Channel Enablement

Channel enablement is the work of making a partner capable of selling and supporting a vendor's product without the vendor in the room. It is not training, although training is part of it, and it is not a portal, although most vendors have one. It is the whole set of things a partner needs before they can transact independently: knowing what the product does, who it is for, how to position it against the alternatives, how to price it, how to get help when a deal gets technical, and how to get paid.

It is also the stage where most partner programs quietly lose their return. Recruitment gets attention because it produces a number that can be reported. Enablement produces no number until months later, when partners either transact or do not.

Where enablement sits

Enablement is the third stage, and it only works if the two before it were done properly. Recruiting the wrong partners means enabling companies that were never going to sell the product, which is expensive and slow to discover. Onboarding is a distinct stage in its own right, and it has to be finished before enablement begins: a partner still working out who to contact for a quote is not ready to be taught positioning.

So the order is recruit, onboard, enable, and each depends on the one before. Channel partner recruitment covers the first, and channel partner enablement covers building the plan itself, with a free template.

What enablement has to cover

Product and proposition

What it does, who it is for, and what problem it solves better than the alternative the customer is already considering. Partners sell what they can explain.

Positioning and differentiation

How this partner, specifically, should present the product given what else they sell. Generic vendor messaging handed to forty partners produces forty identical pitches competing on price.

Commercial mechanics

Pricing, discount structure, how to quote, how deal registration works and how quickly it is answered. Ambiguity here produces conflict later.

Technical capability

Enough depth to run a credible first conversation, and a clear route to vendor help beyond that. Partners disengage when they cannot tell where their competence ends.

Sales process support

Content, tools and coaching aimed at the partner's sales cycle rather than the vendor's. Covered in detail under channel sales enablement.

Marketing support

Campaign material a partner can actually use, which usually means editable rather than finished. See partner marketing training and the channel partner marketing plan template.

Incentives are part of enablement too. Our page on circular channel incentives sets out what Lenovo, HP, Dell and Cisco now pay partners for refurbished, takeback and asset recovery.

Learning it properly

Enablement is covered as Module 3 of the Certificate in Channel Management, alongside onboarding, because in practice the two are run by the same person and fail together. The certificate runs over ten modules, online and self-paced, about 20 hours of study, ending in an exam with a 70% pass mark. Its syllabus is reviewed and approved by a vendor-independent Industry Advisory Council of 27 senior channel leaders at companies including Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle and SAP.

For the marketing side of enablement there is the Certificate in Channel Marketing, and for selling through partners the Certificate in Channel Sales. Where enablement has to account for new partner types that do not resell at all, the advanced Certificate in Channel Partner Ecosystems is the relevant one.

See also what the best channel partner programs do differently and channel management best practices.