TIPS ON MAKING YOUR REGISTRATION SKYROCKET

Your advertising campaign has resulted in potential customers contacting you and once they make that first contact, your registration process begins.How you deal with these contacts can make or break your student registration.

Remember what it was like to register for public school, and how chaotic it was, what it felt like to be shuffled off from one person to the next, and how confusing the entire process was and how alienated you felt. Let me remind you:

From a public school in the state of Florida:

Required Documents:

• Two current utility bills in the name of the parent/guardian registering the child (i.e.: water bill, telephone bill, or electric bill).

• One of the following: a rent receipt, lease agreement, mortgage commitment, warranty deed, contract including specified closing date, voter registration, or a Florida Driver’s License. The current license should match the other verified proof of residence from the utility bill requirement above.

• A Florida Certificate of Immunization The Blue 680 Health Form is needed.

• Physical Exam If your child is entering a Florida public school for the first time, you must have documentation of a medical examination performed within one year prior to the day of registration by a doctor within the United States.

• Withdrawal papers from previous school.

• Transcripts of grades or report card from previous school showing proof of promotion. Students enrolling in exceptional education (ESE) classes, including gifted, must present copies of the most recent Individual Educational Plan (IEP) and psychoeducational evaluation.

• Date of Birth Verification (birth certificate, passport, or school transcript).

• Social Security Card (if available).

How many students do you think you would register if that's what you asked from your prospective new customers?

Still, when students do call you for lessons, how exactly do you respond to their inquiries? Is your conversation all about the benefits they will receive when they study with you or is it more about what you require in terms of payment and attendance.

My reports discuss in great detail how to talk to your prospective customer in a positive way showing you exactly what to say, when to say it and how to answer the 13 questions that students ask.

After 27 years of registering over 7,500 students, I know exactly what students want to know, why they want to know it and how best to answer their questions so they want to sign up.

I script actual conversations I had with students and how I used their questions to actually show them the benefits of studying with my school.

Still, one of the big questions students ask is always this:

How much does it cost?

Unlike the public education sector, teachers and schools that give lessons in the private education sector can not rely on compulsory registration to fill their schools and courses. I am taking about anyone who will:

- want to open their own private school
- want to start a tutoring business
- teach Spanish in an after school program
- teach music lessons to children at your own music school
- teach driving lessons to young adults from your driving school
- teach karate lessons in your student's homes
- teach dance lessons at the local recreation center
- teach painting in your own studio in your home
- etc.

The tuition for these types of classes are most likely not covered by any government subsidies, grants and in fact may not even be tax deductible by the students. As a result, when students register with you, they are paying the full tuition fee out of their own pocket.

This means that your student population has to be able to afford your classes and that your registration process has to convince these students that paying you is worth their while.

It's making the potential student want to pay you and not your competitors that enables a successful registration to take place.