He was the President of a Management Company.  He liked my training.  He wanted me to come train his entire leasing staff.  But then he balked at the price, "I refuse to pay $800 an hour for training...I will agree to $300/hour.

So I billed him $55,200 for his 3 hour class.  I wish.

ChapmanAlliance.com offers extensive research on the amount of time a trainer invests to develop different types of delivered training including e-learning and live instructor-led seminars.  Activities necessary in developing a live instructor-led training module include writing content, lesson plan, research, handouts, workbooks, PowerPoint and other multi-media visuals.  Ancillary activities include practicing the delivery, researching related learning activities, purchasing and packing all the physical parts, and traveling to and from the seminar.  Related time and expense is spent in the Speaker's personal and professional growth investments like attending conferences, reading articles and books, and sharpening presentation skills.  Then MORE time is spent selling and marketing courses to associations and management companies.

Then the trainer presents the material.

According to the research, average development time for mid-level instructor-led training is 43 hours for every one hour of live delivery.  Extend this statistic to an half-day 3-hour workshop which will average 129 hours to develop (43 x3).  Personally, I've always felt the most important "time" invested is the years of industry-specific and life experience of an expert speaker/trainer.  This research now gives me the additional data of real development time and a harsh realization that I am a professional paid speaker....for $18.60 an hour.