In our recent webinar, Boosting Partner Sales: Driving Product Expertise and Revenue Through Training Incentives, we explored some of the toughest challenges in channel partner training and how organizations can better equip their partners to drive sales and support growth.

Our panel of industry experts—Brett Strauss from NetExam, John Leh from Talented Learning, and Jeff Campbell from Motrain—shared insights from their extensive experience working with channel education programs.

Here, we dive into the key questions posed during the discussion and summarize some of the valuable solutions presented by our panelists.

1. What are the challenges of driving higher sales from channel partner education, and how can we overcome them?

Jeff Campbell kicked off the conversation by likening a training program to a product that requires a comprehensive marketing strategy. To tackle the challenge of distracted and unmotivated partners, Jeff highlighted the importance of building awareness, creating engaging content, and incentivizing partners to participate in training programs. He emphasized the need to position training not only as a way to boost product expertise but also as a way to develop broader professional skills.

John Leh added that time is a significant barrier for partners, many of whom represent multiple vendors and have limited time for training. To address this, he encouraged companies to focus on adaptive learning strategies that deliver only the knowledge a partner needs at the moment they need it, avoiding traditional, time-consuming training models.

Brett Strauss stressed that in channel education, threats don’t work—partners don’t work for you. The solution lies in bribes, or rather, incentives. He advocated for incentivizing both the partner organization as a whole and the individuals taking the training. Incentives could be higher sales margins, improved partner visibility, or recognition that motivates organizations and their employees to prioritize training.

2. What strategies improve partner engagement, boost course completions, and drive partner certification rates?

Our panel agreed that shorter, more focused training sessions were key to improving engagement and course completions. Brett spoke about the power of “snackable” content—quick, easily consumable lessons that fit into partners’ busy schedules. He suggested leveraging social media-style videos and AI-driven adaptive learning to make training more engaging and effective.

Jeff emphasized the importance of providing personalized training pathways, using AI to identify gaps in a partner’s knowledge and create customized content that helps them improve in specific areas. This personalized approach, he noted, encourages a higher level of mastery, ensuring that partners are truly knowledgeable and capable of selling and supporting products.

John reinforced the idea of aligning training incentives with sales performance. By tracking the correlation between training completion and sales outcomes, companies can clearly demonstrate the value of training to their partners, increasing their motivation to participate.

3. How can channel leaders and learning teams better collaborate to ensure partner education directly impacts sales and drives business results?

John Leh explained that learning and development (L&D) professionals must work closely with channel leaders to align training programs with business goals. While L&D teams often focus on course completion and engagement metrics, channel leaders are concerned with sales outcomes. Bridging this gap requires continuous communication and a shared focus on driving business results.

Jeff and Brett both highlighted the shifting ownership of training programs within organizations. In many cases, training is moving out of HR and L&D and into marketing departments. This shift is driving a new focus on metrics that matter—revenue generation and partner performance. Marketing teams, with their larger budgets and focus on business growth, are increasingly taking the lead on partner training initiatives.

Boosting partner sales through training incentives requires a thoughtful approach. Key strategies include creating engaging, personalized training that fits into partners’ busy schedules, offering incentives that motivate both individuals and organizations, and aligning training with business goals.

When done right, this approach drives partner engagement, enhances product expertise, and ultimately leads to increased sales and business growth.

Meet the Experts:

• Brett Strauss, NetExam
  NetExam is a leading learning management system (LMS) designed to optimize partner and customer education. With a strong focus on external training, NetExam enables companies to improve product expertise, boost partner performance, and drive revenue growth.
• John Leh, Talented Learning
  Talented Learning is a research and consulting firm that focuses on external training solutions. John Leh, as the CEO and lead analyst, brings decades of experience in helping organizations optimize their learning programs for channel partners, customers, and other external audiences.
• Jeff Campbell, Motrain
  Motrain is a cutting-edge platform designed to incentivize learning through gamification. By integrating with LMS platforms like NetExam, Motrain helps organizations motivate their channel partners to complete training and improve sales through rewards and recognition.