I remember when I first started off with my own school, I sometimes had a hard time getting people to sign up as a student. I didn’t have a problem getting people to come in for appointments or running a good introductory class, but always had a problem when I finally got them into the office and asked them to sign up. I was usually met with “I have to think about this.” This perplexed me, as I offered an excellent introductory class. I researched my sales training books and found the 3 main reasons that they would not agree to sign on the spot.
The first reason is, you didn’t really answer their questions. These people will have questions every time. Maybe about price, maybe about contracts and schedules, or maybe even about billing. Questions are very important, and dodging them is a terrible idea which can be a complete deal breaker, same with answering incorrectly. You must answer questions with correct and easy to understand answers. Don’t mess that up. A thing I found funny is that some will have questions and not ask them. I like to make sure prospects understand all the information I want them to have by asking questions. For example, I will ask them what days work best for them. This is to see if they understand their training day choices. You get the drift.
Another reason could be, you did not succeed in quelling their concerns. As with starting anything new, this person will be unsure. People fear the unknown. So make sure to address a person’s voiced concerns and potential concerns that have not been voiced. A good way to quell these concerns is the risk reversal technique, where you convince a person that the risk of something is on you, not them. This technique is used a lot in marketing, and is very useful. It’s all about how you are able to communicate this risk, if you cannot, then it’ll be harder to get them to sign up. A good question to ask is what concerns they may have about training. Do they fear getting hurt? Do they feel they will learn too slowly? And so on… Say a prospect has fears of learning to slow and looking bad. You can reverse the risk by telling them that the speed at which they learn falls upon your teaching staff. My team and I are experts in teaching new students. Your coordination is farther along than you think. You will have no problem picking up what we want you to learn. Ask questions to investigate if the prospect has any fears or concerns.
The last reason is that you improperly conveyed the value of what you’re doing. If you can’t convince the potential student that the instruction you are giving is equal or greater in value than what they are paying, they most likely will not sign up. You can’t do this convincing from an office, that’s why you need a great introductory class that will convince them to sign up and pay you, because if the intro class is bad, then you probably won’t be able to change their mind.