Re: Seeding the market (was Informix Directions)

On Fri, 06 Feb 1998 01:13:34 -0800, Cosmo Lee <"* N O - S P A M * cosmo"@echonyc.com> wrote: +Companies need to see customer education as Marketing. It should be incumbent +on Informix to educate the users. Spending marketing money this way would be +incredibly cost-effective. Trainers are cheap. If you train a class of +30-40 new developers, you only need to sell one new _small_ license to +immediately recoup the cost of the training. Well, speaking as someone who is currently running an Informix training site (we are an Informix Authorized Education Center), I can say that you are pretty wrong in a lot of what you say. First, trainers are not cheap, at least those whose knowledge and background is up to the level needed to deliver QUALITY training. Let's say you are an expert in DSA: you could consult for between $100 and $200/hr. Why should you do training any cheaper? If your skill set can command only relatively low wages ("trainers are cheap"), what kind of trainer could you possibly make? This doesn't even consider the cost of facilities, equipment, etc.. Training is by NO means cheap. Furthermore, your point of "train them and they will buy," is also, I think, misplaced. Developers want to learn skills that allow them to command more $$, no? If they do not see a demand for Informix products, they are not going to take training even if it is free. If the products and thus the training are in demand, it is foolish to throw away the training revenue (services are ofen more lucrative than the s/w). It may well be a better strategy to give away the s/w and charge for the support, training, and other services. Also, as I have stated elsewhere, history has shown us that developers do NOT drive s/w sales in any significant numbers. So having more folks trained in Informix aren't likely to make that big a difference in sales, at least not enough to justify the loss of training revenue. Dave