|
|||||
 |
|||||
|
|
 |
||
Pro-Active Selling To Quickly Supercharge You EnrollmentsBy: Michael J. Dolpies Maybe you are familiar with Stephen Covey’s book; The 7Habits Of Highly Effective People. If it has been a while and you’ve forgotten what habit number one is or you’ve never read the book, I’ll take this opportunity to remind you or share with you what he labels as habit number one. It’s “Be proactive.” In our business and personal lives we prevent problems and crisis
by being proactive. As martial-artists we have the discipline to act
and not just be acted upon. In this article you’re going to discover
how the first habit can help you with the most important function of
your school; The enrollment of new members. I’ll
quickly defend my opinion that new members are most important with
one simple statement…Without new students you’ve got nobody to
retain! Let’s start with a question…What stands in the way of you enrolling more of the people who come in your door? The answer; objections that you can’t overcome. Nothing else, unless your intro stinks, but we’ll assume it’s good for argument’s sake. If you didn’t get objections you’d enroll everyone wouldn’t you? Selling 101 says: objections are good. Now if you feel that objections are not good I agree, I hate to get objections, which is the exact reason I do my intros and enrollment conferences the way I do. And if you follow my advice you will have no problem enrolling over 90% of all your intros on a 12 month agreement in less than 1 hour! I am not talking about some BS $75 per month tuition either-I’m talking real tuition $139.00 per month and higher! So let’s get pro-active…. Objections are questions and they indicate interest (Sales 101 again) but wouldn’t you agree with this. If you ask the possible objection in the form of a question and the prospect answers it, that’s like them answering their own objection. Isn’t that nice! Wouldn’t that be a change for the better? So here’s what you do. Take all of the objections you get. Schedule, Spouse, Commitment (which in its ugliest form is, “Do I have to sign a contract?”) and the one you hate the most: ”We’ll think it over.” And what you want to do is phrase each objection in the form of a question that the prospect can answer. For example: “What kind of schedule do you and your husband keep, as far as work and stuff goes?” And don’t forget the little guy, “So is Joey involved in any sports at the present time?” Here’s the bottom line with this example; you must get their schedule before you give them yours, you must find out how long they’ve been “thinking about it” before they can tell you they want to think about it. If the other spouse isn’t present you should make sure that you’re dealing with the decision maker- In this situation I ask flat out before I begin my intro, “If all goes well today and you can see that this will be a good program for Joey are you ok to go ahead without your husband?” Than I know whether I want to present a price or invite them back to a group class where I can “meet the other parent” As you begin to control the conversation with good questions designed to bring any possible objections out the objections will begin to disappear when you ask for the enrollment. Notice I didn’t put “it cost too much up there?” Never give a price until you establish value. You establish value during the intro. If you’re getting “it costs too much” go to work on your intro then find better prospects. Be proactive during your enrollments by asking questions instead of waiting for objections. As Dr. Covey would say “be proactive rather than reactive.” These principles go hand and hand with good marketing because it makes no sense to bring in a bunch of leads if you don’t have a method to easily enroll 90% or more of them! Michael Dolpies started his first school in 1998 when he
was just 18 years old. He is the creator of many top selling martial
arts business resources including: Quick Karate Sales Letters
and The Magic Intro Program. He is the co-founder of
|
|
|