A strategic partnership is one of the best ways companies can increase their reach, meet customer needs and enter a new market. It may sound counterintuitive to look outside your company to pull in another expert, but the impact can be exponential. Look at the Apple and MasterCard partnership campaigning Apple Pay or Uber and Spotify partnering to create “a soundtrack for your ride.” Partnering with an industry expert — whose goals align with yours — is the best way to improve your customers’ experiences. In terms of corporate training, effective partnerships help companies create holistic products with better end-user experiences.
Companies, organizations, and individuals seek leaders in the training industry to provide essential learning tools. Whether a company offers training technology or training content (or some combination of both), the overarching goal for training providers is to engineer an incredible customer experience.
Training is an active process, and the end user is looking for an experience that adds value to their work or addresses critical challenges. Across the board, training technology and content providers cater to a variety of markets. Each training customer is different and has different needs. This is why it’s essential for training providers to partner with industry experts so they can deliver better, more tailored experiences to their customers. It is challenging (if not impossible) for one training company to have an expert-level grasp on every industry while maintaining its own goals and verticals. Outsourcing is the best option.
Industry Experts Help Training Providers Reach Niche Markets
Combining expert-driven learning content with learning management system (LMS) providers creates a comprehensive solution that ultimately aids consumers in achieving their objectives, whatever they may be. Here, partnerships should be symbiotic, filling a gap in the end-to-end learning process and accomplishing mutual goals.
Partnerships in the training industry create better learning experiences. A strategic partnership between industry experts can help training providers craft better experiences and reach niche markets. For example, training in the health care industry is incredibly nuanced and must meet rigorous compliance standards. It takes years to develop expertise in health care training because of the complex requirements in the industry. If a health care industry expert does not guide training content and delivery, the safety of both providers and their patients is at risk. Leading training companies should (and have) partnered with leading companies in niche markets, like health care, to ensure that their customers’ needs are met.
When an industry expert is brought into the strategy and planning process, training providers can deliver clear, compelling, and easy-to-digest learning assets that cater to niche markets. In addition, establishing a partnership with an industry expert helps training providers reach audiences they would not have otherwise. By pulling in the industry expert’s wisdom and insight about training content and industry-specific needs, the training provider can expand the reach and impact of their training delivery.
Industry Experts Address Training Needs More Effectively
Training providers offer more than one-off courses or training technology; they offer the means to solve problems, advance careers and enable business success. Pulling in an industry expert can help providers closely examine their customers’ training needs. Establishing a solid relationship with an expert in your industry — like the previous example of partnering with a health care industry expert — adds additional value to the consumer’s learning experience, which ultimately benefits the training provider too.
The end user wins when training providers partner with industry experts because they are able to access better learning experiences and a more extensive library of course content. When the provided content is best-in-class, end users get value from easily digestible, relevant, and up-to-date content with a specific orientation to health care topics. Regardless of the product differences between companies, successful partnerships lead to one shared goal: providing consumers with resources that will help them fulfill their goals.
Partnering with another expert in the training industry is a practical way to close gaps in your consumers’ experiences. Companies can maximize this benefit by pursuing industry-expert partners with an established brand presence in a new market. By working with partners outside your existing market, you can reach more consumers with better experiences and simultaneously reap the benefits of your partner’s industry expertise.
To generate the most value, partnering training providers should be invested in each other’s success. This can help foster a collaborative environment, support future initiatives, and boost brand awareness and authority of your professional development programs. If you can successfully collaborate, new markets, additional revenue verticals, and closure of product or content gaps can drive extreme value to end users and each company involved in the partnership.
