You're reading the second post in a five part series on recognizing whether and when you need to build a training function in your enterprise software business. The first post is here. Keep track of this Enterprise Software Training Series each week for the latest post.

by Bill Cushard (@BillCush), ServiceRocket Training Team

In my last post, I kicked off this blog series by posing a question, “How do you know if you need to build a training function in your enterprise software business?” The question begs so many others, particularly since every company is at a different level of maturity when it comes to training (more about the levels of training maturity in a future post). Some companies have no enterprise software training at all. Others have no training, but think they do. While others are humming along offering training that customers say helps greatly with adoption.

If your level of maturity in training is anything other than “humming along,” you are likely at a point in which you are beginning to build training for your customers or considering whether you should. There are many reasons. In fact, there are so many reasons that I need several blog posts to cover them all, including methods of implementation like on-site, live webinars, eLearning and more.

So how do you know? Here’s how.

You know you need to build a training function if:

1. Customers keep asking for it:

Henry Ford taught us that the customer is not always right when he said, “If I listened to my customers, I would have built a faster horse.” Customers might not always be right, but neither are you. So you should listen to your customers. If they are asking for training, you may need to figure out a way to provide it. Moreover, if customers are asking for training, they may also be willing to pay for it.

2. Your 'services group' is spending time on training, not implementations:

You want your services group to implement a solution for a customer and move on to the next one. Too often, software companies under-estimate the need for training. Services teams end up spending so much time on training new customers that they delay work on other implementations. This slows growth and upsets new customers.

3. Prospects keeping saying to your sales team:

"I don't even know what this technology is or why I need it:” This is an especially important problem for open source technologies that are trying to break into the enterprise market. Training does not have to be about your product. Educating the market can be a great way to increase awareness to the benefits of your technology, and also bring in qualified leads to your sales team.

4. It’s a fire drill everytime a new customer wants training

You know you've done this. A large, important, or influential customer wants training, so you agree to make it happen even though you don't really have formal training. So the fire drill begins. The process repeats and you end up re-creating the wheel each time you have training to deliver. This is inefficient and is definitely not a scalable way to onboard new customers.

5. You want to start providing consistency across your implementations

If each of your implementations is a new adventure, you are wasting a lot of time and resources. A properly conceived training program that on-boards new customers, can lead the way in making sure your implementations are standard, consistent, and predictable.

Do any of these sound like you? If you don’t have a formal training function, how do you handling training your customers? Share your stories in the comments below.

Stay tuned to the ServiceRocket blog for part three in this series.

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About Bill Cushard

Bill became a training guy early in his career when a group of 20 new hires showed up and there was no trainer. When HR came looking to find someone to do the training, Bill yelled, “I’ll do it!” He has been a trainer ever since.

Bill has built and led training organizations and eLearning projects at service organizations like E*TRADE, Accenture, and TimeWarner Cable.

He is the author of a blog, The LX Designer, where he shares knowledge on enterprise learning and is active on Twitter in the learning and training space.