The 3 Best Practices for Partner Enablement

For some sales organizations, a partner program serves as their main revenue channel, enabling them to amplify growth without expanding their workforce.

In channel sales, a ‘partner’ plays a crucial role in the distribution and sale of a company's products or services. These channel partners can be distributors, resellers, consultants, or other entities that have a relationship with the original manufacturer or service provider.

The 3 Best Practices for Partner Enablement

Partner enablement, or partner sales enablement, is a strategic approach designed to equip your external partners with the tools, resources, and knowledge necessary for effectively selling your products or services.

Companies with partner networks often struggle to keep their partners informed about product changes, pricing, deals, etc. Partner enablement steps in by enabling effective onboarding programs, continuous product training, and ensuring easy access to the latest content and resources, all aimed at engaging and motivating partners to prioritize your offerings.

Onboarding and Continuous Training

Building a strong foundation is crucial. Start by providing a thorough onboarding process to ensure your team has a deep understanding of our products and your brand.  But learning doesn't stop there. Offer continuous training to keep partners informed about the latest updates and equipped with the skills they need to confidently represent your offerings to the customers.

Building Expertise and Fostering Collaboration

Partner enablement goes beyond just resources; it’s about fostering a culture of collaboration with your sellers. Through knowledge-sharing initiatives and dedicated ongoing support, you help your partners build expertise and become true champions of your brand.

This approach fosters a win-win scenario. Empowered partners are more successful, driving mutual growth.

Customized and Accessible Sales Materials

We understand the importance of impactful sales tools. That's why providing a library of customized sales materials, designed to be easily accessible and readily available during customer interactions is crucial. This empowers your external sellers to effectively position your products and close deals faster.

Key Considerations in Partner Enablement

This enablement strategy is similar to what you would have with your internal sales team but tailored to the unique dynamics of external sales partnerships. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

External Partners' Independence

Recognize that unlike employees, external partners operate autonomously. You cannot compel their focus or participation, making it crucial to attract and retain their interest through compelling enablement strategies.

Competition Awareness

Understand that partners may also represent your competitors. Your enablement efforts must distinguish your offerings, ensuring partners are motivated to prioritize and successfully sell your products.

Staying On Top of Mind

Effective partner enablement goes beyond simply providing access to resources. It's about creating engaged advocates for your products in a competitive landscape.

Visibility on Partners' Performance

Because partners operate independently, it can be difficult to track how they present your products to customers. Partner enablement helps solve this by providing content analytics that show how partners are representing your offerings.

How To Implement An Effective Channel Partner Onboarding and Training

As we discussed, igniting your partner network hinges on effective enablement. This chapter delves deeper into the crucial foundation: building partner knowledge and skills through comprehensive onboarding and ongoing training.

Think of onboarding as the spark that ignites a long-lasting partnership. Similar to welcoming new internal hires, provide a thorough onboarding process to ensure your external partners have a deep understanding of your offerings:

Product and Pricing Mastery

Dive deep into your product portfolio, pricing structures, and unique selling propositions.

Technical Expertise

Equip your partners with the knowledge to confidently discuss core technologies and address customer inquiries.

Sales Process Navigation

Familiarize your sellers with your typical sales cycle, ensuring a smooth customer experience.

Partnership Expectations

Clearly define expectations and benefits, fostering a win-win collaboration.

Remember, onboarding is the first step in building a strong relationship. Aim to make it seamless and engaging, with dedicated resources to support your external sellers’ success:

• Proactive Support: Take the initiative, providing relevant information, resources, and progress tracking. Understand your partners have diverse needs, so keep them engaged and excited about your offerings.
• Tailored Learning: The onboarding journey should be customized to each partner's focus area. Ensure that they receive only the most relevant product knowledge and sales tools to excel.
• Dedicated Partner Support: Consider establishing a dedicated support system with direct access to a specialized team or partner manager. This ensures your team has the ongoing guidance and assistance they need to thrive.

A reliable support system goes beyond onboarding. It instills confidence, demonstrates your investment in their success, and strengthens the partnership from the very beginning. This fosters a positive experience and positions your company as a responsive and reliable collaborator.

Ultimately, a well-designed onboarding and training program empowers your partners. This translates to increased satisfaction,  enthusiasm for selling your offerings, and a mutually productive business relationship.

Impactful Resources for Successful Channel Sales

We now turn our focus to equipping your champions (partners) with the essential tools they need to thrive. As we discussed, a thorough onboarding lays the groundwork. But success lies in ongoing access to powerful resources.

Product Mastery at their Fingertips

In-depth product information sheets, white papers, and explainer videos equip your partners with a deep understanding of your offerings, features, benefits, and use cases. This allows them to confidently communicate the value proposition to prospective customers.

Sales Guides and Training Tools

Training manuals, interactive modules, and "cheat sheets" provide essential product knowledge and sales process guidance. These resources go beyond basic information, including troubleshooting tips, FAQs, and industry-specific best practices, ensuring your team is prepared for any customer interaction.

Compelling Marketing Collateral

We provide a range of marketing materials, including brochures, flyers, and digital content. This empowers your team to visually and verbally communicate your brand message and capture customer interest.

Price Lists and Discount Strategies

Clear and up-to-date pricing information, including special offers and discount structures, empowers your team to offer competitive quotes and close deals faster.

Real-World Success Stories and References

Compelling case studies and customer testimonials showcase the real-world impact of your products. These powerful tools demonstrate value and build trust with potential clients.

How Sales Enablement Supports Your External Sellers

Easy access to information is crucial. That's why we suggest a sales enablement platform to enable your partners. But aside from that, sales enablement platform also allows you to:

Unifying Brand and Messaging

With sales enablement, you equip your partners to become brand ambassadors –  confidently conveying the core message and strengthening your brand narrative with every interaction.

Streamline Content Management

Easily organize and distribute all resources in one place, ensuring your sales partners always have the latest materials at their fingertips.

Just-in-Time Information

Empower your partners with on-demand access to the most relevant content, from any device and location. This eliminates time-wasting searches and ensures they're always prepared for customer interactions.

Data-Driven Decisions

Generate reports and track content engagement to gain valuable insights into partner activity. This allows you to tailor resources further and continuously optimize the enablement experience.

Choosing the Perfect Partner Enablement Tool

Now that features are out of the way, let's dive into some key considerations to find the ideal partner enablement solution for your business.

Transparent Pricing: Building Trust from the Start

Partner enablement tools aren't one-size-fits-all. Clear and upfront pricing builds trust between you and the vendor.

Take a close look at each pricing tier, considering the included features and user limits. This meticulous evaluation helps ensure the tool aligns with your budget and delivers a strong return on investment compared to other options.

Security First: Protecting Your Data

The sensitive world of channel sales demands robust security protocols.  The chosen platform should have advanced security features and comply with data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA.  Look for multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) functionalities to keep your critical information safe.

Simplicity is Key: Empowering Partners for Peak Performance

The best partner enablement tools are intuitive and user-friendly.  An easy-to-use platform minimizes learning curves, allowing partners to focus on selling, not software exploration.

This is crucial for maintaining high productivity in complex sales environments and easing up onboarding for new partners, fueling your channel expansion efforts.

Onboarding and Training:  Investing in Your Success

The quality of onboarding and training provided by the vendor is a strong indicator of their commitment to your success. Comprehensive training materials and sessions demonstrate that they're dedicated to maximizing the software's potential for you and your partners.

This improves the effectiveness of your overall partner enablement strategy.

Dedicated Support: A Long-Term Partnership

Reliable customer support from the vendor is essential. Responsive support ensures any challenges faced by your partners are resolved quickly, keeping the sales process running smoothly.

Moreover, a vendor focused on customer success goes beyond troubleshooting. They offer strategic advice and insights to help you leverage the tool’s full potential, maximizing the benefits for your entire organization.

Going Global: The Power of Multilingual Support

For businesses with a global reach, multilingual capabilities in a partner enablement tool are a game-changer.  It ensures partners worldwide can access and utilize the platform in their native language, significantly boosting adoption rates and overall user satisfaction.

By selecting the right partner enablement platform, you equip your partners with the tools and insights they need to thrive. This translates to a win-win scenario: empowered partners,  improved customer experiences, and mutually beneficial growth for your company and your channel network.

Key Takeaways: Building Champions and Driving Mutual Growth

Empowering your channel partners is the key to unlocking their full potential and driving mutual success. Here are the cornerstones of a thriving partner enablement strategy:

• Invest in Onboarding and Training: A thorough onboarding process lays the foundation for a strong relationship.  Provide proactive training that is tailored to each partner's needs, ensuring they possess the knowledge and skills to confidently represent your brand. Continuous training keeps partners up-to-date and equipped to excel in a dynamic marketplace.
• Equip Your Champions with Powerful Resources:   Empower your partners with a comprehensive library of sales content and materials. This includes product information sheets, training manuals, marketing collateral, and compelling case studies.  These resources enable partners to effectively communicate the value proposition of your offerings and close deals faster.
• Leverage Technology for Success:  A robust sales enablement platform is your secret weapon. It streamlines content management, delivers actionable insights, and personalizes the partner experience.  Key features include:
  
  • Centralized Content Hub: Easy access to all resources, eliminating wasted time searching.
  • Data-Driven Decisions: Gain insights into partner engagement for continuous improvement.
  • Tailored Access for Every Partner: Focus on relevant information for maximized impact.
  • Global Reach, Local Touch: Tailored content for effective regional engagement.
  • Digital Sales Rooms: Elevate the customer experience through collaboration and personalized content.

By implementing these strategies, you'll transform your channel partners into true champions.

You can leverage Showell, a top-rated sales enablement app, to enable your external sellers and partners. Showell offers a free plan with all the essential features, making it budget-friendly for any size business. Plus, scalable plans with increased features and support are available as your needs grow.

Ready to take the next step?  Get Showell Free or book a demo with our sales enablement expert and discover how we can help you unlock the full potential of your channel partnerships.

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