Posts Tagged ‘staff training’

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Yield Enhancement Series: Role Playing Polishes Communication Skills

February 5th, 2015

 

Legendary coach and leader Vince Lombardi once said, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

When it comes to preparing your admissions team for success during this crucial yield season, truer words have never been spoken. In our Interactive Counselor Training Workshops (ITW) we introduce a number of innovative techniques to develop new skill sets for admissions professionals. We also incorporate a few tried-and-true methods that are always successful.Yield-Enhancement-Series

For instance, there is one exercise that is always effective; will build upon, and further hone, the skills of your team members; and could very well play a role in increasing the success of your yield: role playing. (Pun intended.)

This is an ideal time of year to use this tool to sharpen your recruiting team’s skills. When done right, role playing can foster confidence and camaraderie within your team. As your counselors demonstrate their communication techniques and get feedback from the team, they will be practicing for their next meaningful conversation with a prospective student.

You may want to prepare yourself for some push-back from your staff. For some reason, the mere thought of role playing fills many counselors with dread. Some feel as if they “don’t need” to role play because they already have a complete mastery of their craft.

Others are nervous about “making a mistake” or worry that their “performance” will be subpar. You may even have someone who is “insulted” that you would ask them to do such a thing because, after all, they have been recruiting students for (you name the number) of years. I can only imagine what Coach Lombardi would say about that!

Don’t worry. Follow these simple strategies and the exercise will be successful even if you initially encounter some resistance.role-play

  • Be Collaborative: Involve the entire team in the process from start to finish. Together, brainstorm the topics you will cover in the role plays and set the guidelines as a team.
  • Embrace Different Perspectives: Each team member will bring a different skill level and their own distinctive experiences to the process. And, that’s a good thing. Your rookie can pick up a new technique from your seasoned pro, who in turn, may learn a thing or two from the fresh perspective of the newcomer.
  • Make it a Safe Zone: Role playing should allow counselors to test the effectiveness of different strategies with their peers without fear of failure. Yes, “mistakes” will be made but that is just part of the process. Knowing that in advance should calm some nerves.

Have Fun: In our experience, you can expect many spirited discussions and quite a few laughs. You can also anticipate more successful communications with prospective students in the days ahead.

If I can help you with your recruiting efforts in any way, please feel free to call or email me.  My contact information is at the bottom of this post.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo.  Click this link for more information about Longmire and Company’s Yield Enhancement System (YES).

[Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.]

Karen Full picKaren Full is a highly-respected higher education professional who has held positions in admissions and enrollment management at several institutions in the Midwest and Florida. With her vast experience working with large and small, public and private colleges, Karen brings a valuable perspective to her role as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company.

Call Karen at 913/492.1265 x.711 or email her at kfull@longmire-co.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KarenAFull.

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Posted in Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Uncategorized

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Yield Enhancement Series: 5 Magic Words That Can Increase Your Yield

February 2nd, 2015

Having spent over 20 years in college recruiting, I have lived through the delights and distresses of yield season. Right now, enrollment managers are encouraging their recruitment teams to step up their outreach efforts and, in many cases, they may be getting some resistance.Yield-Enhancement-Series

The next couple of months are crucial to the success of putting together the best possible 2015 class but many admissions recruiters will flounder because they simply don’t know how.

Typically, admissions counselors are some of the hardest working people on any college campus. They care, too, both about the students they are recruiting and the institution they represent. They really do want to reach or surpass their enrollment goals, but they just don’t know what to do next. So, they “hope” that the students will make the next move… attend the next campus event, send a deposit, or even just reach out with a question. When it comes to working with students, admission recruiters are generally well trained at “responding” or reacting to situations. Taking the initiative can be much tougher.

There are communication techniques your staff can learn that will help them feel confident about reaching out to their prospective students to ask the right questions.

For example: you know that a particular student wants to major in accounting. She has told you so, she’s done her research, and your college offers a top-notch accounting program. She applied. The anticipation is that she’ll enroll. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

But do you know why this student wants to major in accounting? Do you know if this is her primary reason for considering your college? What do her parents think about her choice of majors? Does she like accounting because she is good in math? Is math fun for her? What else does she find fun? Is the accounting program the only thing she finds attractive about your college? It’s not? She also is interested in student government and likes to get involved in things? Tell me more about that….

5_Magic_WordsThose five words, “tell me more about that,” can open the door to a meaningful conversation with a prospective student. More importantly, you will be signaling sincere interest in the individual student and that alone will differentiate your college from others in the mix.

This is one of the core techniques we teach in the Interactive Counselor Training Workshops we hold on college campuses throughout the country. It  is also  a key component of YES, our Yield Enhancement Tool, that colleges and universities use to increase yield by 20% or more. It is a “light bulb moment” for counselors each and every time.

This works! These five magic words can lead you to uncover rich intelligence about the student that allows you to provide supporting information about why your school could be the right choice. Try it. When a student tells you something, or expresses an opinion, or a fear, or something that excites them, simply say, “tell me more about that.” 

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo.  For more information about Longmire and Company’s Interactive Counselor Training Program, click here.

[Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.]

Karen Full picKaren Full is a highly-respected higher education professional who has held positions in admissions and enrollment management at several institutions in the Midwest and Florida. With her vast experience working with large and small, public and private colleges, Karen brings a valuable perspective to her role as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company.
Call Karen at 913/492.1265 x.711 or email her at kfull@longmire-co.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KarenAFull.

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Posted in Closing the Sale, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training

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The Counselor Training Series: Are You Adding Stress for Your Prospective Students?

December 18th, 2014

[In part 11 of the Counselor Training Blog Series we look at how a college can differentiate itself by relieving some of their prospective students’ stress.]

CounselorTrainingSeries270x150Deciding which college to attend is a stressful process for many students and parents.

Who would think that a college would ADD anxiety to an inherently stressful process? No college would do so intentionally, but as an industry, we do it all the time.

Through our pre-enrollment research, we communicate with hundreds of thousands of prospective students and parents every year. Here are the 6 stress-inducing actions most often cited about the college admission’s industry:http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-stressed-out-image9379164

  1.  That we communicate poorly
  2.  That we’re slow to offer or reject admission
  3.  That we have burdensome processes
  4.  That admissions people are not responsive
  5.  We are poorly organized, and
  6.  In some cases, they believe we’re being DISHONEST

Ouch!!!

Are you ready for some good news? Since these things happen more than you can imagine, it gives us an opportunity to differentiate ourselves by doing the opposite. You can differentiate your institution by RELIEVING, rather than ADDING, stress to the college selection process.

Here’s how.

Based on our research, this is what students and parents say you can do to relieve their stress and anxiety during the college selection process:

  • Communicate well. They need information that’s relevant to THEM.
  • Provide helpful advice and counsel throughout the college shopping process.
  • BE RESPONSIVE. Return calls and emails promptly.
  • Make decisions promptly.
  • Treat each prospective student as you would expect and hope to be treated.
  • Above all, show a sincere interest in the student.

These may seem obvious, but it’s amazing how many colleges fail to practice these proven behaviors that will serve a prospective student and parent well. And, it’s not isolated to the admissions office. It extends to every department on campus.

A recent national study we conducted on this topic revealed that colleges are LOSING enrollments because of the poor customer service they deliver during the college shopping process. Students and parents see the service they get pre-enrollment as predictive of what they would get IF they enroll. (See the report here.)

So, think about the pre-enrollment service you are giving. If you make it better – campus-wide – you’ll be more successful in your enrollment efforts.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo.  For more information about Longmire and Company’s Interactive Counselor Training Program, click here.

[Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.]

RickMontgomery_100x100Rick Montgomery is as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. With over 20 years in higher education marketing, he brings an innovative approach to helping colleges and universities meet their enrollment goals. Rick can be reached at 913/492.1265 x.708 or via email at rmontgomery@longmire-co.com.

 

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Posted in Behavior, Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Customer service, Organizational development, Parents, Research

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The Counselor Training Series: Tap into the Excitement Factor

December 16th, 2014

[In part 10 of the Counselor Training Blog Series we look at how a prospective student’s excitement about attending your college influences their final decision.]

Research shows that when a student is in the process of selecting a college, three factors generally come into play:

Cost, perceived quality of the institution, and his or her excitement about attending.

Most students consider each of these factors important but the key question is, which factor is the most important?

CounselorTrainingSeries270x150So I ask you, which one of these factors do you think is most predictive of enrollment?

If you said excitement, you’re right. The single factor that is most strongly correlated to likelihood of enrollment is the student’s excitement about attending. It’s more strongly correlated to enrollment – by a factor of two – than either cost or perceived quality of the college.

It makes perfect sense.

How many of us have bought something that our rational brain was telling us we shouldn’t buy because it’s too expensive? But we bought it anyway because we just had to have it. The excitement of owning it, using it, or wearing it was the most powerful force that drove our action to buy.

The same holds true for students in selecting a college.

Research shows that when students are faced with a choice of colleges that they perceive to be generally alike (believe me this happens more frequently than we’d like to admit), they will choose the one they are most excited about. They will naturally find ways to rationalize away a higher cost or lower perceived quality.

Colleges and counselors that are most successful at recruiting are masters of understanding each prospective student and generating their excitement.

They uncover what the student wants and how they will feel if they get it. They put prospective students in the environments and with the people who are most likely to create that spark of excitement, that “aha” moment when the student not only knows but FEELS that they have found their college.

So, when you’re recruiting students, don’t just find out what they want. Find out what will make them feel that your college is the right choice for them. Find out what will excite them.

Recently, over 40 colleges participated in a comprehensive national co-sponsored study on this very topic conducted by Longmire and Company. The results of the study have yielded clear findings on how student excitement develops about a particular college and the role that the college plays in its development.

If you would like a copy of the full report as soon as it is released you can CLICK HERE to send us an e-mail to put you on the distribution list. I promise you will find it enlightening and extremely valuable.

Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo.  For more information about Longmire and Company’s Interactive Counselor Training Program, click here.

[Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.]

Karen Full picKaren Full is a highly-respected higher education professional who has held positions in admissions and enrollment management at several institutions in the Midwest and Florida. With her vast experience working with large and small, public and private colleges, Karen brings a valuable perspective to her role as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. Call Karen at 913/492.1265 x.711 or email her at kfull@longmire-co.com. Follow Karen on Twitter @KarenAFull.

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Posted in Conversion and Yield, Counselor Training, Organizational development

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