You've lost that learning feeling: Drivers and drawbacks of channel partner disengagement with sales training

Abstract

Despite significant investment by supplier firms in channel partner programs (CPPs), disengagement from training is common. Disengagement can diminish the return on investment (ROI) by inhibiting gains in sales ability and subsequently reducing reseller-channel partner relationship satisfaction. In an international field study with a Fortune 100 company, the authors examine the impact of sales role orientations on disengagement and subsequent outcomes, as well as the conditioning effect of market turbulence. The results indicate that both customer and selling orientations have significant, countervailing impacts on disengagement, and that reseller role ambidexterity reduces disengagement. Additionally, although market turbulence did not modify the impact of selling orientation on disengagement, it does moderate the customer orientation-disengagement relationship. Finally, disengagement does negatively influence both changes in perceived sales ability and subsequent satisfaction with the channel partner relationship. Findings from this unique, longitudinal field study have important implications for both scholar and practitioners, including participant selection and supplier CPP strategies.