Making Software Training Dollars Pay

So, you want to stop wasting money on software training. If you’ve read the last several posts, you understand how training can be a waste of time. So, how to fix the problem?

Two key things:

1. Think about training before you buy
2. Don’t just avoid flying to Pittsburgh. Get custom training

Before You Buy

There is one time when a software company really cares about you: before they have your money. If they know what they’re doing, they’ll return your calls, learn about your business, and just really seem to care. Unfortunately, too many people focus on basic functionality, price and contractual terms when they consider a major software purchase. Saving money on a worthless product doesn’t save you anything. Rather, you need to make sure that not only do you get a good price, but you’re in the right position for success after the sales guy leaves and you’ve got the software. Training is a big part of this.

Sales consultants and sales people should have learned a lot about your company. Indeed, if they show you “Acme Company” examples, you probably don’t want to buy from them. When they show you the product, they should show you your data. Your items, your employee names, your divisions. They should speak in your language. This is a great preparation for training. They will get past the language problem and the generic company problem I posted about previously.

Unfortunately, much of this information is lost after the contract is signed. You need to make sure that this doesn’t happen. Insist that all the information the sales team prepared for the demo be directly available for the consulting and training team after the sale is over. If you can, get language in your Statement of Work to that effect. Set the expectation that if you tell something to anyone at the software company, it should be available to everyone at the company.

This is not the full answer. Pre&endash;sales people are not post&endash;sales people. You never cover in a demo everything you need to cover during actual training. The next thing you want to negotiate is custom training. Not just private training so you avoid flying to Pittsburgh for some generic class.* Rather, custom training that focuses on your needs and your needs only. I’ll talk about that more next time.

* For prospective clients in Pittsburgh, my wife’s family is from Pittsburgh. It’s a nice city. I’ll certainly fly there for you.

« Previous | Next »