Creating a partner accreditation program involves defining the criteria your partners need to meet, providing them with the resources they need to reach these standards, and creating a system to measure and recognize their success. The program should aim to increase the partners’ ability to sell, implement, service, or interface with your products or services, ultimately driving mutual business growth.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create a partner accreditation program:
- Define Your Goals: Before you start, you need to identify what you want to achieve with your accreditation program. This could be increasing product knowledge, improving service delivery, generating new leads, or driving more sales.
- Identify Partner Types: Different partners might require different forms of training or resources. For instance, resellers might need sales training, while implementation partners may need technical training. Understand your partner types and their unique needs.
- Develop Accreditation Criteria: Define the criteria partners must meet to earn their accreditation. This could include passing specific training modules, achieving a certain number of sales, having a certain amount of experience, or maintaining a certain level of customer satisfaction.
- Create the Training Program: Based on the accreditation criteria, develop a training program that helps partners meet these requirements. The training program can include a mix of online courses, in-person workshops, webinars, and other resources.
- Establish Measurement and Assessment Procedures: Determine how you will measure whether a partner meets the accreditation criteria. This might involve tests, assessments, or simply tracking sales numbers.
- Develop a Recognition System: Decide how you will recognize accredited partners. This could be through badges, certifications, access to additional resources or perks, etc.
- Communicate the Program: Launch the program with clear communication about its benefits, requirements, and how to participate. This might involve email blasts, webinars, or in-person meetings.
- Implement and Monitor: Start running the program and closely monitor its progress. Pay attention to feedback from partners and make necessary adjustments to improve the program.
- Evaluate and Improve: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the program and look for ways to improve. This could involve adjusting the criteria, providing additional resources, or modifying the recognition system.
Remember, the goal of a partner accreditation program should always be to provide value to your partners, helping them better sell or service your product, which in turn grows your own business. It’s a win-win situation when done right.
