Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category

8 Reasons Why Prospective Students Won’t Tell You the Truth!

April 5th, 2017

I remember talking with college bound students in the focus groups we conducted during the development phase of our most recent national higher education study: “Hidden Influences: Revealing the unspoken perceptions that perspective students have about your college and why it matters in your ability to grow and control your enrollment,” and gaining fascinating insights.

WhyStudentsDontRevealAmong many other things, we explored why students will NOT tell a college about the things they find unappealing or lacking about the college.

Students in the focus groups identified eight reasons why they are naturally averse to telling you the things they find unappealing about your college. We then presented these reasons to 18,000 students nationwide in the quantitative portion of the study to determine if they are reflective of students across the country. They are.

In this blog post, we’ll share the most common reasons why students are hesitant to tell you about the things they don’t like about your college. More importantly, we’ll offer suggestions for how to deal with each issue. In our view, its part of the job of a counselor, a faculty member, a financial aid rep, a tour guide, or whomever interacts with prospective students to extract and deal with issues of interest and concern to prospective students.

The table below lists the TOP EIGHT REASONS students don’t want to tell you about the things they find unappealing about your college. As you can see, there isn’t much difference in how students bound for private and public colleges ranked their reasons, except for the #1 reason. Students bound for a private college or university say they don’t want to share their negative impressions with you because, “I would not want to hurt my chances of being accepted later.” Public-bound students say, “I doubt my opinion would matter.”

 

Q13c_HiddenInfluencesGraph

Knowing why students are reluctant to share their negative impressions can help you change the conversations you have with them. If you’re a private college, for example, you can safely assume that most of your prospective students may be fearful of sharing their negative impressions because they think it may hurt their chances of being accepted. To alleviate their fear you can provide reassurance that their candor is sincerely welcomed and appreciated, and it will have no impact on your admission decision.

If you’re a public college, your prospective students need to be informed that their opinion matters. Better yet, you can point to things your institution has changed or added in service to students on the basis of what “students like you” suggested or found missing on your campus.

Most of the eight reasons in the table above have an emotional component. Students don’t want to reveal their negative impressions for FEAR of being judged or wrecking their chances with your college. They don’t want to hurt your FEELINGS. They don’t want to be EMBARRASSED. They don’t CARE enough about you to share their opinions.

You can appeal to their emotions to uncover their hidden thoughts and opinions. As we wrote about in a blog post a couple of weeks ago, students will reveal their negative impressions of you if you make them feel comfortable doing so. Students are amazingly altruistic. They want to help you and they want to help other students, as well. Tell your prospective students that they’ll do both by telling you the positive AND not-so-positive impressions they have formed about your college.

Extracting the negative impressions students have about you can be achieved in ways beyond conversation. The 18,000 college bound students involved in the Hidden Influences study offered many suggestions for getting this information through post-tour surveys that go beyond the typical – as one student characterized it – “were we helpful” types of questions.

We are preparing to launch our next study!

Each year our national co-sponsored studies attract even more colleges that want to “get in” on the new and different insight we give them about their prospective students and students nationwide. If you’d like information about the topic of our next study, and the benefits you receive as a co-sponsor, be sure to CLICK HERE now to be alerted soon when we put together our next group of co-sponsors.
You can also CLICK HERE to receive an advance copy of the Hidden Influence study report prior to its national release.
Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

RHL_Photo_100x100Bob Longmire is President of Longmire and Company, Inc. He is a recognized expert on the topic of how prospective students and parents form their college selection decisions – and how colleges can use that knowledge to grow and control their enrollment. He can be reached at (913) 492-1265, ext 709 or at blongmire@longmire-co.com. Connect with Bob at Linkedin/in/boblongmire.

Six Ways You Can Relieve Prospective Student Stress

November 15th, 2016

Right this minute, all over the country, college-bound students are in the throes of making what is most likely THE biggest decision they have ever made: “Which college is right for me? Will the college accept me? Can I afford it?”   Their parents are offering guidance and counsel because they know this is a crucial decision. Certainly, they too have a hugely vested interest in being certain that the final decision is the “right” one. Let’s face it: For nearly every student and their parent this is a period of high-anxietystress-baby.

No college would want to do anything that would ADD angst to an inherently stressful process, right? No college would do so intentionally but as an industry we do it all the time.

Through our pre-enrollment research, we communicate with hundreds of thousands of prospective students and parents every year and they have been very specific about the things colleges do that add stress to the selection process. Here are the 6 stress-inducing actions most often cited about the college admissions industry:

  •  That we communicate poorly
  •  That we’re slow to offer or reject admission
  •  That we have burdensome processes
  •  That admissions people are not responsive
  •  We are poorly organized, and,
  •  In some cases, they believe we’re being DISHONEST

Are you ready for some good news? Since these things happen more than you can imagine it gives you an opportunity to differentiate your college or university by doing the opposite. You can differentiate your institution by RELIEVING rather than ADDING stress to the college selection process.

Here’s how.

Students and parents have told us what you can do to help. Here are 6 stress-relieving actions:

  1. Communicate often and artfully. Students want information that’s relevant to THEM.
  2. Provide helpful advice and counsel throughout the college shopping process.
  3. BE RESPONSIVE. Return calls and emails promptly.
  4. Make decisions promptly.
  5. Treat each prospective student as you would expect and hope to be treated.
  6. Above all, show a sincere interest in the student.

These may seem obvious but it’s amazing how many colleges fail to practice these proven behaviors that will serve a prospective student and parent well.  Every student has a unique combination of needs, preferences, perceptions and motivations. Identifying and dealing with all of them enables the college to have a deeper and stronger relationship with the prospective student. Uncovering them requires that the college focus on the student rather than the institution.

There are communication techniques your staff can learn that will help them feel confident about reaching out to prospective students to ask the right questions. This is one of the core techniques we teach in the Interactive Counselor Training Workshops we hold on college campuses throughout the country.

Longmire and Company’s on-campus Interactive Training Workshops improve the performance of counselors and staff in areas such as effective communication with students and parents, applying creative entrepreneurship to their jobs, validating past and planned actions against outcomes, and discovering and leveraging the motivations of students (and themselves).

The end result is improved service to prospective students and families, measurable increases in yield, increased counselor and staff job satisfaction, enhanced teamwork, and innovations in work process within the department.

We help colleges with their recruiting efforts every day. If we can help you please call or shoot me an email. Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. For more information about Longmire and Company and the tools we have to offer, click here. Be sure to subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

RickMontgomery_100x100Rick Montgomery is as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. With over 20 years in higher education marketing, he brings an innovative and dynamic approach to helping colleges and universities meet their enrollment goals. Rick can be reached at 913/492.1265 x.708 or via email at rmontgomery@longmire-co.com.

Travel Season Strategies with Real Impact

September 20th, 2016

Let’s hear it for College Admission Road Warriors!

motorcycle-dogAll over the country, college reps are contacting high school counselors, hosting meet & greets with college-bound seniors, presenting at college fairs, pulling together promotional materials and visiting 100+ high schools in way too few days. For admission counselors, it is Travel Season and it can be stressful and relentless.  But, is it productive?

Here are a few Travel Season Tips that will help you differentiate your college or university, have meaningful interactions with prospective students and ensure a very rewarding travel season.

That great pitch you have prepared?  Put it away!

Many counselors have a canned presentation at-the-ready that lists of all the super features their school has to offer? If you have one, set it aside. Features are only benefits when the person hearing them sees value in them. How do you know which special attributes of your institution will be meaningful to a student? You ask the right questions.

When you are asking questions and getting acquainted with the student you are also doing the one thing that will truly distinguish your college from all others. Can you guess what that is?

The answer is: Taking (and showing) a personal interest in the prospective student. 

If you are thinking that is too simple, or that most colleges do this already, two-thirds of prospective students will disagree with you. In truth, college-bound students say that the majority of the colleges they communicated with during the college shopping process never took a personal interest in them at any point in the recruiting process. In our  nationally co-sponsored study, The Excitement Factor, 12,000 college-bound students told us that the college’s personal interest in them, or lack of it, was influential in their college selection decision.

And, as a practical matter, the more personal interest you take in a student the more you will find out about his or her unique combination of interests, preferences, desires, anxieties, and aspirations. With that greater understanding you will naturally communicate a unique value proposition. The student will perceive you as distinctive among their available choices. You will have reached the coveted state of differentiation.

The best conversations start with these questions.

Every admissions counselor has an arsenal of questions that they ask prospective students during the school high school visit. We suggest that you replace those with the type of questions that will begin the process of building relationships. These topics are great discussion-starters for group sessions, too.

  • Picture your ideal college. Tell me about it.
  • What excites you about going to college?
  • Is there anything that concerns you about college?
  • What are your interests outside of school?
  • Right now what college interests you the most? Why?
  • Do you see anything getting in the way of going to college?
  • Why are you most interested in biology/communications/whatever?
  • How would you like me to communicate with you? May I text you?

The best admissions representatives paint a picture of what the college experience will be like. And they do that in a way that is personalized to the student. The right questions will help you paint a compelling picture.

You can be “The Go-To Person.”

You can and should be the key person that a student can count on to provide anything they need related to your college or university. Tell the students you are recruiting, “I’m your college information source. If you need something, if you have a question, if you are worried about something, text me.”

In our most recent co-sponsored study, The Relationship Dynamic,” college-bound students told us that they are most likely to build a relationship with an admission counselor who is knowledgeable and responsive. They most appreciate the counselor who knows the answers to every question about their school, campus, costs, loans, scholarships, etc…  And, if they are asked a question that they don’t have an answer for, they promise to find out fast.

A key member of your team:  High school guidance counselors.

Guidance counselors are crucial influencers for college-bound students and they can be one of your best assets. Unfortunately, they are often the most overworked and underappreciated educators on the team. In most high schools, the guidance counselors wear many hats and guiding seniors through the college search process is just one of the many goals they need to accomplish each day.

Help them do their job and they will help you do yours. Here’s how:

First, do your homework

Before you arrive on campus, learn all you can about the school you are visiting. You should be able to identify strengths that match up well to your college or university. The high school has an award winning band/art/science program? Perfect! Your college just happens to have one the best programs in that particular area in the state/region/country.

Don’t just concentrate on the high school’s strong points, though. Make note of what is missing from the school’s offerings and fill that gap. Good counselors often know of students who have special talents or interests in areas that aren’t being served at the high school level.

Stand out from the crowd

If you want your voice to be heard, be sure you are not saying the SAME thing as every other college rep they hear from. Yes, all those facts about your school are important; class size, top majors, new buildings, etc., but your face time with the counselor needs to concentrate on things that can’t be read about in a handout or on your website.

Focus instead on those attributes that make your college unique. Perhaps it is your “Great Books” program for avid readers, your acclaimed science department with the state-of-the-art labs, or your dynamic career services facility. What special niches can you fill? Find out with questions such as:

  • Are there specific college programs that would interest some of your students that you have had a hard time finding?
  • Do you have a student with particular passion we might be able to help?
  • How can I make your job easier?

High school counselors enjoy hearing (and often sharing) stories of successful placements. When possible, update them on some of their former nacac-promo-finalstudents who are now enjoying college life at your school. Offer specific examples of students from all walks of life who have flourished in their new college environment.

Stay Top of Mind

Follow up and follow through. Showing your appreciation with a handwritten thank you note will make you memorable and is an opportunity to highlight the unique values of your college. Keep notes about specific areas of interest you have uncovered in your conversation and follow up via email with any relevant news. Involve department heads and key administrators in sending personal notes about new developments on campus.

There are communication techniques your staff can learn that will help them feel confident about reaching out to prospective students to ask the right questions. This is one of the core techniques we teach in the Interactive Counselor Training Workshops we hold on college campuses throughout the country. It is also a key component of YES, our Yield Enhancement Tool. Let me show you how we can help you. Please call or email me for more information. Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. Be sure to Subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you don’t miss any of this highly-valuable information.

RickMontgomery_100x100Rick Montgomery is as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. With over 20 years in higher education marketing, he brings an innovative and dynamic approach to helping colleges and universities meet their enrollment goals. Rick can be reached at 913/492.1265 x.708 or via email at rmontgomery@longmire-co.com.

Uncovering Hidden Objections Will Transform Your Conversations With Prospective Students [Video]

March 22nd, 2016

We recently launched a series of free video training tutorials on our website and YouTube channel aimed at making your counselors even better at their jobs. On our website you’ll find an ever growing list of admission counselor tutorials. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more tutorials, powerful data from national co-sponsored studies and interviews with some of your peers.

CounselorTrainingSeriesVideos270x150Would you be surprised to learn that many students in your admit pool are withholding something from you?  What if that “secret” is the one thing that could derail their plan to enroll at your college? Maybe it’s a concern. Or something they simply don’t like about your college. It may be a negative perception that’s based on a false assumption. It could be something huge or it may be something small, but it is something you need to know.

We have found that nearly every prospective student has a hidden concern or objection that could disrupt their path to enrolling. Even the most skilled admissions counselors often find it difficult to uncover these “secrets.” Typically, students don’t open up and share their concerns for one of two reasons: A) Your prospective students are genuinely kind and don’t want to hurt your feelings, or B) they are concerned they will reveal something that will hurt their chance of being admitted.
They may not tell you but they have told us. We provide a tool called the Yield Enhancement System (YES) that gathers key information from students at a crucial point in their college selection process – after they have applied. YES gathers candid information from students in a college’s admit pool about their needs, preferences, perceptions and plans, including which colleges are truly under final consideration and what they are most concerned about.

Over the years we’ve asked more than a million college-bound students two simple questions: What are your top-three colleges and what are your positive and negative impressions of each?

Very often, we find that the one thing troubling the prospective student is actually a misconception. We see this time and time again, even among those students who completed extensive research, toured the campus and received exceptional one-on-one counseling. And, almost always, the concerns can be addressed and overcome, if only you, the counselor, can uncover them.

You can uncover hidden objections and help the student make an informed decision about which institution is the best fit for him or her. Skillful probing is the key to uncovering the things that may be holding a student back from making a final commitment. Give him or her permission to open up: “At this point, most students I meet have at least one major concern. It is a normal part of the process. What is yours?” Sometimes it’s the student’s misunderstanding about a fact. Sometimes it’s a false assumption.

Probing with open-ended questions and attentive listening will also help you peel back the layers of the underlying issue and allow you to remove a doubt or a fear.  The student who was worried about getting lost on a large campus? A quick walk of the campus with the counselor was all it took to change her mind. And, the student who was concerned about a lack of social activity? That vanished when the counselor introduced him to several students who shared his interests.

For a quick video tutorial on another highly-effective technique for revealing and dealing with hidden concerns, watch here.

A highly-personalized approach is most important at this stage of the recruiting cycle. The goal is to best serve the student by truly understanding what he or she needs and wants. Ultimately, that will make both you and the student more successful. One of the keys is to address potential objections and concerns head-on. It must be part of your conversations with prospective students.

Longmire and Company’s on-campus Interactive Training Workshops dramatically improve the performance of counselors and staff in areas such as effective communication with students and parents, applying creative entrepreneurship to their jobs, validating past and planned actions against outcomes, and discovering and leveraging the motivations of students (and themselves).

The net result? Improved service to prospective students and families, measurable increases in yield, increased counselor and staff job satisfaction, enhanced teamwork, and innovations in work process within the department.

If you’ve thought about helping your staff with professional development, now is the ideal time to train and motivate your staff. Email or call me if you are interested in how we can help. Continue the conversation on Twitter @LongmireCo. For more information about Longmire and Company and the tools we have to offer, click here. Be sure to subscribe to Versions of Conversion today so you can stay up-to-date.

RickMontgomery_100x100Rick Montgomery is as an Enrollment Strategist at Longmire and Company. With over 20 years in higher education marketing, he brings an innovative and dynamic approach to helping colleges and universities meet their enrollment goals. Rick can be reached at 913/492.1265 x.708 or via email at rmontgomery@longmire-co.com.