by Bill Cushard (@BillCush)

Over the past several weeks, we have been talking extensively about how to know whether an enterprise software company should offer training to its customers. It is not as obvious a question as it may seem, especially for an early stage enterprise software company whose customers are early adopters who do not need training. At this stage, not needing training is a good thing. You're so focused on developing your product and finding traction that you do not even think about training or implementing a learning management system (LMS). However, as fast-growing software companies start-ups land larger customers, a funny thing inevitably happens.

They ask for training.

We wrote this blog series for that very moment when new customers begin to ask for training in droves. Here are the 17 ways to know whether your enterprise software customers need training.

Summary of the 17 Ways to Know

You know your enterprise software customers need training when...

1. Customers keep asking for training
2. All of your competitors have training
3. Your services and support teams are spending time on training NOT on implementations
4. You want to get your customers up to speed on the language and specifics of your product to prevent them from going off the rails
5. Potential customers keep telling your sales team that they do not understand the underlying technology of your product
6. You want to institutionalize your technology in the enterprise
7. It's a fire drill every time a customer requests training
8. You want to capture best practices around your products, not just inside your products
9. You want to start providing consistency across your implementations
10. Customer churn is high
11. Your customers are not using all (or most) of the features of your product
12. A majority of support's time is spent teaching customers how to do things
13. It is difficult for your own team to learn your products
14. You want to reduce the amount of time it takes to on-board customers
15. You want to "Cross the Chasm"
16. You want to make an outstanding first impression on your customers or potential customers
17. You want to increase customer satisfaction