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Pitfalls Of Channel Partner Training To Avoid

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Pitfalls Of Channel Partner Training To Avoid

This article outlines everything from what is channel partner training to the four significant pitfalls of channel partner training that organizations must avoid. It also explains how the best LMS for partner training can help overcome potential difficulties by identifying the trouble spots and making your partner training program successful.

Without further ado, let’s get started. 

 

What Is Channel Partner Training?

Your channel partners could be franchises, wholesalers, distributors, or resellers. 

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The term “channel partner training” refers to training companies and individuals involved in the resale of your product offerings. One must design partner skill-building initiatives to help partners close more sales by assisting them in introducing your products to customers in the best possible light. 

It is essential to train your partner network to provide customers with the best service possible, which helps build brand loyalty. 

Partner training includes everything from orientation and training partners to training programs. By instructing your channel partners, you give them the knowledge they need to work effectively across your existing system. 

Every aspect of your business, from sales and market reach to growth potential, will benefit from training partners and increasing their knowledge about your products or services.

 

Benefits Of Channel Partner Training

Partner training offers various advantages for your company. Here are a few of those benefits.

 

  • Creates and safeguards your company’s brand.

Various partners may imply multiple voices shaping the story about your product. Training your channel partners ensures that your brand remains constant with each of its narrators.

  • Spend less on support

You don’t have to constantly reskill a partner when things go wrong if you train them properly from the beginning of your interaction. They’ll know how to avoid issues and deal with them when they arise.

 

  • Increase retention of customers

Increased partner responsiveness to customer issues also results from improved partner performance—this responsiveness results in higher customer retention rates.

 

  • Enhance performance

Partners have access to the best messaging to spread awareness of your product and promote widespread adoption. Your products remain on top by regularly adding new training content.

 

  • Manage expectations. 

When you are not meeting expectations, there is less room for surprise, whereas when clearly stated, expectations must be met on both your and the partner’s end.

Channel partner training has undeniable advantages. But partner training has its difficulties when it’s poorly implemented. Below are some challenges organizations face with channel partner training. 

 

Challenges Of Channel Partner Training

Obtaining Organizational Support On The Inside

Partner training can be difficult because most businesses find it challenging to accept it and fail to see its value. The importance of offering training programs to boost your partner channel’s efficiency is underappreciated and frequently forgotten.

Solution: To win their support, you’ll need to persuade your organization’s members and make them aware of the benefits training can have on your business and partner relations. Explain to them how educating your business partners about your goods and services will benefit them in maintaining brand consistency and loyalty. 

If budget concerns you, you can promote delivering partner training using an LMS. With the help of the tool, partners can easily access training materials in their language, which helps improve the completion rates and, consequently, the ROI of your efforts. It makes using an LMS a cost-effective decision.  

 

Channel Partner Engagement 

Once you have convinced your stakeholders, then comes the main challenge – partner engagement. Keeping channel partners engaged with the courses is necessary to ensure the success of your training efforts. 

Solution: The best way to deal with this is to bring the team members with the relevant experience on board. No one would know your channel partners more than your sales team, so it’s highly recommended you take their opinion and use their expertise when creating a training session. 

In addition, you won’t know what will work unless you discuss your options with your partners. Thus you must consult with your partners about what information they would like, what kind of support they need, and how they would like to receive it from the beginning.

Moreover, it would be best if you also leveraged eLearning technologies. 

A learning management system is an excellent tool to help keep your partners engaged. This tool often comes with features like gamification and certifications and has multi-lingual abilities, which may improve the engagement rate. 

 

Finance And Funding

No matter the project, funding will always be a major obstacle for most organizations. HR departments are often responsible for budgeting across departments, and convincing them to allocate resources to train external partners is certainly challenging. After all, it is about more than just offering training to partners. It also involves creating the course, ensuring its relevance, finding the right medium to deliver it, and analyzing the results.  

Solution: Using an LMS that easily integrates with authoring tools is all you need to convince your HRs or those who manage budgets in your organization. Using this integration and subject matter experts in your organization helps you create a relevant and engaging course. 

As we discussed, engaging in training courses helps bring improved completion rates and ROI. Furthermore, the knowledge your partners will gain from the training sessions will ensure brand consistency and customer satisfaction. 

All this combined makes investing in an LMS and in partner training a cost-effective decision. 

 

Data Collection 

One challenge that most organizations face is collecting partner training data. Today, data is extremely valuable. You can direct your training efforts toward success when you have the relevant insights and reports. 

Organizations that still use traditional training methods are often faced with such challenges. 

Solution: This is another challenge a learning management system can easily help tackle. 

Most LMS offers reporting as a feature. You can use this feature to not only personalize your training course for each partner but also to identify completion rates, certifications, and relevance of your course. Most organizations use such data to rework their training program and make them more apt for their partners.  

 

Bottom Line

While highly beneficial for your organization and network, training your channel partners does present some difficulties. Businesses that are about to start preparing their channel partners—through formal eLearning or a blended learning approach—will run into problems that need immediate fixing. However, the best LMS will assist you in coordinating, planning, and implementing the training that equips your partners to perform excellent work and simplify the entire process. 

 

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Calgary breaks all-time record in housing starts but increasing demand keeps inventory low – CBC.ca

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Soaring housing demands in Calgary led to an all-time record for new residential builds last year, but inventory levels of completed and unsold units remained low due to demand outpacing supply.

According to the latest report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), total housing starts increased by 13 per cent in Calgary, reaching a total of 19,579 units with growth across all dwelling types in the city.

That compares to a decline of 0.5 per cent overall for housing starts in the six major Canadian cities surveyed by CMHC.

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Calgary also had the highest housing starts by population.

“Part of the reason why we think that might have happened is that developers are responding to low vacancies in the rental market,” said Adebola Omosola, a housing economics specialist with CMHC.

“The population of Calgary is still growing, a record number of people moved here last year, and we still expect that to remain at least in the short term.”

Earlier this year, the Calgary Real Estate Board also predicted that demand, especially for rental apartments, wouldn’t let up any time soon. 

Industry can cope with demand, expert says

According to numbers from the report, average construction times were higher in 2023 for all dwelling types except for apartments.

The agency’s report suggests the increase in the number of under-construction residential projects might mean builders are operating at or near full capacity.

However, there’s optimism the construction industry can match the increasing need.

Brian Hahn, CEO of BILD Calgary Region, said despite concerns around about construction costs, project timelines and labour shortages, the industry has kept up with the demand for new builds.

Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary region CEO Brian Hahn.
Demand is expected to remain robust, but the construction industry can keep up, according to BILD Calgary Region chief executive officer Brian Hahn. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

“I’ve heard that kind of conversation at the end of 2022 and I heard it in 2023,” Hahn said.

“Yet here we are early in 2024, and January and February were record numbers again.”

Hahn added he believes the current pace of construction will continue for at least the next six months and that the industry is looking at initiatives to attract more people to the trades.

Increase in row house and apartment construction

Construction growth was largely driven by new apartment projects, making up almost half of the housing starts in Calgary in 2023.

The federal housing agency says 9,034 apartment units were started that year, an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year. Of those, about 54 per cent were purpose-built rentals.

Apartments made up around two-thirds of all units under construction, CMHC said, with the total number of units under construction reaching 23,473.

Growth, however, was seen across all dwelling types. Row homes increased by 34 per cent from the previous year while groundbreaking on single-detached homes grew by two per cent.

“Notwithstanding challenges, our members and the industry counterparts that support them managed to produce a record amount of starts and completions,” Hahn said.

“I have little doubt that the industry will do their very best to keep pace at those levels.”

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Ottawa real estate: House starts down, apartments up in 2023 – CTV News Ottawa

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Rental housing dominated construction in Ottawa last year, according to a new report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Residential construction declined significantly in 2023, with housing starts dropping to 9,245 units, a 19.5 per cent decline from the record high observed in 2022. But while single-detached and row housing starts fell compared to 2022, new construction for rental units and condominiums rose.

“There’s been a shift toward rental construction over the past two years. Rental housing starts made up nearly one third of total starts in 2023, close to double the average of the previous five years,” the report stated.

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Apartment starts reached their highest level since the 1970s.

“The trend toward rental and condominium apartment construction follows increased demand in these market segments due to population growth, households looking for affordable options, and some seniors downsizing to smaller units,” the CMHC said.

Demand from international migration and students, the high cost of home ownership, and people moving to Ottawa from other parts of Ontario were the main drivers for rental housing starts in 2023. The CMHC says rental and condominium apartment starts made up 63 per cent of total starts in 2023, compared to the average of 37 per cent for the period 2018-2022.

There was a modest increase in rental housing starts in 2023 over the record-high seen the year prior and a jump in new condominiums. The report shows 5,846 new apartments were built in Ottawa last year, up 2.1 per cent compared to 2022.

Housing starts in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Big demand for condos

The CMHC said condo starts reached a new high in 2023, increasing 3 per cent from 2022 numbers.

“As of the end of 2023, there were only 13 completed and unsold condominium units, highlighting continued demand for new units,” the CMHC said.

Condominum starts increased in areas such as Chinatown, Hintonburg, Vanier and Alta Vista, as well as some suburban areas like Kanata, Stittsville, and western Orléans. Condo apartment construction declined in denser parts of the city like downtown, Lowertown and Centretown, the report says.

Taller buildings are also becoming more common, as the cranes dotting the skyline can attest. The CMHC notes that buildings with more than 20 storeys accounted for nearly 10 per cent of apartment structure starts in 2022 and 2023, compared to an average of 2 per cent over the 2017-2021 period. The number of units per building also rose 7 per cent compared to 2022.

Apartment building heights in Ottawa by year. (CMHC)

Single-detached home construction down significantly

The number of new single-detached homes built in Ottawa last year was the lowest level seen in the city since the mid 1990s, CMHC said.

“The Ottawa area experienced a slowdown in residential construction in 2023, driven by a significant decline in single-detached and row housing starts,” the CMHC said.

Single-detached housing starts were down 45 per cent compared to 2022. Row house starts dropped by 38 per cent compared to 2022, marking a third year of declines in a row.

“Demand for single-detached and row houses also declined in 2023. Higher mortgage rates and home prices have led to a shift in demand toward more affordable rental and condominium units,” the report said.

There were 1,535 single-detached housing starts in Ottawa last year, 208 new semi-detached homes and 1,678 new row houses.

The majority of single-detached and row housing starts were built in suburban communities such as Barrhaven, Stittsville, Kanata, Orléans and rural parts of the city.

“Increased construction costs resulting from higher financing rates and inflation that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the decline in construction in the region,” the CMHC said. 

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Trump’s media company ticker leads to fleeting windfall for some investors

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A man looks at a screen that displays trading information about shares of Truth Social and Trump Media & Technology Group, outside the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, U.S., March 26.Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Possible confusion over the new stock symbol for former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social (DJT-Q) saw some investor brokerage balances briefly jump by hundreds of thousands of dollars on Tuesday, the first day Trump’s “DJT” ticker traded.

Several people complained on social media about briefly seeing the value of their DJT stock holdings on Charles Schwab platforms inflated to figures more in line with what they would be worth if the shares traded at the level of the Dow Jones Transportation Average.

Some users said they faced a similar issue in pre-market hours on Morgan Stanley’s E*Trade trading platform.

Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group opened Tuesday at $70.90, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average started the session at 15,937.73 points.

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For one trader, the Schwab brokerage balance jumped by more than $1 million due to the error, according to a screen grab shared on social media platform X. Reuters was unable to contact the trader or independently verify the brokerage balance.

“It sure was nice seeing millions in the account, even if it wasn’t real,” another person, going by the username @DanielBenjamin8, who faced the issue in his E*Trade account, posted on X.

Two X users and one on Reddit surmised that the inflated balances were due to the ticker symbol for the company being nearly identical to the index.

A spokeswoman for Charles Schwab said that certain users on some of Schwab’s trading platforms saw their brokerage balances briefly inflated due to a technical issue.

The issue has been resolved and investors are able to trade equities and options on Schwab platforms, she said. Schwab declined to describe the exact cause of the issue.

E*Trade did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular business hours.

Trump Media & Technology Group and S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the Dow Jones Transportation Average Index, did not immediately comment on the issue.

While social media users said the issue appeared to have been resolved, many rued not being able to cash out their supposed gains from the error.

“I better go tell my boss that I’m actually not retiring,” the trader whose account balance had briefly jump by more than $1 million, wrote on X.

Trump Media & Technology Group shares surged more than 36% on Tuesday in their debut on the Nasdaq that comes more than two years since its merger with a blank-check firm was announced.

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