Designing and implementing your own channel partner training system seems like the easy option at first, especially as you know your own product so well.
But as time goes on, you’re taking on more partners, and this is when the strain starts to show. Training is a manual, one-size-fits-all approach that’s delivered in a fragmented way – a mix of PDFs, webinars, and PowerPoints in a learning management system that’s not fit for purpose.
The warning signs appear: partner engagement is low, you’re getting inundated with support requests, and your channel partners aren’t retaining critical information.
Technically your partners are being trained, but there’s a limited impact on engagement and productivity, causing sluggish growth. Once this happens, it becomes harder to justify the cost of training against its ROI.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it’s time to consider a different approach. Because while DIY channel partner training can work at the beginning, it’s at serious risk of breaking when applied at scale, resulting in a huge barrier to growth and visibility for your business.
Poor channel partner training can lead to persistent challenges, which include:
A lack of clear learning paths and no personalised approach can result in partners disengaging with the course. This has a big impact on productivity, leading to missed opportunities, brand inconsistency, and stagnant sales.
If channel partners aren’t fully equipped with the correct knowledge and skills in their training, revenue growth will be sluggish.
Designing, onboarding, administering and troubleshooting a DIY training program puts a burden on internal teams and takes up a lot of their workload.
Scaling up training when partners increase can be hard, especially if they’re in different countries and require training in a different language or materials tailored specifically for that area.
A DIY system may not be able to generate data that highlights the impact of training on key metrics, which in turn makes it harder to justify the investment. If senior managers or the board can’t see the impact of training, they also won’t see its importance as a business driver.
DIY channel partner training doesn’t fail because it’s unimportant. It fails because it’s not properly designed around the needs of your partners, it’s not properly managed as a revenue function, and it’s not properly measured as a growth driver.
This is where a bespoke channel partner training system comes in: to overcome all these challenges and ensure you and your partners get the most from training.
Once training shifts from a check-box activity to a dedicated strategic revenue leader that’s specific to the needs of each of your channel partners, the effects on business are transformative.
Firstly, learning becomes intentional rather than scattered. Individualised training across each role in your channel partner and across each country or region ensures partners are engaged, focussed, and enthused about your product, and therefore properly qualified to sell it. The result is increased sales, stronger partnerships, and more opportunities for growth.
A done-for-you channel partner training program will have clearly defined success metrics baked in from the very beginning that will define ROI. This makes it easy to see what’s working, and also what’s not, so the program can be adapted as necessary. This ensures continuous improvement, whether that’s through program performance or eLearning content, leading to greater engagement, which in turn generates greater sales – a virtuous cycle.
A bespoke channel partner training system is also created to align with your revenue goals, so training is tied to pipelines, deal size, win rates, and partner certification levels, if required.
Done-for-you channel partner training also frees up internal resources and relieves pressure on your employees. Running it as a separate business function by a qualified team means it’s no longer an add-on to internal employees’ roles, who often aren’t properly trained and don’t have the time to take it on. This removal of pressure ensures internal teams can instead focus their resources on what they do best, rather than stretching themselves thin trying to deliver training on top of their existing jobs.
If you’re nodding along as you read this and know that DFY channel partner training is a topic you want to broach at senior or board level, it’s important to tie it directly to commercial accountability and investment decisions.
Highlight how training shapes partner performance and brand consistency, leading to revenue predictability and potential market expansion.
It can also help to liken it to other revenue investments such as a CRM, and compare their ROI with how a done-for-you learning management system could perform.
Reframe training costs as an investment in partner capacity and thus an investment in scalable growth. Emphasise, too, how partnering with an expert that understands channel partner dynamics and partner behaviour is a safe choice, and can be a crucial market differentiator with your competitors.
Once done-for-you training is positioned as a risk mitigation tool, a growth enabler, and a competitive differentiator, it’s easy to see the benefits.
The quality of channel partner training matters more than most organisations realise, and if you want to scale your business, it’s time to scale your training too. A poor program can be a silent growth killer; a tailored, done-for-you program has a myriad of benefits. And it’s the organisations that take training seriously who will be the ones to maximise the impact of their partnerships.
With over 20 years’ experience in channel partner training program solutions, Wahoo Learning is on hand to discuss your done-for-you options and ensure you’re getting the most from your training. Get in touch to find out how we could deliver a training program that drives true growth and scalability for your business.