I loved and adored these pets.a
For most of my young life, I got all the benefits of owning a pet without a lot of the work…
Because my parents were the ones who were doing that work!
My parents were the ones:
Paying for the food, the supplies, the doctor visits
Dealing with the occasional “messes”
Feeding the dogs
Cleaning the fish tanks
Honestly, I don’t know why they did it… my parents were busy people.
I think they saw the benefit it gave my sister and I.
It was worth the cost to them in money, time, and energy.
There’s a lesson here for us...
What’s the Cost of Your Lessons?
I want to give you a thought exercise.
“What’s the true cost of your lesson program to your customers?"
I’m not talking about how much they pay.
I’m talking about the cost to them.
The effort, the emotional energy, the troubleshooting, the time spent driving to and from lessons, the externalities.
So much of what slows down our potential customers from saying “yes” to joining music lessons is that they don’t know what the true cost is going to be!
That unknown cost can be a huge roadblock for a potential customer.
It can be the difference between a “yes” and a “no”...
That unknown cost could be the difference between seeing your studio’s ad and reaching out... or just passively letting the opportunity slip by.
That unknown cost could be the difference between a potential customer finding your website and filling out your contact form... or hitting the back button on their browser and forgetting you ever existed...
That unknown cost is costing our industry quite a bit.
We can’t risk leaving anything to our customer’s imagination!
In one “column,” they have a defined set of benefits… but in the other column, they have all these unknowns about practice, fights with their kids, or whether it will even “work” for them.
We Have to Define that Cost
It doesn’t matter how good our offer is… if we haven’t defined what the TRUE cost to them is.... because their imagination could make those unknown costs seem quite scary.
And that can sink your enrollment and growth.
However, when it is clearly defined...
And when they see that the value outweighs the cost...
How can they say no?
If you are getting a lot of no’s...
If you are getting a lot of drop-outs...
People disappearing for the summer...
It’s time to start talking to your customers and learning what the true cost is to them and what they find most valuable.
When you address those issues, business gets a lot easier.
Until next time,
Daniel
PS> Do you have a question about studio business, marketing, growth, or education? I’d love to answer it in an email or video… just reply now and ask!
