Never stopping is not a philosophy or some silly motto. That principle must be applied to everything: every company, entity or business. In the modern economy, stopping means degrading. There is no reaching balance or stability; it is either a stable movement further or a steady decay. You don’t want the latter, believe me. For example, a training program for bank employees a long time ago switched to such solutions.
Considering these things, the time has come to talk about LMS platforms. What are they, how are they priced, and how do you pick the most suitable one? This guide breaks down the popular options, asks how much a learning management system costs and helps you choose the best value based on your sales training needs.
What Is an LMS?
It is software that masters training. One can bring learners and work with materials within a single platform. Plus, these platforms offer robust tracking and analytics capabilities. For example, modern restaurant training software solutions come in the cloud, which ensures safety and convenience and allows service providers to maintain and update the system. The same can be applied to the LMS for other industries. The key features include:
- Managing content like documents, videos, quizzes,
- Automate notifications and enrollment
- Track user progress and completion
- Mobile access for on-the-go learning
For sales teams, an LMS keeps reps up-to-date on the latest product updates, sales techniques, prospecting approaches, and more that boost their effectiveness. Yet, one important question often results in a joyful ride over the pitfall rocks: how much does an LMS cost?
Understanding LMS Pricing Models
It is always going down to the money. LMS prices are the most important aspect because they regulate whether opting for this or that LMS platform is a valuable idea. The simple answer here is that the LMS pricing is built around the platforms’ capabilities. You estimate what your business needs, then find the platform that offers features that suit your requirements, and this is done. However, it takes work, mainly due to the financial differences and, of course, the changing requirements of your business.
Popular Pricing Models
When evaluating a learning management system price, one of the most important factors to understand upfront is how pricing works. There are a wide variety of plans and models that each work differently. So, let’s take a look at the LMS price types comparison.
1. Pay per Learner
As it goes from the name, one has to pay here for active learners enrolled. It is flexible and allows you to scale up or down each month. Prices range anywhere from $1 to $12 per learner monthly.
2. Pay per active users
Like per-learner pricing, this bases costs on active users who access the platform in 30-60-day days. Rates range widely from $5 to $25 monthly per active user.
3. Pay as you go.
Also called usage-based pricing, you are charged for actual platform use like storage space, bandwidth transfer, courses or users. Rates fluctuate monthly depending on usage.
4. License Fee/Subscription
This traditional software pricing charges an annual license fee (on-premise LMS) or a SaaS subscription (cloud-based LMS). License fees commonly cost $10,000+ yearly, while SaaS subscriptions start around $1,000 annually.
5. (Free) Open source LMSs
As the name states, these platforms are free and have no software license costs. However, ongoing maintenance, customization and support costs apply, which can still run thousands annually.
How to Choose the LMS Best Pricing Model
Understanding LMS pricing models is one thing, but determining which option is better for your case is quite the other. Even if the cost of LMS is OK for you, there are still aspects to consider. While I cannot give you a golden pill and the all-in-one solution, I can provide you with the information to help you make a knowledge-based choice. Remember, the ideal LMS pricing model aligns with your current and future sales training needs.
Taking a systematic approach involves assessing four key areas:
Step 1: Tally up the users you plan to train
First, list all sales reps, managers, enablement staff and other teams like customer service or channel partners that require access to training. For each group:
- Count current staff numbers expected to use the LMS.
- Factor in planned new hires over the next 1-3 years.
- Consider employee locations if your business has distributed teams nationally or globally. More locations may increase costs for localized training content.
- Weigh employee turnover rates. Higher churn means your user totals fluctuate yearly as reps leave and join.
Documenting current and projected user counts informs the number of learner licenses you require from an LMS. And remember to include indirect teams like CS that contribute to overall sales chain success.
Step 2: Estimate the Duration
Next, determine each group’s estimated system usage tenure – basically the length of time an individual will remain actively engaged with assigned training. Here’s what to analyze:
- Evaluate average new hire ramp periods for new reps to complete onboarding requirements like products, objection handling and consultative skills modules. This can span 3-12 months.
- Connect with management on ongoing training mandates that keep seasoned reps continuously enrolled, such as monthly product releases, annual compliance courses, and periodic sales technique refreshers. This support needs likely persist a rep’s entire tenure.
- Talk to HR about current sales role retention rates. Longer rep and manager tenures, like 4-5+ years, keep an individual progressing through a curriculum over multiple years, so factor this into usage terms. Breakout groups like reps, managers, and HQ staff should be used for planning purposes if tenure lengths differ significantly.
Documenting expected user engagement terms for each group guides how long you must budget training program costs. And longer utilization equates to ‘stretching out’ expenses.
Step 3: Estimate how many courses you’re going to upload
An aspect easily overlooked is calculating the volume of digital learning content you intend on deploying via the LMS over time like:
- Training materials – Count product sheets, PDFs, videos, presentations, etc. Include those created in-house or licensed from external content providers.
- Courses and quizzes – Tally pre-packaged courseware, SCORM modules or customized courses across sales, products, leadership/coaching, DEI, compliance, etc.
- Exams and assessments – Inventory skills tests, culture indexes, sales assessments and similar used for development or certification management
The variety and volume of learning assets inform required LMS content storage limits as low as a few gigabytes for under 100 pieces of content or unlimited cloud capacity if you envision hundreds of digital assets. Linked to this are bandwidth and streaming costs for online video and multimedia playback, so factor in blended learning that leverages rich media.
Step 4: Define essential features and integrations
Lastly, the document must have LMS functionality or external tools connections vital to execute sales training delivery:
- Mobile access – Evaluate sales team mobility needs for enablement apps or offline modes.
- Administration options – Consider usage tracking requirements or hierarchical user permissions essential for managing decentralized sales teams.
- Reporting and analytics – Identify metrics critical for demonstrating program engagement, completion rates, and effectiveness insights
- CRM embed or integration – Assess tying content directly to customer records for increased contextual learning
- Sales tools ecosystem – Examine links to modeled sales conversations in conversation intelligence tools or embed Chili Piper meeting scheduling workflows that are useful for sales.
Clearly defining specialized functionality aligns pricing with the exact LMS capabilities sales teams require day-to-day to consume and apply learning content.
What Differentiates Budget and High-end LMS Systems
The cost of a learning management system is a pretty reliable indicator of what you can get from the platforms differentiated by pricing. Typically, cheap LMS platforms only offer essential features, while higher-priced systems provide advanced functionality specialized for sales teams.
Budget LMS: Priced less than $5 monthly per user, these systems cover basics like content libraries, automated notifications and progress tracking. Support and integration capabilities are limited.
High-End LMS: Costing over $15 monthly per user, enterprise systems cater specifically to sales training with gamification, sales methodology content and CRM and sales tools integrations. Robust analytics and custom branding options also apply for specialized sales use cases.
Remember, learning management system costs are not a pinnacle nor the main pillar on which to base your choice. It is only a single aspect., Yes, it is important, but never neglect the other matters I have shared with you here.
