LERN Annual Conference

1. 1
Learning Resources Network
Reports to Run
Successful lifelong learning programs make data‐driven decisions, thus they
need to be collecting, analyzing, and reporting on the right student/participant
registration data, course/event programming data, marketing data, and
contract sales data. LERN can provide you the actual data you should be
collecting, and LERN’s data analysis tools can be used to generate many of the
recommended reports to run.
The following definitions will be helpful when reviewing the report
criteria.
Category: A grouping by program
area (business), market segment
(middle school boys), or delivery
method (online) regarded as having
particular shared characteristics.
Subcategory: A secondary or
subordinate category. Careers could
be a subcategory of a Business
category. Normally there is greater
similarity when doing comparisons
at the subcategory level.
Term: A fixed or limited period for
which classes/events is intended to
last. Fall or September‐December
would be a term.
Quarter: A fiscal year is split into
four quarters. July‐September
would be a quarter.
Class: An individual offering of a
subject, such as Accounting 101
offered May 15th.
Course: The master of the class, so
over a year classes are rolled up
into a course for analysis.
Accounting 101 offered three times
during the year can be analyzed at
the course level (all three times) or
class level (just one offering).
Primary Market Segment: A subset
of students/participants or clients
who have common demographics
and interests, such as Generation X
males interested in environmental
science.
Prospect: A potential client you are
hoping to nurture along with other
prospects.
Lead: A prospect showing interest
that you have the potential of
closing.

2. 2
For the majority of lifelong learning programs the following are the most
critical reports to be generating.
Staff Productivity: Fee‐based
revenue/fulltime equivalent staff
equals staff productivity and should
be reported on yearly.
Revenue: Should be reported on
weekly or at least monthly and
compared to the previous year. Best
if reported at the category and
subcategory level. At least once a
year, revenue should be reported at
the course/event and class level.
Registrations: Should be reported
on weekly or at least monthly and
compared to the previous year. Best
if reported at the category and
subcategory level. At least once a
year, registrations should be
reported at the course/event and
class level.
Open Enrollment Offering Type
(certificate, camp, online, and so
on): Should be reported on once a
year, but could be reported on at
the end of each term/quarter by
revenue and registrations. Best if
reported at the category and
subcategory level.
Open Enrollment Benchmarks
(cancellation rate – overall and
new/repeat, average
participants, and average fee).
Should be reported on once a year,
but could be reported on at the end
of each term/quarter, although
cancellation rate might be reported
on weekly. Best to be reported at
the category and subcategory level.
New Offerings (something is new
the first time it is offered): Should
be reported on once a year, but
could be reported on at the end of
each term/quarter. Best if reported
at the category and subcategory
level.
Revenue % to Course/Event
Offering %: Percentage of revenue
generated compared to the
percentage of courses/events
offered should be reported on once
a year, but could be reported on at
the end of each term/quarter.
Quality Scores: At the end of a
term/quarter utilizing class/event
evaluation forms – asking…Overall
score the quality of the class/event
you attended 1 (Poor) to 5
(Excellent) – tabulate to score the
quality of each class/event. Classes
can be rolled up once a year for a
course quality score.
Customer Service Scores: At least
once a year, survey –

3. 3
asking…Overall score the level of
customer service you were
provided 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent) –
a percentage of
students/participants, tabulate, and
score the level of customer service.
Repeat Course/Class Analysis:
Should be reported on once a year,
but could be reported on at the end
of each term/quarter by
subcategory and compares
courses/events for income,
operating margin, registrations, and
quality compared to the
subcategory average.
Addresses: Once a year addresses
should be classified, the percentage
of addresses correctly classifying
reported on, and a list of addresses
to correct generated so addresses
can be updated.
Carrier Routes/Postal Codes:
Once a year determine your
primary carrier routes or postal
codes and most importantly the
carrier routes/postal codes
generating 80 percent of your
revenue or registrations. Depending
how you promote your
programming, you may also report
at the category and subcategory
level.
Demographics: Once a year
analyze birth date/year (breaking
into generational groups), gender,
occupational specialty, job title, and
any other key demographics. Best if
reported at the category and
subcategory level.
Primary Market Segments: Once a
year using demographic and
purchasing data determine your
primary market segments. If your
lifelong learning program is large
enough, it is best if reported at the
category and maybe subcategory
level.
Repeat Rate/Lifetime Value: Once
a year determine your overall
repeat rate (students/participants
or clients repeating from one period
of time to a second period of time as
a percentage of the first period of
time) and lifetime value (1/(1‐
repeat rate) X average fee) at the
category and maybe subcategory
level.
Next Course/Event: Using your
registration data, at least once a
year determine the next
course/event a student/participant
is most likely to take.
Finances: Income, promotion costs,
production costs, direct costs, and
operating margin should be
reported on at the end of the
term/quarter. Best if reported at
the category and subcategory level,
as well as course/event and class
level.

4. 4
Overall Finances: Income,
promotion costs, production costs,
direct costs, operating margin,
administration costs, and net
should be reported on at the end of
each quarter.
Promotion Tracking: At the
conclusion of a promotion
campaign generate a report listing
the promotion methods used, the
cost of each promotion method, the
registrations generated by each
promotion method, the
promotion:registration ratio, and
the cost per registration.
Contract Sales: Each quarter
generate a contract sales report.
01. Include revenue and percentage
of revenue by salesperson,
company, industry, category,
contract, and contract method
(repeat, referral, cold call).
02. Include close time per contract
and average close time.
03. Include participants per
contract and average
participants.
04. Include sales cost per contract
and average sales cost.
05. Include by revenue and
percentage of revenue contract
and client finance operating
margin numbers.
06. Include product development
cost per contract and average
product development cost.
07. Include quality score per
contract and average quality
score.
08. Include cancellation decision
per contract and average
cancellation rate.
09. Include prospect:lead ratio and
lead:contract ratio.
10. Include return‐on‐investment
per contract and average
return‐on‐investment.
11. Include client analysis (client
compared to other clients by
average income, contracts,
contract price, operating
margin, and quality score) and
contract analysis (contracts
compared to other contracts by
average contract price,
operating margin, and quality
score).
12. Include income generated as a
percentage compared to
contracts per category sold as a
percentage.
The Reports to Run Handout is an exclusive report by the professional staff and consultants of the Learning
Resources Network (LERN), and may not be reproduced without written permission.
www.lern.org (800) 678-5376 info@lern.org
PO Box 9, River Falls, WI 54022