Introduction

Partner management software with a well-developed online training platform allows you to onboard and enable program participants at scale. This article will dig into the importance of in-depth partner training, best practices and risks to avoid, and the must-haves to seek out when selecting partner training software.

Discover how Allbound PRM enables supercharged partner onboarding.

The Value of a High-quality Partner Training Platform

Best Practices for Setting Up Remote Partner Training

Incorporate Quizzes & Gamification

Further, by incorporating quizzes throughout the online training modules, you can ensure your partners are retaining information. Use the results to adjust your partner training accordingly — if trainees often struggle to pass a specific course, you should consider revisiting the associated training module to increase understanding. 

Best yet, you can use training software automation to grant partners that pass quizzes greater access to platform elements. Examples include more advanced partner training or new features like co-branding content.

Make Training Materials Relevant & Actionable

Be sure to include as many tactical insights as possible. The more actionable your training materials are, the more likely partners are to leverage them.

Start at Your Partner’s Level

Meanwhile, don’t overlook that some partners may know little about your organization. Create competitive comparison battle cards and integration cheat sheets your partners can use to gain a fast understanding of your unique selling propositions.

Partner Training Mistakes to Avoid

Only Offering One Online Training Medium

Your partner training resources should include various formats, including:

Not Accounting for Different Languages

If you’ve expanded your channel partner program worldwide, you must consider the different languages your partners speak. A great partner training software solution will make this easy.

Providing the Same Training to All Partners

Not all of your partners will need the same training. Different types of partners should have access to training resources tailored to their specific relationship with your organization, language preferences, and stage of the partner journey.

An optimal partner training software will allow you to tag resources by partner type, ensuring the right partners see the correct resources.

Letting Training Content Get Stale

As you update your partner program and your platform, you must also update your training content. Build a system to regularly review your resources and ensure they’re up-to-date. Work with your Product Team to ensure developing actionable partner training resources is part of their product update routine.

Ignoring Partner Feedback

Your partners will have strong insights on where they need the most support. Listen to their needs, and provide tailored content accordingly. For example, you may find that your partners have the most success learning from strategic sales playbooks, suggesting you should build additional playbooks.

Meanwhile, if you see many partners struggling with mastery of a specific course, you likely need to improve your training materials on the topic.

Providing Not Enough, or Too Much Training

Encouraging your partners to begin co-selling without enough training will leave them feeling unprepared. Meanwhile, too much training can be discouraging and will reduce the likelihood of completion. Instead, you have to find a happy medium where your partners are enabled and fully engaged.

What to Look for in a Partner Training Software Solution

Intelligent Search

Imagine your partner’s frustration when they’re searching for an answer to their question but can’t find the right resource. Your partner training software should make it easy for your partners to search resources — across video and text — by keyword.

Intelligent Language Translations

Your partner training platform should allow your partner to pick their language of choice during set-up so all resources are delivered in their native language. This will eliminate confusion and friction for your partners, letting them focus on leveraging your resources, instead of searching for the correct version.

Integration with the Rest of Your Partner Program

You’ll gain the most actionable insights on your entire channel when your partner training platform integrates directly with the system you use for managing partners (or, even more preferable, is hosted within the same software).

With this data available, you’ll be able to track the impact of different training modules on revenue driven, identify learning gaps, and improve your content to better equip your partners. For example, it’s helpful to identify how much training your top-performing partners have completed.

Allbound – The All-In-One Partner Management Software

Allbound built a comprehensive PRM that consolidates a suite of features—including learning tracks, partner journey automation, deal registrations, and pipeline analysis—within a single platform. In turn, partners receive a seamless portal experience within a single portal. 

Use our software to group partners based on audience, industry, language, etc., and to establish multi-tiered curriculums. As a result, new users will only see applicable trainings; as they progress, their scope and in-portal capabilities will automatically broaden. 

Allbound’s software grants managers visibility into who completes training tracks, which content receives the most engagement from both partners and prospects, and other crucial metrics that can inform strategies. 

Learn more about how Allbound optimizes the partner training process.

Optimize Partner Enablement with Partner Training Software

Explore additional resources on partner onboarding, channel optimization, and more.

Steps to Onboarding Partners: Checklist + Flowchart — Partner onboarding is an iceberg — most organizations don’t realize quite how many steps are involved. Read this article to discover the seven steps to successfully onboarding a new partner, from your initial welcome, through ongoing communication and efforts to improve.

Templates for Your Channel Partner Program Strategy — It’s not easy to run a successful channel partner program, but we’ve made it a little easier with these strategy templates. Grab resources to help you vet vendors, conduct budgeting and forecasting, interview candidates, and more.

What is PRM: Definition + Key Best Practices — Your PRM is a key tool in your channel partner toolkit. If you aren’t yet using one, this article will help you understand the value of a PRM, plus key best practices to keep in mind when you’re ready to get started.