Training. To charge or not to charge, that is the question.

Charging for training is something you would do to a customer or client.  So why do so many vendors charge their partners A LOT for training?  I understand that there does need to be that give and take.  Still, I don't see that paying thousands for training exemplifies this.  

If you are being charged by the company administering the training and testing I can see just covering that cost or giving some sort of guarantee that if they don't sell anything in 6 months they will be charged in the future but only to cover the cost, not make a profit.   For the vendors who truly see their solution providers as an extension of their own team, there should be absolutely no training costs.  It would only benefit the vendor if the channel partner actually knew how to sell the product and sell it well.  The other benefit to you is that ostensibly that solution provider is more likely to sell your product then another if barriers to doing so are low.  Two birds, one stone.

Channel Partner; customer, client, partner, or team member?

Different channel organizations treat their partners differently; what do solution providers prefer?  Should solution providers pay for training?  Should everyone in the same tier be treated the same even if they don't need the same support?  What differentiates one program from another and who cares?  Well it turns out that solution providers do...who knew?

Having spoken to many solution providers at last year's Everything Channel Xchange event I saw evidence of the changing tide.  Many vendors used to treat their solution providers as customers or clients because they could.  The SP wanted to be selling that vendor's technology.  Now many SP's, the right SP's, are sought after by vendors but the vendors haven't changed their model.  

How do you treat your channel partners?  Channel partners, how do you want to be treated?