When I first meet with a client to discuss doing a school enrollment engagement for their Catholic, charter, or private school, one of my
first questions is: “Why are you struggling with your enrollment?” This always leads to an interesting conversation, but often school
leaders don’t know the reason why their numbers are down. They just know that they aren’t seeing the number of students that they saw in
years past.
One of the most critical parts of my engagement with school is to try to understand “the whys?” Diagnosing the issues or barriers is the
most important component of developing a strong marketing plan and ensuring consistent enrollment.
So, what can a car manufacturer teach us about school enrollment? Toyota is one of the most successful companies in the world. In the 70’s
and 80’s when Toyota was beginning to penetrate the US market, they faced American car companies that had very entrenched positions. But,
American made cars had poor manufacturing quality and frequently broke down. So, Toyota quickly established a position as a very reliable
car that didn’t require much maintenance – a key selling point.
They could do this because of the pioneering work of their production chief, Taiichi Ono. Ono is credited with introducing the concept of
Kaizen, or continuous improvement. At its core, this approach says that you can solve any problem by asking “The 5 whys”. By going through
this exercise, you can quickly diagnose the root cause of any problem. Toyota has been very successful in implementing this system and
their approach (6 Sigma) has been copied by most major companies and is now a widely-used system of improvement in manufacturing as well as
business operations by successful companies.
So how does this apply to your school?
Schools generally are very data rich, but analysis poor. The data is there, but schools haven’t asked the critical 5 why’s to get at the
underlying reason for their struggles in attracting students. Let’s use an example from one of my clients to show how this works in
practice.
My client was a K-8 Catholic school in the Midwest. But their enrollment was slipping and they brought me in to help to develop a plan for
them. Using the “5 Whys” approach, allowed us to understand what some of their challenges were and to develop an action plan to address
them.
This is a simple example of trying to diagnose a problem and creating a plan to address it. This client began to conduct outreach to a
select group of 10 nearby preschools that they felt represented the best fit for their school. They increased their incoming kindergarten
class by an additional 8 students over the prior year. They are also now in the process of deepening those relationships by offering
kindergarten readiness screening and a more collaborative set of efforts between the preschools and their school. This will benefit them
for many years to come.
For many school leaders who are struggling with enrollment, it can be hard to start the process of improving your marketing. However, if you begin the process with a strong diagnostic approach that includes asking the 5 Whys, you will find that the answers will start to reveal themselves.
Nick LeRoy, MBA, is the president of Bright Minds Marketing and former Executive Director of the Indiana Charter School Board. Bright Minds Marketing provides enrollment and recruitment consulting to private, Catholic and charter schools. For information about how Bright Minds Marketing can help your school improve its’ student enrollment, send an email to nick@brightmindsmarketing.com or call us at 317-361-5255.
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