Credibility and the Promotion of Your Martial Arts School12/10/2009 9:11:00 PMThree scenarios:
You have an audience with 100 school teachers or parents or people who might, in one situation or another, bring you 10 or more NEW students (note, 10 new students a month, 12 months out of the year, brings a martial arts school an operating budget of about a quarter of a million dollars a year).
The audience is assembled in some public forum –and here you come.
Here’s scenario No. 1:
1. You drive up in a 1984 Ford Econo-line Van, spray-painted pink, with all of the windows broken out of it, the side smashed in (it’s still drivable!), and you have a big sign painted on the good side of the van that says, “FREE KARATE LESSONS!” The car sputters and jumps as you bring it to a screeching halt in front of the assembly. You open the driver door to get out and an empty Miller Lite bottle drops out on to the ground, breaking at your feet.
That’s one scenario. Here’s another:
2. You drive up in your school’s new mini-van, which has magnetic sign on both sides of it, saying “After –School Child Care Program.” You’re in your uniform; you get out and, smiling, walk to the podium to address the group.
Now that's a lot better than the first scenario, yes? The scene in scenario 2 is one that many of us could do, and probably have done (or something similar), an untold number of times.
Now here’s scenario No. 3:
3. Prior to your arrival, the local news has covered your activities, numerous times, both in print and on TV. The Mayor and the Chief of Police are waiting to introduce you to the audience. For a month prior to this day, you, your students, their families, and hundreds of people in your community have been rallying around an idea/project you’ve been working on; it’s a buzz in the community.
You pull up with a large dump-truck carrying 2000 pairs of shoes you’ve collected. The driver backs in, you climb out of the truck and in the back of the bed, on top of all the shoes, and the bed starts tipping. The shoes drop out in a giant pile and with you on top of them; as you fall out of the truck you use the momentum to jump off and sprint to the podium, just a few feet away.
The Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the audience stand up and give you and the bounty of your efforts a standing ovation.
Which one of these scenarios offers you the most credibility in the promotion of your martial arts school?
It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it?
It may be, yet far too many martial arts school owners follow the advice of martial arts consulting firms that were built upon making the work of promoting a martial arts school “easy.” These groups labor to dumb down the act and work of promotion, to simplify it to the point of automation, and to, essentially, allow the laziest and most unimaginative school owners to “get new students.”
Over and over the message reads like this: “Two weeks before the event you start putting up your posters and signs. Then you call everyone and work on recruiting participants in every class. On the day of the event you and your staff go out there and sell, sell, SELL!
Now I’m not saying getting new students should be a difficult or complex process, but I am telling you that your credibility has a LOT to do with how people perceive you –and the value of your services. I’m suggesting that you work a bit to create a stage for yourself, for your school, and for your work, that allows you to come in to their lives in the best possible way.
With some work and planning, you can meet people in a way that they can respect, in a way that puts your work into its proper context.
What does that look like? Watch the video, below, and see Brian Williams (http://www.thinkkindness.org) doing what he does so well (what I want you to learn to do –and learn to teach some of your students to do):
(The film, by the way, was made by a high school student)