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Roll With the Punches and Come Up Smiling by Tom Callos Choosing the Best Membership for Success Martial Arts Is About Expression by John Graden Ten Ways To Appreciate Your Staff by Rob Colasanti Extraordinary Marketing Newsletter Classics by Stephen Oliver Five Ways To Compensate a Program Director by Rob Colasanti Self-Defense Myths by Bill Kipp What To Do When You Need the Phone to Ring by Tom Callos Why Should You Use A Billing Company Do You Over Deliver? by Rob Colasanti Improve Your Retention With These Professionally Written Articles For Your School Newsletter- What you should know before you sign a lease! What To Do If Your Prospect Appointment Does Not Show! |
An executive decision that faces all martial arts school owners is how to present their service to prospective students. When you consider the cost of advertising, competitive forces, and the general operating costs of a professional martial arts school, you’ll want to make sure that your membership structure is optimizing your growth potential. Each membership strategy you may consider will fall into one of three categories—Casual, Ongoing, or Term. You must decide which strategy or combination of strategies to use when developing your sales presentation. Casual Membership This membership allows prospective students to pay as they go. Tuition is usually paid by the class or month. Advantages: The casual membership is easy to sell to prospective students. If the prospect is interested there is very little to consider in making his/her decision. You do not need to develop a renewal plan, which can save hours of paperwork and follow up. The billing procedure to manage this system is simple in theory, “you don’t go… you don’t pay.” Again, reduced paperwork. Disadvantages: The student does not give the school a commitment. Student commitment is essential to maintain a strong active student base, especially during seasonal periods of low attendance. Your tuition revenue is often unpredictable and unstable. While you may enjoy reduced paperwork, you will be hindered by the lack of vital statistics that paperwork provides. Term Membership The Term membership is a quantum leap from the Casual membership. With this option the student joins a program for a specific period of time. Tuition is generally paid by the month, quarter or year until paid in full. Advantages: The school now has a membership agreement where the student promises to attend class and pay tuition for the term length. The Term membership dramatically increases retention by helping to keep student attendance strong. The result is a more stable active membership base and monthly tuition revenue. Scott Provost from Big Island Martial Arts Academy states, “Term contracts have helped create financial stability & growth for my business.” Term memberships also establish an accounts receivable balance that increases the net-worth of your business. This gives you an advantage in obtaining business loans or negotiating power if you want to sell your school. Disadvantages: Term memberships are a harder sell to prospective students. Your ability to sell anyone effectively, especially parents, will require a professional presentation and some sales skill. According to Todd Caccamo from All Star Karate, “Commitment should not be hard to sell if you have laid out your program and its benefits correctly.” Term memberships also require a renewal strategy to keep students from becoming “one time enrollees.” Renewals require time and additional paperwork, and create another sales conference at which time the student may decide not to continue! Ongoing Membership This membership is a combination of the Casual and Term concepts. Ongoing memberships do not have pre-determined expiration dates but still establish student commitment. Tuition is most often paid monthly. Advantages: Ongoing memberships are easier to sell because they do not require you to enroll students on a “long-term” contract. Instead the student has a continuing membership with a built in cancellation notice “clause”. The notice period (usually 30 – 90 days) instills enough commitment in students to keep attendance consistent and your monthly tuition revenue stable Geoff Booth from Booth’s Hapkido Academy in Australia states, “The ongoing system has enabled us to grow from 100 students to over 350. This is easily the best system to use to reduce the effort required to sign up new members.” No expiration dates means there is no need to spend time on renewals and their paperwork! Disadvantage: The student has the privilege to cancel the membership, with notice, if not satisfied with the service. You must focus on quality instruction and exciting classes or everything you gain from increased enrollments will be lost in frequent drop-outs. “People come back to us month after month because we provide a quality service,” says Chris Dewey of Starkville Martial Arts. Ongoing memberships are non-expiring which reduces down payment opportunities from renewals. You may need to adjust your tuition rates to compensate or institute an annual registration fee. |
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