Your learners are looking to you for everything they need, from training to lifelong learning to certifications. Yet many organizations that provide learning and development are unsure how to turn their learning programs into profitable eLearning products.
Recently, BenchPrep’s CEO and Co-founder, Ashish Rangnekar, hosted a set of office hours where he answered questions about turning your learning program into a revenue generator. Here are some of the questions and answers from the office hours:
Question: “How do you determine pricing for learning products?”
Answer: There are two parts to this. The first way to determine the price for learning products is to use value-based pricing instead of cost-based pricing. Value-based pricing is customer-focused pricing, which means that pricing is based on how much the customer believes a product is worth. When thinking about learning programs, it is important to note that learning is all about the outcomes. And when learners are looking for a new course, they are going to pay more for the products that provide them more value and help them achieve their desired outcome.
The second answer to this question is the packaging. We see many organizations think about pricing at a product level, but the truth is that is very short-sighted. You have to price not by the learning product but the learner journey. The professional you’re serving will need support for their entire 40-year career. It is critical to map the learner journey and create a learning product portfolio to support the entire journey.
Question: “What do you see as the role of professional learning in today’s economy?”
Answer: Professional learning is essential to today’s economy and, as learning professionals, we have an enormous opportunity in front of us. Lifelong education is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a need-to-have. The days of learn, work, retire are over, and modern workers must constantly learn and upskill to stay ahead. The average worker will change careers 12 times, which makes learning outside the traditional institutional sense an absolute imperative.
Question: “You can’t talk about driving revenue without discussing the measurement of learning. What tools do we have besides evaluations and needs assessments to measure learning?”
Answer: I find it helpful to think of it as a domino effect. You drive revenue by selling more courses, you sell more courses by offering value to your learners, and, lastly, you offer value to your learners by helping them improve their knowledge, gain a new skill, or master a new concept. This all leads to your business outcome. You need to have a mechanism in place to help you measure not just learning but also the business outcome.
In terms of tools for quantifying learning, we measure learning a few different ways at BenchPrep. Every learner who uses our software must rank their confidence as they answer questions. This helps us determine whether their guess was right, but they may still need more practice within this area to build confidence and achieve mastery. Similarly, if a learner answers a question incorrectly with high confidence, that indicates there is a gap in their knowledge that needs to be addressed.
In addition to confidence levels, we also measure engagement. How much time does a learner spend on our platform? Does the learner use flashcards, play games, and/or participate in discussion boards? Do they stick with our study plans? Engagement is one of the important ones to measure because this will tie back to your long term ability to drive revenue through your learning program.
Finally, it is essential that you measure progress and improvement. As learners go through your courses, can you see their knowledge build-up? Are they attaining proficiency, and are they able to pass your exam and earn the credential? That’s the first important step. Then, microlearning and spaced repetition become critically important to introduce and measure so you can help them reach mastery.
Question: “Can you talk about some of the advantages of subscription-based pricing?”
Answer: Form follows function. The function should support the learner’s journey with a broad product portfolio. The most successful subscription-based services have two things in common: engaging features and curated content. Subscription payments lower the barrier to entry for products and services. Recurring billing offers predictable revenue for your business.
Successful subscription services have “sticky” features that keep users coming back to the product. One way to create a sticky feature is by working the learning product into your customer’s daily life. In addition to engaging features, subscription services need to create a curated, high-quality atmosphere that is aligned to learner goals. Training companies or associations can use their extensive industry knowledge to brand themselves as an expert and thought leader in their respective fields.
Question: “What are the market trends we are seeing that encouraged the idea for BenchPrep Engage?”
Answer: BenchPrep Engage™ is a continuous learning product that enables learning organizations to build their business beyond point-in-time, transactional learning with regularly-spaced education cycles. BenchPrep Engage combats the forgetting curve and delivers regularly-spaced education cycles to learners. You can supplement your existing training offerings, extend the learner relationship, create continuing education programs, and build new revenue streams while helping your learners achieve better outcomes.
There are some key trends that are important to understand whether you currently have a digital learning program and want to expand or if you are brand new to the digital learning space. Here are a few trends to look out for:
Trend #1: Learning is lifelong and unbundled: The traditional method of learn, work, retire is no longer a future-proof approach. Certifications are on the rise, and employers are now eager to bring them into the workplace. And, on the opposite side, a college degree doesn’t provide the same return as it used to. There are now faster and cheaper alternatives to traditional 4-year college degrees, like earning an associate’s degree, earning certifications, attending a Bootcamp, or some combination.
Trend #2: The modern learner loves convenience. It’s time for learning companies to adapt to modern standards. Modern learners want accessible, on-demand, bite-sized learning. Employees only have 24 minutes a week to focus on training and development, so it is important that the learning they do receive is digestible and available anytime, anyplace.
Lastly, the most important trend of all: every learning organization should be aggressive with their digital learning strategy because of the behavioral and cultural shifts happening due to COVID-19. You have a golden opportunity right now. This is your chance to grab the market while helping millions of people.
Want to know more?
Want to learn more about driving revenue for your learning program? Check out the on-demand recording of Ashish’s office hours for more tips for turning your learning program from a cost-center to a revenue-driver.
