Along with remote online sessions, British manufacturer Wharfedale Pro has hosted in-person distributor training events in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, the Netherlands and Japan over the past six months. With partnerships in 88 countries worldwide, the company regards these session important to ensure brand consistency and promote better deployment of its system solutions.
‘It is important that we share our experience as a manufacturer and create an open and trusting relationship with customers,’ explains Applications & Solutions Manager, Alex Lane. ‘Training seminars are a fantastic platform to build relationships and learn from each other, as well as a tool for inspiring creative ideas.’
The topics covered in the training are tailored to specific market and distributor needs, although the full course covers topics including brand knowledge, product knowledge, amplifier and DSP fundamentals, loudspeaker system fundamentals and software.
‘The most in-demand subjects are currently acoustic simulation, line array tuning and amplifier and DSP fundamentals,’ Lane reports. ‘We’ve certainly moved away from the slideshow seminars of yesteryear and now focus on offering our distributors more interactive sessions.
‘Our core values are to be uncomplicated and offer good value and reliability,’ he continues. ‘In our training sessions, we try to educate in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner, with a focus on empowering others to get the most out of our products and ensure longevity in the field. We do this by teaching simple, practical techniques that help our distributors identify the right products for particular use cases and avoid common errors.’
Recent examples of these trainings include a ‘How to Win’ training with distributor PGI in Vietnam, focused on picking the correct product and designing and configuring systems for clients, and a workshop tuning session with Wharfedale Pro’s GPL and WLA-1 series with E-Spec in Japan. Some distributor training sessions are focused on preparation for a particular event, such as a product showcase or an open day. While in-person sessions have the added benefit of hands-on experience, Wharfedale Pro also hosts online sessions for its distributors, mostly focused on software introductions and Q&A.
‘Wharfedale Pro’s training was insightful and gave our team a solid foundation of the product line along with hands-on experience on the new systems that help strengthen our fundamentals,’ says Nakul Sachanandani of UAE-based 21st Century AV, who attended a recent distributor training. ‘Alex is very knowledgeable and trains with the utmost enthusiasm demonstrating a remarkable level of expertise and dedication!’
On the evolution of Wharfedale Pro’s dedication to increasing brand knowledge, the brand has plans to maximise the availability of training through a hybrid approach: ‘Our plan is to begin working on an online content library covering the most popular topics,’ says Lane. ‘We can then continue to build more fun and hands-on in-person experiences to teach advanced subjects and techniques to our distributor network around the globe.’
More: www.wharfedalepro.com
