Critical Pieces to the New Student Sales Process - Joe Galea
Posted by Member Solutions on Tue, Aug 17, 2010 @ 11:30 AM
I have the pleasure of speaking with school owners daily. When I ask whether they need the most help signing up new students or retaining existing ones, the most frequent response I hear is, "Signing up new students!" I imagine most of you are nodding your heads in agreement. And why not? Your primary expertise of providing quality classes, a skill directly related to teaching, results in retention success.
Learning to sell was not a skill required to open your school, earn your black belt, or even graduate high school! It's no wonder so many school owners struggle for ways to increase sales.
Although this blog post isn’t going to teach you how to sell (there’s insufficient space for that), I do hope it changes the way you think about selling and thereby enables you to be more comfortable and confident.
Some background. . .
When business owners discuss selling, they often refer specifically to the time they spend sitting with their potential new students hoping to fill out membership paperwork. While this is certainly part of selling, it's critical to understand that selling comprises all areas of your business.
I find it helpful to categorize selling into the following four areas of your business, which should also serve as steps in the selling process: Market Research; Marketing; Sales; and Retention.
Market Research
Before you can efficiently sell anything, you need to have something that others want. This understanding begins with market research. Big businesses spend millions of dollars analyzing their markets before brochures are created and salespeople are trained.
Ask yourself if your community wants what you are offering. How do you know? If you teach it, will they come? If the answer is not a resounding “Yes!” success may be minimal (if any) and not likely sustainable.
Start a simple list of what your community needs and wants in a Martial Arts school. You can ask existing students to provide some feedback, but be sure you have strong input from non-students, such as community leaders (those connected to the groups you serve, like teachers, organizations, business groups, etc.) as well as individuals. For example, talk with members of the Parent Teachers Association. The goal of market research is to give you a strong understanding of what people want.
Marketing
Marketing utilizes the results of your market research and develops a message to effectively communicate your offering. It also decides through what channels the message will be disseminated. Marketing has two primary goals: to establish your brand and reputation, and to generate leads.
Both market research and marketing are key components to the overall sales process. If you’re trying to sell without having invested time in these areas, you may never reach your potential. These initial steps provide the guidelines your salespeople will use as resources throughout the selling process.
Sales
Sales is the next and often most difficult step for school owners. All too often, owners will "wing it" when working with prospects, and they find themselves talking about the price of tuition instead of the compelling reasons why the prospects should join.
In order to be effective, you need a system to follow, a coordinated plan that ensures that you are educating your prospects about your services. And by educating, aren’t you really teaching?
I often advise our clients to approach selling from a consulting perspective. This is my approach to selling and I find that it is more rewarding, more comfortable and achieves the best results. This is why many of your sales are really made in the introductory lesson rather than at the desk thereafter.
Retention
And finally I’ll briefly discuss retention, where many of you already have success naturally. Retention means re-selling and delivering on the promise you made at the time of sale. If students joined because they wanted to get into shape, they’ll want to be sweating at the end of class. If they joined to achieve their black belts, they’ll need to see that they are progressing. Most school owners and instructors are in their comfort zones when teaching is the means to the end, and, let’s face it, good retention starts and ends with good teaching!
Photo Credit: gunnsi
