E-learning allows to train your external partners and vendors while increasing their overall satisfaction in relation to your brand.
The challenge of training external partners
While training external partners might not be a new approach, its implementation in classroom environments is often complex. It’s not always easy to find times that suit the respective agendas of your external learners or the trainer; neither is finding a centralized training place for a dispersed sales forces.
As a result…
- Sporadic training
- Disparities in the knowledge and skills taught to learners (the trainer is not always the same)
- Training that is less regularly updated or related to events that concern you
- Difficulty in gathering feedback from training and identifying topics that deserve more attention.
Training for external partners: the benefits of e-learning
The implementation of this kind of training is now facilitated through e-learning, and its effectiveness has increased dramatically. The more information you give to external partners on how your products and services work, the better they manage to (re)present and sell your brand.
What training should external partners and vendors receive?
- The brand’s experience and promise
- Your latest products/services
- Good sales skills (body language, sales management, people management)
- Best practices in customer relations
- Best practices in customer service
Tips for training your external partners with e-learning
1. Take differences into account
Before developing your course, give your partners an initial test online. Assessing skill gaps (education level, professional level) will allow you to implement differentiated and tailored course plans for each training. If you’re addressing global partners, the choice of approach should take into account the different languages, cultures and religions of your learners.
2. Identify training needs
Your partners don’t play the same role in relation to your business. Be sure to meet their individual needs and teach them relevant and directly applicable skills for their work. It may be time to start using storyboards!
3. Remember their attention span is limited
Not being directly related to your business, the level of participation among external partners could be lower than for internal learners. To increase their engagement, offer them stimulating elements at regular intervals in your training courses, such as serious games or quizzes.
4. Focus on keeping training regular
It’s often difficult to absorb, retain and apply knowledge transmitted in a single training. Instead it’s better to split your training into modules that are offered regularly to increase retention.
Did you know DOKEOS e-learning suite allows you also to train your external partners using COOC (Corporate Open Online Course)? For more information, contact us!
