Why Features & Benefits Matter Less

Much is fluid in the education world these days. Students and families continue their slow recovery from the sequelae of the COVID pandemic--not so much from the virus per se as all the trauma that surrounded this epoch-defining event. International student flows and boarding school and university admissions are vulnerable to a new geopolitical and economic cold war between the USA and China. Predictable demographic shifts continue to take school leaders by surprise. Social and political factors affect what teachers can say in new and dangerous ways.

One thing that remains the same is the tendency of people inside schools to "sell" the outside world on using their institution's features and benefits: small classes, differentiated instruction, branded curricula (IB, AP, GCSE, whatever), scope and variety of languages on offer, etc. The problem is that your prospect's understanding of features and benefits will not drive enrollment. Instead, enrollment hinges on whether or not they think you understand what they need and can match their student with aspects of your program to meet that need. Talking about the program before they know you understand them (think jobs-to-be-done) sounds impersonal and disinterested.

The problem is that most of us think of sales in the education space as how the admission officer describes all your school's bells and whistles. Those bells and whistles do not mean much until the prospective family knows you understand them and their needs. The former can be done en masse via advertising, websites, and tours, while the latter happens only in 1:1 conversation and deep listening. It takes time and costs more per admission, but there is no shortcut to this empathic connection. No matter how many times you have listened to families, it all starts over with the next one through your door or on Zoom.