How do I know if I should buy a course?

There’s so much to learn and as business owners, we love to absorb as much as humanly possible.

But that’s where the pitfall happens. We consume and consume and consume. If we applied half of the actionable information that we consume, we would have zero time in the next 10 years for anything else. (And yes, that figure is statistically backed by science ;) ).

Seriously though, like myself, I would assume that you have had periods where you are reading, watching, listening to amazing and valuable information, taking notes and making countless todos for days on end.

Especially around the end of the year when all the sales and marketing kicks into overdrive we get teased with all these shiny objects that seem to be the answer to all our questions.

Financial Aspect to think about

If you haven’t already listened to A184 - How to budget as a freelancer? where you will learn that if you are buying something for $100 and you bring in 20% profit, you need to bring in $500 of revenue, not get another $100.

Marketing tricks

Let’s evaluate another thing here for a second.

Most products and apps serve a purpose, not all purposes.

Most of the marketing around these products, if you look, market to a specific audience with a specific problem.

It’s us that say “Oh I need that!” or “This has to be better than what I’m using right now.”

This goes for courses and education as well.

I want to share with you, 5 questions to ask yourself when evaluating an educational product.

Has the person/company selling the information done it in the past? Are they still doing it?

Not everyone does what they say to do. They preach things that they’ve never tried.

The business world moves fast. Sales, marketing, and client management are the fastest movers.

The specific strategies and tactics that worked last year, 5 years, and 10 years ago, especially in client services, most likely will not work today.

Sure the methodology may apply still in some capacity, but collecting leads via a popup on your homepage saying “Join for updates” worked 8 years ago, but not today.

If the person no longer does what they are teaching, then for me, they aren’t up-to-date. I want to have the best possible information and strategies that are going to keep me out in front.

Am I getting the team or the individual and are they engaged?

I’ve purchased programs before thinking that I was getting the individual, but then didn’t even once see the individual. You know, the one that actually knows the thing being taught and sold me on buying.

Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t anything wrong with working with the team. It’s just that if that’s not conveyed up front, I feel a bit duped.

My thought too is that if the teacher is the one I’m looking to sign up with that has that “thing” I want, working with someone else, I may only get 80% of the “thing”.

What is available for free?

Do the research! Read some of the other content, listen to podcasts, watch videos of the instructor. Make sure that you can see yourself hanging out with that person.

If there’s just not a fit from a personality perspective, how likely are you to learn something from them.

Think back on the teachers in school that you didn’t like at all vs those that you still remember how awesome they were.

The other side of this is does their free content deliver value? Or is everything they put out lead you to buy something?

Their teaching ability can be explored here as well. If they don’t explain the steps or answer objections in an insightful way, maybe they aren’t the best teacher.


Where does this fit in with me?

Am I buying this for the “someday list” or is it something that will help me accomplish something today?

The “someday list” is great, but my experience with buying products that go in with this is that they collect that digital dust. It also falls into that trap of point 1.

By the time I get around to it, has a year passed?

If I’m working on something today or in the very near future and the program can help me accelerate learning and get to implementation faster, then I’m more likely to buy.

Can I find out about the course from someone who’s been there?

No doubt there are all sorts of testimonials and social proof being displayed about how awesome the program is.

Find those people on Twitter, FB, wherever and ask them what they liked and didn’t like about the program. That will help you in the evaluation department. Chances are that they bought it for a different reason than you would.

After evaluating the purchase for 24 hours and it still makes sense to go ahead and buy, then do it. But if not then don’t. If it’s good and worth it, it’ll be there when you are ready to buy.

If it’s not there, then you saved yourself a lot of wasted time and money.