Simpedia

Sue C. AU

I have a pamphlet and I tell the enquirer that I will post them my pamphlet. (You don’t have to put prices, or anything that ties you into a program you may regret later.) I think I have something like “ask Sue about the current classes available”. You then have to ask for their name and address.

That way it gets to their letter box in the next few days and is something they can have in their hands to read and will reinforce what you have told them. It may hold them back from booking with someone else while they are waiting for your pamphlet to arrive.

Kevin M. California

Hi Mark, when I was starting out and actively building my studio, anytime I had set up an FIS I would always tell a person who said they were not able to attend I would be doing a make up session the following week. I found this worked extremely well to get people in who either made the call you are referring to, or just didn’t make the FIS. Another thing I did depending on how hungry I was for new students or if I didn’t get enough students from the FIS for my beginning shared lessons I would do a private FIS if need be to just get the student. I have had some students who have called and said the same things to me you described in your Email, call back any where from a few months to believe it or not a few years later and begin. In most cases however I’ve found the sooner you can start someone who expressed an interest the better. Not to mention needing to take advantage of whatever costs were occurred for the FIS you set up I would do whatever I could to get that person to begin ASAP. One other thing I’ve done with a lot of success if I have started a group off the FIS and I get one of the calls you mentioned I have invited them to come try the first shared lesson for free and many times that has been what was needed to get the student started. Hope this has been of some help.

Carrie L. Michigan

I schedule one-on-one FIS’s in a 30 minute time frame and tell them that I have to meet with them in person FREE before we’re able to start. I give as little information as possible on the phone and just try to get them to that. I often have email/internet inquiries and often we don’t even speak on the phone, just email enough to schedule.

I usually get students one by one and it just works for me this way. I have had people call though and price shop or tell me something like I’ll talk to my husband and never call back. I think people sometimes just aren’t ready or have a price range in their mind and it doesn’t matter what you say at that point. I actually had someone call last month that asked how much I charged and I told her and she was said well then would you take X instead cause the lady just a mile from you is charging that rate… I was shocked and offended…not sure I handled it well, but I wouldn’t want her daughter as a student.

Kevin M.

Hi Mark, thanks for your new Email. I’ll be pretty blunt so I hope it’s okay. I spent many a year in sales and there was a saying” be backs never come back” I know you are trying to communicate something a little different, but stay with me a moment here. Whilst I found that true in the health club industry (people who don’t enroll that day don ‘t come back) I have not found it so true WITH SIMPLY MUSIC. However, you had an opportunity to get them into your studio for and FIS, Make up FIS or free lesson at a time their interest was most peaked. By not getting them at that moment to enroll that is most likely what led to the other avenues they have taken. The same advice still applies. This has happened to me several times, I have had similar situations and yeah I’m dumbfounded at times why they didn’t make what seemed to me the clear and obvious choice our program over something they have tried and failed before or, some other program that peaked their interest at that time and for whatever reason, they enrolled in that and moved on. I know many a teacher who has a large studio base and most would agree the better you are at enrolling the day of the conversation or at the very first meeting the less likely this will happen.
As for the other, Yin and Yang well your pretty much dealing with the definition of that aren’t you? They chose another path, free will… great! I believe Simply Music to be by far the best music education system bar none the world has ever seen… Having said that it’s not for
everyone. I don’t consider it a defeat if they made another choice time will tell if it was right for them .In the meanwhile the bigger and better you grow your business and reproduce the Simply Music module, and the word gets out as your place is the place to be if you want to learn piano in an easy fast and enjoyable fashion, you earn a reputation as the best teacher around, this will happen less but still may happen. My advice will be to focus on anything you could have
done a better job on…. Getting that person to enroll NOW! After all that gives them the best opportunity to learn more about us by doing it, not thinking about it! Still no matter how good I get at presenting and or selling this product, some people will make other choices, great fantastic best of luck to them… The one thing I know is I did all I could to enroll that person at their highest point of interest when they contacted me and the too late thing won’t be something that shouldn’t have gotten too late with they enrolled, most will end up in my classes. You may still think I am miss-understanding your question and if so I apologize but based on what I read and my past almost ten years of experience with Neil’s program this answer seems to fit, I really hope it helps best of luck.

Gordon Harvey, AU

In this situation in the past I’ve spoken to the person, or sent a letter or email (I wouldn’t go as far as phoning them just to have the conversation, I’ve simply responded through a similar medium to the one they used) saying something along the lines of:

Thanks for letting me know, and good luck with the teacher you’ve chosen. Please keep in mind that not everyone succeeds in traditional lessons, and if after a period of time you find your child is becoming frustrated or isn’t progressing to your satisfaction, don’t take that to mean that she isn’t musical, because that certainly isn’t the case. I’ve had many students who have come to me after being unhappy with their current lessons, who have invariably succeeded just as well as any other Simply Music student. As a guide to your child’s success, I recommend asking this question: how many pieces can she actually play and how musically can she play?

Once again, good luck and thank you etc.

I think I’ve had one or two students end up back with me, which isn’t much, but I still feel that this response potentially makes a contribution to the student, and leaves me feeling complete.

It’s also worth reminding yourself that you don’t really know what another person’s priorities are. What you’re thinking is that you offer the best method available and it’s as simple as that, but for the enquirer that may not be the only consideration, and not necessarily the most important one. They may also be thinking about convenience, cost, personality and who knows what else, and they may not even have considered the differences between SM and the other teacher’s approach. Just because they didn’t enroll with you doesn’t mean you’ve failed, although it highlights an area that you can look further into to reduce the chance of it happening again.

Beth S. Tennessee

Maybe one way to do this would be through email. If you could get people’s email addresses and set up an email list with all your contacts, students, etc. you could periodically send out interesting things from the forum. For example, the Australian TV segment on SM or various clips or articles that circulate. (I’ve been thinking about doing this myself but haven’t gotten around to it.) In that way, you could still give the “Yin” response at the time. You’d come across as a no-pressure, easy kind of person. But the ongoing positive info they periodically received about SM would be subtly giving the “Yang” response and little by little they would start comparing what they’re doing to what you can offer and you’d never have to say a word. In addition, it would continue to inspire the students and positive contacts you do have and reinforce to them that they’re doing the right thing.

Sheri R. California

I’ve been frustrated by this before too but can’t think of a specific time I turned it around although I may have.

You might want to say to them something like, “please keep me in mind if things don’t work out.” In fact, based on across the board results with SM students all over the world, not just mine, I would say that if your child isn’t playing eight or ten classical, contemporary, blues, and accompaniment songs in a musical fashion with both hands together within the next two to four months, in addition to composing and improvising, you might want to strongly consider giving Simply Music lessons a closer look, as that is what your child will be doing with this method. You might even want to ask your current teacher what your child will have accomplished after the same amount of time. You see, the thing is most people don’t realize how different these lessons are from traditional lessons but once they find out and start to see for themselves they just can’t believe the difference.”

You might also ask them if they chose not to look into your lessons because of location or some other factor, just so you are clear. (When people have thought my studio was too far before I have told them I understand about that (gas and time) but that the results are so phenomenal that I have had students that drove 1 hour each way before there was a SM teacher in their region.) Maybe they went with a recommendation from a friend rather than an unknown entity. If so that might open the door for further conversation.

This is definitely a situation where you want to give a hard sell but at the same time we know that would backfire, just as you described the yin and yang. Maybe a few words like what I’ve written is something a little in between? Giving them some concrete information about results and trying to get some answers from them and further conversation. If they choose to come in “just to see” I might give them a partial FIS but then jump right into Dreams and give them the complete FIS and FS over the next few lessons just so they aren’t feeling misled by the results you were talking about.

Would love to hear if anything you do when this situation arises next time helped change someone’s mind.

Mark M. New York

Thanks to all who’ve been responding. A lot of good advice on both how to communicate to prevent people from becoming disinterested, as well as on possible responses to those who may have said they were planning to go elsewhere. I think I’m smashing together bits of what Gordon and Sheri said to come up with a nice juicy response for those situations 🙂

This email notion also does seem to me a good one, but it’s something to be careful about. Sending prospects ongoing information like this can be seen as spam, which aside from possibly having you lose prospects can do much worse damage to you, getting your email address blocked on various email servers around the world. Once someone gives a definitive rejection, I think that’s the time for a response like Gordon’s/Sheri’s, and then you stop communicating with them. But even those who never give a definitive rejection, who I’d continue to inform about FIS dates and such, I wouldn’t likely send them extra info, newsletter-type content, etc., because of the spam concern. All the major email marketers suggest verified double opt-in to preserve a good reputation.

Having decided recently to start a newsletter of my own, though, and using AWeber for double opt-in email marketing as I’ve been doing for a few months now, this discussion gives me the idea that it would be good to not limit subscribers to my own student base. When writing to a prospect — and when writing to people who’ve decided to go elsewhere and so have just become former prospects — I can mention the newsletter to them and suggest that they subscribe, since it will give a lot of interesting tips for making a piano lesson experience successful. Maybe they don’t do it, but if they do, it’s opt-in, can’t be considered spam, it’s value I’m giving them, and that could definitely go a long way toward creating a positive impact in general and possible a conversion later on.