What price strategy has your company used for partner certification training program?

LeeAnnLuck

We have a product offer where we will be training our partners to enable them to provide 1st level support on the product. The training will be incorporated with a certification of the partner to be part of the service program. For other companies that have implemented a similar partner training program, we are interested to learn what pricing strategy you have used for pricing the certification. 

StevenForth

I don't think there is a cookie cutter answer for this as it will depend a lot on the structure of your value chain and how it intersects with the customer journey.

In a previous company, we did price certification and did so using a premium pricing strategy, but then let the partner apply 50% of its investment to reduce other payments back to us. We did this to (i) ensure commitment, (ii) ensure that the partners had the needed skills and (iii) to share value created.

There is a process to help you think through this pricing design choice.

1. Map the value chain covering how each part of your value chain creates value and how they are rewarded for the value they create
2. Align the above value chain with the customer journey and note how each part of the value chain creates value for the customer along the customer journey and how they are rewarded for the value they create
3. As you are looking at a training program, layer in the skills that are needed by each partner, and the customer/prospect at each step of the customer journey
4. Given the above, you should be able to model the incentives and disincentives created by different pricing models, make sure you think about this as a system and call out the feedback loops. Ask questions like, 'Will having partners pay for certification programs create more value for our customers? Will it create more value for our partners?
5. Model out more than one pricing model and explore the implications. Consider things like the implications for Quality of Service, impact on Customer Lifetime Value and so on.
6. Choose the model that will optimize value to your customers (V2C), make sure that the value created by the certification program is shared fairly between you and your partners.

Maria Manning Chapman

LeeAnn, some of my Education Services members bundle the associated course and the exam into one offer and that price includes the course and one exam. Others price the course and the exam separately. If the exam is priced separately, average list price is about $300.

Jerome Peck

Thanks, Steven! @Alyssa Ortiz @Elise Lostutter and @Stephen Spence — Wondering if you had any insights here?