Stop Arguing About Training Pricing.

Finance wants to raise prices. Sales wants to lower prices. Marketing wants to study prices. Year in, year out, it’s the same acrimonious drill. And so you painfully inch up the price of a day of instruction by 3%, arguing about whether it will help or hurt you. And, 12 months later, you’re still arguing – because you still don’t know.

You can argue about picayune pricing moves that accomplish little. Or you can use pricing to achieve strategic priorities – to change the game.

Want to build strategic relationships with your clients? Don’t limit yourself to relationship selling – consider going to relationship pricing. Rather than selling a transaction at a time, move toward an ongoing subscription or retainer model. Or, if you’re selling courseware, consider a multi-year enterprise license pricing approach.

Looking to enter a new training market? Well, why not give away selected products or services to get your foot in the door – like training assessment and planning services – or short courses clients can try out during staff meetings. Or consider "category killer" pricing – like the upstarts who barged into the public seminar business by charging $95 for courses that had traditionally commanded $995.

Want to make an increasingly complicated product and service family easier to sell? Well, consider configuring and pricing your offerings as solutions, rather than 1001 piece parts. Or put a price on learner job competencies or certification paths.

In our experience, using pricing to achieve strategic initiatives can result in revenue increases of 30% and more. Stay tuned to future issues of Training Business E-Visory for further particulars.

Return to back-issue index

E-learning or Classroom Learning (Home Page)

Subscribe for Free