Our customer, a large multinational telecommunications and technology company, was implementing an aggressive international growth strategy. A key factor in the success of this strategy was the recruitment and training of indirect distribution and sales channels in strategic geographic markets. To produce the desired result, these channels needed to be effectively trained in products, installation, and industry topics.
The customer currently had a sophisticated, internationally available, Internet based training infrastructure in place but found the effective training of channels required them to attend classroom training. This allowed an introduction to the customer’s culture and philosophy. In addition, much of the training required interaction with real customer systems, the students needed to come to a site where there was live equipment to train on.
The training also had to be very focused and succinct. The channels were very intolerant of training that was not focused directly on their needs and saw good training as an added value service that differentiated their carrying one supplier’s product over another competitive product.
In addition, this training had to be deployed in the channel’s native language.
Solution
The customer had a large portfolio of existing training that was focused more on internal staff and large customer needs than the needs of channels. This training was utilized as the base training content and modified to meet channel needs. Topics were added, deleted, and shortened to accommodate the expressed needs of the channel staff.
Special attention was paid to the translatability of the material that was being developed. The training minimized the use of text and maximized the use of visuals and graphics. This served two purposes. First, it reduced the cost of translation and second, it conveyed the ideas in a more internationally acceptable and understandable format
The courses were then field trialed before a supportive audience, modified, translated, and then transferred to the trainers in the field for scheduling and instruction.
Results
The courses were effectively developed and deployed. During the development process, it was determined that there was a need for internal staff to have this same type of training. Some modifications were made to the training to accommodate this but the training was first and foremost a channel offering.
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