By Jeremy Tiers, Senior Director of Admissions Services
3 minute read
With colleges and universities finally starting to receive ISIRs from the Department of Education, a lot of schools we’ve spoken with are hoping to start sending out financial aid award letters in the next week or two.
For a good number of admitted but undecided students, they’ll be ready to make their college decision soon after they receive that information. Hopefully you’ve been able to identify that group through asking various direct questions.
‘Closing’ is an important part of territory management, so today I want to talk with you about a related technique that continues to work well for our college partners.
Trial close questions are an effective way to gauge the mindset of an admitted student who you think is close to deciding, without seeming pushy or pressuring them into a decision.
You’re going to ask a question in a way that assumes the admitted student will choose your school so that you can see how they respond.
Because hearing tone (and seeing the student’s reaction) are important, ideally this technique should be done in-person, on video chat, or over the phone.
Here are a few quick examples:
- “From what we’ve discussed Jeremy, it seems like <College Name> is the best fit for you. How are you feeling about being a freshman here?”
- “Jeremy, the next step is talking about signing up for an orientation session and looking at the different housing options. Ready to start doing that?”
- “When you move on to campus this fall, Jeremy, do you think you would rather live in <Residence Hall A> or <Residence Hall B> because they’re both pretty popular with first year students.”
Now it’s time to pay close attention to, and dissect the student’s response.
Do they answer in such a way that tells you they’re assuming that they will be a student at your school next year? If the answer in your mind is “yes”, then you’ve essentially received a soft commitment. If they answer your question with, “I’m not sure about….” or “I haven’t really thought about that…” or “I don’t know that’s a tough one” or “We haven’t talked about that”, then you know you have more work to do – meaning you need to ask additional probing questions and understand the why behind their answer.
To be clear, asking a trial close question is not the same as asking for their deposit. It doesn’t require the student to commit unless you tell them you need an answer right at the moment, which I wouldn’t recommend as a strategy because that’s when asking gets labeled as ‘pressuring.’
I encourage you to develop a list of effective trial close questions that you think you can incorporate on a regular basis during your recruiting conversations. Doing so will give you an added degree of confidence when you do ask for their deposit.
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