In a previous blog, I touched on two of the Five Pillars Strategy for marketing to full-pay parents at a private school. In that post, I spoke about Pillar #1, which is finding the reasons why parents might want to move from their free public school option to pay for your high cost, private school education. I used the acronym WITPTBSFTC as my mantra for Pillar #1, meaning ‘what is the problem to be solved for the customer?’ I moved on to discuss Pillar #2, which is demonstrating that the private school has expertise in abundance when it comes to providing an educational experience for its students. We all like to buy from experts because we feel we can trust their advice; we will even pay a premium price. School should adjust their marketing plans with these two in mind. Now for the final three.
Pillar #3 – Demonstrating that Your school has the solution to the parent’s problem
There’s a great deal of competition chasing a limited amount of full-pay families. To succeed, you need to stand out, demonstrating that you have the educational solution that your families need. In this process, you first convey the superior quality of your faculty, program, facilities, placement list and other attributes on which all schools in your area like to compete. Parent will rank this accordingly and select the elements that are stronger for their needs. Cost will be factored in to that decision. With Pillar #3, you add to your marketing campaign those qualities or characteristic which other schools can’t, but will be necessary to provide the highest quality education. This is your differentiation or unique proposition. Parents, obviously, need to agree. You differentiating program, culture, or activity can’t be found in other places. If a parent wants this activity, experience or culture, they need to sign your contract. What is it about your school that cannot be obtained at other schools?
Pillar #4 – Convincing full-pay parents that your educational offering is worth the cost
Full-pay families are smart consumers. They know not to give up a free education for one that costs 25K -50K for about the same experience. You must demonstrate the reasons why it is worth the cost. How do you crack that code and open them up to the idea of paying your tuition? The first clue is in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins .He says, ‘collect the evidence as if you were a trial lawyer out to prove your case’. Moneyed people are logical thinkers. That’s how they got there. You need the hard evidence Jim Collins speaks about in that quote. Here are three types of evidence that can be used to prove your case.
- What are students able to do after experiencing your education? These are quantitative things such as raising reading or math scores by two grade levels or successfully completing an AP test without taking the respective AP Course.
- What competitions are won by your students on a frequent basis? For example, a school has a least one nationally ranked wrestler each year or twenty-five percent of the senior class are commonly national merit finalists.
- What are the elements of your educational program that get them more prepared for college or life? For this one, you collect the elements that a person will experience in your school. Evaluating what they actually do convince the family that you have a program that is worth the cost. For example, you have a 2-year college counseling program to ready students. Each student does a signature project at every grade level. Or you are offering them the Academy School differentiation which is a staple in getting students ready for college or life.
Many schools will use a combination of these areas with most relying on the last bullet. You will need to strategically package the components, so it is easily understood and believable.
Pillar #5 – Turning your customers into disciples
Your finest representative is a current student or parent who is ecstatic about their educational experience with your program. When you prove you can educate students in a superior fashion, parents appreciate it. They become your disciples. They want to help you in recruiting more families or to contribute more dollars above your tuition costs to your program.
Many faculty want to ignore the parents’ sentiments and remark that they took the job to teach students, not to partner with parents. This mindset doesn’t create disciples. Being school centric in the operation of your school does not create disciples, as previously stated in my article “Are You Hurting Your Relationship with Your Parents?”
Hopefully, you are developing disciples among parents and students by providing for the needs of both. People want to understand why they are paying your rising tuition – communicate with them! Make sure they understand why. Give them an excellent educational experience. You will, then, create your disciples.
Summary
Put these Five Pillars into actions and you will see improved results in your recruitment of full-pay families.
1. What is the problem to be solved for the customer?
2. Demonstrate that you are the educational expert.
3. Demonstrate that you have the solution to their problem.
4. Provide them with a collection of evidence that your program is worth the cost.
5. Build your disciples.
If your version of the Five Pillars is not producing enough full-pay families, put it on steroids by attending one of the Five Pillars workshops.
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