Channel Sales Training

Selling through a partner is not selling direct, and most sales training never makes the distinction. The qualification criteria are different, the forecast is built on a pipeline you can see but not control, and the person actually in front of the customer works for someone else. Channel sales training exists to cover that gap, because the instincts that work in direct sales do not transfer cleanly.

Many channel sales people arrive from inside sales or field sales roles. The move is usually a promotion, and it usually comes without any formal training in how the channel works, which is why capable sellers can struggle in their first year running partners.

What channel partner sales training has to cover

Qualifying an opportunity you do not own

The partner holds the customer relationship and the information. Qualification becomes a matter of asking the partner the right questions and knowing which answers to trust.

Forecasting a deal you do not control

Partner forecasts are optimistic for structural reasons, not dishonest ones. Reading them accurately is a learned skill and it is what makes a channel number credible internally.

Deal registration and conflict

How opportunities are protected and disputes resolved. Getting this wrong loses partners faster than anything else in the sales relationship. See managing channel conflict.

Co-selling rather than selling around

Running a deal with the partner present, where both sides know who covers which part of the conversation. The alternative, where the vendor quietly takes over, is noticed immediately.

Partner economics

What the partner earns from the deal and what it costs them to win it. Sellers who cannot answer that are negotiating blind.

Enabling the partner to sell without you

The point of the role. Covered in depth under channel sales enablement.

The Certificate in Channel Sales

The Certificate in Channel Sales is the Channel Institute's channel sales training course. Ten modules against a published syllabus, online and self-paced, about 20 hours of study, ending in an online exam with a 70% pass mark. The certificate is awarded on passing rather than on finishing the material, and an employer can verify it.

It suits channel sales and partner account managers at any point in their first fifteen years in the channel, and it is designed for people who already have the job rather than for people studying towards one. The 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, so the content reflects what the employers hiring channel sellers actually want.

US$1,900, with VAT added for buyers in the EU. There is a full refund within 30 days of enrolment if you have not gone beyond module 5, and a free trial module before you buy. A bundle with the Certificate in Channel Management is available at US$2,850.

Training a sales team rather than an individual

For teams the argument changes. When every seller learned the channel somewhere different, the team has no shared definition of a qualified partner deal, which means forecasts cannot be compared and deal reviews turn into debates about terminology. Certifying a team together removes that, and it is usually the point at which channel numbers become predictable rather than merely large.

Corporate training covers how that works. Graduates rate the Institute 4.9 out of 5 across 36 Google reviews.

Related

For running partners rather than selling through them, see channel partner management training and the Certificate in Channel Management. For the marketing side, Certificate in Channel Marketing. Where the route to market itself is changing, the advanced Certificate in Channel Partner Ecosystems covers new partner types, new routes to market and new partner economics. Channel training and certification compared sets out how these sit against the other options.