To build a successful partner enablement program, you must define your goals and expectations and come up with an action plan to meet them. Without proper planning, partner enablement can be tricky. Otherwise, you’ll end up with unengaged partners and stale relationships.
Integrate partners into your sales process to increase collaboration, acquire new opportunities, and grow your market presence. To achieve these outcomes, you must train and enable your partners using a dependable, repeatable process.
DOWNLOAD FREE PDF | Partner Enablement Checklist
What steps do you need to enable your partners to learn and sell? By organizing partner enablement within defined timelines and agreed-upon key performance indicators (KPIs), you can train your partners more effectively and boost market penetration in a consistent, cost-effective way.
To get started in defining your partner enablement processes, follow the framework in this checklist to launch your partner enablement strategy.
Identify your partners’ requirements for their success. Then evaluate your relationships to set a foundation to help you determine where improvements are necessary.
To ensure successful collaboration between you and your partners, establish the following performance measures:
Setting goals and performance measures enables you to evaluate your partner program’s direction and pinpoint the areas that require additional focus. Further, they provide information about the efficiency of your partner’s onboarding and enablement process, product training, and sales collaboration.
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Now that you know the goals and performance indicators that determine the success of your partnerships, work with your team to come up with a content plan to help you meet your partners' needs for information. This team should include a mix of your subject matter experts (SMEs), product managers, and marketing team.
Don’t assume your previous enablement materials will apply to this new collaboration. That means you might need to update your current onboarding, sales enablement, or partner content to make it the right fit for this partner. Although some of these materials may apply, you might need to make some adjustments.
Build an engaging content library that your partners can consistently turn to. Include both basic training and product knowledge documents for unique use cases. Use the following examples as a guide for what you can include in your content plan.
Types of partner enablement materials:
For a superior training and learning experience, keep in mind the following best practices in designing your content.
Best practices for enablement design:
If you’re using a learning management system (LMS), automate and tailor content delivery to ensure more partner engagement.
DOWNLOAD PDF | Partner Enablement Strategy
Introduce your trainers, inform your partners about the training schedule, and distribute the content.
Welcome to your training program. Over the next [DAYS], from [TIME] to [TIME], [NUMBER] of our trainers will guide you in over [NUMBER] of total sessions. These sessions include both activities and lectures on the following subjects:
Break your training sessions into milestones to make the training more manageable. Also, conduct quizzes or interactive sessions to make learning more effective. Introduce rewards or incentives by recognizing your partners’ efforts to keep them motivated.
DOWNLOAD FREE PDF | Channel Partner Onboarding Template
Day 1: [DATE] [TIME]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
Day 2: [DATE] [TIME]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
[TIME] – [SESSION]: [DESCRIBE SESSION]
Once your partner enablement program is up and running, gather feedback from your partners. Ask the following questions to track their progress:
As you continue to work toward your learning and business objectives, keep an eye on your KPIs to achieve strategic goals with your partners, and adjust your program as needed to accommodate any changes.
Observe what is currently working and look for methods to improve from the perspectives of learning and profitability. If you want to improve your partner enablement program, seek answers to the following questions:
Gather answers to these questions through private discussions, such as from a lunch-and-learn. Or email your partners a survey that they can complete and return.
Because your enablement program requires regular updates, ask and get answers to these questions on a regular basis so you can refine your partner enablement strategy to keep it fresh.
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Your relationship with your channel partners will be more beneficial if you exceed their expectations in educating them on all your requirements.
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