Partner Training Strategies: 9 Best Practices for Success

Expanding across different locations and targeting different segments of your customers isn't a cakewalk. You would need a support system of agile partners to make it work for you. But what is a partner exactly?

A partner could be a reseller, consultant, retailer, vendor, or even an agent. Because partners are essential to your sales strategy, you would want them to be as knowledgeable about your product as any full-time employee. This is where partner training becomes important.

What Is Partner Training?

Partner training is a process of creating instructional material and training programs to guide partners on how to use your product or service. Partner training helps partners stay updated on the evolution of the product or service and the associated technological and regulatory requirements. This is especially viable in core industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and IT. These industries often operate within a stringent regulatory environment. Partner training is important to ensure adherence to the requisite rules and sustain a safe working environment.

This way, skilled partners can more effectively address client needs and produce solutions or products that meet customer expectations.

Why Is Partner Training Important?

Partners are important assets to an organization. They need to be equipped with the knowledge of the product or service to understand the businesses' goals better and cultivate their practices accordingly. Here's why partner training is important:

Creating Consistent Brand Experiences

Partner training helps partners to maintain consistent brand experience across their channels. A good partner training program creates a common understanding of the product or service across the channel partners. This nurtures an effective path for sales, support, and marketing teams to realize a consistent multi-channel customer experience.

Imparting Product Knowledge and Expertise

Partner training programs help partners gain in-depth knowledge and expertise about the product or service. This helps partners address customer queries more effectively. It also helps partners to identify opportunities for growth and discern problems early on. With a better knowledge of the product, partners can also advise customers on product selection or upgrade.

Also Read: Product Knowledge Training 101: Tips, Tools, and How-To

Enabling Partners to Sell Better and Sell More

Partners that have received training are better able to respond to concerns because they are more aware of customer demands, competitive advantages, and differentiators. They are skilled in sales tactics and equipped with industry knowledge to better spot possibilities, close transactions quickly, and ultimately increase sales volumes and revenue for the company.

Expanding Market Reach

Partners with the right skills and market and product expertise can spot fresh opportunities and leverage their networks to reach untapped markets. As a result, they can confidently engage new clients, offer persuasive proposals, and respond to rather sophisticated market questions, thus, broadening the reach of a company.

Enhancing Customer Support

Since partners completely understand the products or services, they can provide pertinent solutions and individualized support, bolstering the entire customer support mechanism.

Enabling Partners to Adapt to Industry Changes

According to Deloitte's 2023 manufacturing industry outlook about 62% of the surveyed manufacturers are focusing on robotics and automation. Likewise, 60% are emphasizing the role of data analytics, and 31% are looking forward to IoT. Such developments are common in the core industries that are ripe for digital transformation.

Partner training keeps partners abreast of the most recent developments, allowing them to use cutting-edge interventions and gain a competitive advantage.

Strengthening Relationships with Partners

Better understanding and communication between partners and the parent organization can be fostered via training. It aids in unifying the outlook toward organizational growth. As a result, connections grow stronger and rest on trust and respect, which is necessary for fruitful long-term collaborations.

What are the Best Practices for Partner Training?

Now that we have discussed the importance of partner training, let's take a look at how you can actually pull this off. Here are 9 best practices for partner training:

Define Clear Objectives

Prior to creation and execution, working with your channel partners to establish your shared goals and objectives for training efforts can provide concrete direction for managing and improving partner performance going ahead. Consequently, a company should set up definite, measurable training goals.

Customize Training Programs Based on Specific Needs

Companies must evaluate what their partners need and how to communicate that to them. To make training more efficient, the content must be adjusted to their requirements and the organization's expectations from them. The modules can also be adjusted to accommodate the time and mode constraints.

Focus on Partner Onboarding

Setting up your partnership for success starts with a thorough onboarding process for your channel partners. It's a potent tool for ongoing development where you can share details about your products and clients. Additionally, it effectively engages them in support of your company's goals right off the bat.

Develop Engaging Content and Keep It Updated

Businesses must provide interesting and dynamic training materials that incorporate multimedia components, real-world scenarios, and hands-on activities if they want the partners to become engrossed in their training program. The content must be updated to instill real-life cases and trendy topics. This improves the learning process, and the partners' comprehension is increased as a result.

Provide Ongoing Training

Once you have introduced them to your products, the partner training shouldn't cease. After initial training, organizations must continue to offer resources and support to reinforce learning, including knowledge bases, FAQs, and access to mentors.

Foster Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration

Collaboration and efficient knowledge sharing are essential components of partner training strategies. These can be accomplished by supporting collaborative learning opportunities, such as group discussions or peer learning sessions.

Gamify Training to Make It Interesting

Implementing gamified features in your channel partner training can greatly benefit participation. User engagement is ultimately a critical factor in the success or failure of training programs. Favorably, gamification has been shown to enhance employee engagement by 48%.

Measure and Track Training Effectiveness

Partner training is not a one-off activity, and thus businesses should continue to solicit feedback from their partners, involve them in discussing future programs and courses, and encourage them to contribute their ideas. This makes it easier for both parties to remain on the same page.

Don't Neglect Support

For the knowledge and skills learned during the training to be successfully implemented and used, partners must have continued support both throughout and after the training process. Businesses can improve the entire training experience, increase partner confidence, and boost partner competency by integrating strong and responsive support mechanisms into partner training programs.

Certifications in Partner Training

Here's a comprehensive list of the partner training certifications available across different industries:

IT and Technology Certifications

• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA)
• CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+

Project Management Certifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP) by Project Management Institute (PMI)
• Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) by Project Management Institute (PMI)
• PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments) by AXELOS

Marketing and Digital Marketing Certifications

• Google Ads Certifications
• HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certification
• Facebook Blueprint Certifications

Financial and Accounting Certifications:

• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) by The Chartered Financial Institute
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA) by IMA USA

Healthcare Certifications

• Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
• Certified Medical Assistant (CMA) by the American Association of Medical Assistants
• Healthcare Information and Management Systems (HIMSS) Certifications

Education and Training Certifications:

• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL)
• Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP)
• Certified Online Learning Facilitator (COLF)

Human Resources Certifications

• Professional in Human Resources (PHR) by Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI)
• Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP)

Leadership and Management Certifications

• Certified Manager (CM) by the Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM)
• Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certifications
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) by Scrum Alliance

The Role of LMS in Partner Training

LMS serves as a unified platform for organizing, carrying out, and monitoring training tasks. It enables businesses to provide training in various formats like eLearning modules and webinars, modify training content based on partner needs, and guarantee consistency across all partners

Additionally, it keeps track of and records partner progress, providing vital information on the efficiency of training and partner performance. The LMS assists in identifying knowledge gaps and areas for improvement thanks to its integrated evaluation and reporting features. A good LMS also enables partners to access training materials whenever and wherever they choose and allows them to proceed at their own pace.

By keeping track of partner progress, the completion of necessary courses, and exam results, an LMS makes certification management easier too. The certification procedure is automated. After the program is successfully completed, digital certificates are issued. Partners can continue to grow their skills, and businesses can monitor the effects of training programs on partner success.

Conclusion

Partners must be as familiar with your goods and services as you are, regardless of their function in the distribution of your goods. When you properly train your partners, you will have an ecosystem of experts who are knowledgeable about your offerings and know what they're doing. This is why it is crucial for organizations to offer their partners high-quality training!

By pursuing online partner training using an LMS, you can allow for accessible, accountable, and self-paced programs. This will make training convenient and exciting for the learners and simple for you to plan and maintain.

Gyrus offers a cloud-based LMS with an extensive collection of tools and materials to develop an extensive training program. You can design and oversee learning opportunities specifically catered to your organization's needs. For more information, schedule a demo today!