So, you took your prospect through the entire enrollment process and they signed on the dotted line...
...and now you're thinking you're home free.
Hang on a sec' there before you start celebrating, because your elation just might be premature.
Just because you convinced someone to join your dojo, and just because you got them to sign a membership contract, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have them in the bag.
Oh no, not at all.
You see, folks in this industry have traditionally had a habit of doing a great job with selling people on the benefits of training in the martial arts, but a piss-poor job of delivering on those promises.
"But we're not one of those schools," you say. "We teach good martial arts classes - we're not a McDojo, not like those other schools."
You don't say. Well, guess what? There's a lot more to promise fulfillment after the sale than just teaching hard classes.
Let's take a few steps back to when the once-prospect-and-now-student first heard about your school. Was it through an ad, a flier, or a web search?
And in this ad, flier, or on your website, did you promise to do all sorts of cool and wonderful things?
- Build confidence!
- Improve self-control!
- Respect for others!
- Better grades!
- Greater self-esteem!
- Bully proofing!
- Learn REAL self-defense!
- Become a BLACK BELT!
And on, and on, and on...
See, this is how we sell martial arts to the public. Yet, after all is said and done and the prospect has been through our carefully choreographed song and dance and signed on the dotted line -
Often the reality of what we're actually delivering pales in comparison to the promises we made when we were selling them on our services.
Folks, I'm here to tell you that if you don't deliver on your promises - those promises you made in your ads, on your website, over the phone, in the intro lesson, and during that enrollment conference...
...then that new student has zero obligation to stay at your dojo and pay out their membership. None.
And truth be told, no matter what contract you get them to sign, if you're not delivering on your promises and they walk, it's your fault.
Not only that, but the absolute WORST thing you could do after disappointing a new client and making them quit is to send them to a collections agency.
The WORST thing. Period.
You see, I do weird things in my spare time, like studying martial art school websites and ads, and reading online reviews of martial art schools.
What's really funny and ironic to me is that the number one thing people say when giving poor reviews of martial art schools is not that the school owner or instructor was bad at their job.
No, instead the most common complaint has to do with contracts and billing issues.
It almost always goes back to the customer saying that they wanted to cancel their membership for "X" reason, but the school wouldn't let them do it, and then they (or their billing company) continued to bill them despite their protestations.
Now, we all know that a contract is a contract. Try getting out of your membership at Globo Gym. Not gonna' happen.
But here's the rub...
In most cases these unfortunate incidents could easily be avoided by doing just two simple things:
- Full disclosure and transparency at the point of sale, and
- Promise fulfillment after the sale.
These two actions on the part of the school owner will prevent the majority of your clients from wanting to leave your school early and "breaking" their contracts.
And, it will keep your dojo from becoming one of those schools that have a slew of 1-star and 2-star reviews online (which is not going to do a whole lot for your business, let me tell you).
So remember, just because you got them to sign a contract, the selling process isn't over. After the sale, you have a responsibility to ensure that the customer doesn't experience seller's remorse.
And the way you do that is to make sure that they understand the terms of their membership completely at the point of sale.
Plus, you MUST deliver on the promises you made in your ads and during the sales process, so the customer continues to have complete confidence that they made the right decision in joining your school.
Fail to do these two things, and the next time you check your school's profile online you're likely to find that your coveted five-star rating has slipped to a three-star or worse.
But do those things, and you'll stand head and shoulders above your competition - because believe me, the vast majority of schools out there don't care enough to do them.
So, be a school that cares about more than just collecting a check each month.
Sell with honesty, and deliver on your promises.
