ValueBased Blog

Rethinking Admissions To Increase Enrollment

In a high-level presentation to VPs of Marketing & Admissions, Rob Westervelt, formerly of George Fox University, presented the challenges GFU faced and the 7 Success Principles they applied to successfully grow admissions by 37% in a single year and enroll three consecutive record Freshman classes despite lower inquiry and application rates.

Mitigating Summer Melt is a problem not for the fainthearted. According to research, the percentage of prospective students who melt away—do not enroll after completing an application and making a deposit—may be as high as 40% for some higher educational institutions. So what are the solutions? 

What is Presence? It's like culture but deeper.  It goes beyond the organization, division, or even the department or team.  It gets down to each individual and begins building from there. And, once it's established at the individual level it's hard to disturb, disrupt or break.

As a leader, you've probably learned what we tell our clients: “Putting a process in place, IS a process.” It takes persistence, patience, and perseverance to put them in place—and keep them in place. With the advent of agile project management principles, leaders have embraced the principle that continuous improvement is more successful than drastic overhauls, and small iterations can be deeply transformative.

That's a long title, but here's our case for certifying sales professionals:

First, certification​ implies that a level of performance or competency has been attained. A certified sales professional has been observed and measured while performing acknowledged best practices and processes for his/her industry and target market(s). Anyone who has been in sales for any length of time knows that selling software as a service (SaaS) is radically different than selling pharmaceuticals or copiers or whatever.

>> We believe it's time to certify sales teams to ensure the outcome.

Due to the buzz surrounding the phrase "Sales Enablement" you might think it's new. Sales enablement is not so much a new concept as it is a reference to a strategy with a renewed focus on the inclusion of all the resources a sales team needs to be successful.

The​ surest way for an organization to increase and sustain revenues is to attract, recruit, and retain the best talent (People) that can conceive and create the right sales and marketing strategies (Promotion). Once the strategies are in place, create processes and equip team(s) to execute them (Process). Once all these are in place and operating successfully, the right culture (Presence) must exist to keep it all together.

The​ surest way for you to increase and sustain revenues for your organization is to attract, recruit, and retain the best talent (People) that can conceive and create the right sales and marketing strategies (Promotion).

Hiring the right people the first time around is critical. They’re not only the most valuable asset but, in most cases, the greatest cost. The primary cause of employee turnover today is not poor job performance, rather it is poor employee recruiting processes and selection criteria.

I find most people aren't promoted because they failed to go for it.