Fumbling your product training program is basically the business equivalent of fumbling a job interview. If you’re lucky, you might still bungle your way into success. If you’re not, you’ll probably end up losing to a competitor. 

For partners and employees, product education is a cornerstone of the sales process. For customers, it’s the key to product onboarding. But what does effective product training look like? 

The basics of better product training

Nearly every successful product education program has one thing in common: It’s tailored to the audience. 

A customer in healthcare will have different training needs than one in finance. A managed service provider requires a different approach from an employee. Your sales team will need to know different things about your product compared to human resources or marketing. 

Beyond that, take the following steps:

• Define how you’ll measure and validate your training program’s success
• Link your training KPIs and objectives to measurable business outcomes such as sales targets, customer satisfaction, churn, or time-to-productivity
• Establish a framework for content development and management
• Organize your training first by audience and then by workflow and role
• Give customers who complete your product knowledge training an idea of how you can actually fulfill their needs via real-world use cases where possible
• Prioritize hands-on training over passive learning
• Combine pre-built templates with adaptive learning for deeper personalization
• Use multiple content formats and delivery methods
• Approach product training as a continuous process with refresher courses, microlearning modules, and regular updates

Types of product knowledge training (and examples)

Product training generally fits into one of three broad umbrellas, which we’ve detailed below alongside typical needs, goals, and instructional design considerations. 

Product training for customers

This audience is interested in how they can generate value from your software. Initial product education zeroes in on the most relevant features to their needs or pain points, with the goal of helping them reach product adoption as quickly as possible. Ongoing education will generally focus on advanced use cases or new features. 

Product knowledge may also be part of a larger customer training strategy. 

Product training for partners

These are typically vendors looking to market and sell your software to their customers. They’re something of a middle ground between customers and employees. While they require in-depth product knowledge, they may also need training that focuses more on whichever features are most relevant to their audience. 

So with that in mind, remember the following partner onboarding best practices:

• Know the demographic of the partner, including industry, business size, and area of expertise
• Understand the needs, pain points, and key features relative to the partner’s audience
• Develop a structured, standardized partner onboarding process that teaches them about your company as well as your product
• Automate and personalize wherever possible
• Provide partners with sales playbooks, brand guidelines, and details on compliance
• Establish how you’ll communicate with the partner
• Create a searchable knowledgebase for each partner
• Go over deal management, registration, and performance expectations

Product training for employees

Internal product training really comes down to how product knowledge helps each department better fulfill their role. For example: 

• For sales, the focus is more on benefits, features, and objection handlings to close more deals
• Human resources is concerned with developing more effective onboarding and internal education
• Customer support teams need to know enough about the product for effective troubleshooting
• Engineers and developers use product knowledge to refine the software and create new features
• Marketing professionals can use in-depth product knowledge to develop messaging that attracts better, more qualified leads