HOW TO WOO YOUR PARENTS THIS TERM
WHAT ARE YOUR PARENTS PAYING FOR?
Your parents are not paying you because of your own personal status per se, could say they’re paying you the sum-value of what your teachers carry. Leadership is so intrinsic a concept, that everyone needs to learn it consciously. If you have a set of teachers who display wonderful qualities – not just academic but also creative and leadership qualities – people look at you as a leader of leaders and not just an ‘Oga’ of Workers. You earn a certainly huge amount of respect and value from the kind of teachers you have.
So, parents are not actually paying for anything in your school other than the calibre of teachers you staff.
See, no matter how brilliant you are – and honestly, School Owners are brilliant. Believe me when I say this, I’m not just teasing, I’ve met close to a thousand school owners in few years and I can defend this statement. It will be recognized by your parents that you’re sound and smart as a school owner, but there will be a ‘BUT’ if the same cannot be said of your teachers. You may consider getting our teacher training programme, LASE (Leadership Attitudes Skills and Ethics) for your teachers
Get the book – The 4-Legged School Growth Strategy – https://bit.ly/35JMO9i
If you surround yourself with teachers who are not brilliant and cannot think creatively, you will certainly lose children. It’s amazing many of us recruit with sentiment. Painfully, we at times try to satisfy other people’s recommendations (people we honour) at the detriment of our own business. It’s not about how much money you pay them really, it’s instead about how much VIRTUE YOU CARRY and you impart on them. Be careful when choosing teachers. Look for skill, but also look for virtue, teachability and good attitude, but above all – you can only give what you have. Build up yourself, then train them, mentor them and the results will be tremendous. I will touch more on this at the OUTDOOR SESSION TOMORROW.
YOUR IMAGE CAN MAKE YOU LOSE PARENTS NEEDLESSLY
Has anyone told you that your school’s image is what determines everything about your school? By image, I mean, the general perspective of people about your school. Basically, people who are not even your parents. As school owners, let me tell you something, you cannot sell more than your image sells you.
…wait a minute David, but this affects every other business…
Yes, but for a school, it’s rather far reaching, because we’re dealing with lives on hourly basis. I once decided to take lease of a school that’s no more in business but has its equipment intact. We had concluded on price and all of other things. The school sits comfortably on 2.5 plots of land with 2 storey blocks and a total of about 35 rooms. It’s even in a densely populated area of Lagos. It has all the equipment in it – furniture, office equipment, ICT room, all labs, and more. But just before we closed the deal, I took another stroll into the community to find out why such a nice facility is not in use. The discovery was amazing. Don’t ask me! We never closed the deal.
SCHOOL BUSINESS IS IMAGE BUSINESS
Get the book – The 4-Legged School Growth Strategy – https://bit.ly/35JMO9i
An African adage says, ” Egg sellers don’t play rough. ” . School Owners are egg sellers. You’re being watched. Your parents watch you and the environment is jealous. They wonder, when did you start business and right before their eyes, God is blessing you. They don’t know what you go through. Do you guard your school’s image jealously? Just one false derogatory comment when peddled for too long can make parents start withdrawing children in droves and put the school out of business. Worse still is if such comments have some elements of truth. Please avoid employing staff you will eventually fire. It ruins the school’s image. Avoid conflicts. Forgive people even when they don’t deserve it. Avoid unending arguments with anyone.
IF YOU LEAVE YOUR PARENTS IDLE, SOMEONE ELSE WILL GET THEM BUSY
You see, parents opt for another school for reasons you hardly detect until they’re gone. You can’t wait until it happens. Many times you take it lightly when you organize PTA and only few parents turn up. You do PAP and only few of them show up. You do inter-house sports and those same few already know themselves. Open Day comes and it’s still those same few.
Take Mrs Beckly as one of your parents who never attends functions. One of her close friends then invites her to her own children’s graduation or something. She got there and was wowed by those performances. But you do more in your own school, only that she never attends. Mrs Beckly then becomes a cheap prospect for another school. With hot marketing from that school, you may lose her. Not because you’re not good, but because she didn’t know it.
Don’t get me wrong. Parents are free to attend any function they want. But here’s the point. Never take it lightly when a parent only seldom attends your own functions
Most times, the purpose of those functions is to market your brand and bond deeper with the parents. Take for instance when you do your PAP. Your patents will be super excited. It gets difficult for anyone to market them out of your school. The same may not be said of a parent who is always absent from such occasions. They don’t know the full worth of what you have until they see it being showcased.
So, those events are marketing fields for you. Primarily to your own parents and also to other parents they might bring along
Be on their necks. Make sure they attend, otherwise they become cheap prospects for other schools if they venture attending those of their friends, just the same way non parents who attend your own functions may become prospects for your own school. Parents are free to attend functions of other schools, but you may have a problem if they never attend your own and then when comparing, there’s no basis to justify you’re better on those grounds of comparison
HERE’S THE POINT HERE: It’s not okay when a parent never or only seldom attends your functions. You’re leaving them too idle. They may soon become prospects for other schools.
NOT EVERY PROSPECTIVE PARENT’S SHOULD BE ADMITTED. ONE PARENT CAN ELAD TO THE EXIT OF OTHERS
Yes, we all want sales. When a parent makes enquiries, we want them enrolled at all cost. ‘ They must not go, if they go, they will probably end up in a competitor’s place. ‘, we often say.. Am I saying some parents should be turned down when they come to enroll their children? Yes, that’s what i’m saying. And if you think it’s a joke, let me tell you this story…
A woman enrolled 4 children in my school at once. That kind of deal doesn’t come every day. She paid every money quoted on the bill. But that term was the last term we ever smiled at their payment. They spent 2 sessions and it was like writing UTME to get them to pay. We found out much later that their father was into shady deals that come in only seasonally and the woman was a complete house wife. Such a parent was destined to leave right from day one. The problem is when they leave, they don’t leave alone.
Those made me develop this innovative way of selecting parents before admitting them
QUICK ASSESSMENT FORM
This is not the usual enrollment form or application form. It’s a very short quick form at the point of inquiry BEFORE GIVING THEM YOUR BILL. The prospective parent is ignorant of its purpose. The trained receptionist can do it in form of just question and answer.
I’ve explained the quick assessment form earlier in the book; please look for it under Population Growth
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