Rally Cap Consulting

As long as there have been admissions programs, there have been numerous “systems” put in place.  Simply add leads, work leads through system and PRESTO!...starts appear.
I have seen everything from 13 step systems to “matrix” approaches to working leads.  I’ve also seen no system, which is basically an approach that promotes professional visiting by representatives and then taking an order once the prospect makes up their mind.
No system is one way to guarantee less than stellar results.  Admittedly, every organization needs to have a system that is consistently followed.  Any successful sales endeavor follows a system, either knowingly or unknowingly.  It doesn’t need to be an elaborate system…in fact, the more simple the better.  At Rally Cap, we teach a 4 phase approach which includes the following:
1.    Connect- Establish Rapport
2.    Collect- Ask questions to understand motives, wants, needs, preferences, fears, possible obstacles, personalities, etc.
3.    Present- Presenting pertinent facts, features and benefits, etc. about your school.
4.    Confirm- Move the prospect to a point of decision.

Every good system has these elements in it.  Admissions tends to be very centered around phases 3 and 4.  In other words, we spend a lot of time talking about our product and then closing.  Generally speaking, our industry tends to skim over steps 1 and 2.
ABC, always be closing, right?  Get the prospect to tell you “no” three times before you relent.  Alec Baldwin in Glen Garry Glen Ross…the quintessential sales movie with the quintessential 5-minute sales clip, right?  That’s old school, and while it may tender some results, if this is your belief and approach, I promise you that your organization is falling way short of your potential.
The game has quietly changed, and while the basic premise of education admissions has remained the same, the methods and approaches we must take to reach our full potential has changed dramatically.

Two reasons for this shift:  Education has homogenized and the availability of information to prospect has become much more widespread.

 
The second point is fairly self-explanatory and we can thank technology, the internet, for that.  It used to be that prospect HAD to schedule an appointment or a tour to learn about our school.  These days, that information is no more than a click or two away.  I think all schools would help themselves a great deal if they would just publish all of the product information, including price, on their website.  Why?  Because if they don’t get that info from your site, they’ll get it somewhere else.  At least if you publish it on your site, you know it is accurate.  

The first point is a little less clear and the explanation more involved.

 The approach of selling on features and benefits doesn’t pack the same punch that it used to.  Don’t believe me?  Take 5 minutes and do this exercise.  Take out a pen and a sheet of paper an write down all the features and benefits your school has to offer.

Done?

Looking at your sheet, you probably have career placement, accelerated schedule, hands-on learning, hybrid learning (online and on ground), industry developed curriculum, blah, blah, blah.

Now ask yourself this:  How many of those things on your sheet of paper are truly unique to you?  The answer is not many and if you do manage to find one or two, one of your competitors is sure to copy it before too long.
The point is this: our ability to differentiate ourselves through “hard” product differences has diminished over time and will continue to diminish.  Even cutting-edge program offerings like game development and design have become somewhat commonplace.  

In visiting with clients and listening to admissions reps all over the country, I’m always amazed at how much of the conversation with prospects revolves around the product.  
Initial outbound calls to prospects go something like this:  “I was calling to follow up on your request for information about our basketweaving program.  Our basketweaving program offers curriculum that is developed by experts who have actually worked in the field of basketweaving…and at our school, you won’t sit in a classroom and learn only the theory behind weaving baskets, but you’ll actually get a chance to weave baskets in our state of the art basketweaving labs.  Best of all you can earn your basketweaving degree in less than 18 months and we offer flexible day and night schedules…”
This worked back when all these features and benefits were somewhat unusual, but now the number of people in the education arena that offer these features are not few, but many.  In fact, we know that most of the people that are looking at our schools are likely comparing us with at least one other school and possibly several.  So if we put ourselves in the prospects shoes and most every school we are talking to is focusing on talking about the features and benefits they offer, we can only arrive at one conclusion:  WE ALL SOUND THE SAME!

Think about it.  No one says “Our facilities are somewhat dated and mediocre.”  No one says, “our curriculum is pretty much run of the mill.”  We all talk about how wonderful and unique we are.  Problem is, we aren’t wonderful and unique in our product.  On a surface level, we are pretty much the same.
While it is true that each school has little things that make them different, these things will not be evident to the prospect until we have earned their trust and interest.  Once we have done that, we will be able to tell our story and point out the things that make us a better fit.  But until we earn that trust and establish that rapport, we are nothing more than a commodity to prospects.  And if we sound just like everyone else, then they will compare us on the only thing that is different, which is most often price.  There is only one winner in the price war and it could be argued that the winner of that battle isn’t much of a winner at all.  

So how do we differentiate ourselves and earn that opportunity to show prospect the value of choosing us over the cheaper option?  We differentiate ourselves through our approach.  

What if on initial phone calls, we didn’t even talk about our programs? What if we spent out time asking questions about the prospective student and what they wanted to achieve?  What if we really wanted to learn about them, their situation and their desired outcomes?  My experience tells me that we would be different with that approach and I also think that would allow us to earn that trust with prospects.
Our industry is at a crossroads.  One direction is to stay on the well-traveled and safe road of working the system.  Outsource, automate and sell the product.  The other road leads us down a road not traveled much at all.  That road relies on admissions representatives being emotionally intelligent, highly skilled individuals who focus their approach on the student and the outcome rather than the product.  It’s a road that is much more arduous and one that takes a lot more skill to navigate, but it is a road that leads to better results and happier students.

In short, we need to become less system-oriented and more people oriented.

The system alone isn’t enough. Take the road less traveled, I think you’ll find that the trip is much more enjoyable and that you’ll arrive at your destination much faster.  After all, there’s a lot of traffic on the other road, it’s crowded, slow and finding space on that road can be exhausting.
It’s not so much about WHAT we sell, but HOW we sell it.