The Making Of A Successful Alliance: Channel Partners In E-learning

Organizations today want complete solutions to solve their business challenges and hence there is a growing need for comprehensive technology solutions. This opens up the opportunity for companies to work with partners who have expertise and differentiated skills. The trend of working with partners has been gaining momentum in all technology-providers including cloud adaptation, mobility as well as analytics. No wonder, it is creating quite a buzz in the area of e-learning as well.

E-Learning solutions are now the norm in most organizations. As e-learning providers try to cater to training-related needs within an organization, it is often a wise option to delegate certain parts of the job to a partner who can efficiently provide certain services that solve bigger business challenges.

However, a partner must be willing to move out of his or her comfort zone to create business excellence and provide the ‘wow’ factor to clients. What else makes a good partner for an e-learning alliance?

• Geographical presence: The reason why many e-learning companies look forward to alliances is to create presence in newer markets across the globe. Local partners in the area know the business landscape and have the know-how of the geography as well. Partners should make use of the understanding of local industries to create business opportunities for themselves as well as the e-learning company.
• Product Knowledge: A major step in ‘moving out of their comfort zone’ is to understand the e-learning products and services. A partner should be able to have clarity of understanding of various products, versions and selling models – even if they do not create it themselves. For this, the partner is usually well supported by the e-learning company who trains the partner well in all the latest products and services. They also provide all collaterals like brochures and other literature that can help them understand better.
• Selling expertise: Selling the product is the next step for partners. For this too, they have to move out of their area of expertise and train their sales staff to sell products that will create better solutions for their clients and ultimately sell better business profits for themselves. To cater to the needs of the alliance, partners will often have to increase their sales staff as well as bring in personnel with expert sales acumen. While this training and hiring exercise will take up some time and effort, it will create the necessary sales expertise needed to sell better.
• Providing experience: The partners will often be called to deliver demos and should have the confidence of doing so effortlessly to provide clients with the required confidence in the solution. For this too, they are often trained by e-learning companies and provided the required material to deliver a successful demo. If the client is satisfied with a demo, only then can the solution be successfully implemented. So, partners should master the art of giving demos to finally clinch the deal.

While the above are only the top attributes of a good partner, there are many other features that make a good partner for an e-learning alliance. A leading factor in the success of such an alliance is the support provided by the e-learning company. If they are able to train and hand-hold the partners well, it will be easier for the partners to understand the various nuances of the solution, provide the right inputs and sell better. It is a relationship of mutual benefit and both parties have to contribute to its success. And when both the partner and the e-learning company is able to do that – the result is client satisfaction and business growth.