Jean Norris
Managing Partner
Norton Norris
Graduating from a 10-month medical assisting diploma program, Jean went on to earn a doctorate in education. After 23 years of experience at for-profit and not-for-profit campuses, she's helping admissions offices boost productivity.
What do you spend most of your work time doing?
I help schools build enrollments, and I do it by examining their methods of outreach, their lead generation strategies and the methods they use to convert leads into enrollments. The client I'm most often face-to-face with is a campus president, corporate president or marketing vice president.
What common practices in admissions offices do colleges hire you to implement or eliminate?
I'm often brought in to add skills to admissions professionals. Modern "closing" skills are the most in demand these days. I frequently eliminate outmoded lead generation methods, like targeting the wrong population or spending too much per lead.
What specific practices are your clients eliminating?
There are a number of overlooked practices that often reduce conversion effectiveness. One example is a school's hours of operation. When the prospect calls, whatever the day or time, a school should answer the phone. Here's another. Who made up the rule that a student must come to the campus to make a decision? The college purchase progresses in stages, and each shopper makes his or her decision according to a personal schedule. A good admissions operation applies a flexible closing process to each prospect. That includes scheduling the campus visit at the right time for him or her.
Besides 'doing the right thing' why might a school want to pursue admissions with a healthy dose of ethics?
They rightly want to avoid bad publicity. Any school seeking a merger or acquisition wants to protect the integrity of the brand. An admissions professional has to balance the needs of the school (number and quality of students) with the education needs of the prospects he's working with. An ethical employer makes that job easier. An ethical employer also retains good employees.
What assumption is commonly, but often incorrectly, made by admissions representatives?
Don't assume the prospect knows nothing about your school. We consistently find that prospects know a fairly large amount about your school before you even speak with them. They use the web, and they shop around. They also hear about you from friends, relatives, current and former students.
Are there identifiable characteristics that are good indicators of how a prospect wants to be communicated with?
Yes, and again, don't assume. Be prepared to use one or more of a number of communications tools. Most admissions personnel have been trained to sell in a certain way on a certain timetable. However, its important today to be thinking in terms of relationship building, even before the prospect has made contact. This is especially true today, because consumers are not very trusting.
Meanwhile, what longevity problem are many schools up against?
The turnover among really good admissions people is rapid. They are moving from school to school, some laterally, more of them upward. There are always vacancies and always new hires in need of training and coaching.
What predictive modeling metrics are not working well this academic year?
In many cases actual yields from application to start are lower than predicted. In most of those cases, they began the admissions cycle with sufficient leads, applications and even deposits. But no-shows have increased at an unexpected rate.
How can mystery shopping benefit a school?
There are usually significant benefits in compliance and efficiency. Unexpectedly, we recently encountered a lead provider who switched our mystery prospect away from the school the prospect indicated to another.