Training and Certification: Critical for Effective Partner Relationship Management

You are the Channel Partner Manager for an emerging growth company. It is your responsibility to be the main point-of-contact for all of your partners. As you add channel partners, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to manage your partners without some automated process. All the research you have read about effective channel partner management indicates that it is essential to optimize channel partner training effectiveness in the early stages of the partner relationship to ensure a successful outcome.

In order to optimize effectiveness, you must first identify the key factors that can limit a company’s ability to maximize partner training effectiveness.

These factors can include:

• The inability to accurately measure ROI on training program investments.

• Individual training classes that are very expensive to administer
  and coordinate.

• The training and certification process consumes a disproportionate amount of the channel manager’s time.

• No ability to track which dealer employees completed which training  courses.

• Channel partners that are overwhelmed with confusing or unrelated communications related to training and certification, reducing partner satisfaction and loyalty.
  

Next, identify the key people within your company and their needs as it relates to channel partner training and certification:

As channel manager, you want to implement a channel management solution that leverages partner training management best practices to increase selling effectiveness of your partners, while greatly reducing training costs.

Robust partner relationship management software solutions, also known as partner relationship management (PRM) software, include training and certification modules.

PRM software centralizes and automates training courses, e-learning, webinars, certification management and allows for targeted communications to specific channel partners by segmentation.

By implementing a partner relationship management solution, you will maximize your partner training effectiveness by:

• Easily and accurately tracking your channel partners and their competencies by combining their sales history, performance data and certifications in a single system
• Providing a comprehensive and centralized infrastructure for the administration and communication of training and certification programs
• Lowering testing and administrative costs (for you and your channel partners) through automation
• Customizing training information based on specific partner data, performance and need
• Increasing partner satisfaction and loyalty by providing a simplified and consistent training and assessment environment

SEE ALSO: What are the Critical Features of a Channel Management Solution?

Using a robust Partner Relationship Management solution, your emerging growth company can customize education/training material and course offerings by channel partner segment. PRM can also provide convenient online content, assessments, training and certifications in an interactive, easy-to-use partner portal for shared learning.

From this partner portal, you will be able to centrally measure, track and analyze partner competencies in order to reward your channel partners for achieving certification milestones, ensuring your partners have the knowledge and skills to effectively sell your products.