Last week, we hosted the first Education-Led Growth™ Summit. This was a daylong series of talks on how education drives measurable business impact.
We heard from 14 different speakers on topics ranging from the future of education-led growth, to certification best practices, to customer education across the customer lifecycle.
Catch the Replays
Did you miss the summit, or certain sessions? We’ve got you covered. You can catch all the recordings here.
Read the Takeaways
Prefer to read? We’ve compiled takeaways from each session for you below.
1. Education is about more than engagement.
Engagement is an early stage metric that helps us understand if people are aware of and interested in the content we’re providing. But we have to go to the next level—proving business impact.
During his opening session, Intellum CEO Chip Ramsey talked about the evolution of education metrics and how smarter customers and partners lead to higher value realization, retention, and revenue growth.
2. Simplify the business outcomes you report on.
There are a number of metrics you can report on, as evidenced by Intellum CXO Greg Rose’s talk during the summit.
To make it easier to justify expense and prove ROI to your executive team, we recommend rolling up your metrics to the following four categories:
- Revenue
- Retention
- Performance
- Cost Reduction
Check out Greg’s talk, A Simple Framework for Establishing Business Outcomes, for more on how you can align education KPIs to these key business metrics.
3. Educated employees drive business outcomes.
We know that an educated customer is a better customer—but the same is true for employees! Brent O’Bryan, SVP of Global Training & Development at Allied Universal, shared how they’ve radically decreased employee turnover through education.
More than that, they’ve created pathways for internal promotion, significantly decreased cost, and improved safety through education and training. Can you ask for better results?!
4. Certifications aren’t dead—but they do lead to higher competency.
Recent research from Forrester (commissioned by Intellum) shows that the number of customer education teams offering certifications has stayed the same over the last five years.
And for good reason. While just-in-time learning has its place, more formalized, curriculum-based learning leads to better business outcomes.
Tia Samuel-Owusu, Sr. Program Manager of Education at Intellum, and Doug Pietrzak, Education Consultant at FreshCognate, shared lessons learned and best practices for developing certifications during their session.
Some highlights:
- Plan thoroughly. Certifications take time. Make sure you have enough time set aside for planning, development, review, and iteration.
- Get stakeholder sign-off. Make sure stakeholders have the opportunity to review and approve the work in progress as you move through each of the project milestones.
- Focus on the learner. As educators, we straddle the balance between business and learner needs. But a strong focus on the learner will lead to better results for the business down the road.
- Leverage data. Use data to track progress and refine the certification over time. This ensures that the program continues to meet the evolving needs of your audience.
5. Think bigger about your potential impact.
We typically think of customer education as impacting the customer lifecycle post-sale. But what if it could do more?
Liam Kilgallon, Director of Mews University & Academic Partnerships, shared how he pitched his company on education across the customer lifecycle—from awareness to adoption to advocacy.
Here’s what Liam’s CMO, Leah Anathan, has to say about Mews University: “Educated prospects become confident buyers, and through our educational initiatives, we empower new customers to make informed decisions that drive successful business outcomes for their properties.”
6. The AI revolution is just getting started—and there are lots of efficiencies ahead to be gained.
Are you sick of hearing about AI yet? Hopefully not, because it has enormous potential to improve the learner experience, the admin experience, and the content creator’s experience.
Intellum’s Anderson Campbell and Dave Ibis shared Intellum’s recent AI innovations, as well as what’s currently in development, during their session.
7. Boost product adoption with the right content at the right time.
If your learner engagement has dipped, you may be on a mission to increase stickiness. Greg Nist, Senior Director of Learning and Enablement at Qlik, shared an easy solution: Push relevant content out from your LMS and into your platform, so that the customer gets help right where they need it.
8. Listen to the language your executive team speaks.
Your executive team is ultimately making the decisions on what to invest in—and what’s not worth investing in. During our Growth Makers Awards panel, we heard great advice from this year’s award winners.
Vikas Wadhwani, Director of Learning & Certifications at Meta, talked about the importance of listening to the words your executive team uses, and using the same language when talking about your education program. Pay attention to what matters most to your executive team, then make sure your education initiatives are driving toward those goals.
9. Consider the cost of doing nothing.
Liam, another of our panelists, encouraged us to think not only about return on investment (ROI) but the cost of inaction (COI). What is your company missing if it doesn’t invest in customer education?
This could have an impact on brand awareness, lead nurturing, customer activation, product adoption, and more. When talking about your customer education programs, call out what will happen if there’s no investment or no further investment.
10. Look for ways to drive the business forward.
Greg Nist, Senior Director of Learning & Enablement at Qlik, talked to us about how part of Qlik Learning’s success has been looking ahead to what can drive the business forward. Often, education takes a reactive role—decreasing support tickets. But what if you started with the end goal in mind?
Libi del Villar, Manager, Leadership Development Programs at Allied Universal, shared similar thoughts: Part of the success of Allied Universal’s training and development programs has been a constant focus on improvement. Rather than resting on their laurels, they’re continuously gathering feedback and iterating on their program to drive even better results.
How Are You Using Education to Drive Growth?
Education is more than a support function—it’s a key business driver. By thinking more expansively about what education can do, the possibilities to drive positive ROI are endless.
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