Do People Want to Buy?

Every business exists to provide something that someone wants to buy. Otherwise, it is not really a business.

Leaders in the education sector seem to forget that their organizations exist to do something for someone in exchange for payment. They may disdain the raw market economics inherent in the above statement or wish to assume that the value in teaching and learning is so self-evident that they need not make a case for buying what their institutions offer. Regardless, in the end, every business must find enough customers willing to pay to make for a going concern.

Three brutal (some would say “bitter”) facts make facing the above business reality a challenge: 1) As the price of education—tuition—rises, the ability to pay becomes concentrated in a more rarified tier of incomes; 2) “Customers”—those paying the bill—question the value of what you offer in a tight correlation with the rise in tuition; and 3) Very few educators understand their customer’s needs, fears, superstitions, and hopes, and how the value they provide needs to meet take all of these into account.

A too-common response to low enrollment is to assume that “we just need to tell our story better and to more people.”  Perhaps, but only if you are certain that the story is about how the value you provide aligns with customer needs, fears, superstitions, and hopes. That makes people willing to pay, even if it is a sacrifice.