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Though I’ve worked in the eLearning and training field for many years, it still amazes me how many companies continue to view customer training as a business expense both necessary and evil. Training generates huge profits in many companies and in many industries. Yet many organizations still see training as a requirement forced upon them by a competitive environment where free training is the norm, made available to customers to “round out the product offering.” These firms are simply not seeing the forest for the trees.

At the other end of the spectrum are forward-thinking companies who know from experience that offering high-quality customer training at a reasonable cost will strengthen the customer’s investment in their service or product, making it harder to be displaced by a competitor. The more the customer invests in the product or service through training, the stronger the relationship becomes over time. With some upfront planning, thoughtful development of high-quality content, professional branding, and appropriate pricing of training products, your company will be on the path to generating real profit from training.

Before you develop a training plan for your organization, consider these questions:

• Who are the target audiences for the training—customers, prospects, sales people, alliance partners?
• What is your competition offering in terms of free or fee-based training programs?
• What are the primary business goals of the training program—defined by organizational objectives, content development roles and responsibilities, timelines for completion, and coordination with a new product/service rollout?
• Who will deliver the training—seasoned instructors, subject matter experts, or professional voice or presentation talent?
• What is the most efficient way for these audiences to learn—in a classroom setting, in a web-based environment, or a blend of the two?
• Do you have the resources (people, software, hardware) and processes in place to define, develop, and deliver high-quality training?
• Who needs to be involved in pricing the training product—sales, marketing, project management, support, finance?

1. Talk to your customers. Once you have decided who will evaluate, participate in, and pay for the training product, contact them. Schedule face-to-face meetings, arrange brief conference calls, or consider setting up focus groups to find out what your customers want. Ask open-ended questions and listen attentively; what you learn may surprise you.
2. Look at what your peers are doing. Visit websites that track developments and trends in eLearning and training, such as industry associations (American Society for Training & Development, eLearningGuru, Computer Education Management Association), resource centers (The Masie Center, Chief Learning Officer, Brandon-Hall), and training-technology vendors (Centra, WebEx Communications, GeoLearning).
3. Establish a design and development discipline. Based on your research, decide which training method fits best with your customers, your company, and your content. Be sure to develop training content as a series of clearly defined modules so they are easy to understand, can be assembled into multiple products for diverse audiences, and can be easily kept up-to-date.
4. Brand the product. Once you know what you are going to develop and for whom, create a brand for the training materials. Name the product, design the package in a way that reflects your company’s commitment to quality, and make sure the value-added benefits of the program demonstrate clear ROI.
5. Stage the delivery. Pilot the training with customers before you roll out the final offering. Involving early adopters instills goodwill with key accounts, enables you to integrate their feedback, and deliver the highest quality product. These key customers can also serve as reference accounts for future prospects. If you deliver to customers without taking these critical steps, you risk not realizing maximum revenue for your efforts.
6. Price the customer training correctly. If you’ve talked with your customers, conducted your research, determined the method(s) for delivering the training, and piloted the offering, you’ll have a sense of both what it will cost you to create and deliver the training, as well as what the market will bear in terms of a price point. Pricing can be a complex process, so be sure to take the time you need to get this critical step right.

Developing high-quality training programs that meet the expectations of the target audience, enabling your company to recover development costs, and turning a profit on training – these are entirely achievable goals. At Tim Rosa Associates, we’ve created training programs for dozens of clients for over 15 years, and have used our proven 3-D Process to develop and sustain successful training programs. We’ve worked with clients in technology, financial services, and healthcare to develop revenue-driven training strategies, create powerful training materials, and support training delivery, helping companies leverage the power of training to contribute to the bottom line.