Home Portfolio Articles Build Sales-Boosting Partnerships with Documentation and Training

Build Sales-Boosting Partnerships with Documentation and Training

What are the tools your partners need to quickly and easily sell, deploy, or integrate your software?

You should consider providing them with:

• Training
• Methodologies
• Playbooks
• Documentation
• Other educational programs and materials

You see, building a strong partner program yields big benefits. By equipping your current partners with the RIGHT set of knowledge and skills, you make it much easier for them to sell your software and solve your customers' business problems. Plus, a well-planned program demonstrates the high level of care and support your organization provides to partners. What better message can there be when you're trying to attract committed new partners?

Here are some exciting tools and techniques you can start putting into place TODAY to attract and strengthen your partner relationships:

Offer Training

Start by determining if your partners need any particular KINDS of training. Are there aspects of your product that your consulting or strategic partners need to understand in more depth? Are resellers clear on how to best market and sell your product? Question your partners to discover where the gaps are and what they want to learn—then develop classes to meet their needs. To get started, you might offer a product overview course for new partners.

Capture Best Practices

Share what's worked best for you. Your implementation team, for example, probably has a tried and tested process for deploying your software at customer sites. Document the steps and you'll have an "implementation methodology" to pass on to consulting partners. By giving them a roadmap to follow, you'll cut their learning curve and save them the time and effort of developing their own process.

Do the same for resellers! Trace the steps your salespeople go through—from qualifying customers, to making the initial contact, to eventually closing the sale. Include tips and advice for each step and any helpful reference materials. Package this information into a "sales methodology" to share with resellers.

Create a Sales Playbook

Just as a playbook in football maps out winning tactics, a sales playbook charts the strategies and tactics to close a sale. A playbook cuts to the chase: Why should people buy your product? How will it solve their problems? How should the product be positioned for different types of buyers? A playbook puts everyone on the same page, with a consistent way to approach customers.

Give Them Documentation

The more thoroughly your partners understand your product, the easier it is for them to sell it, deploy it, or resolve customers' problems. Supply them with documentation to refer to for installing, configuring, managing, or servicing your product.

Make it easy for your partners to acquire the knowledge and skills they need. A little more effort on your end (providing training and support materials) will go a long way to boost sales. And a stronger partner program will draw even more partners, attracted by your care and interest in helping them succeed.

What We Do

Cambridge Publications develops a wide variety of knowledge-sharing programs and materials, including training, e-learning, documentation, methodologies, and sales playbooks.