I have become increasingly curious in the last several months about how traditional sales can be applied to enrollment management, so I’ve been participating in various webinars, doing reading, and listening to podcasts to learn more about sales as it applies to our industry.
In the training I’ve been doing, there is one key concept that keeps coming up: follow-up. Research shows that the number one way that sales people “leave money on the table” is by neglecting to follow up with prospects. LeadSimple notes that 80% of sales people have given up after three contacts.
Obviously, there are many benefits to follow up, but the Small Business Chronicle notes one of particular intrigue: follow up allows the sales person to head off problems prior to the sale, which decreases “product returns” and “customer complaints”. In our world, this translates to attrition and/or negative parking lot talk that is probably the result of misguided expectations.
Many schools are doing a wonderful job of following up that range from drip-campaigns to personalized postcards after a campus visit. However, I’m convinced that the payoff is well worth the effort to make follow-up even more personalized, more specific and more targeted. I challenge you, today, to look at your list of prospects or referral sources, and make just one follow-up contact. Call a prospective parent and comment on something unique about their child, reach out to a placement consultant to see if they have questions following the packet you sent over the summer, invite a feeder school leader to an upcoming concert at your school. These moves are all ways of “pre-paving” the way to smoother sales down the stretch as we get into the very busy holiday season.
