Engaged Channel Education

Educators are successful when they engage their students.

Politicians win elections when they engage their constituents.

Companies profit when they engage their customers.

The discipline of channel education should be focused on engagement. If we, as channel marketers, are able to better engage our channel partners in our educational programs, we will be successful. Certainly, products and services with better quality and more market demand will have a leg up on their competitors. But all things being equal, companies that better engage their channels will gain mindshare, commitment, and loyalty.

The most exciting aspect of building an engaged channel education program is that technology is enabling new approaches, which in turn is changing the landscape. Organizations that embrace these new "engagement" tools will benefit. While traditional channel education methods are still prevalent, these newer methodologies are rapidly becoming the standard.

The "old/traditional" educational methods all share two common traits; they are "pushed" on the audience, and the content is one size fits all. Perhaps one can argue that webinars and brown bag sessions are more interactive and not necessarily just "pushed", but they do not allow for joint content development and customization. As such, there is a limitation on the engagement value of these tactics. True engagement occurs with the active participation of the student, not just during the delivery of the content, but in the content development, as well.

I am not suggesting that we should abandon the traditional approach as there is still value in many of these approaches. What I do recommend is that we implement the engaged methodologies. The balance is definitely shifting as our customers (students) demand the value of participation.