How Comfort Steals Enrollment

Those of you who have been in my trainings know that I say complacency is enrollment suicide. If you have been doing the same things for years to convert inquiries into enrollments and retain most of your customers, there’s a good chance you have become too comfortable, maybe even complacent. If that is remotely true for you, let me ask you this. Has your marketplace changed in the last few years? Are there more competitors? Are prospects investigating in different ways? Are parent expectations changing? If you answered, “Yes,” to any one of these, your complacency can cost you enrollments and revenue. And when that happens, it will cost the children you serve, because those you lose will not get the kind of quality program you deliver. It’s a lost opportunity.

Here are three ways to make sure you don’t get too comfortable.

1. NEVER STOP MARKETING. Though everything you do is always communicating a marketing message, you need to plan and execute specific goal-directed marketing activities on a regular basis. Include a combination of internal, community, publicity, and online initiatives. People forget fast, and must have constant reminders to recognize your brand, remember your key image message, and inquire or refer you.
2. Stop TELLING and start SELLING. During inquiry calls and center visits, ask more than you tell. Ask about needs and desires, use benefit statements to articulate your unique features that meet those needs, ask if they agree, and ask for the enrollment. Ask where they learned about you, why they chose you, and whom they might know that would also be interested in your services.
3. Find out what your customers REALLY think. Though a satisfaction survey is a good idea, it is only going to tell you the level of satisfaction. To keep from getting too comfortable, make sure your survey also includes questions about expectations not yet met. At least bi-annually, conduct a focus group of your parents to get their perceptions of the relationship you have with them, the quality of your services, and how and where they talk about you. If there answers surprise you, you are too comfortable.

The old adage about assuming and what it can do, is true. A few focused, consistent actions can help you and your team avoid getting too comfortable and suffering the loss of enrollment and reputation it can cause.
For help with any of these skills, refer to Basic Techniques for Securing Enrollment.This updated CD training program includes tips and dialogues that can make all the difference in a parent’s choice.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Aim – Ready – Fire | Marketing Tip

Though “Ready-Aim-Fire” may be good at the shooting range, the order is different for hitting the bulls-eye with your marketing messages.

Aim at the right target. Before you spend time, talent, and capital resources on any marketing effort, first determine exactly which target audience you are aiming to reach. What demographics must they fit to be ideal customers for your product or service? Depending upon your business, this might be age, professional level, family status, income level, etc. Also assess psychographic factors, such as their desires, lifestyle habits, and methods of communicating.

Ready your message. Next, ready your message to quickly communicate your unique image and your ability to deliver a solution your target audience wants. If your message is an advertising one, it should inform, persuade, and call your prospects to action toward purchasing from you. If it’s good, they will see your product or service as a silver bullet.

Fire your marketing message out in the right medium. Putting a terrific marketing message into media your target never sees is a waste. Know where they get information and where they go to research and purchase products or services like yours. Do they look to print, the Internet, social media, broadcast, face-to-face venues, or some combination? Using the right ones will help keep your response rate on target.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

How to Get Good Press | Part 2

Picking right up where we left off with the last blog: How To Get Good Press – here are a few more methods not to be ignored.

Press Release
The most common way for you to provide detailed information to media contacts is with a press release. Whether you email it , fax it , or send it in hard copy, use standard press release format and double space it, making it no more than two pages. If you will be faxing or mailing your release through regular mail, print it out on 8-1/2 X 11 white paper.

List the most important points about your event or information at the beginning of the release, and list other points in descending order of importance. Think who, what, where, when, and why. Since reporters have license to edit what you give them for space, clarity, and story angle, this inverted pyramid style helps them quickly recognize what is least important and can be deleted.

Media Kit
A media kit is the package of materials you send to the media along with your press release. Your media kit can include:
* press release
* fact sheet (A brief piece that can be viewed quickly by the media to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why)
* photos applicable to the submitted information (Be sure you have permission from those in the photos to submit them for publication, and that the photos meet the outlet’s size requirements)
* background information on your center, child care home, or ECE program – a company brochure is fine.
* your contact information (Always include at least two ways to reach you).

Always include a brief cover letter with a strong first sentence that hooks the editor into wanting to read more of your information. For example, What is sticky, gooey, and oh, so much fun? Mud Day at ABC Learning Dock, that’s what!

Depending on the media outlet’s preference, your media kit can be sent via email with attachments or placed in a pocket folder and sent in the mail.

Once you have sent your media kit, make a follow-up call within a few days to make sure the information was received. Offer to provide any additional information the reporter might need.

Social Media
It would be a great injustice to talk about how to get good press and ignore arguably the most influential method out there today for communicating with everyone from customers, to companies and members of the press.

Whatever media kit you come up with, you will want to be able to digitize it and great a web-based version to not only put on your website, but also to be able to promote via social media. Stick with the traditional ones – Facebook, Twitter and especially LinkedIn – when it comes to announcing your media kits and press releases as your audience will be most receptive here.

No matter where you post your information always make sure there is a share button on the page as you will be extremely surprised just how many people will click it to either share with a friend, or re-post to their own social sites.

Another great place to help generate good press for your and your child care center is http://HelpAReporterOut.com - reporters regularly need experts to quote in their news stories and articles. This website helps to bridge together those who have the expertise in a multitude of fields (yes, including child care) with reporters seeking said expert for their story.  I have heard of people even ending up on CNN as a result of this website – that kind of good press for your center cannot be bought!

In any case, when you receive good publicity, be sure to call or write the reporter to thank him or her. A few words of appreciation can go a long way toward their remembering you in your future attempts to generate publicity in their publication or online outlets, or on their broadcast station.

Getting positive press for your early care and education program is a way to make marketing easier and more effective. The effort you spend doing so will help you generate new prospects and referrals for enrollment.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

How to Get Good Press

The power of positive publicity is undeniable. It is one of the most cost-effective ways you can market your center. Publicity generates understanding and good will, so can effectively emphasize the message you are trying to deliver through other methods of marketing. When used well, good publicity can make it easier for you to generate more inquiries and referrals.

Publicity is information with news value, issued through the media as a means of gaining attention, understanding, and support from a selects audience of readers, listeners, or viewers. In a publicity article or broadcast, your message is delivered through the words of a newspaper, magazine, or internet news service reporter, radio or television assignment editor, or talk show host. That gives you third party endorsement.  When the publicity is positive, it can help motivate those prospects to inquire, and that’s exactly what you want!

If you are a director or owner who wants a good return on the minimal time and budget you have to spend on marketing, publicity is a good marketing tool for you. With very little time and effort, you can generate a significant amount of good press for your center.

Media Relations
Develop list of local publications and stations your prospects turn to for news and information. Start to pay attention to the reporters who might be interested in a story about early care and education. It may be a features editor, a reporter in the business section, a children’s section editor, etc. Call each media outlet to verify correct names, titles, addresses, telephone, fax and email. Ask the preferred method of contact. Ask about deadlines and any guidelines for submittal of newsworthy information.

Create Newsworthy Stories
Your chances of getting publicity are significantly increased if you provide the media with news or information that meets these three criteria:
* unique
* timely
* of interest to a broad segment of their readers, viewers, or listeners.

Ideas for newsworthy stories include philanthropic events (such as a clothing drive), accreditation, special events at your center, tips on what to look for in finding quality child care, announcement of a new director, staff member or program, parenting topics such as summer safety tips for kids.

Brainstorm with your staff on what might be newsworthy in your program, then categorize each topic by the editors and publications for which that information is most appropriate.

In the next post we will discuss Press Releases and Media Kits, so stay tuned!

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Increasing Enrollment in a Competitive Market

Does it sometimes seem like the competition is eating away at your enrollment and your profits?

Fierce competition from other centers, public school programs, and changes in government funding are making it mandatory that you sharpen not only your pencil but your marketing tactics. To capture and keep more enrollments in today’s competitive early care and education marketplace requires a keen awareness of what’s happening in your center’s community, a proactive and positive approach to marketing and enrollment building, and a willingness to take the competitive initiative.

What actions can you take now that will help make you the parents’ preference in a competitive menu of child care choices? Three initiatives that will help you increase enrollment no matter what the competition is doing are to investigate, differentiate, and educate.

Investigate Your Market

Knowledge is power, especially if you use it wisely. Determine who currently are your three stiffest competitors. Then decide who is most likely to be the biggest threat to your enrollment one year from now. Investigate each competitor to determine what they do that is similar and different from the way you do it. Go visit your competitors looking for three things they do as well as you do, three they do better, and three things they do not do as well.

Investigate what is important to your parents. Do they perceive that you will meet their changing needs better than your competitors can?

Also investigate your industry. What are the most significant changes taking place in early care and education? How will they impact your competitors and you?

The sooner you investigate your competition, the better equipped you will be to keep your center full, despite their presence.

Differentiate Your Center from Competitors

The more you learn about your competition in comparison to your own services, the easier it will be to differentiate yourself from them. Promote the benefits of your differences in your marketing efforts with prospects and parents.

Don’t forget enrollment building skills as a competitive differentiation. Telephone skills, in particular, can make a decisive impression on parents who are your enrollment prospects. Be sure to state some differentiating features as benefits during inquiry calls.

Educate Your Target Audiences

Educate your target audiences as to why you are the best early care and education choice. Point out your differentiating benefits in all your marketing communications. Focus on the features you have found to be most important to the parents you want to attract and retain. Highlight the differences in your written marketing materials.  Do this without putting down your competition.

Practice your enrollment building skills, so you can easily discuss differentiating features as benefits of enrolling in your center. Remember, parents may now be more well- educated and informed about child care options, but many people drowning in information are thirsty for wisdom. Be the helpful expert.

Investigate, differentiate, and educate. Make these moves and you will be way out ahead of your competition and well on your way to building and maintaining high enrollment.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Ease into Closing with Agreement Questions

If you’re like many center directors, asking a prospective enrollee to come in for a center visit or to enroll can seem abrupt and uncomfortable. Yet, it is these closing questions that help you reach your goal of securing a center visit or the enrollment. Your asking prospects a closing question helps them to act on all the recommendations you have given them. It actually helps them make an important decision.

If there were a way to make closing questions easier to ask, and parents more ready to be asked them, would you want to know it? Well, there is. I call the technique asking trial closing or agreement questions throughout the inquiry call or center visit.

A trial close is a question that merely asks your prospect if they agree with what you have just told them. It is asked after a benefit explanation, but before you ask a final close that requests their decision to visit or enroll. For instance, you might say, “Emma will have an experienced teacher who has been here for seven years. She loves teaching the three year olds. Is that kind of teacher experience and tenure important to you?” The trial closing question is, “Is that kind of teacher experience and tenure important to you?” Most prospects will reply to that question with, “Yes.” The more they say “Yes” to agreement questions you have asked, the easier it will be for them to say “Yes,” when you ask them a final closing question. And the easier it will be for you to ask that final close.

Trial closing questions should be asked periodically throughout the enrollment conversation. They help reassure the prospect that the decision you are leading them toward is a good one for them and their child. And they help you to know if your prospect actually agrees with what you are explaining or whether you need to take a different direction with the enrollment interview.

Try asking trial closing questions in your next enrollment call or visit. The ease with which they help you get to that final “Yes” will be a welcome way to convert more calls and visits with less effort and greater skill.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Asking for the Center Visit without Feeling like a Used Car Salesman

You know what happens. You take a call from a parent inquiring about enrollment. You ask a few questions and then tell them all about your center. AS the conversation comes to a close, you know you should actually ASK them to come in. But you feel like that is awfully pushy. So you tell them you recommend they see the center, they are welcome to stop by, and that they should call if they have any questions in the meantime. What did you just do? You just let a potential enrollment walk away. When you consider the time and resources it took your company to get that inquiry call to come in at all, it is like tossing money down the drain – and even worse, denying that prospect’s child the opportunity to experience the high quality education and care you provide – if you do not use good closing techniques to actually ASK that prospect to come in for a scheduled center visit.

How can you ask for a center visit without feeling like a used car salesman? Here are three easy ways to make asking for the visit a skill you use regularly with comfort and confidence.

Remember your role. When a parent calls to inquire about enrolling her child, your role is two-fold. One is to help her make a good buying decision. The other is to get her to act on your recommendation. Telling her about the benefits of your center is helping with this important family decision. Merely recommending that she come in for a visit is not enough to incent her to take action. You must ask for the visit in order to get her to act on your recommendation.

Gain prospect agreement with trial closes. In my last Marketing Exchange tip, I suggested asking questions to confirm that your enrollment prospect agrees with the information you tell her as you present center benefits. Questions, such as, “Is this the kind of program you are looking for?” or Security like ours in important for the children’s safety and your peace of mind, wouldn’t you agree?” are trail closes. When your prospect has answered several trial closes with, “Yes,” a final question to ask for a center visit will be much easier for you to ask and for her to answer with yet another, “Yes”.

Ask alternate choice closing questions. For your final closing question to attempt to secure a schedule visit to your center, try using a type of closing question called alternate choice. This style of question gives your prospect a choice, the answer to either means she has just agreed to schedule a center visit. For example, you might say, “Is Thursday morning at 9:30 or Monday afternoon at 4:30 a better time for you and Robby to visit our center?” When offered a choice, most prospects who are truly interested and qualified to enroll will select one of the choices or offer you an alternate choice that still means they are coming in for a visit.

When you conduct a helpful, professional inquiry conversation and include a final closing question, your prospect sees you as just the resource they need to make a good decision. They begin to trust you and rely on your recommendations. When you ask a final closing question, they want to take the action you recommend. And do you know what else? By then, most qualified prospects are already looking forward to visiting your center, are delighted to be asked, and will say, “Yes!” long before they ever would have considered doing so to that guy selling used cars.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Ask Julie

Here is a question asked by another director like you:

How can you get a teacher involved in enrollment?  

Julie’s Answer:

Set expectations with your staff for their involvement as your marketing partners. Some of the actions you can reasonably expect them to take to help you with enrollment conversions are these:

* Know and use the name of the visiting parent and child

* Smile and greet the prospect and shake hands if she is nearby

* Bend down to speak to the child

* Speak to the parent about her classroom while the director takes over classroom duties

* When appropriate, engage visiting child in activities going on in the classroom

I like to say it is how the teacher ACTS that can help you win the enrollment. That acronym stands for :

A – Attitude

C – Communiation with the prospect and child

T – Team values expressed (philosophy, briefed by director of parent’s needs before they arrive, etc.)

S – Sensory scenery in her classroom. How does it look, sounds , smell, etc.?

Your staff can be a valuable key in converting more enrollments. It is the director’s job to make them good marketing partner.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Marketing in Minutes | Happy Thanksgiving

It’s November, and the time of year when we at The Julian Group like to thank all of you for your business, your loyalty, your determination to become good marketers and enrollment builders, and your passion for giving young children an early advantage. We look forward to continuing to serve you, and trust you will look to us for the marketing speaking, training, and consulting services, and training resources we can provide to help you become more successful.  Happy Thanksgiving!

You know you should do some marketing. It’s    how to generate more inquiries and stay competitive. Yet, your time is at a premium. Your budget is limited. The many other demands of your position are calling for attention. So what can you do in minutes?

With so many factors at play, it’s understandable that you’re drawn to spend the bulk of your time on center operations or management issues instead of marketing. Yet, even if you only have a few minutes to spare, there is a lot of marketing you can do. Select from these quick marketing action steps and valuable tools to help get your marketing on track in 30 minutes or less.

If You Have 5 Minutes…

Write that thank you note to the prospect who just visited your center. It will make them feel good about you and separate you from your competitors. Be sure you include your business contact information and send it right away.

Give two of your business cards to someone new. It positions you as professional and gives the recipient the opportunity to refer you. EASY marketing.

Coach a teacher on becoming a better marketing partner on your center’s team. This may be a quick reinforcing tip on the importance of smiling, acknowledging each prospect and parent, professional appearance, or shaking hands professionally.

If You Have 15 Minutes…

Role play responding to a prospect’s price objection or another difficult interaction with a parent. The more practiced you are, the more comfortable and confident you will be when face to face with an enrollment prospect or customer, and the more likely you will be to convert the prospect or retain the customer.

Assemble a few enrollment packets you can have ready at hand to customize for parent center visits. This will make your enrollment prospects perceive you as an organized manager and will add to their good feelings about choosing your center.

Check online for parent or prospect emails, reviews, or website inquiries. Respond then or tickler your calendar to do so within the next 24 hours. Be sure to note the inquiry sources in your Inquiry Tracking System.

If You Have 30 Minutes…

Make five follow-up calls to prospects who have not yet visited or enrolled. I like to say, “The fortune is in the follow-up!” Sales statistics prove timely follow-up that offers information of value yields results in converting prospects to customers.

Host a Parent Hot Line offering a half hour when parents can call in and ask questions they did not have time to ask during drop off or pick up. Involve your staff. Promote this weekly hot line time in your newsletter and at your sign-in area.

Make a community marketing visit to a business outside your center. Listen to the newly updated Keys to Marketing a Professional Image CD training program for seven ways to make community marketing easy and worth your time.

Have a few more minutes? Set aside some time every week to practice a conversion skill, shop a competitor, update your marketing action plan, write a new blog post, check reviews on your social media sites, initiate customer contact, review marketing performance expectations in a staff meeting, input the information necessary to track your conversions and best sources of qualified inquiries.

If you can commit to making marketing a part of your everyday activities in little bites of time, you will soon see how th effort of spending even a few minutes regularly marketing pays big dividend in enrollment inquiries, conversions, and retention.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com

Relationship Marketing as a Competitive Edge | Part 2

Practice Parent “Attention” Techniques
I like to say parent attention causes retention. Parents want to feel welcome, appreciated, special.  It’s the combination of little things you do to make your parents feel important that adds up to big value to them.

Parent attention activities can be as simple as helping them pack up their children’s belongings to hosting an event-filled parent appreciation week. Keep these activities parent-focused, easy to implement, and a little step beyond what your parents might expect.

Communicate!
How and how often you and your staff communicate with parents is a benchmark of your service in their eyes. Do they get a daily note about their child’s day? Does the teacher always acknowledge them and their child with a smile and friendly greeting? Are problems handled quickly and in a professional manner? Do the director and teachers communicate as though they really care?

Child care professionals have the unique opportunity to come face to face with their customers everyday. This is what Overpromise and Overdeliver author, Rick Barrera, calls, “Human TouchPoints.” How you and your staff communicate with your parents is far more than an element of exceptional customer service. It is a marketing discipline that can contribute to increased customer retention, reduced marketing costs, and competitive differentiation.

Ask What They Think
Monitoring what the customer likes and dislikes is not enough to insure satisfaction. It is also important to make a regular and systematic effort to identify what your parents expect of you.

Periodically ask parents to complete a survey, on-line or on the phone. Use customer comment cards or a suggestion box. Host a focus group of parent customers. Once parents know you really value their opinions, they will become more serious about making sure you get them.

Relationship marketing is a forever undertaking. If you commit to a program of ongoing exceptional customer service, you will find your enrollment retention at its highest level ever.

Julie Wassom
“The Speaker Whose Message Means Business”
Marketing and Sales Speaker/Consultant/Author
Call me: 303-693-2306
Fax me: 303-617-6422
E-me: julie@juliewassom.com
See me: www.juliewassom.com