Admissions: An Honest Assessment

Let's be honest.  While most admissions directors don't come from a corporate sales environment and will often balk at being labeled a sales person, admissions is, in fact, sales.  Granted, the way in which an admissions counselor goes about "selling" ought to be different than the car salesman down the street.  However, there are sales principles that can be gleaned from the car showroom floor that, when applied, can separate a good admissions counselor from a great one.   Perserverance is one valuable lesson we can learn from the "sales world."

If you are a head of school or an admissions director, I encourage you to pay attention to the research from the National Sales Executive Association found in the graphic below and examine how you are following up with prospective parents.  Here is one stat that really sticks out:  "80% of Sales are made on the 5th to 20th contact". 

Are you giving up too soon?  Do you think your "product" is so great they will buy after the first few engagements?  Do you have enough "touches" with a prospect to build a relationship?    All of these questions need to be answered by a head of school with their admissions team.

May I Make a Suggestion?

I encourage you sit down and take a careful look at your follow-up process with enrollment leads.   One thing we do with our clients is implement a lead nurturing process that uses content to build more trust with a prospect.  

This process compliments the prospects' journey of getting to "know" your school through marketing automation by engaging with meaningful content where they are in the "shopping" process.  If planned out correctly, it can help nurture a prospect to the point that they can automatically be handed off as an admissions-ready lead.  This automation has to be natural and customized for each school's prospects and admissions team.  When set up correctly, it is very powerful.  

If your marketing and admissions processes are built to persevere, you can increase the number of prospects that will convert into to campus visits, applicants, and eventually enrollments. 

IS YOUR ADMISSIONS TEAM PERSEVERING WITH YOUR PROSPECTS?

 

From Visually.