Many directors and assistant directors are nervous, dreading the end of the tour because they hate selling and the possibility of rejection. They have neither the innate DNA nor the skill set to perform this valuable routine. Sometimes you can provide incentives for them to build those skill sets. However, rather than forcing the issue, there may be someone else on your team who already has the skill set – the innate DNA – that is ideal to SELL your program. And that is the key. Enrollment is sales.

Take a step back and try to discover who the ‘enrollment building’ machine is within your team. Do you already have someone on staff that would excel in this role? 

Who is head-over-heels about your school and just can’t say enough about how awesome your program is? 

Who can demonstrate your school’s mission on a daily basis and shows pride in working for your school?

 Who do you confidently believe would be able to:

• Identify the parents’ unique needs and hot button issues
• Emotionally identify with the families touring your school
• Win over and charm that person, injecting personality and making the winning connections with the touring parents
• Charm the child and making a ‘felt’ connection
• Demonstrate that your facility truly cares above and beyond all other programs they might be considering
• Ask for the enrollment business at the end of the tour by giving reasons to take action with you

These naturally persuasive talents often go untapped because they are not identified.

I’d like to suggest a surefire way you can select the ideal tour guide from your team.

A book and program called Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (also available at www.strengthsfinder.com) is a tool we highly recommend to identify your employees’ strengths and find the best person to be your tour guide and ‘new prospect enrollment specialist’. 

The book’s assessment is an intensely accurate tool. We recommend that you take the assessment, along with each center director, assistant director and all lead teachers who might be excellent at the tour process. 

Think: Who is really great at promoting their classroom? 

It’s likely that you already have teachers who are talented at selling your program. Give the assessment to any whom you think may have this skill set.

According to this assessment tool, the great salesperson you seek has the innate DNA of an ‘influencer’, one whose skill set combines certain themes, such as:

• Winning others over (WOO)
• Self-assurance
• Being a ‘maximizer ‘, a person who looks for individual and unique strengths in others

Your ideal tour conductor can uniquely identify with the mom or dad on the tour, take them to the next level of success and sell them on your program. With the Strengthsfinder 2.0 assessment, you’ll be able to identify the ‘enrollment building’ machine whose talents might otherwise go untapped.

The book then shows you how to lead most effectively with your team’s strengths in mind. Once you know which team member shines at the tour and enrollment process – the one who loves sales – use the title of Enrollment Specialist, Director of First Impressions, Director of Parent Communication and Enrollment, or any other creative title, while he or she conducts tours. This ideal person will naturally and joyfully enroll more and more children into your program.

Identify your ideal salespersons and give them some responsibility for your enrollments– the opportunity to do what they do best – and you will both reap the benefits of your soaring enrollment.