Johannesburg, South Africa - December 2017 - Plantronics (NYSE: PLT), an audio pioneer and communications technology leader, recently released a blog article about the mutually beneficial positives of working closely with valued, trusted channel partners in an educational capacity. Excerpts from the article:

"If your business is like most, your team includes people outside of your own company’s walls. And because of that, you can only achieve your corporate goals if your channel partner ecosystem meets theirs, too.The importance of your channel partners’ success shows up most clearly with resellers. As your revenue targets increase year over year, your company counts on its existing channel partners to scale their output as well. What are some ways we can ensure this happens?

One of the most effective ways is through high-quality training.

In a recent article in SearchITChannel.com, it is suggested that vendors are coming to understand that by creating an education program, partners are more adept at both understanding and selling their solutions.At Plantronics, we launched Connect University within our Connect Partner Program in 2013. Plantronics’ program supports partners throughout their business activities, offering them planning and revenue-generating support, and certification for applicable programs*. It’s how we help our partners successfully sell our products!

Since then, many partners have told us in conversations that the training they’ve received from this program has empowered them to sell more. We knew this would be the case, but it led us to ask, “How much more?” and “How can we translate this ongoing training into a best practice for our other channel partners so they can also reap the benefits?” Specifically, we wanted to discover whether there was an improvement in sales performance after partners became specialized in one or more of the Connect University certifications. So, we did some research.To perform our analysis, we built a control group of more than 2400 untrained partners and a trained group comprising more than 80 partners.The analysis showed that those receiving training increased their sales on average by nine percent more than those who had no training.

Not only that, but the top ten performers experienced an impressive 406 percent higher growth rate than the control group! Suffice it to say, providing and implementing a well-laid-out certification program can lead to tangible benefits for everyone involved on an ongoing basis.The vendor and partner can see a repeatable increase in the bottom line, and the customer buys from a highly knowledgeable, trusted source."

Plantronics is an audio pioneer and a global leader in the communications industry. We create intelligent and adaptive solutions that support our customers’ most important needs: experiencing and facilitating simple and clear communications while enjoying distraction-free environments.  Our solutions are used worldwide by consumers and businesses alike, and are an optimal choice for open office environments. From Unified Communications and customer service ecosystems, to data analytics and Bluetooth headsets, Plantronics delivers high-quality communications solutions that our customers count on today, while relentlessly innovating on behalf of their future. For more information visit www.plantronics.com/africa