Building Your Partner Onboarding Checklist: Days 61-90

Introduction

As a business owner, you know that building partnerships is a key channel to growth and generate revenue. But how do you ensure that your partners are set up for success from the start? 

The answer lies in a well-structured onboarding process, particularly during the critical days 61-90. 

In this third installment of the three-part article, we'll walk you through the key steps to building an effective partner onboarding checklist, ensuring that your partners have the support and resources they need to thrive.

So, if you're looking to create a stronger foundation for your business partnerships, keep reading!

Channel Partner Onboarding Process Overview

The channel partner onboarding process is a critical component of a successful partnership. It involves integrating new partners into your business ecosystem, familiarizing them with your products, services, brand values, operational procedures, and necessary tools. The goal of this onboarding process is to empower partners to operate independently and represent your business accurately. A well-executed channel partner onboarding process is essential for partner success, as it sets the tone for a successful relationship and determines the success of mutual endeavors.

Pre-Onboarding Activities

Before initiating the onboarding process, it is essential to select the right channel partners. This involves identifying potential partners whose values, expertise, and target audience align with your business objectives. Implement a structured selection process to ensure that the right partners are chosen. Additionally, provide an attractive and engaging offering to motivate chosen partners and convince them to invest in your business relationship. This pre-onboarding phase is crucial for laying a strong foundation for a successful partnership.

Why are Days 61-90 Important in the Partner Onboarding Checklist?

Days 61-90 in the checklist are important because this is the period where partners typically begin to establish a deeper understanding of the company and its products or services. During this time, partners have usually completed the initial training and have started to engage with customers.

An effective channel partner program is crucial during this phase as it sets the stage for successful onboarding. This program not only creates a first impression for partners but also establishes expectations around support and mutual success between the company and its partners.

The onboarding process during this phase may involve more advanced training or support, such as learning how to effectively sell the company’s products or services or gaining a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of the products.

Additionally, the company may use this time to evaluate the performance of the partner and provide feedback on areas for improvement. This feedback can help the partner refine their approach and ensure that they are delivering value to the customers.

Overall, days 61-90 are significant in the partner onboarding success because they mark a critical point in the partnership where the partner is expected to be fully integrated into the company’s ecosystem and begin to generate meaningful business outcomes.

Key Steps to Include in Days 61-90 of Your Partner Onboarding

Evaluate Key Goals & Accomplishments

One of the first things to do is to evaluate key goals and accomplishments. This involves assessing the progress of the partner and their achievement of the goals set during the initial onboarding phase. By evaluating the partner’s performance, you can identify any areas that need improvement and provide feedback to the partner.

Additionally, it is crucial to monitor partner progress to ensure that goals and accomplishments are being met in real-time. This allows for quick identification and resolution of any issues, keeping the onboarding process on schedule.

This step helps to ensure that the partner is on track to meet their targets and provides an opportunity to adjust the goals if necessary. It also helps to establish clear expectations and ensure that both parties are aligned in terms of objectives and priorities.

These are some things you’ll look into when evaluating key goals:

• Evaluating the first goals set at the beginning of the partnership.
• Seeing what impact has been made.
• Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the partner.
• Making new goals for the following year/quarter/defined period of time.
• Evaluating whether the commission adequately reflects the hard work the partner has put in.

Evaluate Platform Engagement

Another task to take on in days 61-90 of partner onboarding is to evaluate partner engagement. This involves assessing how engaged the partner has been with the company and its products or services. You can evaluate this by looking at the partner’s activities, such as their participation in training sessions, their level of communication with the company, their engagement with customers, and their use of the PRM/Partner portal.

Introducing a structured partner onboarding template can be crucial in evaluating partner engagement. This template helps in refining the onboarding process based on key performance indicators and partner feedback, enhancing the overall training process.

It is important that the partner is utilizing the PRM/Partner portal correctly to access necessary information, resources, and tools that can help them effectively promote your products or services.

By evaluating partner engagement and their use of the PRM/Partner portal, you can identify any areas where the partner may need additional support or training to ensure that they are effectively using the resources available to them.

This step helps to ensure that the partner is fully integrated into your ecosystem and is actively promoting your products or services to customers, ultimately driving mutual growth and success.

It’ll also be useful to look at whether:

• They are using the portal correctly.
• They’re getting the most out of the portal.
• The metrics from the platform show that the partner is consistently engaged in the operations.

Evaluate Product & Brand Knowledge 

You have to evaluate the partner’s brand and product knowledge. This involves assessing whether the partner has a strong understanding of your brand and products or services. You can evaluate this by testing your partner’s knowledge through quizzes, assessments, or other methods. In so doing, you can identify any areas where the partner may need additional support to ensure that they can effectively promote and sell the company’s products or services.

Introducing training courses can be crucial in evaluating and enhancing product and brand knowledge. Refining and restructuring training materials based on performance indicators and partner feedback can significantly improve partner engagement and learning effectiveness.

It is crucial that the partner has a thorough understanding of your product to ensure that they are delivering accurate information to customers and effectively communicating the value of your offerings. This will also ensure that the partner is equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in the partnership.

In summary, at this stage, you will be:

• Figuring out whether the partner understands your product/services completely.
• Looking for ways to test this knowledge, either through content, mentorship opportunities, presentations, quizzes, certifications, etc.
• Assessing whether the partner has a strong grasp of your brand voice and guidelines.

Onboarding Process

The onboarding process should be comprehensive and cover all necessary areas to equip partners to excel from day one. Here are the key steps for onboarding channel partners:

• Initial Training: Provide comprehensive product training, sales enablement materials, and marketing collateral to empower partners with the knowledge and skills they need to sell and support your products effectively.
• Access to Necessary Resources: Offer partners easy access to high-quality marketing and sales materials, including customizable datasheets, to enable them to engage in marketing campaigns effectively.
• Understanding of Product Positioning: Ensure partners understand the product or service and its value proposition to accurately represent and contribute to the company’s growth.
• Familiarity with Sales Processes: Provide training on sales processes, including lead management, to help partners practice selling skills and build trust and confidence.
• Establishing Clear Communication Channels: Maintain open lines of communication with partners, including regular check-ins, updates, and feedback sessions, to ensure a successful partnership.
• Setting Mutual Goals: Collaborate with partners to plan the actions needed to meet set objectives, including lead transfers, joint sales opportunities, and channel performance metrics.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your channel partners are well-prepared and motivated to drive mutual success.

Looking to the Future in Your Partner Onboarding

Partner onboarding is essential for more than just educating partners on the company's products or services. It is about forming a strong, lasting relationship that encourages both sides to grow and succeed. Partner managers must go beyond the initial onboarding phase. They must consider how they can provide ongoing support to their partners.

Let's look at how you can use onboarding to prepare for the future. 

Develop a Partner Success Plan 

One of the key steps in looking to the future in partner onboarding program, is to develop a partner success plan. This plan will guarantee a successful channel. It will outline the partner’s goals and metrics for success, as well as the resources and support provided by the company. Introducing a structured partner program can facilitate this process by ensuring partners feel welcomed and equipped with essential resources from the initial contact during onboarding. By developing a partner success plan, you can ensure that both parties are aligned in terms of priorities and expectations.

Provide Ongoing Training and Support 

Another important step in looking to the future is to provide ongoing training and support to partners. Introducing comprehensive training programs is crucial, as they offer tailored training materials that enhance product knowledge and engagement. This can include advanced training sessions, access to new resources and tools, and ongoing communication and feedback. Partners can stay informed of the latest developments and trends by using this. Doing so ensures they have the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed.

Foster Collaboration and Communication

Collaboration and communication are essential for building a strong and successful partnership. Companies should encourage partners to share their feedback and ideas. They should also provide opportunities for partners to collaborate in a community environment. This can help to foster a sense of community and shared goals, and can ultimately drive mutual growth and success.

Create Opportunities for More Responsibility 

You should create opportunities for partners to take on more responsibility over time. Partner-led onboarding can help new partners learn the ropes. Experienced partners can provide guidance.

Partners can also be mentors to other partners. They can create webinars and training sessions to further aid in the onboarding process. Doing this will help partners develop their skills and leadership abilities, while also driving growth for the business.

Encourage Advancement to Higher Tiers

You should encourage partners to move up in tier by meeting specific requirements, such as sales targets or certifications. This can help motivate them to keep expanding their business with the company. It also guarantees they have the resources and assistance they need to achieve this.

Set Deadlines and Meetings for Goal Follow-Ups

Set deadlines to ensure partners are staying on track with their goals.

Introducing the concept of partner progress is crucial in this context. By evaluating the performance and effectiveness of partnerships through key performance indicators (KPIs), such as certification completion rates and customer satisfaction, you can set deadlines and meetings for goal follow-ups more effectively.

Schedule regular meetings to follow up on progress. This can help to keep partners accountable, while also providing opportunities for feedback and support.

Deepen Training on Products and Services 

Finally, you should deepen partner training on their products and services over time. This can include advanced training sessions, product deep dives, and more. This will ensure that partners are delivering the best possible experience for customers, and ultimately driving growth for the business.

Partner Onboarding Best Practices

Effective partner onboarding is crucial for successful partner relationships and, ultimately, business growth. A structured partner onboarding process positively influences partner performance. To maximize engagement and productivity, create a comprehensive partner onboarding framework that includes all necessary components. Streamline and simplify the onboarding process with technology, such as a partner relationship management (PRM) solution, to automate workflows and task assignments. Regularly review and adjust the onboarding process to optimize performance and ensure successful partnerships.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Common challenges in channel partner onboarding include inconsistent communication, inadequate training, and a lack of resources. These issues can lead to confusion, delays, and a partner’s inability to effectively represent the brand. To overcome these challenges, standardize the channel partner onboarding process using a centralized platform, provide regular updates and re-training, and measure the success of channel partner onboarding using key metrics such as time-to-productivity, partner satisfaction scores, and achievement of sales targets. By addressing these challenges proactively, you can ensure a smoother and more effective onboarding experience for your partners.

Conclusion

Partner onboarding is essential. It creates a strong base for a successful and long-term collaboration between a company and its partners. To ensure partner success, follow the partner onboarding checklist.

This includes evaluating partner engagement, brand and product knowledge, and creating chances to take on more responsibility. This will give your partners the knowledge, skills, and resources they need.

With that said, it's not enough to stop at the onboarding phase. Look to the future by providing ongoing training and support. Foster collaboration and communication to encourage advancement to higher tiers. Set deadlines and meetings for goal follow-ups.

Deepen training on products and services. By doing so, companies can build stronger, more successful partnerships that drive mutual growth and success constantly.