Posts Tagged ‘Elite Membership’

Your Members Want More – Just Make Sure You Give It To Them With Integrity

Having a BBC is a must, but "selling black belts" is NOT the way to go. If you do it, set it up so your BBC has integrity.

Having some sort of elite membership in your school is a must in this day and age.

You have to do this… I’ve tried having a school without an elite membership level, and it just doesn’t work.

As you probably already realize, those folks become your “core” and help keep the school together. Plus, it gives the really serious people something more.

Not to mention that it allows you to increase retention in your martial arts business. That’s a big one. We all want to keep our best students around longer, and a good BBC program can help you do exactly that.

How To Have A Successful BBC

Three things you must do: Read the rest of this entry »

Easy Ways To Implement An Added-Value Membership Program

Weapons training is an excellent training theme for a black belt club program.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, upgrade programs fill a vital need in the program offerings in most successful martial arts schools.

For students, they provide increased training opportunities they would not normally get in regular classes. And, for school owners they represent an opportunity for increased income and improved customer service.

Whether you call your membership upgrade a “black belt club”, an “elite membership”, a “gold level membership”, or some other nomenclature, the fact remains that having one available is a benefit for your students and your school as well.

If you’ve struggled with the concept of creating an added-value membership, I’m here to tell you that implementing one is as simple as offering “more” and charging a bit more for it.

So, here are 10 super-simple ideas for how to start a black belt club in your school: Read the rest of this entry »

A Built In Retention Program

While black belt is the pinnacle of achievement for most students, black belt club can be a way to reward your most dedicated students and improve retention.

While some schools are resistant to the idea of having an elite membership in their studio, the fact remains that many of your students will jump at the chance to belong to such a program.

The reason is that you already have students who are extremely dedicated and motivated to train… so why not offer them a program that recognizes and rewards them for their commitment?

Black belt club is a perfect way to do this. And, before you get worked up into a tizzy, let me clarify by saying that the way I set up my BBC has nothing to do with selling belts. Instead, it’s all about keeping the program quality high and rewarding good students.

Here’s how I do it: Read the rest of this entry »

The Key to Easy Upgrading – Stop Selling and Start Recruiting

It’s important to have the right mindset when you start offering upgraded student memberships. It has to be a privilege, something that a student earns the right to be a part of, instead of just a way to make more money. Remember that you are choosing students for elite membership upgrades on their merits, and they should be honored that you have given them the opportunity to join.

Once you adopt this attitude, upgrading students becomes much simpler. In fact, more often than not you’ll have students approaching you about joining, versus your having to approach them instead.

The Upgrade Process – Make Them Work For It

Here is the process we used to get students to upgrade their memberships: Read the rest of this entry »