Master the art of student retention

It is necessary to master the art of student retention for your martial arts program to survive and thrive. The initial challenge is to have students and parents see the value of your program  in the very beginning. The ongoing challenge is to keep students and parents excited long enough for them to actually receive the life changing benefits your programs provide.  People are inundated with an enormous amount of information about how they can make their lives better. We must stand out to overcome all of the opposition. There are three techniques that we use to stand out in the minds of our students.  Number one, ask great questions. Next, dig deeper to find  out how we can add value to their lives. Finally, we must build a dream that is big enough to keep them excited and committed long term.

Asking great questions is a key skill set. Great questions will prompt prospective students to  tell you how you can help them.  This will allow you to better serve your students.  It also allows students to think for themselves about how the marital arts can have a life changing impact.  Dig deeper by asking student to give examples of how they would like to become more fit or more focused.  When you let people tell you instead of you telling them,  your retention will rise. Take the time to uncover all of their goals.  Don't rush this stage or be in a hurry to tell people about your program.

After the question asking stage, repeat what ever they told you.  It will help to clarify the goal in the minds of students.  An example of restating a goal is: "So losing 40 lbs is an important goal for you?"  Another example, "So improving focus is important to you?" Your statement must not be pushy,  just conversational. Let your potential client know you're listening and understand their needs or desires.

 After uncovering the needs and desires, you are then able to help them dream big. Build the emotions and then back it up with logic. The goal is to only use two sentences. Here is an example:  "Imagine how much energy you will have when you loose 40 lbs." (pause) "That will be huge as you need to chase your four year old."  We built emotion with the first statement and then backed it up with logic in the second statement.  This will be key to retention. Students will need revisit their goals over and over throughout their training.

The final stage is to make sure that you have built enough value for students and parents to want to stay in the program long term.  After building value, make sure that your program is actually accomplishing that goal.  We have found that progress is a slow process. Have a system in place for instructors to point out specific progress for each individual.  Remember, retention begins day one.  Lay the proper foundation of dream building and goal setting and you will see your retention increase.