Do you think you are ready to work with Wahoo Learning? Perhaps you’ve identified your challenges and how training solves them. Maybe an online training program is what you have needed for a while now, but you don’t have the budget or resources available to make it a success.
As a business, we work with you to gain a full understanding of your business and situation to ensure that both parties are ready to sign on the dotted line. There’s nothing worse than wasted time on both parts.
That’s why we’ve written this article. To help you understand whether it’s time to take the next step and join a partnership with Wahoo Learning.
So, if you are thinking of outsourcing, here are six significant signs that you’re at a point to press ahead and work with the professionals to develop, deploy, maintain and manage your training program.
You Have Identified Your Challenges
Understanding the challenges you are facing is the first step of the journey. Once you recognise these problems, finding solutions and problem-solving is the next step.
The most common challenges we come across for organisations that sell through external networks are:
- A growing sales channel
- Loss of brand identity
- High support costs associated with a lack of knowledge
- Issues communicating product updates, features and benefits
- Concerns about persistent outsider mentalities
As well as identifying the challenges you are experiencing with your channel partners, it’s important to understand the capabilities of your organisation and the support you need to deliver an effective training program.
Here, the three most common challenges organisations face are:
- Lack of resources
- Lack of expertise
- Lack of budget
Tip! If you haven’t identified your challenges yet, and want to be sure that you’ve covered all bases, we have two resources that will help you:
The challenges of training channel partners (and how to solve them)
You Understand the Benefits of Training
In order to make a firm decision on the implementation of a new training program and outsourcing the management functions, it is vital that you and your stakeholders have explored all the benefits training brings to your channel partner program.
Here are the benefits you will see from introducing a formal training program:
- Smooth and speedy onboarding
- Increased revenue
- New revenue stream
- Enhanced brand identity
- Better communication
- Increased motivation
- Lower support costs
- Greater loyalty
Tip! To learn more about the benefits, read our blog: How training benefits your partner program
You Have Buy-in From Your Team
Without buy-in from your team and project stakeholders, you’re not ready to start developing your training program.
Receiving internal buy-in is important, not only from a budget standpoint but also for making the program a success.
Getting everyone on board from the offset will make everything run smoothly in the long run. It’s essential for everyone involved to gain insight into how training solves many of the challenges associated with managing channel partners and encouraging increased market share and revenue growth.
Tip! To learn more about how to get buy-in for your training program, read: How to sell your training courses to channel partners
You Know Your Audience and What They Need to Succeed
For your channel partner learning audience to be on side with training, it must help them to meet their own objectives and those of the organisation they are working from.
From the initial stages, talk to them about what they need. What sort of material do they need and what will help them to sell your product in their territory? It’s important to note that when working with global partners, localisation must be accounted for. Courses must be relevant to their market.
Without talking in-depth with your channel partners, you run the risk of a lack of engagement. If you are planning to sell your courses, this is even more of an issue.
When discussing plans with them, use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your program and ensure it meets their needs.
Tip! Learn more about catering to the needs of your audience by reading: 8 ways to create effective channel partner training
You Know What Learning Material You Need
Once you know what your audience needs are, you can start to look at what course material you need to create. In addition to learning material, you can decide whether to implement certification or badging schemes.
Creating training material and keeping that material fresh and up to date is crucial for the success of your program. This is especially the case if you are selling your training to external networks. Revenue can only be generated and courses will only be purchased if the learner sees the value they bring to themselves and their organisation.
From a budget point of view, it’s also good to have an idea of the number of courses that need to be created so this can be discussed and planned for in the early stages.
Tip! To learn more, read: Developing Channel Partner Training Programs on a Tight Budget: Creative Tips and Strategies
You Understand the Capabilities of Your Organisation and the Value That Wahoo Learning Offers
Organisations wanting to introduce a new training program for their external networks often don’t have the internal teams or framework needed to get the project off the ground. Both in terms of resource and budget: HR teams tend to concentrate on internal training, while sales teams and even L&D teams don’t have the capacity or budget to execute a productive training program.
Outsourcing all of the administration and management to the experts offers organisations the confidence that their investment and training program is in safe hands.
Tip! If you want to learn more about the benefits of partnering with Wahoo Learning to deliver your training program, read our blog: Why Wahoo Learning is the training partner you’ve been looking for
Summary
With all said and done, nobody knows your organisation better than you do. If you’re looking to implement a training program for your channel partners, you understand the capabilities of your team and the requirements and objectives of the program, you are ready to start conversations with potential training partners.
Ready to take the next step in implementing a successful training program? Contact us today to learn how Wahoo Learning can help you achieve your goals and drive success for your organisation.
