Why Vendor Onboarding Is Critical For Your B2B Brand
The life cycle of a new channel partner [1] starts with excitement. Your company is poised to expand its reach, while your vendor is looking forward to the possible business growth they’ll get from working with you. But that initial excitement can only carry the relationship so far. Without good vendor onboarding, complications and miscommunications can put obstacles in the way of success for you both.
Thoughtful vendor onboarding streamlines the process, makes data collection easier and helps your company get on the same page as your suppliers, channel partners, and service providers. More importantly, it also instills a sense of confidence and partnership in your vendor and sets them up to work for your mutual success.
Yet the onboarding processes of many B2B technology companies are designed only to sign up new partners without much planning into what happens next. Don’t miss out on a valuable opportunity to train and support your vendors at this important stage, because they often have a big impact on the efficiency of your operations or on your customer experience.
1. New Vendor Onboarding Sets The Tone For Your Entire Relationship
The onboarding process is one of the first official interactions a new vendor will have with your company. Your onboarding process should anticipate the points at which questions and issues are likely to arise.
It can be tricky to overcome any misgivings the vendor may have if the process is a bumpy one. But if things go smoothly, the experience will boost the vendor’s confidence in your working relationship.
Make sure your channel partners have all the resources they need to get started, your communications are clear and that they know where to turn for help. Take as much care with designing your vendor onboarding process as you would mapping out your customer journey.
A smooth onboarding program ensures that the vendor understands what your company expects of them, while also making clear what the vendor can expect from your company.
2. Efficient Onboarding Helps Your Brand Stand Out
You may not be the only brand your vendor is working with, which means you’re competing for attention. The onboarding process is an ideal opportunity to differentiate your brand and avoid losing mindshare with your channel partners.
Your sales process doesn’t actually end when a new partner signs up with your company. Use onboarding to educate vendors about what your brand has to offer their business.
Provide exclusive training courses and materials to help your vendors find success with you or your platform. These should be timely, bite-size pieces of content they can consume as needed.
Along with training vendors in your company’s products and processes, use your vendor onboarding process as a chance to educate them about your company’s cultures and values. Give your channel partners the messaging, tools and training to accurately represent your brand to their own customers.
3. Onboarding Empowers Vendors For Success From The First Transaction
The better a vendor understands your company’s programs and services, the better they’ll serve your company and help you get business results that matter. That’s why high-quality training embedded into the vendor onboarding process is the backbone of a successful channel partner program.
Embedding training into onboarding speeds the time it takes for vendors to become proficient with your platform, which can help shorten the sales cycle during those critical early transactions. When your vendors feel more confident and knowledgeable about your products from the get-go, they’ll experience faster returns.
Plus, if vendors feel you’ve invested in their training and success, they’ll be more inclined to continue working with your company. Vendor churn can be costly, but a good onboarding process can help boost loyalty and retention. Vendors will feel comfortable about working with your brand and confident in their abilities to sell your products when encouraged by early successes.
4. Vendor Onboarding Is The Foundation For Ongoing Success
A good onboarding program doesn’t just help your channel partners during their first days with your company, it sets them up for success throughout the lifetime of your partnership. And that’s good news for your brand.
The key to creating an effective process is to make it as seamless, stress-free and valuable as possible for your vendors. There are a number of SaaS companies that can help you automate the whole process, from collecting sensitive information to providing ongoing training.
But don’t let your commitment to your vendors’ success falter once the onboarding process is complete. Build on that foundation with regular training, libraries of useful content and short, actionable courses that help your vendors build their businesses. You’ll see your own business grow as a result.
If you're looking to get started with vendor onboarding, try SchoolKeep free for 14-days.
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