How to Turn More of Your leads Into Martial Arts Students.

If you’re like most martial arts school owners, you are constantly looking for ways to grow your school faster.

You probably spend most of your time generating leads for your school, but one very simple and often overlooked metric that you can easily improve is increasing the number of leads who come in for a trial class (AKA Show Rate).

At Monstro we study how people buy. We tap into human psychology to give you an unfair advantage in signing up new members.

Here’s how we help our top martial arts schools turn more leads into students.

Speed to Contact is 90% of The Game

People are impatient. In a day and age where you are annoyed if Amazon doesn’t deliver your purchase by the next day, how long do you think someone will wait to hear from you once they’ve started the process of deciding which martial arts school they want to join?

Luckily for you, we know the answer.

In 2007, MIT Faculty Fellow Professor Oldroyd conducted a study designed to determine optimal response times for web‐generated leads. He analyzed 3 years of data across six companies that included over fifteen thousand leads and over one hundred thousand response attempts.

The research revealed that a business is 100X more likely to reach its prospect within the first 5 minutes of receiving the lead, and the prospect is 21X more likely to take the next step in the sales process.

So in plain English, this means you have no more than 5 minutes to respond to a prospect that inquires about your services if you want to maximize the number of leads that schedule a trial.

The question you have to ask yourself is what can you do if you can’t afford to hire a receptionist or assistant to handle inbound inquiries in real-time?

At Monstro, we provide custom automation using AI technology designed to respond to your prospect’s inquiries in less than 3 seconds.

Now that you are engaged with your prospect, the next step is to…

Rapidly Build Rapport

Rapport is defined as a close and harmonious relationship in which the people (or groups) concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well.

That sounds touchy-feely, but the fact remains that as martial arts school owners, you are in the relationship business.

Your students come to you for knowledge and guidance, but they stay for the relationships they build.

The sooner you start building those relationships, the better.

Regardless of whether the prospect schedules a trial online or not, you or one of your staff needs to get on the phone with the prospect and begin to build a relationship BEFORE they come in for their trial class.

Text messages and emails are fine for providing information or generating a response, but you are not a real person until the prospect hears a voice or sees a face in real-time.

If you want to increase the likelihood that they’ll actually come in for a trial, you should get them on the phone and ask them about their goals, background, physical limitations, injuries, and experience.

Make it a goal to learn about them on a personal level and try to find common ground.

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. It starts with a simple conversion.

How to Handle Questions

During your initial conversation, you will likely get questions about your services. One of the most common questions business owners struggle with is questions about pricing.

Keep in mind that the majority of people who visit your website are researching their options. They want to compare the different martial arts schools to figure out which school is right for them.

In the absence of knowing what criteria they should be using for comparison, most people will default to pricing. However, as the owner of a martial arts school, you know that pricing is not the most important factor in selecting a school. It's your job to educate the prospect on what they should be considering.

The best way to do this is to ask them questions. Asking questions allows you to lead the conversation in the direction you choose while making it appear as though the prospect is in control.

As they answer questions about who the membership is for, their goals, their experience, and their schedule, they will form new criteria for making a buying decision.

For example, your conversation might look like this:

Prospect: I was calling to find out about pricing. How much is a membership?

Instructor: I’d be happy to help. Who is the membership for? A child? An adult?

Prospect: The membership is for my daughter. She’s 9.

Instructor: Well, if pricing is your biggest concern, I could send you a link to our YouTube page. It has lots of free tutorials.

Prospect: Thanks, but I wanted to get her more personalized instruction. She’s very competitive.

Instructor: I understand. What types of sports does she do now?

Prospect: She wrestles.

Instructor: That’s great! Yes, most wrestlers are very competitive. Is her goal to compete in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, too?

Prospect: I think so if she likes it.

Instructor: Well, the instructor for our kid's class is a world champion and he regularly works with kids who compete throughout the year. We even have 3 girls who medalled last year as beginners. I am sure your daughter would fit right in with them. How many days a week was she wanting to train?

Prospect: Well that would depend on the cost.

Instructor: I see. Well, our kid's pricing starts at $199 a month, but as you said, it's really not about the cost, but rather if we are the best school to help her reach her full potential as an athlete. Let’s do this, I’ll schedule her for a free introductory class so she can meet the instructor and the other athletes. You can also take the opportunity to speak with the other moms and dads to get feedback from them…

In this scenario, it took just 5 questions to educate the prospect about some other more important factors they should consider when looking for a martial arts school.

Had the instructor simply answered their pricing question without asking any questions of their own, then the prospect would have left with only the monthly cost with which to make a buying decision.

But again, your job isn’t done yet because it's not about how many people schedule a trial class, but rather how many show up.

Get A Verbal Commitment

People want to see themselves as consistent. No one wants to believe they’re flaky. Most people will follow through if you can get them to verbally agree to come or text you if they need to reschedule.

Restaurants figured this out a long time ago. This is why they always say something like, “You will contact us if you can’t make your reservation, right?”

You can use the same psychology to increase your show rate. After you’ve invested the time to get to know a prospect, but before you hang up the call, you can ask them something like, “You will call or text me if you can’t make your trial class, right?” or “Do me a favor and text me if your daughter can’t make the trial class because I am going to be looking for her. OK?”.

Getting this verbal agreement will mentally commit your prospect to come to the trial, but there is one more step you can take to make sure they show up.

Send Trial Reminders

Life has a way of distracting us. With everything that happens in our day-to-day lives, it’s easy to forget something you planned.

This is why we suggest sending periodic appointment reminders by both text and email. Your goal is to make sure they remember they have a class scheduled without being annoying.

Emails are good because you can provide more information like the business address, directions, testimonials, etc., The problem with emails alone is that most emails get lost in the inbox and never get opened.

On the other hand, text messages have a 98% open rate, so they’re more effective for sending reminders.

Sending text after text would be annoying, so we recommend combining the 2 to get the best results.

Better yet, you can (and should) automate this process. Otherwise, you’re just as likely to forget to remind them as they are to forget they made the appointment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, turning leads into students is not just about attracting interest; it's a strategic process that requires understanding the psychology of the buying process.

At Monstro, we recognize the critical role of speed in engaging leads, with research indicating that a prompt response within the first 5 minutes significantly boosts the chances of trial conversion.

Our custom automation ensures swift interactions, allowing you to focus on what truly matters—building relationships.

Rapidly establishing rapport is pivotal in the martial arts industry, emphasizing the importance of personal connections over digital communication.

Handling questions involves guiding prospects beyond mere pricing considerations and steering conversations toward meaningful factors that should have more priority in their decision-making.

Securing a verbal agreement reinforces their commitment to attending a trial class, employing a psychological tactic proven effective in various industries.

To ensure optimal attendance, our approach extends to sending repeatedly but non-intrusive text and email reminders, acknowledging the distractions of daily life.

With Monstro, the journey from lead to committed student is a seamless and personalized experience, guided by a deep understanding of human behavior.

Elevate your school's growth strategy with our expertise and propel your conversion rates to new heights.