correspond to AWS opportunity fields. This helps reduce duplicate data entry while allowing your team to review and complete the information required by AWS before an opportunity is submitted.
As your organization becomes eligible to receive opportunities from AWS, Labra can also bring AWS-originated opportunities into your CRM, helping your team manage both sides of the co-sell motion from a centralized workflow.
📒 Please note: Labra does not replace AWS Partner Central or ACE. It integrates your CRM with the AWS co-sell workflow so your teams can manage opportunities more efficiently while the underlying opportunities continue to be managed through AWS.
🚀 Learn more! Review Your AWS Co-sell Onboarding Journey with Labra for an overview of the steps involved in setting up and launching your AWS co-sell motion.
Do I need to be ACE eligible to share opportunities with AWS?
No. You can begin creating and sharing partner-originated opportunities with AWS before becoming ACE eligible. In fact, building and maintaining a qualified ACE pipeline is part of your organization's progression toward ACE eligibility.
Once your organization becomes ACE eligible, your co-sell motion expands to include additional benefits, most notably the ability to receive AWS-originated opportunity referrals.
📒 Please note: You don't need to wait for ACE eligibility to start co-selling. If you have qualified customer opportunities, you can begin sharing them with AWS as you work toward the remaining eligibility milestones.
🚀 Learn more! Visit the AWS APN Customer Engagements (ACE) Program page to learn more about ACE eligibility and program benefits.
Why do I need to pay the AWS Partner Network (APN) fee?
The APN fee is an annual AWS Partner Network membership fee charged by AWS. It is separate from your Labra subscription and from any charges associated with using AWS services or transacting through AWS Marketplace.
Maintaining your APN membership gives your organization access to AWS Partner programs, resources, benefits, and go-to-market capabilities used throughout your AWS partnership, including Partner Central and co-sell programs.
Your organization must link an AWS account to AWS Partner Central for APN membership and billing. AWS uses this linked account as the primary account for managing Partner Central activities, including APN fee billing, Solutions, and ACE opportunity tracking.
📒 Please note: The APN fee is charged directly by AWS, not Labra. Your linked AWS account must be on a paid AWS account plan and in good standing for APN registration and membership.
How can I check whether my APN fee has been paid?
You can check the billing history of the AWS account linked to your AWS Partner Central account directly from the AWS Console.
- Sign in to the AWS Console - Sign in to the AWS account linked to your AWS Partner Central account. This is important, as this is the account AWS uses for APN fee billing.
-
Open Billing and Cost Management - From the AWS Console, search for Billing and Cost Management, or open the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console.
-
Navigate to Bills - From the Billing and Cost Management menu, select Bills.
Here, you'll see the charges associated with the AWS account organized by billing period and service/provider. Select the relevant billing month and review the bill details for the AWS Partner Network/APN membership charge.
If the APN fee has already been billed to the account, you should see the applicable APN membership charge included in the bill for that billing period. If you don't see the charge, first confirm that you're viewing the AWS account linked to Partner Central and check the relevant billing periods.
📒 Please note: AWS bills the APN membership fee to the AWS account associated with your Partner Central membership. If that account belongs to an AWS Organization, billing may ultimately be handled through your organization's management/payer account.
Why do I need to enroll in the AWS Software Path?
The AWS Software Path is the AWS Partner Network (APN) path designed for organizations that develop software that runs on or integrates with AWS.
Enrolling places your organization on the AWS progression path for software partners and allows you to work toward key AWS Partner milestones, including ACE eligibility and the Foundational Technical Review (FTR).
For co-sell specifically, progressing through the Software Path is important because ACE eligibility unlocks the ability to receive AWS-originated opportunities, expanding your co-sell motion from only sharing your own opportunities with AWS to also receiving opportunities from AWS.
📒 Please note: You do not need to be ACE eligible to begin sharing partner-originated opportunities with AWS. Sharing qualified opportunities with AWS is itself part of your progression toward ACE eligibility.
🚀 Learn more! Follow our guides to enrolling in the AWS Software Path and working toward ACE eligibility.
Do I need an AWS Marketplace listing to co-sell with AWS?
No. You do not need an AWS Marketplace listing to begin sharing and co-selling opportunities with AWS through ACE.
What you do need is an active Solution in AWS Partner Central associated with the opportunity. Your Solution represents the product or service involved in the customer engagement and gives AWS context about what your organization is bringing to the opportunity.
Your Solution can be associated with an existing AWS Marketplace product, but AWS also allows you to create a Solution for a product that is sold or deployed outside of AWS Marketplace. In that case, you'll provide AWS with information about the external product when creating your Solution.
📒 Please note: While a Marketplace listing is not required to begin co-selling and sharing opportunities, it becomes important as you progress toward ACE eligibility. For Software Path partners, the Foundational Technical Review (FTR) requires your Solution to be linked to an eligible AWS Marketplace software product. Completing the required validation milestones is part of the path toward unlocking the broader benefits of ACE eligibility.
🚀 Learn more! Visit the AWS guidance for creating Solutions in AWS Partner Central to learn more about Solutions, Marketplace products, and external products.
What is the AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR)?
The AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) is an AWS technical validation that helps Partners review their software solutions against a defined set of AWS best practices related to security, reliability, and operational excellence.
As part of the review, AWS validates that your Solution meets the applicable FTR requirements. Successfully completing FTR validates your Solution for a defined period and is an important milestone within the AWS Software Path.
For software Partners, FTR is also a key step toward ACE eligibility and broader AWS co-sell benefits.
📒 Please note: FTR is a technical validation of your Solution, not a requirement for beginning your AWS co-sell motion. You can start sharing qualified opportunities with AWS while your team works toward completing FTR.
🚀 Learn more! Review our AWS Foundational Technical Review (FTR) Guide to learn more about the FTR process, requirements, and how Labra can support your team through the validation process.
Do I need to complete FTR before sharing opportunities?
No. You can begin creating and sharing partner-originated opportunities with AWS through ACE before completing the Foundational Technical Review (FTR).
To share an opportunity, you need an active Solution in AWS Partner Central to associate with it. AWS specifically confirms that a Solution does not need to be FTR validated before it can be linked to an opportunity, so FTR should not prevent your team from beginning its co-sell motion.
FTR is a separate technical validation of your Solution against AWS requirements. Completing it becomes important as you progress through the Software Path and work toward additional AWS Partner benefits, including ACE eligibility.
📒 Please note: Don't wait for FTR completion to begin building your ACE pipeline. Sharing qualified opportunities with AWS and keeping them updated helps establish your co-sell motion while your organization works through the remaining Software Path milestones.
🚀 Learn more! Review the AWS guidance for Requesting a Foundational Technical Review for your solutions for more information.
What is an AWS Partner Central Solution, and why do I need one?
An AWS Partner Central Solution represents the product, service, or offering your organization brings to market with AWS. It gives AWS sellers and partner teams context about what you sell and is used across AWS Partner programs, including co-sell.
When you share an opportunity with AWS through ACE, the opportunity must be associated with a relevant Solution or AWS Marketplace product. This helps the AWS team understand which of your offerings is involved in the customer opportunity and provides important context for co-sell engagement.
📒 Please note: AWS Partner Central Solutions are not publicly visible to buyers. Unlike an AWS Marketplace listing, a Solution is intended to provide AWS teams with information about your offering and how it can support AWS customers. Think of it as an AWS-facing description of your solution, rather than a public product page.
If you're creating a new Solution, you don't need to have every detail finalized before beginning your co-sell motion. Complete the required information to create the Solution and submit it for AWS review. You can continue updating your Solution information later as your offering evolves.
📒 Please note: Creating a Solution is also an important step in progressing through the AWS Software Path, which brings together several AWS Partner milestones, including ACE eligibility and the Foundational Technical Review (FTR).
🚀 Learn more! Click here for more on Creating Solutions in APN 3.0 and Best Practices for Creating Solutions in AWS Partner Central.
🔗 Connecting Labra to AWS Partner Central
What do I need before connecting Labra for Co-sell?
Before setting up Labra for Co-sell, your organization should have:
- An AWS Partner Network (APN) account with access to AWS Partner Central.
- An active Solution created in AWS Partner Central that represents the product or service you'll be co-selling with AWS.
- The appropriate administrative access to your CRM to complete the Labra connection and setup.
We also recommend identifying the team members who will support the setup, including your AWS Partner Central administrator or alliance lead and a CRM administrator.
You do not need to have completed FTR or achieved ACE eligibility before connecting Labra. These milestones can continue in parallel while you set up your integration and begin building your AWS co-sell motion.
🚀 Learn more! Review our AWS Marketplace & APN Onboarding Prerequisites for the complete list of AWS account, Partner Central, and access requirements.
Who should be involved in the setup?
We recommend involving three key stakeholders when setting up Labra for Co-sell:
- AWS Admin — Helps complete the AWS-side connection and ensures your team has the appropriate access and permissions within your AWS environment and AWS Partner Central.
- CRM Admin — Helps connect your CRM to Labra and supports any CRM-side configuration or permissions. Their involvement may also be needed if your team decides to create custom CRM fields for your AWS co-sell workflow.
- Alliance or Partner Lead — Provides the business context for your AWS co-sell motion, including your AWS Partner Central Solution, opportunity qualification process, and how your sales team plans to engage with AWS.
These responsibilities do not necessarily need to belong to three different people. Depending on your organization, one person may cover multiple roles.
📒 Please note: Your CRM Admin does not need to configure your Labra field mappings. Mapping Manager is configured directly within Labra; CRM Admin support is typically only needed when CRM-side changes, such as creating custom fields, are required.
Why does Labra need access to my AWS environment?
Labra needs access to your AWS environment to establish the secure connection that enables your AWS co-sell integration.
This connection allows Labra to communicate with AWS and synchronize the information needed to support your co-sell workflow between Labra, your CRM, and AWS Partner Central. The required AWS resources and permissions are created specifically to support this integration.
Labra uses the permissions defined during setup to perform the actions required by the integration rather than requiring your team to manually maintain the same information across systems.
What AWS permissions are required?
Labra uses a defined set of AWS resources and IAM permissions to support the Co-sell integration. During setup, your AWS Admin will deploy the required resources in your AWS account using the configuration provided by Labra.
The policy defines the AWS services, resources, and actions Labra needs to establish and operate the integration.
🚀 Learn more! Review the Labra for Co-sell AWS Resources Policy for the complete list of resources and permissions used by the integration.
Where do I configure my AWS Co-sell connection in Labra?
Your AWS Co-sell connection is configured from Cloud Settings in the Labra platform.
Navigate to Settings → Cloud → Co-sell, select AWS, and follow the configuration steps to connect your AWS environment. Your AWS Admin may need to complete portions of this process that require access to your AWS account.
🚀 Learn more! Follow Connecting Labra for Co-sell: AWS Cloud Settings for the complete connection process.
How do I know my AWS Co-sell connection is working?
Once you've entered the required AWS connection information in Labra, you'll see a green checkmark confirming that the required inputs have been successfully connected.
As the final step, select Validate Connection. Labra will validate the configuration and, once validation is successfully completed, enable you to continue and finish the setup.
🔄 CRM Integration & Mapping
Which CRMs does Labra for Co-sell support?
Labra for Co-sell currently supports Salesforce and HubSpot, allowing your team to connect its existing CRM workflow with AWS Partner Central.
Once connected, your team can manage AWS co-sell activity from the CRM they already use rather than maintaining separate opportunity records manually across your CRM and AWS.
🚀 Learn more! Review Your AWS Marketplace & Co-sell Onboarding Journey with Labra for an overview of the CRM connection and AWS co-sell onboarding process.
What information does Labra sync between my CRM and AWS?
For Co-sell, Labra connects your CRM with AWS Partner Central and supports both outbound and inbound synchronization of AWS co-sell activity.
- Outbound sync (CRM → AWS): When your team creates or updates a partner-originated co-sell opportunity through Labra, the relevant information can be sent from your CRM to AWS Partner Central. This allows your sales team to share opportunities and maintain AWS-required opportunity information without manually recreating the opportunity in AWS.
- Inbound sync (AWS → CRM): Updates to your co-sell opportunities in AWS can be synchronized back to the corresponding CRM record, helping your team maintain visibility into AWS activity from within its existing sales workflow. Once your organization is ACE eligible, Labra can also bring AWS-originated opportunities and leads into your CRM for your team to review and manage.
Depending on your CRM configuration, Labra can also use automations to update additional CRM fields based on AWS co-sell activity.
📒 Please note: Bidirectional synchronization does not mean that every CRM field automatically syncs in both directions. The information exchanged between your CRM and AWS depends on your Mapping Manager configuration, the AWS co-sell workflow, and any automations your organization has enabled.
What is Mapping Manager?
Mapping Manager controls how information in your CRM corresponds to the fields AWS requires for co-sell opportunities.
It allows your team to map existing CRM fields to AWS fields so that information already captured by your sales team can automatically populate the Labra co-sell form. This reduces duplicate data entry and helps integrate AWS opportunity sharing into your existing sales process.
Mappings can include both standard and custom CRM fields, giving your organization flexibility to align Labra with the way your sales team already manages opportunities.
🚀 Learn more! Review the Salesforce AWS Mapping Manager Guide or HubSpot Mapping Manager Guide for Co-sell for configuration instructions.
Do I need to map every AWS field?
No. You do not need to create a CRM mapping for every field available in the AWS co-sell form.
AWS-required fields must contain a valid value before an opportunity can be submitted, but that value does not necessarily need to come from a mapped CRM field. Your team can review the co-sell form and manually complete any required or optional information that has not been populated through Mapping Manager before submitting the opportunity to AWS.
Mapping the fields your sales team already maintains in the CRM can reduce manual entry, while leaving other fields unmapped gives users the flexibility to complete them when preparing the individual opportunity.
Can I change my mappings later?
Yes. Your Mapping Manager configuration can be updated as your CRM workflow evolves.
Mappings can be changed from the Labra platform at any time. If your organization uses the Labra Salesforce Canvas App, authorized users can also manage the AWS field mappings directly from the Labra experience within Salesforce.
Any changes should be reviewed to make sure the CRM fields and AWS fields continue to represent the same type of information.
Can I use custom CRM fields?
Yes. Labra's Mapping Manager supports custom CRM fields, allowing you to use fields created specifically for your organization's AWS co-sell workflow.
Custom fields must first be created in your CRM by a CRM Admin. Once available to Labra, they can be selected in Mapping Manager and associated with the appropriate AWS field.
📒 Please note: The custom CRM field must use a compatible field type with the corresponding Labra/AWS field. For example, a field intended to map to a dropdown selection should use a compatible CRM field type and values.
Can I automatically update ACE opportunities when CRM fields change?
Then small subsections if necessary:
Salesforce
Where do users access Labra in Salesforce?
Who needs the Labra managed package?
Can I use the Salesforce Canvas experience?
HubSpot
Where does Labra appear in HubSpot?
What is the Labra tab?
Can incoming AWS opportunities create HubSpot deals automatically?
I would move all of the current Mapping Manager configuration minutiae into the dedicated HubSpot/Mapping docs. Right now the FAQ spends dozens of questions explaining toggles, templates and field behavior. Labra Help Center
🤝 Sharing Opportunities with AWS
This should probably be the largest and most useful section, because this is where the real customer questions live.
When should I share an opportunity with AWS?
AWS recommends submitting after discovery is complete and once the opportunity has reached Qualified or later. AWS Documentation
What qualifies as an opportunity for AWS co-sell?
Can I share an early-stage opportunity?
What information should I have before sharing an opportunity?
How do I share an opportunity through Labra?
Can I edit the information before submitting it to AWS?
What happens after I submit an opportunity?
Why is my opportunity being reviewed by AWS?
Can I update an opportunity after submitting it?
What happens if AWS rejects an opportunity?
What should I do when an opportunity closes?
When should I mark an opportunity as Launched?
Can I submit opportunities directly in AWS Partner Central instead of through Labra?
Yes—and then link to our manual ACE guide.
AWS's current guidance also makes the quality piece more important: opportunities now have a co-sell motion and Opportunity Quality score that influence AWS engagement. AWS Documentation
This section gives us natural Learn More links to the docs we've literally just built:
🚀 Learn more! When Should You Share an Opportunity with AWS? A Qualification Guide for Co-sell
🚀 Learn more! AWS Partner-Originated Opportunity Scoring: Practical Tips for Partners
🚀 Learn more! Sharing Opportunities with ACE: A Step-by-Step Guide
📥 AWS-Originated Opportunities & Leads
This is currently underexplained relative to how important it is.
Can AWS share opportunities with my organization?
Do I need to be ACE eligible to receive AWS opportunities?
Yes, for AWS Opportunity Referrals. AWS Documentation
Where do AWS-originated opportunities appear in Labra?
What happens when AWS sends me an opportunity?
How long do I have to accept an AWS opportunity?
AWS currently gives partners five business days to accept or reject an opportunity invitation. AWS Documentation
What happens after I accept an AWS opportunity?
What's the difference between an AWS lead and an AWS opportunity?
That last one is increasingly useful because AWS itself distinguishes Marketplace requests with enough business context to become opportunities from less-qualified requests that arrive as leads. AWS Documentation
👥 AWS Partner Central Roles & Access
This deserves its own compact section.
Which AWS Partner Central roles are required to use Labra for Co-sell?
What's the difference between ACE Admin, ACE Manager, and ACE User?
Does every salesperson need AWS Partner Central access?
Why can't a user be selected as the AWS Partner Central User/Opportunity Owner?
Can I add or remove users after onboarding?
This would replace several duplicated role questions currently scattered through the article.
💰 AWS Programs, Credits & Co-sell Benefits
I think this is a missing section entirely, and customers clearly ask these questions.
Are there AWS credits available for setting up CRM integration?
How do I qualify for the $10,000 AWS CRM Integration credit?
Does my first opportunity need to be accepted by AWS?
What is ISV Accelerate?
Does using Labra automatically make my company eligible for ISV Accelerate?
What co-sell milestones should my organization work toward?
We should be careful here to separate Labra functionality, ACE eligibility, AWS funding incentives, and ISV Accelerate eligibility. Those are currently easy for customers to mentally mash together.
🛠️ Troubleshooting
Make this symptom-based and short:
Why can't I submit my opportunity to AWS?
Why am I seeing “Complete all required fields”?
Why isn't a CRM field appearing in Mapping Manager?
Why isn't my Solution appearing in the referral form?
Why isn't an AWS update appearing in my CRM?
Why can't I edit an opportunity after submitting it?
One legitimate AWS reason is that a newly submitted partner opportunity can become temporarily non-editable while AWS validates it. AWS Documentation
Why can't I select an AWS Partner Central user?
My AWS connection shows an error. What should I check?
When should I contact Labra Support vs. AWS Support?