Using Your School/Program History to Build Trust Among Prospects
Whether you’re fighting a larger training school or simply the skepticism of a prospective student, your training school needs to bring every weapon it has to the sales process. Along with commonly used tools like testimonials and awards, your school’s history and the track record of your programs / trainers can provide a strong push to your close rates.
How is trust built by a Training School?
Along with the standard perspective of proof of success with past students, a training program’s history with respect to a topic or student segment can serve as a powerful trust builder with prospective students. We’ve seen many examples of companies using their history as tactical tool to position against both competitors and buyer skepticism.
What is the underlying aspect of buying behaviour which can be helped by presenting your history? Often buyers are unable to fully assess the features of a product against their needs. It might be the result of inexperience, lack of knowledge of the area or simply a lack of willpower. As a result they look for shortcuts in the buying process: one of which is trusting a company to provide the right solution for their situation.
Part way through a successful sales cycle, the mentality of a prospective student can switch from resisting to being positive to your programs. They will look for reasons to trust your ability to deliver value to them. This is the opportunity to utilize key elements of your history to demonstrate credibility:
- do you have a long history with particular training subjects?
- has your training team spent decades in their field of training and bring a wide expertise in the subject area?
- does your history stand out from the competition in some areas (even compared to larger competitors)?
Trust: From Enemy To Friend
The trust factor initially can be an enemy in your effort to secure new registrations. But when trust is built, it will lead some prospects to rely on your ability as a company to deliver. That can often shorten the sales cycle as less emphasis placed on line by line assessment of your training programs.
