Posts Tagged ‘Martial Arts Instructors’
Keeping Adult Students Interested Isn’t Easy, But It Is Possible…
How do you keep adults in class? Here are a few ideas...
As hard as it is for some schools to attract adult students, you’d think they’d put more effort into keeping them around.
Even so, adult retention presents a real issue to school owners across the spectrum of styles and markets.
Adults seem to have ten times the distractions of children, and they don’t have parents paying for their lessons who make them go to class twice a week.
Work, family, dating, finishing a degree… these are just a few examples of things that can distract adult students and that may be competing with you for their attention.
So, how do you keep adults attending class?
I don’t have the 110% solution to that issue, but I can offer some helpful suggestions that may help boost your adult retention. Here are a few simple strategies you can use that may help increase your adult enrollment and boost your adult class attendance.
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Simple Honesty And Convenience Can Really Make A Difference In Your Bottom Line
Think you have some powerful sales kung fu? Put away those slick tricks. Honesty and convenience are better than tricks, any day of the week.
So, think you have some powerful “sales kung fu”?
If so, you likely are aware that your customers see the enrollment process as a buying process. They are shopping you along with your competitors, and will likely make their buying decision based on how good you are at convincing them to join your school.
Now, having said that, you should know that I am not a fan AT ALL of sneaky tricks and hard sell tactics.
So, before we go on let me present you with the number one rule I want you to live and die by in your sales process:
Massie-ism #674:
“When you have the truth, you don’t need tricks. Always tell the truth to your customers.”
No matter what you’ve been told, and no matter who told you – slick tricks work against you and not for you when you are building your enrollment.
Growing a school over the long-term is about building trust and a reputation for honesty in your community. Being known as the local used car salesman of martial arts instructors is not the best way to achieve that goal.
With that in mind, let’s look at a few key areas where you can use honesty and common sense courtesy to your best advantage to increase your sales and conversions.
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How To Build Your Email List And Use It To Grow Your Martial Art School…
This is what most people see when they open their inbox. Follow the tips in this article to make sure your emails get opened.
The fact is, even though email has been around virtually since the beginning of the internet, most business owners overlook it as a powerful and nearly free marketing tool.
And today with all the “shinier objects” online (like social media marketing for instance) many business owners discount or overlook the power of having a solid email list for their business.
This is a HUGE mistake! Email marketing remains one of the best, if not the best, marketing weapons to have in your marketing quiver. Think about it – except for the cost of your email newsletter and lead capture software, it is absolutely 100% free to send a promotional email out to your list.
And, you can do it as often as you like, typically in just a few minutes for a single promotional email (as long as it takes to type a few paragraphs and hit “send”).
But, there’s email marketing and then there’s really good email marketing… and knowing a few simple tricks and secrets can make all the difference in the world in how effective your email marketing is for your school.
So, let’s go over a few tips and tricks that will improve your optins (leads) and response rate (how many people respond to your emails).
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Why It’s Not Always Good Idea To Try To Build A Better Mousetrap
Learning the business of martial arts is a lot like working your way up through the ranks. You take things in sequence, learning new skills that build on those you learned in previous stages.
One thing I’ve observed since I started offering business coaching to martial art school owners is that we have a tendency to want to do our own thing.
Take for example the numerous styles and systems that exist today. There are as many styles and systems as there are instructors who believe they have something unique to offer. As one of my students once put it, “It seems like every instructor reaches a certain level, then they want to create their own system.”
In similar fashion, I’ve observed that martial arts instructors seem to want to create their own systems for starting and running their businesses as well…
Creating a unique expression that bears the mark of one’s individual personality and preferences is fine in the context of artistic expression. But in the context of running a martial art school, this often has disastrous results.
Mastery In Martial Arts Does Not Translate Into Martial Arts Business Mastery…
Think about it… by the time an instructor decides to codify their unique expression of a martial art style or system, they typically have decades of martial arts experience, study, and training under their belt. Thus, their unique approach is based on decades of trial, error, and experimentation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Showing Students You Care
Author: M. Massie
Simple Steps To Increase Retention While Making Your Job More Rewarding
Showing students (and parents) that you care can go a long way toward keeping them around for the long haul.
You may not realize this, but retention is a whole lot easier when you invest time in letting your students know that you care about them, both personally and as martial arts students.
Sure, you care about your students… but do they know it?
Let me be the first to admit that martial arts instructors tend to not be the most sensitive people in the world.
Admit it – you probably don’t often express your feelings toward others, and usually just expect that your feelings are “understood.”
Well, unless you’re teaching jedi knights and X-men (mind-readers, in case you’re not a sci-fi junkie like me), chances are good that no one in your school is quite sure whether or not you really care about them – personally, or otherwise.
And, even if you don’t find it difficult to express that you care about other people, you may not even be communicating it in a way they can understand. Often, people have different ways of showing and interpreting appreciation (as any married couple can attest).
So, finding ways to make certain you get the message across to your students is a prerequisite to having good relationships with your students.
Don’t Sweat It – It’s Easier Than You May Think
Communicating that you care about your students really isn’t all that difficult or complex. All it takes is a little awareness and a few extra minutes invested each day in communicating with your students.
Here are a few simple action steps you can take to make sure your students (and parents) know that you are personally invested in their well-being: Read the rest of this entry »
Chances Are It’s What You’re Not Doing That’s Hurting Your Business…
What does this have to do with martial arts business success? Read on to find out...
There’s No Need To Be Afraid Of “FREE”
Let me ask you a question…
What have you given away for free lately?
Now, I’m not talking about giving away a bunch of free lessons – that’s not very wise, and if done too much it’ll cheapen the value of your service in the prospects eyes.
Think about it, you don’t see doctors giving away free surgeries, or attorneys advertising “First Case in Court Free!”
However, there are times when you can give away something for free and have it work in your favor. The trick is finding ways to do this while meeting two very important criteria:
- First, the free offer must perform the function of enticing the prospect to give up something valuable – either their contact information, their commitment, or their time -
- Second, the free offer must NOT be constructed in such a way that you are giving away too much value and thereby reducing the perceived value of your services (and I’ll explain how to determine whether this is so – read carefully because this is important!)
Meeting these two criteria is crucial to your free offer’s success. Fail to meet either one and you’ll end up on the losing end of the deal, every single time.
So, how do you do this? Here’s how… Read the rest of this entry »
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There’s a dilemma most martial arts instructors face when they start teaching kids (well, those who are honest and have integrity, anyway). That is, how do you handle belt rank promotions for kids?
Obviously, kids don’t have anywhere near the emotional maturity, logical deduction, motor skills, strength, or learning ability adults have. Granted, kids can do a lot of things many adults can’t (full splits in three weeks, anyone?) but generally speaking they simply cannot perform like adults when it comes to retention of techniques, application of techniques, and performing like an adult black belt.
So how do you handle belt rank promotions for kids without lowering standards or becoming the thing you hate most? Read the rest of this entry »
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The biggest challenge new and established school owners face is getting new students. The thing most martial arts instructors fail to realize is that, once they open their doors, they are no longer just in the business of teaching martial arts. Now that they’ve decided to open a studio, they have an added responsibility to keep their doors open by attracting new business.
Although many instructors fail miserably in their marketing efforts, it’s often more due to a lack of planning than a pure lack of marketing know-how. Instead of going over the basics of marketing (you can read that by picking up any good marketing book), instead I am going to tell you how to plan your efforts so you get the most from your hard work and money. Here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »
Occasionally I get asked whether an instructor should teach out of their home. Since roughly one-half of the schools I’ve trained at have been located either in or on the grounds of private residences, I can relate to this issue.
My first bit of advice with regards to this issue of teaching out of your home is that you speak to an attorney about these matters. Since I’m not an attorney, any advice I can offer is pure conjecture based on my own experiences running a business. Only an attorney that is licensed to practice in your area can give you a definitive opinion in these matters. Read the rest of this entry »
For many martial arts instructors, teaching children is just not something that they care to do. For whatever reason, they would prefer to spend their time teaching adults, and would rather avoid opening their classes to kids.
Well, despite what you may have been told, making a living running an “all-adult” martial arts school is very do-able; in fact, I know of one martial arts studio in a small town near me that has over 300 adult students.
Another long-time school owner I know decided that he enjoyed teaching adults more than kids, even though his main market had been children for 15 years. So, he developed a marketing approach that was geared specifically for adults, and went from less than ten adults to nearly 40 adult students in a few months time.
His style? Traditional tae kwon do. I think that proves you don’t have to teach MMA or military hand-to-hand to attract adults; you just have to know how to find the adults that want what you teach.
But how are you going to attract that type of adult into your classes? By offering them what they want!
Generally speaking, adults enter martial arts classes for two main reasons:
1. To lose weight and get in shape
2. And to learn realistic self-defense skills
The key is in attracting adults who have disposable income and the time to devote to martial arts training. The schools I mentioned have been very successful in this because their ads focus on giving adults what they want.
As you might guess, in order to attract the adult market you have to get the word out that your classes can provide those benefits.
Here’s a “mini-course” in marketing that explains exactly how to attract adult students to your classes: Read the rest of this entry »
You know, it’s funny how martial artists think so differently from the majority of the people we meet, yet we’re rarely ever conscious of it. I’m reminded of how several years after we had been married, my wife told me that when we first met she thought martial arts instructors were for the most part a bunch of arrogant, self-centered yahoos (no wonder she didn’t want to talk to me the first night we met!) Seriously though, she was only half-joking when she said it. In fact, she went on to explain that when we met she Read the rest of this entry »
"Small Dojo Big Profits" way!
