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Stop Pitching. Start Teaching.

  • Janet Schijns
  • Nov 28
  • 3 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

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The fatigue is real.

Partners are done sitting through slide decks that feel like late-night infomercials for “the most revolutionary solution since sliced cloud.” They’ve heard it all before. Every vendor says their platform “simplifies complexity,” “drives transformation,” and “empowers innovation.” The words have lost meaning.


Here’s the truth: your partners aren’t your sales reps. They’re entrepreneurs juggling dozens of vendors, multiple revenue streams, and their own customers’ demands. They don’t want another SKU. They want to make money.


Product knowledge ≠ sales capability.

Knowing what a product does isn’t the same as knowing how to sell it, especially for partners who have a broad portfolio. Most vendor training focuses on speeds, feeds, and features, but neglects the context of how partners should position, price, and differentiate the solution against real market pain points. Without that, it’s all noise.


Now look, if you think ‘my training is better than that’, good for you! But what I have seen is most vendors don’t really know how a partner sells and as such can’t really tell the partner what to do when trying to sell their solutions to customers.  Translation: you can’t shrink down what direct sales does and expect it to work for a partner how is selling a whole portfolio of solutions.


Data that underscores the problem

Those are some scary stats for vendors since you are pitching your C-Suite on the ability of partners to sell but you aren’t actually teaching them to sell.  See the disconnect? Yeah, me too!


Why “knowing the product” ≠ “selling the product”

Understanding the product features (e.g., “It has A, B and C”) is necessary, but not sufficient. Selling means creating partner specific messaging, translating features into buyer outcomes, creating campaigns that work for their business, and enabling partners with messaging that fits their buyer personas. It’s really the difference between calling the partner and hoping they sold something last week and being on the field with them helping them find and close deals. 


When vendors turn from “pitchers” to “teachers” this is when the magic happens.  When a vendor shifts to teaching how to sell, not just what to sell, the dynamic changes: partners feel less like resellers and more like trusted advisors. Time to value shortens, margin improves, and partner loyalty increases.


Here is a great example: mature partner programs with structured training can drive 2× revenue growth through partners. (https://www.intellum.com/resources/blog/how-partner-training-increases-sales-and-efficiency). Think about the impact of that simple improvement in your program! Here are some take‑aways for Vendors:


  1. Stop treating partner training as a checkbox, design it as a sales enablement engine that really helps partners get net new deals and upsell existing clients.


  2. Map your partner training to partner success metrics and then change that pesky tiered partner program into a points program that rewards these behaviors…because these behaviors folks they lead to quota attainment, revenue, and margin for your firm.


  3. Use real-world case studies and vertical‑specific templates to train the partners, don’t create fluff create real tools they can use.


  4. Fast‑track “how to sell” as the core of your enablement, not just “product update training.”


  5. Finally, collect the metrics: know your partner engagement numbers, training completions, and deal velocity and watch the partners in your program.  Here’s a hot tip: if they don’t do the training, they won’t get the sales!


So let’s make plans to empower our partners next year through training, enablement and real education that works for their business. #savethechannel

 
 
 

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