In these growing times of globalization, fewer and fewer businesses are prepared to compromise on their business and accept local markets. They see an opportunity to offer their goods and services to people all around the nation and even the world. For this very reason, businesses search for partners who can assist them take over the world.
Partner training is a type of enterprise training that requires giving partners the information they need to market, sell, and serve your products to customers. These could be franchise owners, consultants, agents, and resellers. It is an educational program that ensures that your partners have the knowledge to ensure a high level of customer loyalty and satisfaction. Therefore, its motive is to educate all your external business partners about the ins and outs of your product or service.
Why do you need partner training?
Without partners, it can be a costly affair to set up your business in different places. They are able to add skills and resources that the vendor alone might fail to provide. Here are a few things that partners bring to the table.
- An extensive line of products and services
Imagine the likes of a supermarket or an FMCG manufacturer. Imagine how much customer traffic they create by catering to the various needs of a variety of customers, from fruits and vegetables to toiletries and clothes. Whatever it is that your product is, customers are likely to flock to such potential partners to get their stuff manufactured by you and other vendors at the same time.
- Effective solutions for organizational problems
Because your channel partners are nearer to your clients, they can handle everything from shipping and warranty repair services to sending invoicing more quickly and effectively.
- An already establish customer relationship.
There is no reason for a customer to go through the same process with another provider if they and a reseller have agreed to work together, signed a contract, and experienced success together once or more. For instance, if you purchased office computers from an internet merchant and were happy with the prompt delivery and services, you are likely to return when you require a new printer. Your products or services will benefit from this relationship that your partner has established with their customers.
How can you design effective partner training programs?
Once you are convinced that you want to expand your business and that is joined by a partner would be an advantage in easing this process, here is how you can design a partner training program for success.
1. Set training objectives
For effective training programs, objectives offer crucial direction. Learn what your channel partners need to know so that you can set those learning goals for them. This may differ based on a variety of criteria, including how well-versed they are in your network, their position in your supply chain, and a lot of other things.
Product and market training are necessary for product launches and plans to enter new markets. Partner training necessitates general education about the principles and procedures of your company. Let the requirements of your partners direct the creation of your program.
2. Define your audience
Employees of your channel partners are not a homogeneous audience, much like the workers at your business, as they carry out various duties and have various responsibilities.
Identify the partner organizations’ departments whose performance affects your collaboration’s outcomes (such as sales volume, customer satisfaction level, and repeat business), and offer a thorough training program for them.
3. Align partner KPIs and company goals
You won’t have any hard evidence that your training programs are effective without KPIs in place. However, having KPIs for your partners is not sufficient. They must coincide with the training objectives of your business.
You should make it clear to your partners that the goal of their participation in your training program is to boost client retention by a specific percentage in your current fiscal year or other such specifics.
4. Identify the best training method.
The dynamic in-person interactions that make conventional learning so effective cannot be fully recreated, but bringing together big groups of individuals with diverse skill sets and work schedules for conferences and classroom instruction requires a lot of resources. Additionally, this approach is currently impractical due to our new normal.
The advantages of eLearning make it the best business training method. Compared to sending staff members to workshops and seminars, it is more affordable and practical. Online courses are available to employees at any time, anywhere, and at their own speed. Your organization can benefit from the best of both worlds when occasionally live training sessions are included, as in blended learning.
5. Prepare your eLearning course.
Instead of launching numerous full online courses at once, you can gradually release little doses of online training content that only covers one lesson at a time to your channel partners. They, too, run full-time enterprises with strict deadlines. Microlearning can more readily fit into their schedules while emphasizing the key ideas they need to remember.
Additionally, you can gamify your online training course and add other engaging features that make it easier and more interesting for your partners.
6. Using the best suitable LMS
Having an LMS makes it possible to keep up with channel partner training. Not just any LMS will do; you must find the best suitable platform for your training.
You’ll need certain capabilities in a decent LMS for your channel partners. It ought to be prepared for many platforms, including tablets and smartphones. An LMS that is cloud-based is the best option because it must scale properly with the size of your company network. If you want to accurately assess the training compliance and performance of your channel partners, robust tracking and reporting are essential.
7. Renew and update
No matter how great your partner training program is, you can’t just set it and forget it. Your partners may need to be informed of changes to your products or new regulations.
Industry standards may rise as a result of technological progress, and in order to compete, new skills must be created. Update the training programs for your partners on a regular basis to maintain their relevance and success.
Conclusion
If you are planning to increase sales, build a stronger network, and protect your brand, you might want to consider creating partner training programs to build partners who will further your business. Your channel partners must know everything about your product or service, and for that, they need proper and fair training that communicates expectations to them and solves their pain points.
