Debbie Thompson

Honesty works every time, according to the co-owner of a school with one of the best retention among all of EFC’s schools. Rarely does a Tristar student quit. Here’s why:

Writing Gold Paper. Tristar Martial Arts has always excelled at having great retention. We do many things to maintain our retention, but for us it starts right at the Introductory Lessons. We write Gold Paper. In order to write Gold Paper we are “up front” and honest about our programs, our pricing, and the potential student’s monetary responsibilities during the course of their agreement. All students should know exactly what they have to pay for in the coming year, including any equipment they may need to purchase. If a student truly has an issue paying for classes or equipment, we do not want them bullied or lied to in order to get them in, as they may become a retention issue down the road.

EFC President John Cokinos

We encourage all school owners and instructors to tell parents at the enrollment conference that if there comes a time when their child wants to quit, they must say, “I have nothing to do with it.” Then the parent must bring the child to a designated staff member when the first signs of withdrawal appear.

This message must be reinforced to parents at later times as well, especially when the first blush of the student’s relationship with martial arts lessons is over. Not all children are going to want to stick it out with martial arts, no matter how beneficial it is to them, and it has to be the school’s job to convince them otherwise.

The other part of this process would be to designate a staff member to talk to the students about why they want to quit and to persuade them to change their minds. This staff member could be the school owner, the program director or one or more instructors. Careful preparation and rehearsal of this conversation would be a fruitful investment of time.

Bill Taylor

Bill Taylor, owner of Bill Taylor’s Bushido School Of Karate, sends out a letter to former black belt students in an effort to re-activate them. What is unique about this letter is that he includes an essay that each student wrote upon taking the black belt test exam.

Mr. Taylor also comments upon something that was mentioned in the essay, in order to personalize it, which he feels helps. The idea is to try to re-capture what students felt when they tested for black belt.

These letters are sent to people who tested one, two, three or four years ago. Other than the letter, they also receive a VIP pass and a copy of the last newsletter.

Steve Lavallee

It doesn’t matter whether 2008 was your best ever, a decent year or it totally sucked. I’ll bet you’d like to make 2009 even better. I know I plan on making it my best ever! Would you care to join me? What’s it going to take?

#1. Create clarity of exactly what your best year ever means. If you look back at your past 1-3 years statistics, you should be able to see what your best has been from your past results. Continue reading →

By Chairman Nicholas Cokinos

A high number of new enrollments is easier to achieve than you might think. Keep in mind that it requires a collaborative effort. In other words, there should be between three and five activities directed toward new enrollments. Among them are:

• Advertisements
• Web site
• Open house
• Birthday parties
• Circular distribution
• Signage and walk-in
• VIP program
• Sponsoring a new member
• Demonstrations
• Buddy nights

Use marketing platforms like graduation day, birthday parties, demos and open house to build interest before attempting to enroll.

On the 15th of every month, you should make a new concentrated effort to carefully plan out your strategy for the following month. The strategy should include and involve at least three of the listed activities. Another highly effective source of new enrollments is direct mail.

Keep in mind that all the listed activities work together to continuously generate new enrollments. Pursue both internal and external marketing methods as they both are equally important. Do not rely on just one method. The director should undertake this important task. Your efforts will pay off handsomely.

In order to ensure the continuing growth of your school, you must enroll 20 to 25 members each month. A minimum of 50% of those members should come from referrals. Though most school owners neglect the importance of concentrating on promotions for attracting new members, don’t let it happen to you.

Here is something that’s unique to EFC Australia that schools elsewhere can learn from:

The culture and legalities of Australia are pro-consumer, and students cannot be bound to the agreement and made to pay after they decide to quit. So when a student calls EFC Australia to cancel, the caller is instructed to go to the school for an exit interview, to sign a cancellation form and pay a fee.

The exit interview is usually eye opening for the school, as they can learn how they can prevent similar situations in the future, by finding out why the student “fired” them.

The consumer-oriented approach may be something others can learn from.

Let’s assume you’ve already conducted a highly motivating and energy filled intro class and you are now at the point of doing an extension conference.

First, is the analysis of the strong points or weak points that the intro lesson reveals. Coordination, learning speed, physical condition and flexibility are revised to establish a beginning and generally outlining a path of progress.

Now we turn to the 7.5 Magic Questions. The phrase is introduced by merely saying, “We need your cooperation answering questions so that we can qualify you for any of the programs you may be interested in.” The scene is now set. Continue reading →