Ask HN: Charging for Training for an App?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4991587

by sfalbo • 14 years ago

5 4 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I develop paid iOS apps that are mostly focused on the business and legal markets. These apps are all less than $30 US per download so they are not cost prohibitive for these types of customers.

Now I'm looking to develop some advanced training packages that include videos, PDFs, sample files, and other types of media that will help customers take full advantage of the apps.

I'd like to offer different training packages at different various points but I'm afraid of alienating customers by charging for training rather than providing it for free.

Have you ever encountered a similar situation and do you have any advice regarding this matter? I'd be curious to learn how others have dealt with this before. Thanks in advance.

patio112• 14 years ago

I'm afraid of alienating customers by charging for training rather than providing it for free.

Not only are businesses not alienated by this sort of thing, many of them will either a) have explicit budgets for it or b) have explicit requirements that they cannot buy your stuff if they cannot also buy the training.

An Appointment Reminder customer wanted a quote for training. I said "Do you want me there to lead an in-person training session, a webinar, or several videos showing operation of the software which your team can review at their leisure?" She said "Quote me all of those." I think I picked $10k, $4k, and $2k. She said "Hmm -- no need to fly you out here but we can greenlight either of the other two without needing to talk to anybody."

(n.b. Assume that the yearly contract for the service itself is in the four figure region. That sometimes matters -- a few companies will just automatically assume support/training costs 20% of invoice.)

sfalbo• 14 years ago

Thanks for the response - your advice is greatly appreciated. Do you notice that customers are more inclined to choose the in person, webinar, or prerecord option? Or is it usually different on a case by case basis?

patio112• 14 years ago

I don't have nearly enough data to give you any confidence in that answer -- all my enterprise sales are essentially one-offs, still.

caw• 14 years ago

I think my company's opinion is sort of as follows:

1) In person for train the trainer, or significant demand in any one location

2) Webinar for cross-geo. We might have 2 sessions in order to hit reasonable hours

3) Videos for short training sessions on demand for users (think ~30m-60m that you have to give to 700 people)

Ask HN: Charging for Training for an App?

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