A Business Acumen Perspective on the Pricing of Training Post Pandemic

    

Consuming training is in many ways similar to consuming entertainment. There are various forms of delivery, you can go through it many times, and if it is good, you remember it forever.live-online-sound-training

Consider for a moment the phenomenon of the musical Hamilton. Hamilton debuted on Broadway in 2015 and since 1982, it is the 7th highest grossing show bringing in over $612 million. Hamilton is literally sold out into the foreseeable future, and it seems that a typical seat in a decent location is about $500 per person through the theater. But in reality, the prices are about $1,000 per person when buying through a ticket service which is the only way you can get them.

For people who can’t afford that cost, or don’t want to spend that type of money, there are alternative ways to consume the content: you can watch the original cast perform the entire show on the Disney channel for about $49 on a pay per view basis, or for “free” if you have a premium subscription. If that seems pricey, or you just want to enjoy and listen to the music only, then you can pay about $12 for the original cast album performing the songs on a compact disc or save a high-fidelity version through your music service such as Apple Music or Spotify. Three different ways of delivering the content based upon platform, cost, and needs.

As we move to the next evolution of corporate training, there will also be several different forms that learners will be able to consume based on platform, cost, and needs. The forms of consuming learning will again include live in-person instructor-led, live virtual instructor led, and eLearning. The similarities to Hamilton are interesting. You can see it live and in person, you can see it live and online, or you can listen to it.

From a business acumen perspective, do the similarities continue? I propose that they should. If there are three different levels of value that one can receive from Hamilton, let’s mathematically assign that value as follows:

  • The music album is equal to X
  • The pay-per-view is equal to 4X
  • The live experience is equal to 42X

Now, let’s take a same approach to training. The data below presents typical industry pricing for each:

  • Asynchronous eLearning is about $250 per person for 4 hours of learning which is X
  • Live virtual learning is about $1,000 per person for 8 hours of learning which is 4X
  • Live in-person learning is about $2,500 per person for 8 hours of learning which is 10X

Further exploring this concept, we can plot the data on a scatter chart graph to illustrate the relationships between the three different types of learning. The graph shows Value and Price on the two axis and the circle shows the relative market share. Value is function of enhanced competencies, better decision making, and business impact. The difference between live instructor led and virtual instructor led is just human to human networking. Every other aspect of virtual instructor led training is better than live. When you factor in the immediate cost and then the travel, lodging, and miscellaneous expenses, the Live training is probable going to end up being 15X pushing that blue bubble further away from the upper right-hand corner.

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In summary, spending $1,000 per person to go see Hamilton may be great for a very special occasion like an anniversary or milestone birthday. But, if you want to enjoy the music and show many times and within a budget, then you can have a very good, impactful experience in high-definition Dolby surround sound on your sofa. As business organizations face the new realities, I am hopeful that the live and in-person sessions are going to be reserved for very special audiences and that a significant majority of the learning will take advantage of all the great tools that have been proven to work.

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Robert Brodo

About The Author

Robert Brodo is co-founder of Advantexe. He has more than 20 years of training and business simulation experience.