What\u2019s your procedure when you have a new parent walk into your school wanting to put their kids in your class?<\/p>\n
For most instructors they simply say \u201cHere\u2019s some information\u201d<\/em>, as they pass a dull, colorless and boring flyer to the prospective parent. Or they might simply say \u201cWe have class on Wednesday at 5.30pm.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I see this all the time when visiting other instructor\u2019s studios and now I know why they haven\u2019t got as many students as they would like.<\/p>\n The person who walks into your club is INTERESTED! That\u2019s why they are there. They WANT to sign up\u2026. Or at least try a class!<\/p>\n These people are HOT leads and you need to do everything in your power to get them into your class, because as you know, once they try a class they more than likely will become students.<\/p>\n But by leaving it to chance\u2026 by giving them \u201cinformation\u201d and hoping they will return is a waste of your advertising dollars and energy.<\/p>\n The most critical step is to get their information!<\/p>\n I\u2019ll say that again \u2013 the most critical step is to get your prospect\u2019s information.<\/em><\/p>\n That way you can contact them again\u2026 and again\u2026slowly building rapport and luring them to all the benefits of your karate school.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an easy way to do it.<\/p>\n First you need to have a \u201cclass registration\u201d form handy with all the other promotional info that you give out. This form should ask for parent\u2019s names, student\u2019s names, address, phone etc.<\/p>\n Second, instead of just saying \u201cHere\u2019s some info, fill out this form so I can contact you again\u201d, you need to ADD VALUE to your process. I probably wouldn\u2019t fill out a class enrolment form for the next day with all my personal information if this was the approach and neither would you or your prospective students\u2026<\/p>\n But if you do a quick \u201c2 minute class\u201d with your prospective student\u2019s parents right there in reception it can make the world of difference.<\/p>\n For example, I grab a pair of focus mitts and TELL nicely (not ask) the prospective child to stand in front of me. You don\u2019t want to give them any opportunity to say \u201cNO\u201d \u2013 that\u2019s why you \u201ctell nicely\u201d instead of ask.<\/p>\n I then ask them, \u201cDo you want to have some fun?\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a bit of a rhetorical question of course \u2013 what sane kid doesn\u2019t want to have fun? But it\u2019s a good way to start the bonding process with your kids. And it causes them to answer you. In this case we don\u2019t \u201ctell them to have fun\u201d \u2013 they confirm it with \u201cyes!\u201d.<\/p>\n Next I hold up the mitts and get them to hit them a few times and once we\u2019re done (about 30-60 seconds later) I congratulate them with \u201cAwesome job! Gimme 5!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This again builds rapport, makes the kids feel great and the parents see first hand how you work with children.<\/p>\n I then ask the child \u201cDid you have fun?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Of course they say \u201cYes!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Quite often they\u2019ll then turn to their parent and say \u201cMom, I wanna do karate!\u201d, at which point I kindly direct (not ask) the parent to fill out a class enrolment form and at the same time I book them in for a free class the next Wednesday.<\/p>\n If they don\u2019t ask their parents about doing karate, I\u2019ll then speak with the parent directly and say \u201cWow! They did a really great job. I think they\u2019ll do well in the program. I\u2019ve got a free class on Wednesday at 4.00pm that\u2019s just for beginners just like your son. It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n I then turn to the child and ask \u201cWould you like to do a real karate class on Wednesday?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Again, I\u2019ve directed the conversation to the child, who in turn asks their parent. What parent will say \u201cno\u201d to a child that is so happy and feeling great after the 2 minute class?<\/p>\n If they don\u2019t ask their parent, or just simply nod their head, I\u2019ll say to them \u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask your Mom if you can come along on Wednesday to try a real karate class?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Again, the question comes from the child to the parent \u2013 not from you.<\/p>\n Then at this point we fill out the paper work and book them in for class as mentioned above.<\/p>\n Now the beauty of this system is that you have a written commitment from the parent and an excited child.<\/p>\n If the parent doesn\u2019t bring the child back on Wednesday, the child will be nagging and asking when they are going to go to karate. Then when you follow up the next day by phone, the parent more than likely will apologize for missing class and reschedule a time to come in.<\/p>\n I think you\u2019ll agree this little approach is far more powerful than simply saying \u201chere\u2019s some information\u201d or \u201ctry a class\u201d. It\u2019s been a huge success for my club and can be for yours too!<\/p>\n To your karate school\u2019s success!<\/p>\n – Jason<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What\u2019s your procedure when you have a new parent walk into your school wanting to put their kids in your class? For most instructors they simply say \u201cHere\u2019s some information\u201d, as they pass a dull, colorless and boring flyer to the prospective parent. Or they might simply say \u201cWe have class on Wednesday at 5.30pm.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[100,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643\/revisions\/644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karateteaching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}