by Eric Bourassa
Earlier this month, Dave Simon, creator of Kidzrock and JR Rockerz (rock band programs we license), quoted me in a podcast about sales. So I wanted to lay out my philosophy and our school’s approach to selling music lessons.
For context, Dave discusses why sales is often considered a dirty word. He posed a question to us music school owners in his Facebook group- Why do you feel sales gets a bad rap?
My response, which you can listen to in this episode of the Music Lessons and Marketing podcast, was, “People falsely think that sales is convincing someone to buy something that they don’t want.”
What Is Sales?
But what sales really is and should be is discovering what people want and then guiding them to the appropriate purchase.
So when someone calls Fort Worth Music Academy for the first time, my goal is simply to ask questions to find out what the parent or adult student really wants. My first question is usually, “What inspired you to seek out music lessons?”
Each response is unique but generally falls into one of these four categories:
- I want my child to find something they are passionate about
- My child has a deep love of music and I want to explore that
- I am an adult that wishes I would have learned as a kid and now I have the time and resources to pursue this
- I’m an adult student that has played for years but I’m stuck and frustrated
Choosing The Right Program
Once I know their primary motivation for contacting us, I provide concise info on one or two programs I think would best suit them. For a beginner guitarist age 9, it might be Unlimited Guitar or JR Rockerz. For a 13 year old piano student, it might be a teen band or private lessons. Adult student? Usually private lessons.
Details Matter
Next I make sure to provide as many specific details as possible about our next steps without overwhelming them. Price of intro lesson (if any), the registration form that needs to be completed, who will contact them next, and what happens after the intro lesson.
Then I invite them to ask any questions they may have and tell them they’ll receive an email with the details we just went over (it’s hard to keep all that stuff in your head when you first hear it!)
After receiving their completed registration form, we double check their answers to our 3 policy questions. If they got them right, we know they’ve read our policies. But if the answers are wrong, we send them our policy page and remind them to read it. We always want students signing up with us understanding exactly how we operate. Confused families are unhappy families!
Signing Up
After the intro, one of our team members follows up to see how their first visit went. If it was great, we ask them if they’d like to sign up for lessons (90% of the time it’s a YES). Then we tell them exactly what they’ll be paying today and when their first automated monthly payment will draft.
Finally, we send them a welcome email with important details. We add them to our new students email list where they begin receiving a series of automated emails educating them about how we roll.
Follow Up After Signup
Lastly, we check in with them after their first regular week of lessons and again after their first full month of lessons. This is all part of the sales process. After the initial “sale,” it’s important to continue to take care of your students and their families. The “selling” never ends.
And for us, selling just means taking care of your people before and after sign-up.
