Acquiring a new student for your martial arts school involves more than just putting out ads and hoping for the best.

There’s a significant investment of time, stress, and money involved in every step of the process.

From the initial marketing efforts to the moment a student enrolls, each stage requires careful planning, training, and execution.

The Hidden Costs of Student Acquisition

Here’s a breakdown of what it truly costs to bring a new student into your school:

  1. Training Your Front-Line Staff: Time, stress, and money are required to train your staff to handle inquiries and set and confirm appointments. Your marketing efforts may generate interest, but if your staff isn’t trained to convert that interest into actual appointments, those efforts are wasted.

  2. Teaching Intros to Prospective Students: Once an appointment is set, your staff must be trained to effectively teach introductory lessons. This is where the prospect gets their first real taste of what your school offers, so the quality of these intros is crucial.

  3. Conducting Enrollment Conferences: After the intro, your staff needs to be skilled in conducting enrollment conferences. This is where the prospect decides whether to commit to your school. The ability to communicate the value of your program and address any concerns is vital.

  4. Collecting Tuition: Finally, your staff must be trained to handle the financial side of enrollment, ensuring that tuition is collected efficiently and professionally.

  5. Payroll Costs: All of these tasks require dedicated staff, and that means payroll. The time your staff spends on these activities, from answering phones to teaching intros, all add up in terms of cost.

The Student Acquisition Funnel

Think of your marketing efforts as a funnel. You pour risk capital, time, and stress into the top, and hopefully, black belts come out the other end.

The effectiveness of your marketing determines how wide the top of the funnel is, while the quality of your front-end process (turning inquiries into appointments and intros into enrollments) determines how wide the funnel remains.

Your teaching, retention strategies, and student services then determine how many students make it through to the bottom of the funnel and continue their journey to black belt.

The Reality of Payment

Here’s the hard truth: You don’t actually get paid until a student enrolls.

You don’t get paid to market, take phone calls, set appointments, or teach intros.

Payment only comes when a student completes the process, signs up, and makes a financial commitment.

Performance Standards

To gauge the effectiveness of your student acquisition process, a good standard is that each level should result in 80% of the level above it.

For example, if you receive 10 calls from an ad, you should aim to set eight appointments (80%). 

Out of those, six or seven should attend intros, leading to four or five new students. Another benchmark is that you should be enrolling 50% of your phone calls.

Conclusion

Acquiring a new student involves much more than just placing ads or promoting your school.

It requires a comprehensive process that includes training your staff, managing payroll, and handling the stress that comes with each step. 

By understanding these hidden costs and focusing on optimizing each stage of the funnel, you can improve your school’s student acquisition process and ensure that your marketing investments pay off.