- No one pays attention to them when they walk in -
- Front area is shoddy and dirty, giving bad first impression -
- Staff has poor interpersonal skills, unwittingly insults prospect (this is more common that you might think) -
- Staff has poor sales skills, and fails to get the enrollment -
- Sticker shock (unrealistic expectation of price set in the prospects mind before they come into the dojo) -
I had just moved into a new location, and we had new mats and equipment, new furniture, fresh paint on the walls, and I keep a clean school, so presentation wasn't the issue.
And, I make sure that I greet everyone when they walk in the front door. And when I'm on the floor my wife greets prospects and visitors when they walk in. So, that wasn't it, either.
Granted, I'm not the most personable guy in the world - but I know how to talk to people. So, I wasn't putting people off when they visited the school for the first time.
And sales skills? Well, now we're getting closer to the issue. It's not that my sales skills were bad - oh no. But we'll get into that in a second...
How Sticker Shock Can Tank Your Enrollments...
Sticker shock... ah, now that's one of the problems I initially faced, and here's why -
My first school was located in an affluent area. That meant that the majority of prospects who visited my school had plenty of disposable income.
Not so at my second school. Most of the families who came in were on a budget. Sure, they had disposable income, but less than at my previous location.
Here's where I screwed up... I had used a "30 days free" offer for years at my first school, and I converted the heck out of people on that offer. Since price was rarely an issue, all I had to do was show them the value and quality of my programs.
But at the second school, we were in the beginning of a recession in a town where the median income was much lower. So, I ended up with a ton of tire kickers responding to that "30 days free" offer.*
It was incredibly frustrating. I'd get a bunch of people in on the free offer, and I'd expect to enroll them before their 30 days were up. Then, I'd take them into the office and show them the rates, and they'd flip out.
It's no wonder why I went bald at an early age...
The Sales Price Becomes The Expected Price
What that means is that, in certain markets, your sales price needs to be a sort of door-keeper for your actual price. Setting your sales price at a level that is in line with your regular prices will ensure that the majority of the people who respond to your special offers can afford your regular tuition, too.
Okay, I can already hear some of you screaming at me all the way from the other end of the interwebs. Right now you're parroting back something you heard at such-an-such convention or read in some sales book about how you "never pre-qualify a customer."
Yeah, that's bullshit. You never pre-qualify a customer ON SIGHT, but pricing a special offer in order to chase away tire kickers is a good idea when dealing with certain markets.
Change Your Tactics, Test Everything
And that's what I did. I started using paid offers exclusively (anything from $19.95 or $29.95 for a week, to $149 for six weeks, etc.) and guess what?
All of a sudden it got a LOT easier to enroll prospective students. A whole lot easier.
But that didn't solve all my issues - not by a long shot. I was doing fine under what would have been considered normal circumstances, but these weren't normal times...
...in fact, I needed to generate a whole lot more income to get my school in the black. I'll tell you what I did in tomorrow's email.
