A sales enablement strategy is critical for businesses that want to stay competitive.

According to Aberdeen Strategy Research, 84% of sales reps achieve their targets with a sales enablement strategy.

However, it is more than just providing your channel partners with resources. Sales enablement is about building a relationship. If your partner feels more connected to your brand, they will sell better. So, how do you build that connection? By providing immersive sales coaching.

You can conduct immersive training by using an LMS. Channel partners can view videos and participate in quizzes and discussions. They can also use the LMS to refer back.

Immersive training ultimately benefits your customers, too. Sales enablement strategies help partners better understand their customers' needs and preferences, enabling them to provide more personalized and effective sales experiences

5 Tips to Help You Grow Your Channel Partnerships and Close More Sales

Channel partners are often the first point of contact for your customers. With the right training, they will be able to close more sales. Follow these five tips to help your partners grow.

1. Determine Your Partner’s Goals and Needs

Research to understand your channel partners' learning gaps and their sales goals as it helps you tailor your brand experience strategy to their needs.

Your sales coaching should have clear training objectives to establish a long-term relationship. Channel partner training can address several issues:

• Inconsistent branding: Customers show a strong affinity towards certain brands. Your reputation may take a hit if your channel partner's branding is inconsistent.
• Lack of inclusivity: Channel partners are often left out of conversations and may feel out of the loop with your brand. Because of this, they may be less likely to care about your products. Continuous sales coaching will make them feel included.
• Unclear communication: Your partners have their internal issues, quotas, and KPIs to address. This flurry of daily tasks can create a communication gap and confusion. With an LMS, however, you can coach your channel partners by sending reminders and updates.

2. Provide Coaching And Support

Support your channel partners with online resources, virtual coaching sessions, and webinars. E-learning platforms like Xureal are a cost-effective way for your partners to consume content at their own pace. You can also use blended learning, which offers a mix of recorded lessons and live training, to maximize your outcomes. Blended learning also opens opportunities for real-time collaboration and feedback.

Insights such as these are beneficial for your business as can assist in your ultimate sales objectives. Advanced platforms can also provide quick snippets and guides on the next content, recommendations, and content curation, ensuring that your partners always have relevant information at their fingertips.

3. ‘Gamify’ Your Courses

While channel partners aren’t part of your internal team, you should still aim to eliminate the ‘outsider’ barriers that hinder their performance. Gamifying their onboarding courses and giving them a sense of belonging promotes a healthy work environment and instill loyalty. Gamification means using game mechanics to drive people to act. It encourages more participation, better performance, intrinsic motivation, and a superior level of engagement.

It is a great way to absorb content faster and retain information longer. You can add interactive elements such as quizzes, discussion boards, and tests to make the learning experience more engaging, reducing the need for a presenter always to be talking.

4. Maintain Channel Partner Training

Sales coaching isn’t a one-off strategy—it’s got to be an ongoing commitment. According to a Xerox study, 87% of people forget what they learn in live training within 30 days. Training your partners regularly to keep them up-to-date about your product is essential. It’s also important to refresh the course material often. Outdated information will give you outdated results. The partners won’t find anything about new products, updates, or changes in your sales strategy in your old training modules.

To develop a high-performance sales culture, you must support your channel partners in their efforts, executions, and growth. An effective enablement strategy will give them the tools to succeed.

5. Seek and Give Feedback

Sales coaching is beneficial for both trainers and trainees. It provides professional development for your partners and a revenue boost for your organization. That’s why tracking what is working and what is not is crucial. To get this feedback, you need to create a positive environment where your partners feel comfortable giving and receiving feedback.

Encourage your partners to offer feedback and be receptive to their concerns. It gives you an objective view of improvements you can make in your product and your sales coaching program.

While giving your feedback, maintain a 2:1 ratio—that’s two positive reinforcements for every negative feedback. This keeps morale strong while effectively preventing mistakes from becoming patterns.

Supercharge Your Channel Partnerships Today

Immersive technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality have forever changed the business landscape. With Xureal, you can leverage the power of modern tech to increase your sales teams’ skills and performance.

Our all-in-one cloud solution will help you train high-performing teams. We’ll make your sales coaching interactive, engaging, and productive. You’ll be able to track your teams’ training progress and identify learning gaps in real time. Our captivating and immersive virtual experiences will help your partners experience your brand firsthand, no matter where they’re based.

It’s time to power your sales enablement strategies with modern tech. Get in touch and request a demo today!