Why most Schools & Colleges are struggling with admissions?

Schools and Colleges need to realise they are not a product; they will not be successful by sameness. They need to create value that only some people want and do it well.
Only when you create value that can’t be easily copied is when you will get out of the “get us leads for admission” cycle. It is important to ask, is spending Rs. 10 crores on building something that can’t easily be copied?

Dive into the passion economy. Find things that your institution does well and then find students/parents who most want it. Once you have found the right target audience, listen very closely to their feedback.

You no longer are a part of “one size fits all” system.

THE RULES OF THE NEW GAME

Pursue intimacy at scale: Find out exactly what your institutions strengths are. Is it an incredible science department or a coach with a history of producing quality players? It may not be obvious in an instant but there will be things your school does better than anyone else. The identification of your unique selling point is critical to your 10-year growth plan. It might be something else, maybe the way your teachers teach or your students behave. Here is a questionnaire we send our clients to get them thinking and then do hours of discussion to help them figure their USP.

IOSIGINITE QUESTIONNAIRE

IOSIGNITE ADVERTISING BRIEF

Only create value that can’t be copied: Today, you can capture value on an unimaginable and unprecedented scale. It’s as simple as writing a blog or maintaining a good Instagram account. But you should be careful not to ‘produce’ value – you are not a DPS selling franchises and running schools like a factory. Your value should be created slowly and carefully. Absorbing the significance of this point can be hard but imperative. Every time I get called to pitch to a new school, they tell me, we want 300 admissions in the first year and I ask them how many do you want in 10 years. We all over estimate what we can do in the 1 year and underestimate what we can in 10. If you want to build a great institution, stick to your core belief from day 1. Do not be for everyone. There is more profit in selectively saying no to an admission than accepting everyone.
The price(tuition fee) you charge should match the value you provide: Price should drive costs, not the other way around. You calculate the cost of salaries, utilities, interests and capital and decide on the price because well that is the rule of thumb any accountant would say. This is primitive thinking. Think of an luxury bag, you will prefer to have a sense of how much people would pay for a certain luxury and then work out what materials to use. You have to understand pricing is a service. When your counsellors talk to parents and students they need to explain how much value your institution delivers, how much more money they will save because of you.
Fewer passionate students & parents are better than a lot of indifferent ones: Value pricing requires selling to the right people. Identify them and concentrate on them, when they choose another option make it your business to know why they chose them.
Your Institution is a story: You’re selling a story and it better be a true one. Education is not a physical thing, it is also not a period. Education is a subjective measurement of how you make a person’s life better. It is a story and like all good stories it has characters, plot and a feeling of completion. Your institutions story must be told and in every detail of your communication.

Other articles that you may find useful:

How to improve your Institutions NIRF rank?

Is Your School Worth Rs. 1600 Crores?

About the Author: The author of this article is Jay Bagri, the Chief Rethink Officer at IOSIGNITE. He has over a decade of experience in working with schools and colleges across the globe and helping them narrate their story and overcome stagnation. You can reach him at [email protected] or connect with him on linkedin.

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