What are the most effective strategies for providing ongoing training and support to partners?

Implementing effective ongoing training and support for partners involves a tailored approach, addressing specific partner needs through customized programs. 1. Utilizing diverse learning platforms, including online tools, mentorship programs, and certification initiatives, ensures accessibility and relevance. Engagement strategies such as gamification, incentives, and interactive elements keep partners motivated. 2. Establishing feedback mechanisms and conducting regular reviews enable continuous improvement in training programs. These strategies collectively create a comprehensive framework for partner development and success.

One mistake we did early on in our Partner Onboarding and Training was that we didn't look closely enough into the roles and responsibilities within our Partner's organization. Some examples: we set up training for our agency partner on how to use our solution, but didn't enable them to actually pitch or sell it - which was typically done by another team within the Partner's organization. In another instance we did an extensive onboarding session with the person who was our primary contact and / or the person who signed the partner contract - instead of tailoring the onboarding pieces to the folks who are actually requiring it. Long short: mind your audience :)

It is very important to understand, which partner persona you are speaking to in which setting. Different representatives and functions within an organisation may have different personal motives and needs, which you will have to cover. A conversation with a sales person will be quite different from a conversation with a product manager.

In the early stages it's recommended to in-person trainings, to get immediate feedback. Only later you should consider using online formats or videos, when you are sure your training methodology and content works, and you need to scale the delivery.

When providing learning formats you should consider, how much time your person of interest within a partner organisation actually has for this and what level of involvement do you expect from them. Giving extremely detailed descriptions and deep-dives to a low involvement audience doesn't work. Some audiences will not take you seriously, if you don't provide details.

Give real life examples and present customer cases. Let the customers speak for themselves, involve additional partners from your ecosystem if needed. Testimonials are very strong reasons to believe.

Si j'avais a développé un partner program aujourd'hui le training serait adapté à l'apprentissage d'aujourd'hui. Des formats short, vidéo, validation des acquis simple, un mix entre physique et digital et surtout de la gamification.

La gamification permet la mise en place de paliers et donc de suivre les progressions. le training est un bon moyen de suivre la motivation des équipes pour ce partenariat. Il ne faut pas être na?f former at scale n'est pas simple il faut donc des règles et des conséquences. C'est pour cela que les programmes les plus performants surclassent ou déclassent des partenaires et incentives les meilleurs.

La co-construction est toujours bénéfique mais dans un effort de scale la standardisation est la base. UN bon PM fera évoluer son training au fil du temps grace aux feedback

As a partner manager you always have to make sure that you have a balanced business relationship with your partner organisation. Make sure your partner also gets a chance to present their product to your team, make meaningful connections between the organisations and introduce different functions to each other. Learning can be very efficient, if you are connected to people, who can provide business context and daily business examples for the topics learned.