ideas worth stealingSeth explains why it costs $2k to get me into your office
Seth’s post about pricing today offers the perfect cue for me explain something: why it costs $2,000 (plus travel expenses!) to bring me out to your offices for one day for in-house training.
From the post:
“Ben Zander’s brilliant book costs $10.20 at Amazon in hardcover. Buying the DVD costs $1495.00.
If he wanted to sell the DVD in large quantities, he’d need to price it differently and sell it in a different channel. But if he wants to work with trainers and the distributors who sell to them, he’s exactly in the center of [the expensive side of things].”
The reason it costs $2,000 to have me come teach your whole team how to design better web applications is because I want to work with people who really want to learn something. I don’t want to spend all my time training just anyone who throws a few hundred bucks my way. I want to train people who really want to be trained.
Also, $2,000 is significantly less money than it would take to send even 2 or 3 of your team members to a conference. And there’s no guarantee that conference attendees will walk away with robust enough information that it can immediately be applied to a whole project.
But when I spend a whole day in your offices, talking about your products, talking to your whole team, you get a boatload of information. Everyone learns the same stuff (which means you can all continue talking about it without having to explain everything all the time), and a lot of new knowedge is gained. And everyone gets a chance to talk about very specific issues that can’t be addressed in a 60-minute conference session.
See? It’s really quite a steal.
So, there’s the rationale. Use it.
Posted by Robert on June 7th, 2007
4 comments
I love it!
Actually I’m reading your book right now, which appears to be somewhat less expensive than having you come talk to me in person :-)
Talk about a great value!
“Also, $2,000 is significantly less money than it would take to send even 2 or 3 of your team members to a conference…”
That’s why 360|Flex is as inexpensive as it is. We agree, the ROI on most conferences, just isn’t there.
Robert knows and understands his content, but more importantly knows how to translate it all into layman’s terms. Anyone in a training class with him will walk away with well over $2000 worth of knowledge, and if the $2000 covers your entire department you’re getting the steal of a lifetime. He certainly taught me more than my overpriced art school did.
And yes, the book is a steal as well, but for a lot of learners nothing beats having a truly good instructor there in the flesh.
The article isn’t slamming you, it is demonstrating exactly what you said, “I want to work with people who really want to learn something” this represents the higher end of quality VS. quantity. This was also compared to Marriott Hotels, that they provide a hotel for every niche. This article is a work that can be interpreted several ways according to what business model you work with.
BTW, the article also got you what he writes about at the beginning of the article.
“FREE stuff spreads. You don’t make any money from the thing you’re giving away, but you do get attention, which is worth as much, or more in many cases.”
good day now,