Before the board approves selling through a major platform marketplace, war-game the bet. Model only the bookings the marketplace adds, separate from deals that would have closed directly anyway. Price the full cost: the platform's fee, the alliance team, the engineering and security work to qualify, and the discounting that private offers invite. Decide how much of your new business you are willing to route through one platform, and write the kill criteria before you list. Paste the business case, marketplace agreement, pipeline with deal sources, and discount policy into one request. Instruct Pingpong to flag projected bookings that are really existing pipeline, costs missing from the case, terms that let the platform change fees or rules, and a plan with no point at which you would stop. Review your written answers in a second round.
This page is for chief executives and revenue and finance leaders preparing a marketplace channel decision for the board. For entering a new geography or segment, see before you enter a new market. Counsel reviews the marketplace agreement. Pingpong checks the case for consistency and readiness. Executive starting points live under Pingpong for executives.
Five questions the case must answer
- How much of the projected volume is new, and how much is pipeline you already have changing checkout?
- What does it cost all in, including people and the work to meet the platform's requirements?
- Who controls price once a public listing exists, and how private offers fit your discount rules?
- How much of new bookings could end up flowing through one platform in three years, and what would a fee change do then?
- What result at twelve months would make you stop?
What the marketplace owns
A marketplace solves a real problem. Large customers can buy against spending they have already committed to the platform, and procurement moves faster because the vendor is already approved. The trade is quieter. The platform sits between you and the customer's invoice, sets the rules for listings, and can change its fees and programs with notice you do not control. Inside the company, sales reps start routing deals through the marketplace because it closes faster, and a year later nobody can say how much was new. Directors who have watched a channel grow from experiment to dependency will ask about that path first.
A worked example
This example is illustrative and does not describe a customer. A 300-person business software company plans to list on a major cloud provider's marketplace. The case projects $6 million in marketplace bookings in the first year and cites a 3 percent platform fee.
The revenue leader pastes the case, the agreement, the pipeline with source and stage, and the discount policy.
A useful pass finds that about 70 percent of the projected deals are already in the direct pipeline, so incremental bookings are closer to $1.8 million. The case leaves out a three-person alliance team, about $0.7 million a year, and two quarters of engineering to pass the platform's security and architecture review. Private offers sit outside the company's discount approval process, so a rep could sell below any price the company would approve directly. The agreement allows the platform to change fees with 90 days' notice. Nothing says when the experiment ends.
The revised case models $1.8 million in incremental bookings in year one, net of fees and the alliance team, and shows break-even in the second year. It starts with a pilot for 20 existing customers who have asked to buy through the marketplace. Private offers go through the same approval as direct discounts. Counsel reviews the agreement's terms on fee changes, data use, and termination. The board sees a single page with the incremental case, the full cost, and the kill criteria.
Kill criteria, written before listing
- Incremental bookings: below $1.5 million at twelve months.
- Cannibalization: more than half of marketplace deals came from existing direct pipeline.
- Speed: sales cycles on marketplace deals are not at least 20 percent shorter.
- Concentration: marketplace share of new bookings passes 30 percent, which triggers a board discussion.
Writing these down before the first listing is the difference between an experiment and a drift. Once a channel has a team and a target, it rarely gets switched off.
A request you can copy
Below are our marketplace business case, the agreement, our pipeline with deal sources, and our discount policy. Separate incremental bookings from existing pipeline. Build a full cost including people and qualification work. Flag pricing and discount gaps. Flag agreement terms that allow fee or rule changes. Suggest kill criteria and a concentration threshold for board review. Stop there so we can answer in writing, then review our answers.
How Pingpong runs the review
The web review app sends your request through several models in order. Each later model receives the original request and every earlier answer, with instructions to assess the work so far. For the steps inside the app, see running your first review.
What a model can't review
A model cannot predict how a platform will change its program next year, or how your sales team will behave once a faster path exists. It can make sure the case states both.
When the decision goes to the board, see war-game a decision before the board meeting. More guides live under work decisions before you commit.