Survey results- Why people do not take training

**JimConway** · 03-20-2007, 02:56 PM

When I started the thread on why people that carry do not take training, I never expected to level of respone that I received. First and most important, I want to thank everyone that offered their thoughts. Over the next few days i will try to summarize the results into a small list of categories. I hope that this will enable all of us to see where we fit on our reasons for not training.
If you remember, i started the survey with some data taken from Kathy Jackson's site (www.corneredcat.com). Kathy did a very similar survey and got the following results:

"I can teach myself to shoot.
I do not need to know about that "high speed - low drag" ninja stuff and tactics would have no value to me
It is a "guy" thing
I took a class once and hated it.
A guy at the gun store told me that taking a class would get me into legal trouble.
What is in it for me? I already use a gun safely
I would be embarrassed to train with police and military types."

Just a quick review of her results shows that our results are going to differ from Kathy's. As just one example, in our survey no one mentioned "that "high speed - low drag" ninja stuff" I should mention that I will be interpreting you responses and will include not just what you said but also what I think that you meant or implied. I summarizing the results, I will not single out any specific response or responder. Do not fear, even if I strongly disagree with the comment it will be included in the summary.

I completed the sorting about a month ago and found the rough results both interesting and helpful to me and the staff of Neshooters. One of the reasons that I started this whole process was that kathy made a comment that firearm instructors could do a better job at communicating the details of what we offer. At neshooters, we all want to keep improving and to do that we must reach you the student or prospective student.

Again, I want to thank all of you for the time that you spent giving us the data that we needed.

**JimConway** · 03-21-2007, 10:05 AM

I am going to send you the results in a series of messages. Last night I finished sorting the reasons why people that carry firearns do not get training.

Three different reasons are tied for last place, as follows:

I took a class and hated it.
I will not know the people what will be in the class.
The courses are over priced.

There are a lot of reasons to "hate a class". The one that I have seen most often relate to not having an open mind and being open to trying different ideas. I have seen people that have always shoot "weaver" that were bent out of shape at being asked to shoot isoceles. I know of several people that have taken entry level classes and now think that they should only take advanced classes. The problem that these people share is that they have not got the basics down fully and have to remember the basic technique while they are trying a more advanced technique. This can be very frustrating.

I have a hard time understanding people worrying about knowing the others in the class. My assumption is that they are worried that the others in the class will be a lot better than they are. My approach to this is that I have never learned a thing from someone that is worse than I am. This is not entirely true, in that I may learn something not to do from such a person.

The comment that training courses are overpriced in an interesting one. When we first decided to start being trainers to New England, our goal was that the training be more affordible. Conside the cost of going to Gunsite or Thunder Ranch, for example. These courses cost over $1,000.00, not including airfare, lodging, meals and ammo. Thus the cost will be somewhere arround $2,500.00 or more. The outside trainers that we bring to New England cost somewhere between $400.00 and $550.00 plus a range fee of about $25.00. The Suarez courses that we teach cost $265.00 includuing the range fee. Finally, we are offering 2 free shooting clinics this summer where the total cost is a range fee of $20.00. I am totally baffled as to why anyone would feel that any of the courses are over priced.

**Rob Boudrie** · 03-21-2007, 10:41 AM

There is a big difference between "overpriced" and beyond "beyond the price many in the target market are willing to pay". I suspect that many people who don't have $500 or so to pay for a course really mean "I'ts not something I can spend $500 on" rather than "it's overpriced." If you want meaningful data on the price issue, I suggest your survey attempt to capture the nuance between these two very different possible responses.

**JimConway** · 03-21-2007, 10:58 AM

Rob
Redoing the survey is an interesting thought. The problem is that we have very little control of the prices structures except for paying part of the cost ourselves. We have, to some extent done that in the past, but as our number of courses have grown, we are unable to continue picking up portions of the cost.
I think that our course prices are fair as we have had students for as far away as Georgia, South Carolina and North Dakota, to name a few.

**Rob Boudrie** · 03-21-2007, 11:09 AM

I didn't mean to suggest changing prices (just check the cost of a computer technology course sometime to get perspective and your courses look cheap); just suggesting that you may be missing the mark if you think the issue is "people think the courses are overpriced" rather than "people aren't interested enough to spend that kind of $$ on a class".

**derek** · 03-21-2007, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Rob Boudrie

just suggesting that you may be missing the mark if you think the issue is "people think the courses are overpriced" rather than "people aren't interested enough to spend that kind of $$ on a class".

+1

**JimConway** · 03-21-2007, 11:58 AM

Rob
Thanks for the comment. One responder's comment was that the courses were "over priced" and those were the words that I used. As you pointed out some people may not be interested in spending that kind of money on a course. I am sure that that is true.
I am trying to not interpret any meanings other than the exact words. In some cases the sub meaning is painfully obvious but I should not and will not list that as a reason for not training. I will leave it to the readers to make their own interpretetions or the specific remarks.

**TonyD** · 03-21-2007, 12:12 PM

When might we see the full results?

**JimConway** · 03-21-2007, 01:05 PM

I hope that have them done within a week

**TonyD** · 03-21-2007, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by JimConway

I hope that have them done within a week

Thanks, Jim.

Survey results- Why people do not take training

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