Terms of Enrollment

Let’s talk terms.  If prospect perception is a key deciding factor in the enrollment decision – and it is –  then it is important to think about how prospects perceive the words you say.

Say “visit” versus “tour”

You tour an institution such as a museum or another environment where you have no real emotional bond. Since the child care decision is so emotional for most parents, they will feel much more comfortable if you invite them to come for a scheduled visit, give them a walk through the center, and convert that visit into a personal enrollment experience.

Say “guest” versus “parent”

Treat visiting prospects like your special guests. Doesn’t special guest here for a visit sound warmer and more personal that a parent tour? Absolutely! Your prospects will certainly think so.

Think differently about the term “selling”

Selling early care and education services is very different from selling a product or service that the prospect may or may not need and has not inquired about. You are not door-to-door salespeople. Instead, your prospect has inquired about your services. They need and expect your assistance. So selling in this industry is two things:

1. Helping them make a good buying decision
2. Getting them to ACT on your recommendation

This is a much softer approach, but one that yields lots of enrollments if you do it well.

Think carefully about how you say what you mean. Your prospect’s perception of those words will impact their enrollment buying decision. Using the most appealing terms will help put that decision in your favor.

For more on this topic, refer to “Basic Techniques for Securing Enrollment” audio program from The Enrollment Building Success Library. Call our office for a full synopses of this and other programs in the library.

Good luck and happy marketing!

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 | How do I know when to ask a visiting parent to enroll

Question – How do I know when to ask a visiting parent to enroll?

Julie’s Answer:

Good question! When parents are ready to commit to a decision, they tend to give you buying signals. These can be verbal or nonverbal. For example, when a parent asks a question that reveals they perceive their child enrolled, such as “Is this where Tanner’s cubby will be?”  it is time for you to stop talking and ASK the parent a good closing question.

For this example, you might then say, “Yes, would you like Miss Jenny to have that ready for him on Monday?” If the parent responds positively, you simply proceed with the enrollment process. Buying signals indicate the parent does not need much more, if any, information at that point, and is ready to be asked to make a commitment.

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, Ask Always Ask!

I love a good sale! Recently, I just missed getting an item on sale due to my schedule keeping me from getting to the store on sale days. So I called the store and explained my situation to the department manager, and asked if there were any way she could honor the sale price. She first asked if I were a store card holder. I am. Then to my amazement, she said, “Yes, she could!” I hung up repeating one of my favorite mantras, “ask, Ask Always Ask!”

Can always asking help you build enrollment? Absolutely! Here are three times when asking more than you tell will yield more enrollment conversions.

While assessing prospect needs. Ask good open questions to elicit details about more than basic needs for hours and program. Ask questions such as, “What are your primary concerns in finding the best education and care for Brianna?” “What are Tyler’s favorite activities?” “What kinds of communication are you looking for us?” Ask early and often during an enrollment interview, both on the phone and during the center visit. When you do, your prospects will tell you exactly which benefits are most important to them, thus making your job easier in knowing how to direct the enrollment interview.

While presenting key benefits of your school. Stop that lengthy explanation of your program and staff and special features, and periodically ASK your prospect short questions to gain their agreement on the benefits you are presenting. Besides involving the parents, it will help you make sure you are going in the right direction and will help the parents recognize that you can meet their needs better than anyone else they might be considering. Use good trial closing questions, such as, “Does this look like the kind of environment where Renoir would get the kindergarten readiness he needs?” “Having both print and email communications is helpful to most of our parents; would it be to you?”

When you need to convert the visit or enrollment. You MUST ask, or you are not closing. The technique of skilled asking will convert more calls to visits and visits to enrollments than any amount of telling and hoping the parent gets back to you. Even if they say, “No,” to  your closing question, asking it gives you the opportunity to retain the prospect by handling whatever objection they might have, or to ask (There it is again) for permission to initiate some follow up to check on their decision. Easiest closing questions to ask are called Alternative Choice questions. Try these. “Would you like to come in for a visit on Wednesday at 10:00 or is Thursday better for your schedule?” “Would you like for Zara to start tomorrow or would you prefer to wait until Monday?” “Would you like me to help you complete these registration papers or would you like some privacy here in my office to complete them on your own?”

Though asking can be scary, because you risk the prospect saying, “No,” or seeing you as pushy, the reality is that most prospects really like it when you ask. It positions you as the knowledgeable professional helping them make a good buying decision. And that’s a good feeling. Ask, ask, Always Ask, and you will be amazed how often they say, “Yes!”.

 

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

Five Ways to Economy-Proof Your Enrollment

When customers are facing job loss or tighter budgets, prospects are attempting to negotiate tuition fees, and subsidies are being cut, smart child care managers are studying the essential moves directors must take to increase and retain enrollment despite the volatile economy. Instead of using a tough economy as a reason enrollment drops, they simply sharpen their focus, fuel their creativity, and become keenly observant and responsive.

No longer can success in early care and education depend solely on providing high-quality services parents view as excel- lent experiences for young children delivered by competent staff in a safe environment. Though all of this is important, sustainable success depends upon securing and retaining the maximum enrollment possible, despite a struggling economy. Without the revenue that enrollment generates, even the best child care managers find it extremely challenging to provide the level of program, services, and staff they need to support the quality they profess.

These five essential moves for generating inquiries and converting enrollments will help ensure that you reach your enrollment goals, succeed in maximizing your capacity utilization, and gain the financial freedom to provide the highest quality early education and care possible, no matter what the economy is doing.

#1— Source Inquiries

Defining the demographic and psycho- graphic characteristics of your target audience is not enough to ensure that your marketing message will reach them and cause them to inquire. You must know where they search when looking for early care and education. Is it online, in print, from referrals, or a combination? What shapes their opinions and what causes them to inquire? According to Erik Qualman in his book, Socialnomics (2010), people trust digital referral word of mouth from their friends 70 percent more than advertisements.

Determining how your prospects found you will help you evaluate your marketing efforts. Ask every inquiring or visiting prospect, “What are the ways you heard about us?” Log their responses. By doing so, you will gain valuable information about where they search, which of your marketing efforts generate the largest response, and what incentives lead to the most inquiries. Not only is this helpful in strategic marketing planning, but it will make your future marketing significantly more cost-efficient.

#2— Master Articulating Unique Benefits

What are the unique attributes of your program that matter to your prospects? What separates you from other options your prospective families are considering? Don’t guess. Do an assessment of what your current customers value most in your service. If you have not called or visited your competition in the last six months, do so now.

Sell more; tell less. Once you have learned what each prospect needs and wants, you attempt to educate the prospect about the unique features of your program that meet those needs. If you say, “Our curriculum helps prepare children for kindergarten,” you are telling, not selling. To sell your program over others, use benefit statements that give your prospects a clear understanding of what they will GET from you. “Here at XYZ Center, Emma will become well prepared for kindergarten, because the curriculum we use has been developed to give her practice with the skills she will need.” In

this example, you are selling the benefit, not merely telling the feature. People buy benefits, not just features.

#3— Track Conversions

I call this “The Critical Three Numbers” in enrollment building. You must know, on a monthly basis, how many inquiries were converted to tours, how many tours converted to enrollments, and how many inquiries from all sources converted to enrollment. When all managers responsible for converting inquiries and tours are accountable for entering these numbers into a tracking system, you gain an invaluable perspective on three essentials in your child care business:

• The success of your marketing efforts in generating qualified prospects in the volume you need.
• The sales skill needs of your managers responsible for building enrollment.
• The patterns of higher inquiry volume that can impact your marketing focus and calendar.

When your conversion tracking system also includes notation of disenrollments, you will gain a much clearer picture of overall capacity utilization, and be able to more quickly address customer service issues affecting enrollment.

#4— Make Sales Training Mandatory

Okay, I am a little biased on this one. However, most child care program managers have had very little, if any, training in sales and marketing. Yet, you are responsible for securing and retaining enrollment, maximizing revenue, and executing marketing programs to generate qualified inquiries. Early care and education is a service that requires unique skills to sell successfully with comfort and confidence. Directors who receive enrollment conversion and

customer service training, and execute the skills well, consistently have higher enrollment than those who do not. Sales training for enrollment building is an investment with a high rate of return, and successful industry leaders know it.

#5— Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up!

I like to say, “The fortune is in the follow-up!” Timely follow-up that provides prospects with information of value will create credibility, believability, and more opportunities to convert enrollments. Use multiple forms of messaging at scheduled intervals. Periodically ask prospects for permission to stay in touch with them. Use a contact management system to help you practice the good time management that effective follow-up requires.

Follow-up inside your organization is as important as the contact you initiate with your prospects and customers. When field managers make sure their directors are well-trained, then hold them accountable to execute good sales skills and to track inquiry sources and enrollment conversions, it yields higher enrollment success.

Because enrollment levels can be significantly impacted by parents disenrolling their children, savvy directors know one key to customer retention is to communicate regularly with currently enrolled families. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, a strong advocate of customer service strategies that build long-term success, stated, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” With your staff, determine what specific things you can do to give your parents a great experience and to periodically show them how much you value and appreciate them. When you practice these five essential

moves, you will not only make your enrollment economy-proof, you will join the leaders in the child care industry who are enjoying success in filling their programs, generating revenue, and providing premier quality early care and education to their customers and communities.

 

References

Qualman, E. (2010), Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business. John Wiley & Sons.

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

It’s Just a Feeling – The Emotional Element in the Child Care Decision

The child care purchase is an extremely emotionally-driven decision. For years, I have professed that parents base their decision to enroll in one program over another based more on how they feel than on all the information they find and you give them. When the development and happiness of their child is concerned, parents are fervent in their efforts to make the right choice. More than with most other purchases, they research, they visit several centers, they read reviews and talk to other opinion influencers, and they need to feel assured they are making the best decision for their child and their family.

How can you help parents through the emotional roller coaster associated with selecting the best child care, and be most sensitive and responsive to their feelings? Here are some of the ways you can make sure your enrollment prospects are having the emotional reaction you want them to.

Think in the prospect’s perspective. To understand how your prospective parents view your center and its staff and services, you must be keenly aware of their perceptions. Tour your own center as if you were a skeptical parent, and note anything they might see (and never mention to you) as a red flag. It could be a dirty entryway, a teacher’s apathy, a misspelled word on a bulletin board. Ask questions throughout the enrollment inquiry and the center visit, noting emotional reactions as much as the words they say. Watch parents’ body language during tours, and address both negative and positive triggers with staff.

Make your staff your marketing partners. Parents know the people their child will be spending the most time with in the center are the teachers. Let your center team know the impact they have on the enrollment decision. For instance, if your lead teacher acknowledges the visiting parents and child by name, switches places with you to spend a few minutes telling the parents about what their child would do in her classroom and her own experience in working with children, and warmly invites the visiting child to participate; you will have communicated a strong team approach that positively influences how the visiting parents feel about what their experience would be like in your center.

Ask your prospects how they are feeling. Before a parent leaves a center visit, ask questions that test her emotional reactions to you, such as, “What in today’s tour makes you feel the most comfortable about the education and care Hunter would receive here?” Rather than seeing this as being intrusive, most parents will appreciate that you care enough to get their honest perceptions. This can help the parents feel you really care, and help you learn emotionally-driven factors that can put you on the short list or send parents elsewhere to enroll. It’s a win-win conversation.

Initiate communication. Throughout the center selection process and during the first few weeks after enrollment, parents will respond well to the follow up actions you take to show that you care. I like to quote, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. Good follow up that is well-timed and of value to the parents helps them feel you have their child’s and their own interests at heart. It builds confidence, and confidence sells.

Applying these techniques to address the emotional element of the child care decision can not only put you in the drivers’ seat, it can help you be the top choice for enrollment and thus, win the race.

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 Referrals – ASK

It has always surprised me that so many people who are confident in their products or services are hesitant to ask for referrals. They see it as too pushy or they are fearful that their own perception may be more positive than the opinion of others. Many business people will refer a good restaurant or movie more readily than their own company or products and services. If you are one of those people, you are missing a premiere opportunity to generate prospects for sales.

Ask for referrals. It’s a small way you can express the confidence you have in what your business offers. It’s also an extremely cost-effective marketing technique, because it can generate new prospects with very little extra effort. For example, in a follow up conversation with a prospect or customer, you could say, “When you come next time, I’ll show you how you can . . . (something of value to them).  By the way, who else do you know who might also be interested in what we have to offer? I’d be happy to give them a call and send information like I did for you.”

Let prospects and customers know if you have a referral program that offers a rebate or other rewards for referrals that convert into sales. Word of mouth is your most cost-effective advertising. If your services, products, and customer support are truly outstanding, you probably have customers who are telling other prospects how happy they are with you. By asking for those referrals, you are mining for gold in future sales.

So get out your picks and shovels and ask for those referrals!

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

10 Tips for Using Newsletters as a Marketing Tool | Part 2

How have you done in evaluating newsletters as a good marketing tool for you, and planning –or revising – your own? These last five tips will give some you additional assistance.

Call-to-Action – Where (and how) in your newsletter will you incent recipients to take the action you want to fulfill the intent of your newsletter? Direct mail guru, Freeman Gosden, says your rate of response is based 40% on reaching the right audience, 40% on giving them a compelling reason to respond, and only 20% on the rest of what your give them in the piece. Include a response mechanism or call-to-action (See Wassom’s Marketing Wisdom #311 for more on a Call-to-Action).

Multiple Uses – Will your newsletter be used merely as a periodic customer communication piece, or will it also be part of a direct mail campaign, available on your website, used as a handout in community marketing visits, included in media kits, a part of your center packet, etc? The more uses you can make of your newsletter, the more efficient it becomes as a marketing tool.

Roles – Who will be responsible for what? Who will write the copy, collect photographs or drawings, oversee graphic design, handle printing, set deadlines, post and distribute your completed newsletters? Include a designation of tasks in your newsletter action plan.

Continuity – How long will you publish your newsletter? Will it look the same each time? To garner the most recognition and reader retention, your newsletter should look consistent issue to issue and be sent on a predictable schedule.

Free or fee – Will your newsletter be free to recipients or will it be available only on a paid subscription basis? If the intent of your newsletter is to become its own profit center, you will probably want recipients to pay for issues beyond the first teaser issue. If it is an image piece used to position you as knowledgeable and helpful, and to communicate with parents and other target audiences, it will probably be complimentary. Whichever it is, this consideration needs to be part of your newsletter plan.

Newsletters are one of the best ways to keep your name and image top-of-mind in your prospects, customers, and referral sources. When you do them well, your target audiences will eagerly await each issue. That, combined with your other marketing efforts, will serve you well as you work to generate inquiries and enrollments.

Best wishes and happy marketing,

 

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

10 Tips for Using Newsletters as a Marketing Tool | Part 1

Newsletters can be a very effective method of communicating with prospects, customers, and opinion influencers. However, to be an effective marketing strategy, there are several factors you must consider. Before sitting down at your computer to type out an article or calendar of events, have firm answers to the following:

1. Intent – What do you want your newsletter to do? Do you want it to educate, generate inquiries, build image, create positioning? List everything you want it to do.
2. Frequency – How often will you publish it? A minimum of quarterly gives you repeat exposure without the perception of overwhelming intrusion, though many centers find  a monthly newsletter more effective for parents.
3. Format – What will your newsletter look like? Think about the number of pages, page size, graphic design, ink colors, photos or drawings, location of regular columns. Will it be a self-mailer, inserted in an envelope, handed out at the center, or an e-letter?
4. Title/Masthead – What will be the name of your newsletter? Make your masthead unique but consistent with the rest of your marketing materials. If you have regular columns, what will you call them that describes content and entices readers to linger there long enough to read it?
5. Content – What will be included in the content of your newsletter. Keep it simple and valuable to the recipient. Most of us already have too much to read. If you regularly give your recipients information of value in your newsletter (versus primarily advertising for your center), you will create what’s called “ready readership,” meaning a target of readers waiting for each new issue. That’s what you want, because it creates a positioning for you as the helpful, knowledgeable expert.

Next week we will discuss the last five of the “Ten Tips for Using Newsletters as a Marketing Tool”.  Meanwhile, the above tips should help you get started.

Best wishes and happy marketing!

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

Getting to “Yes” via Procare News

This is an article I wrote for Exchange Magazine and was recently reprinted in Procare News. It gives you solid techniques to help you make it easier to ask for the center visit or enrollment.

If you climb a flight of stairs, but do not take the last step up, you have spent a lot of effort to get to the next level, but you don’t actually get there. Closing the sale – asking your qualified prospects to visit your center or to enroll – is like the top step on a flight of stairs. If you do not take the final step in the inquiry call or visit, chances are good you will not reach your enrollment goals.

Closing is one of the most neglected or mistreated techniques in enrollment building. Yet those directors who close well consistently convert more calls to visits and visits to enrollments than those who educate their prospects well, but who do not ask them to take action. You must ask or you are not closing.

Some directors don’t ask closing questions because they feel it’s too pushy. Others are not confident in just how to ask. Some expect the prospect to take the initiative. Others just feel uncomfortable with that part of the enrollment building process.

One of the best ways to gain comfort and confidence in asking prospects to visit, and then to enroll, is to think of what “selling” really means in the early care and education industry. First, toss away the image in your mind of you as the door-to-door salesman selling your prospects something they do not really want or need. Instead, recognize that your prospects have already contacted you with an interest in your center and services. They have called or e-mailed you, seen you at an event, or dropped by your center for a visit because they want to.

With these prospects, your sales role is two-fold. First, you need to help them make a good buying decision. Second is to get them to act on your recommendation. When your other marketing efforts have positioned you as a knowledgeable, professional resource with a quality program, it is only natural for your prospects to expect you to help them buy the best early care and education services for them. And believe it or not, they like you to ask them if they are ready to commit to a visit or enrollment.

A good closing question asks your prospect for a decision that is based upon all the educational information you have given them, the exposure to your center and staff, and the benefits to them of enrolling there. You want a singular response to your closing question, that being “Yes.” Here are five different ways to comfortably ask your prospects to act on your recommendation.

Alternate choice method

This is the easiest kind of closing question to ask and the most comfortable for your prospect to answer. Your question offers a choice about the visit or enrollment, and either answer means you have just scheduled a center visit, or secured the enrollment.

Sample: “Would you like to schedule a center visit on Tuesday at 10:30 or would Wednesday be better for you?”

Direct method

The prospect who is very forthright and direct in his or her communication with you will not cower at your asking a direct closing question. Neither should you. This type of question is brief and to the point. Once answered, the decision is clear.

Sample: “Do you want to go ahead and get Eric enrolled now?”

Assumptive method

When your prospect gives you buying signals that indicate he or she is really ready to make a decision, you can easily use what is called an assumptive closing question. This method assumes the prospect is ready to make the choice you want, and merely asks them a question that deals with the details of that positive assumption.

Sample: “Would you like some privacy here in my office to fill out the registration papers?”

Impending doom method

This closing method uses a series of statements to remind your prospects of their expressed desires and plays upon their fear of loss. Your statements must be honest. You cannot say this is the last toddler space you have when there are really four more openings.

Sample: “We have only one infant space left in this room. With the high demand we have for infant care, I doubt it will be available for long. I’d hate for you to lose it. Would you like to go ahead and pay the registration fee today to hold that place for Emma?”

The last sentence of this and the next sample dialogue are the actual closing questions. Remember, for your prospects to make a buying decision, you must end your recommendation comments with a question. You must ask, or you are not closing.

Contingency method

This type of closing question allows the prospect’s response to be contingent upon another factor, and is very reassuring to those parents who need a little extra time and the confidence that they can trust you. If the response to a contingency closing question is positive, you have just secured the visit or enrollment. If not, the conversion is not necessarily lost. You can still take the initiative to get permission to follow up with that prospect at a later date, thus giving you another opportunity to help the prospect make a good buying decision and act on your recommendation in the future.

Sample: “I know finding the best early education and care for Hannah is important for you and your family. Let me give you our center folder that includes information on our center, an explanation of the room she will be in, and a list of what to look for in quality early care and education. The folder also includes information on our web site, where you can learn more about us. How about if you go ahead and give me the registration fee for Hannah’s enrollment to hold a place for her here, and I’ll just hang on to it while you and your husband have a chance to look all this over and give this decision some additional thought? Before you go, let’s schedule a time next week when you can come back to the center, and we can then confirm your enrollment. How would that be?”

The contingency close usually requires several recommendation statements, so it’s important to remember to follow those recommendations with a final question that asks for action toward the achievement of your goal.

Because you know closing is a critical skill for converting more prospects to enrollees, it is very tempting to dance around actually asking the right questions and still call it closing. For instance, making a recommendation without asking for a commitment is NOT closing.

As nice as it may sound, a statement such as, “It looks as though Mike really does not want to leave the activities going on here in the classroom. I think he would really enjoy our center. We would love to have you join our center’s family. Why don’t you give it some thought and let me know,” is NOT closing. It’s a great recommendation, but you had an enrollment bird in hand that you let fly away to another center where a director who asks may get the enrollment you could have had.

You can turn this recommendation into a valid closing by asking a question like this…

“…I think he would really enjoy our center. Since he seems so comfortable, you could leave him for a free day today and on your way out, we can go back to my office and complete the necessary paperwork. Would you like to do that?”

This of course assumes you have the room and the policy of free days in your company. When your prospect answers, “Yes,” you can then take her to your office to fill out enrollment paperwork, and arrange a time to call her to tell her how Mike is doing.

This “soft sell” approach is still not closing for a commitment to enroll unless and until you add that final question such as, “Would you like to do that?”

Extending an invitation to an upcoming event at the center is also NOT closing for a scheduled center visit or the enrollment. Is it a good idea to invite prospects to center events? Absolutely! Is this the question that asks for the visit or enrollment? No! An example of a question that invites but does not close for the privately scheduled center visit is this:

“We are having an open house next Thursday to give our parents a glimpse of what our summer program will be like. You are certainly invited to attend. Would you like to come and bring Samantha?”

Granted, prospects might enroll after they attend such an event, but this dialogue is not closing for the center visit while on the phone. Nor would it pass for closing if you extended this invitation during a center visit, but did not also ASK for the enrollment.

It would be a closing question if you said it this way…

“… You are certainly invited to attend. When you come in for a center visit, I will give you all the details for this upcoming event. Would it be better for you to stop by for your personal visit on Wednesday morning or is Thursday better for your schedule?”

During a center visit, this invitation could lead to an actual closing question by saying…

“… what our summer program will be like. It would be an ideal first parent event for you and Samantha to attend once you have enrolled. If you would like to go ahead and give me your registration fee today, I’ll make sure you are on the list for those who receive a special invitation to this open house. Would you like to do that?”

Closing is asking a question the answer to which is a commitment for your goal achievement, which is either a center visit or an enrollment commitment. If you have not asked for this specifically, you are not yet really closing, and your conversion ratios will reflect it.

Here’s a little trick to help you remember to ask a closing question, not just to invite or recommend. Put five pennies in one pocket at the beginning of the day. Every time you talk to a parent or give a tour of your center and you REALLY ASK A CLOSING QUESTION, move one penny from that pocket to the pocket on the other side of your skirt or slacks. Be honest about this. Don’t move the penny unless you asked a question that will give you an answer directed at your goals of center visits or enrollment.

When you have all five pennies moved over, give yourself a point on a chart. Then move the pennies to the other side the same way, always giving yourself a point for every five closing questions you ask correctly. Even if the prospect’s answer is not yet “Yes,” you still ASKED a closing question, so you get the point. Once you have ten points (for 50 closing questions), reward yourself! You deserve it.

No matter what your personal reward, the reward that will really make your center shine is that you will see your conversion ratios gradually getting better, your follow up calls reducing, and your enrollments climbing like a rocket!

Closing well is a skill that can significantly increase your enrollment building performance and help you achieve your capacity goals for your center. Using these methods of closing can help you become more successful at converting prospect inquiries to center visits and visits to enrollments. They also work when asking for permission to follow up with those prospects who are not yet ready to visit or enroll.

Closing questions will be easy and comfortable for you to use if you practice them. Try them on your spouse, your children, your colleagues, and friends. Imagine every answer you could possibly get from your prospects, and realize that your enrollment goals will be met ONLY if you ask a closing question in each and every qualified inquiry conversation or center visit.

As my colleague speaker and Chicken Soup for the Soul series co-author, Mark Victor Hansen, says, “You’ve gotta A-S-K to G-E-T!” To reach your enrollment conversion and center capacity goals, take that last step, and ask a closing question. When you do, you’ll find that getting to “Yes,” is easier than you think.

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

Opportunity Knocks – Are You Opening the Door to More Enrollment?

For years it has been a frustrating reality for parents that child care services have failed to keep pace with the changing workday…” quotes Exchange Everyday in a recent post, Round-the-Clock Demand, citing Sabrina Tavernise’s January 15^th article in the New York Times.

 Are you turning inquiries away as ineligible when you could easily serve these families with minor adjustments in operations? What marketing message is that sending? How can you capture un-served enrollment opportunities and make it easy for parents to enroll with you? Consider these options:

Track ineligible inquiries. According to Harriet B Presser, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, “About 40 % of the American workforce now works some form of non-standard hours.” As you speak with enrollment inquiries, track those who are ineligible because your hours of operation do not fit their needs for child care. (Use a contact management program to help you efficiently track inquiry sources and ineligible prospects. See Resources column below for an industry-customized CMR program to consider.) If the number is significant, take the next step.

Extend hours of operation. Survey your marketplace (and your own parents) to determine the level of demand for hours of care beyond what you and nearby competitors offer. If it is strong enough to cover expenses, consider extending hours to accommodate the need. Once your new schedule is in place, promote this service as a unique benefit of your center. Be sure to alert area employers of this benefit, working with them to relay this message to employees who work longer hours or odd shifts.

Offer flexible programming. Though you may already offer some form of part-time or drop-in care, determine what schedule would serve unmet needs in your target prospect audience. Be open to possibilities that make your child care the one that will work for those parents with flexible work hours or hours that alternate regularly.

Encourage position sharing. If you have customers whose work schedule or workplace means they only need part time care, work with them to find another parent with the same need who could share a full-time position with them. With clear guidelines, this arrangement can save two enrollments, be a sigh of relief to the parents, and generate higher revenue for your center than a single full-time enrollment would.

Though your center may have specific reasons for the hours it keeps, it is always wise to stop and think in your prospect’s perspective. Take a good look at your center’s hours of operation and decide if they are truly serving the needs in your current audience of parents, especially those whose work schedule does not match yours. Ask yourself, “Do we make it easy for prospects to enroll with us, or do we send them into the waiting arms of our competitors who do? Easy to enroll is better for everyone and not all that hard to do.

Read more about child care enrollment marketing

–Julie Wassom
Julie@JulieWassom.com
http://JulieWassom.com