Follow the golden rules for attracting and retaining students, and your school will be full in no time.
If you’re in the business of teaching self-defense, there are more factors involved in securing a membership than we can cover herein.
But, experience tells me there are three rules for communicating with potential members that lead to more student enrollments. And, for the record, these rules need to be alive and growing at your school to retain your student base:
- Safety: Self-defense is by nature scary for would-be students, so communicating that their safety is a priority is paramount. It’s also vital to illustrate your commitment to safety by showing them how your staff addresses potential concerns prior to class starting, during class, and even after class. This concept should be part of your methodology – period.
- Personal consideration: While it’s good to illustrate how the school is organized to run with safety in mind, it’s also important to let would-be students know that each staff member cares about them individually. Each student should have an outlet outside class to voice concerns, ask questions, and make decisions about their training.
- Qualifications: Would-be students should be directly told about the quality of the instruction and the quality of the instructors. The staff, methodology, and instructors should all be highly qualified and competent. If this isn’t the case, make it so. You can’t fake this for long, so ensure you have the right stuff before you take on the responsibility of teaching self-defense to others.
Communicate and deliver on these three concepts, and you’ll have no trouble attracting and retaining students.
