B-to-b partner account managers must acquire a range of skills, which should be adapted to the types of partners they work with (e.g. reseller, distributor, OEM, alliance, referral). This brief describes nine key topic areas that should be used to adapt training content to the unique requirements of a supplier organization’s partner account managers, and outline specific elements within each area.

1. Research Brief
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Designing a Partner Account Manager
Training Program
Partner account managers require
a combination of internal and
external knowledge to effectively
recruit new partners and drive
channel sales productivity
After setting a strategy for training
partner account managers, develop
a curriculum that develops the
skills they’ll need to optimize
partner relationships
A data-driven approach ensures
partner account managers
know how to work with
various partner types
While world-class swimmers and divers both spend a great deal of time in the
pool, their physical training goals and regimens are very different. A diver
focuses on balance and body control in order to perfect his or her in-air
somersaults and water-entry poses, while swimmers’ workouts tend to include
more strength and endurance training to increase their speed in the water.
B-to-b partner account managers must acquire a range of skills, which should
be adapted to the types of partners they work with (e.g. reseller, distributor,
OEM, alliance, referral). In this brief, we describe nine key topic areas that
should be used to adapt training content to the unique requirements of a
supplier organization’s partner account managers, and outline specific
elements within each area.
One: Channel Ecosystem
Provide partner account managers with training that clearly presents the
specific functions the supplier needs each partner type to fulfill and the
ways that the partner account manager must interact with other partners
(e.g. corporate resellers/distributors). This training should be delivered as
new partner account managers are onboarded and then later refreshed for
existing partner account managers as the channel program evolves and new
partner types are added. Cover the following elements:
• Indirect channel sales definition. Teach partners how the company defines
channel sales and what sets it apart from other sales roles.
• Investment rationale. Provide partner account managers with a talk track
that explains to partners why the company is invested in indirect channels
and its commitment to partners.
• Company channel objectives. Describe strategic and tactical channel
objectives and reinforce alignment to these objectives with exercises
that ask partner account managers to match channel initiatives to
overarching goals.
• Overview of partner types and models. Include a segment on the different
types of partners that the program supports and which tracks apply to each
type. Review any evolving partner types (e.g. managed service providers,
service partners) that may impact the program in the future.

2. Research Brief
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• Sales engagement principles. Review any processes that
describe how the partner’s sales team engages with
prospects, how this engagement aligns to the suppliers’
sales routes to market, and who is responsible for partner
followup.
Two: Partner Program
Illustrate key processes that the channel program supports (e.g.
onboarding, market development fund [MDF] participation)
and how the processes are applied for different partner types.
Ensure that partner account managers understand these
processes and can describe them to new channel recruits
and address inquiries from existing partners.
• Channel partner expectations. Review the questions and
requirements that partners have at each stage of their
partner’s journey (see the brief “Understanding the Partner’s
Journey”). Identify answers to common questions and issues
that partner account managers should be prepared to address.
• Partner pitch. Teach partners how to describe the
supplier’s value proposition, any unique selling points,
the financial benefits to partners, sales and marketing
support available and any processes that make it easy to
do business with the organization.
• Program tiers, benefits and requirements. If the program
supports a tiered partnering model, ensure channel sales
managers can articulate what benefits apply to each tier
and how they affect partners.
• Training, certification and specializations. Provide an
overview of the partner training landscape, certification
requirements, and information on how training factors into
any specialization tracks.
• Available resources. Include a review of the partner portal
and its components (e.g. partner resource management
[PRM], learning management system, MDF, deal registration,

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etc.) and any sales, product and marketing support available
to partners.
Three: Role of the Partner Account Manager
Knowing what is expected key to setting expectations and
driving better performance with partners. Clearly describe
the partner account manager role, how it is measured, how it
differs from other roles (e.g. partner marketing manager), and
how duties might vary when the manager works different
partner types.
• Job functions. Offer new partner account managers
information on responsibilities for their role, including a
list of tasks to complete during the first 90 days.
• Key objectives. Provide an overview of the role’s key
objectives, including recruitment goals, partner enablement
and development, revenue attainment for their specific set
of managed partners.
• Partner account manager vs. direct sales. Describe the
rules of engagement with direct sales, and explain the target
average selling price for the channel and which customers
should be targeted.
• Best practices. Establish a forum or gated social discussion
group where partner account managers can share best
practices, presentations and partner references; avoiding
using email as the only communication vehicle.
• Sales enablement tools. Create a repository where
partner account managers can find planning templates
and scorecards, dashboards to access PRM/sales force
automation platforms, and playbooks that describe
common processes (e.g. proposals to use joint
marketing funds).
Four: Partner Economics
A solid understanding of how a partner organization
generates revenue through reselling or referring products
and services, or the “pull-effect” a supplier has on additional
revenue streams (support, implementation services, etc.)
is mandatory for partner account managers who need
to influence partner behavior through financial rewards
such as margin or incentives. Include the following key
elements in your partner account manager training
programs:
• How different partner types make money. Include an
overview of the different partner types and their revenue
sources, describing which other partnerships help drive
their business.
• Partner decision drivers and motivators. Take a deep
dive into partner personas that comprise each partner
organization, unveiling what key issues they have and
how to effectively address them.
• Engaging the business leader/owner. Instruct partner
account managers on what strategies and talk tracks to
use when dealing with decisionmakers within a partner
organization. Provide references and case studies that
can be used to convince potential partners to commit.
Five: Partner Recruitment
Partner account managers must know which partners to
recruit, understand the ways in which potential partners
either match the organization’s ideal profile or fall short,
and be able to deliver a compelling message to convince a
partner organization to join the channel program. Partner
recruitment skills are especially important in small and mid-
size supplier organizations, where partner account managers
are expected to participate in partner recruitment. Ensure
that training covers these key topics:
• Prospecting best practices. Prepare partner account
managers with resources (e.g. access to customer/partner
databases through distributors) that can help them target
the right partner/prospect combination to generate leads.
• Partner profiling and selection. Review ideal partner
profiles and selection criteria with partner account
managers, ensuring they recruit the right partners
and regularly assess existing ones.
• Recruiting dialogue. Arm partner account managers with
partner presentations (see the brief “Partner Presentations:
Recruitment Key Components”) and talk tracks for each
partner persona and partner type they engage with, ensuring
they can articulate the supplier’s value proposition.
Dialogues may differ for various partner types (e.g. value-
added reseller vs. distributor).
• Onboarding. Provide partner account managers with a
timeline that illustrates key activities and milestones to

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© SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved. 4
complete during a channel partner’s onboarding process.
Discuss what role they will play, any service-level
agreements that must be followed, to keep to, and
when/how to follow up with new partners to ensure
continuous engagement.
Six: Business Planning
Teach partner account managers how to work with partners
to develop short-term planning to reach joint revenue
objectives and longer-term planning (two to three years) to
make transformational changes in their business (e.g. moving
from a capex to opex model). Include examples of hiring best
practices, personnel development and key investments that
partners may need to make to become successful.
• Planning: partner perspective. Share insights, priorities
and limitations from the partner’s perspective when
reviewing business planning processes, and include a broad
set of planning topics (e.g. marketing plan development,
hiring plans, pipeline reporting).
• Using the business plan template. Take a prescriptive
approach by offering partner account managers planning
templates rather than have them create their own. Show
them how to walk partners through the process of
completing their business plans with the supplier
organization.
• Holding partners accountable to the plan. Train partner
account managers to teach partners to use the planning
process as a cornerstone in their relationship, and show
them how to set a regular cadence of planning review
with partners.
Seven: Partner Marketing
As b-to-b buyers consume an ever-increasing amount
of digital marketing content, partner account managers
must work with partners to augment their own marketing
capabilities, especially if the supplier does not have a separate
partner marketing manager. Focus on the following topics to
ensure that partner account managers can enable their
partners to make a difference through marketing:
• Marketing fundamentals. Review marketing basics
(e.g. demand type, targeting the right customers, the
buyer’s journey) with partner account managers and
show them how to expand partner marketing to include
inbound and nurturing programs that drive better leads
to sales.
• Marketing – partner perspective. Describe market realities
that partner account managers must understand (e.g.
underinvestment, lack of resources, multiple suppliers trying
to engage with partners) in order to drive better marketing
engagement.
• Leveraging partner funds. Describe when and how
partners can access any joint marketing funds available
through channel incentive programs. Teach partner account
managers how to employ fund programs to influence
partner behavior.
• Using the marketing plan template. Provide a marketing
plan template to partner account managers that they can
pass onto partners to jumpstart their efforts to co-market.
Make sure the template includes performance measurement
that both parties agree to use to gauge progress.
Eight: Performance Management
An early understanding of how to develop capacity plans and
track partner performance through scorecards sets the stage
for a productive business relationship between suppliers and
their partners. Ensure enablement programs teach partner
account managers to manage their relationships with
partners through leading indicators (see the brief “Partner
Capacity Planning: Using Data to Drive Growth”), which may
signal relationship adjustments that a partner account
manager can make to drive better performance.
• Partner coaching and training techniques. Review
coaching and mentoring best practices using role-playing
exercises to establish a regular reporting cadence with
partners. This training helps partners optimize the use of
available tools to facilitate reporting.
• Conducting pipeline reviews. Embed the SiriusDecisions
Demand Waterfall® into partner account manager training
programs. Teach partner account managers how to socialize
the tool with partners and use it to jointly track inquiries,
sales accepted leads (deal registration) and sales qualified
leads (pipeline).
• Measuring and communicating partner performance.
Show partner account managers how to utilize dashboards

5. Research Brief
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and scorecards to quantitatively measure partner performance, and explain
which KPIs they should track on an ongoing basis with partners.
Nine: Distributor Management
As distributors shift from providing traditional pack-pick-and-ship services
to provide partner recruitment, data and analytics and marketing services,
teaching partner account manager how distributors operate and how to
leverage new capabilities can help optimize these relationships and, in turn,
effectively activate their sub-resellers. Ensure that all partner account
managers are equipped with distributor management skills, especially if there
are no dedicated distributor resources in place to provide this support:
• Distributor economics. Review distributor capabilities, overall margin and
rebate structures, and any additional incentives offered to distributors
through the channel program.
• How to sell to a distributor. Show partner account managers how to
capture distributor sales rep mindshare, which key contacts they should
establish within the distributor organization, any relationships they should
build, and the steps they should follow when transacting business through
distributors.
• Supplier imperatives in distributor relationships. Teach distributor
partner account managers to negotiate and prioritize supplier objectives
with distributors and avoid ineffective, often expensive distributor awareness
programs that are meant to capture mindshare among distributor sales reps
but often fail to deliver as promised.
• Measuring performance and ROI. Ensure that enablement programs provide
partner account managers with an overview of analytical tools used to manage
and report on point-of-sale, sell-in, software-as-a-service or sales-out data, and
ensure managers know what tools are available and how to use them.
The Sirius Decision
Channel sales leaders must assess partner account manager capabilities on an
ongoing basis as the program evolves and adds new partner types or resources.
Ensure that partner account manager training is not limited to one-time training,
but is made available to experienced reps as the channel program evolves.
Utilize a boot camp program that exposes partner account managers to a wide
range of topics. In addition, before allowing new managers to dive into any new
partnerships, hold shadowing or ride-along programs with active partner
account managers so they can experience firsthand the unique dialogue
between existing partner account managers and specific partner types.