

Ask HN: Charging for Training for an App? - sfalbo

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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
======
patio11
_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
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?

~~~
patio11
I don't have nearly enough data to give you any confidence in that answer --
all my enterprise sales are essentially one-offs, still.

