Should we Charge for Training?

One of the questions I get most frequently is ‘Should my company charge for training.’ This is an excellent question all B2B SaaS companies should ask themselves, and I think the answer is almost always ‘Yes.’ I think the heart of the questions is, should I start charging for training now, and this is more complex. For this, I think that you need to ask four questions to determine readiness to launch training services or TaaS.

1. Is the product complex enough to require advanced training? If your product is new and offers core functionality only (or is at minimal viability for the market) it is probably is not at the maturity level to require a robust training path for users. If your product is does a lot of things and has advanced features, or if there is market demand for validated credentials to use or administer your product, you may be ready for a monetized model.

2. Are users able to acquire the skills they need without training? Monetized training should provide a shortcut to a skillset, not the only way. If alternative mechanisms don’t exist more infrastructure need to be in place; if you put a paywall in front of learning users won't learn and they won't experience positive feelings towards the ethics of your company.

3. Have you gotten buy-in from key stakeholders, including C-level leaders? Sharing your vision, getting leadership onboard (and excited) about what you’re going to do is important, especially since you’ll rely on other teams to succeed.

4. Do customers ask for it? This is the easiest, and maybe you’re already monetized ad hoc. If customers are consistently asking for learning solutions that you are custom building, it is likely you have more customers who would be interested but haven’t asked.

When introducing a monetized strategy for enablement, we value finding the right opportunity and launching when the organization is in a place of readiness. Not sure still? Contact us for a free 20 minute consultation and we can help.