by Sean Devlin, Front Rush
Retention is such an important thing these days. Everyone is talking about it. You know, keeping athletes on the team and in school…your school and your team. Here at Front Rush we have a very similar concern which is client renewals. We want coaches to renew and not leave our team. As a result, we thought we would provide some insight into our best practices that are applicable to coaching. (Note: we have a 90% renewal percentage with 1 year contracts)
Retention starts when recruiting starts, and recruiting starts with setting expectations.
Wow Factor
We don’t try to sell coaches on bogus stuff. We let them know the facts and often times will leave out some of the coolest benefits. Then when they sign up, there is an additional “wow” factor. When you are sharing your message with recruits, be honest. You don’t want them showing up on campus and being disappointed on day one. You want them to be wow’d. You want them to be wow’d time and time again.
Wiggle Room
My co-workers and I recently went to a restaurant in town – the place was hopping like crazy. It is a small Mexican restaurant, but always jam packed. When we showed up, they told us that they were happy to seat us, but the kitchen was overwhelmed and that they were running extremely slow. They gave us an out, but promised to do their best to speed things up. After we sat and ordered, 25 minutes passed and we still did not have our food. Have you ever been at a restaurant and waited 25 minutes for food? Yeah – you start to get annoyed and frustrated. We weren’t because we knew it would take this long. Our expectation was that it would be awhile so we had already settled in. It’s just like going for a long drive. When you know the drive is going to be long, you settle in a bit.
Over Deliver
When you are waiting in line for a ride at Disney World, there are always signs that say how long the expected wait time will be. It says “Expected wait time 45 minutes”. Well have you ever noticed that you have never actually waited 45 minutes. Typically it will be more like 25 or 30. This is by design. They are promising 45 minutes, but delivering in 30. Over deliver!
Do Less Better
When buying software, consumers look at a feature list and of course buy the software that has the most. There is a direct correlation between the number of features and the number of sales. Ironically, there is the opposite correlation between the number of features and the renewal percentage here at Front Rush. You see, the more features that a piece of software has, the more likely someone is to buy. However, it turns out that Front Rush renews the most clients with software that has the least amount of features. This is because most people don’t use them all and instead only use a select few.
It is like comparing a pocket knife and a steak knife. The pocket knife has everything from a knife to a fork to a magnifying glass. A steak knife has one thing and that’s a knife. On the surface the pocket knife is more appealing because it does so much more…it even has a toothpick for your teeth. Unfortunately though, most pocket knives don’t do one thing particularly well (you lose the toothpick, the knife breaks, the magnifying glass it too small, etc). Now compare it to the steak knife which does one thing and that is to cut. The toothpick is the software with a ton of features and the steak knife is the software that renews.
It’s up to you to find the balance.
Front Rush is the #1 choice of college coaches across the country when it comes to recruiting management software. If you want to be more organized, more effective, and more up-to-date with your prospect conversations, Front Rush is the go-to choice. Now is the time to have a conversation with them about how they can help your program, Coach! Click here.