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Word of Mouth Marketing Basics for Martial Arts School Owners: One-to-Ones

February 2, 2012 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

We established in the first section about Word of Mouth Marketing that people only refer those that they know, like, and trust. That being said, you have to take the time to cultivate those relationships to the point that they will refer people to you consistently. One of the ways that we’ve found to be effective is by doing one to one meetings with your clients and community partners. I originally got this idea from being a member of a strong contact networking group. It was part of the program, that in order to be successful in their group that you regularly met one on one with other members of the group to learn about their business and how to refer them business. I thought, why couldn’t it work for us?

What is a one to one?

It’s exactly like it sounds. You essentially have a one on one meeting with an adult student or with the parent of a child student. During this time, rather than just having no direction and just chatting you go into it with a specific plan of attack.

Your Objectives:

1) Find out how classes are going for them.

2) Resell them on the benefits of martial arts training and how they (or their child) has been working towards those goals.

3) Educate them on a few ways to get the most out of your program.

4) MOST IMPORTANT: Educate them on what makes a good referral and ask them if they know anyone that might make a good student.

Here’s the thing, we not only want them to tell us about people that they know so we can contact them. We want them out there recruiting people for us. So, we have to train them, just like you would any other sales person in how to prospect and set an appointment. Now of course, we’re not going to expect a parent or a student to set an appointment (that’d be really cool though). We can however, expect that they would know what to look for in what makes a good student and that they would be able to explain to someone the benefits of martial arts lessons and either give them a guest pass (good) or get their permission to give their contact information to us and we contact them.

Anatomy of a One to One meeting:

The idea of this meeting is for them to get to know you and for you to get to know them and then get to the education they need to identify and then make the referral.

The easiest way is, instead of making small talk the whole time is to split the time you have together in half. Half the time your eliciting from them how they’re doing in the program, what their family likes to do, what improvements or challenges they’ve been having in the program, if they’ve connected with any other families, or if they’re planning to come to any of the upcoming events at your school. The important thing is to, obviously, really listen to what they say and for the most part avoid taking over their “time” even though you’re really leading them through that part of the conversation.

When it’s your turn to talk spend the first part telling your story not with all the myriad details of your last 20 years in the martial arts, but the story of what your program is all about. Knowing that your reason for operating a school goes beyond just trying to make money will anchor them more to the program, help them like you more, and more more receptive to referring you or bringing referrals to them.

Also, in a way that doesn’t really put pressure on them, let them know what makes a good client for you. If you’re trying to make contacts with daycares, cub scouts, girl scouts, etc. let them know. Get that person’s number so you can call them and tell that person that your client said they may benefit from a free seminar for their group. The possibilities are really limitless as to what you could ask for if you really listen and are intent on helping.

Filed Under: Business Development, marketing, Referrals

Word of Mouth Marketing Event Basics for Martial Arts School Owners

January 23, 2012 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

Referral Events are you opportunity to recruit new students by giving your students the opportunity to invite people they know to specific events, for specific reasons, and often in a non-threatening way (they don’t come in with their guard up believing that you’re going to sell them something).

Many referral events can also be done as income generators. If you implement just one or two events a month, you can not only increase your bottom line but create a steady stream of new students into your school. In addition, many of these events are also good for retention, meaning that they help your students connect to the school outside of the class anchoring good feelings to your program. Over time, you’ll become more and more the hub of their families activity.

Below is a partial list of activities that can be done for children, adults, or the whole family. We’ll post How-to’s over the coming weeks.

Birthday parties
Christmas Party
Halloween Party
Bring-a-Buddy Class / Week
Annual Cook-Out
Independence Day event
Spring Break Camp
Parent’s Night Out
Defeat the Bully Class
Anti-Abduction, Stranger Danger Seminar
School talks
Show and tells
Teen Movie Night Outings
Fight Night at a Sports Bar
Summer Camp
Member Appreciation Days
New Year’s Eve Lock-In
School’s Out Party
Back-To school Bash
Open House
Day after Thanksgiving Camp
Break-a-board class
Academic Achievement Challenge
Karate in the Park
Karate on the Beach
Teen Lock-Ins
Teen Game Night

All of these are low impact events and relatively inexpensive (either for you or for clients if you pass the cost along). They can be done in one evening on Friday or Saturday for a few hours and everyone goes home happy and you have the contact information of the guests that come. In addition, they require very little martial arts or if they do, a variant of your trial lesson classes. The point isn’t to teach them a bunch of martial arts, but for them to come in get a little taste of class OR interact with you and your staff so that they have good impression of you and will be more apt to take advantage of your trial program when you invite them back.

When I think of these kind of events, I’m reminded of fellowship at a church. I’m not comparing us to church, but rather that one of the key things that makes churches good churches is that they give people opportunities to connect, not just in worship times. The more events your students attend and bring friends to, the more they’ll be anchored to the program. It becomes feedback loop of success. The more people are juiced about your program, the more events they attend, the more friends they bring, the more leads you have to work with. And ultimately, the more leads you capitalize on the more students you’ll sign up.

Filed Under: marketing, Referrals

Word Of Mouth Marketing Basics for Martial Arts School Owners

January 17, 2012 By Manny Cabrera 1 Comment

If you were to ask many small school owners or probably the vast majority of small business owners in general what their number one source for leads and new students are, they are likely to say they came from word of mouth. Word of mouth is really another way of saying referral, however in the case of most people this means one thing: that they aren’t doing any marketing at all. They’re depending on the fact that on occasion, one of their clients (who likely just wandered in one day and stayed) is going to recommend them to a friend. They’re making the mistake of believing that one of the last three people they signed up in the last four months was a referral (or that when the new person came in, they happened to recognize someone in the business) that they’re marketing when a successful Word of Mouth Marketing Plan is much more than that. As such it has to be treated just as importantly and with as much discipline and deliberate action as any of the other channels for marketing your program.

What is a Word of Mouth Marketing Plan?

Word of Mouth Marketing is generating new business through referrals from others. They referrals can come from either clients or community partners that you’ve developed a relationship with. What makes the difference between an active and effective WOM plan and, as my Dad put it, the Oyster Method (you know, cause oysters have no propulsion and sit at the bottom of the water and eat whatever floats by—which isn’t usually the best stuff) is developing a systematic approach to generating consistent referrals. In the next few sections we’ll discuss different components of a good WOM program.

The Referral Continum:

It’s important to note that when someone refers a person, it’s the person that is making the referral, not the person receiving it that has the most to lose. This is because when someone refers someone else into your program they’re the one that is actually putting their reputation at risk because they have lent you their credibility by telling another person about your program. For this simple fact, people have a tendency to only refer people that they “know, like, and trust.” In order for your clients or community partners to be at all three they have to know you and what your program is all about (not necessarily have to be clients), they have to like you (because they’re referring YOU not your program), and finally they have to trust you enough that when they refer someone to you that you won’t damage their reputation by embarrassing them or dropping the ball on that referral.

So, the first step in developing a Word of Mouth program is a gut check—you have to ask yourself an important question and most importantly, be honest about the answer:

Am I referable?

Like me, your first reaction was “of course!” But, we can’t just be satisfied with that answer because it’s not about us. We’re already here. In order to get a true answer, you’re going to have to do a couple of things.

1) Examine every aspect of your facility and if you didn’t know what you know, would you want to train there? If you had no previous experience would you feel comfortable allowing your child to work out there? Is your training area clean? Like, really clean, I mean hospital disinfectant clean? Not just, is your equipment new or dilapidated, but is it safe too? Is it well lit or are their bulbs out? Is your space open and inviting and free of clutter or does it look one tep away from being one of those self-storage facility with an open space in the middle? Is your bathroom/changing areas clean? Do adult men and boys change in the same room at the same time? Does your ceiling have water stains where the roof previously leaks every rain storm?

All the time you have to be thinking “What impression would I get of this place if I had never been to a martial arts school and just walked in?” Many people that run club programs out of recreation centers, churches, the YMCA, health clubs etc. don’t have as much control over their training facilities as those that have their own place. If this is the case, you’re not off the hook. Get with the facilities manager and see what can be done about the upkeep. Anything that enhances their professionalism will only help you. If they’re uninterested or unwilling, find a new place for your program OR take it upon yourself to upkeep the place you train in. I once had a program attached to a daycare facility in a steel building at the back of the property. It was basically like training outdoors because to keep it from being like an oven we had to open the four large garage bay doors. We would get there two hours early every day before our classes. The first hour was spent cleaning, the second was spent prepping and getting ready for the actual classes.

2) Next, Examine your classes. This is where the rubber meets the road. Everything else is window draping but our classes are where we deliever on all the promises we’ve made. Again, taking away all of what you know and thinking about it from the perspective of yours students and someone who’s coming in and seeing it all of the first time. When you sit where the parents sit, do you classes look organized, orderly, and safe or does it look like the instructor is barely containing chaos? Is the class fun or could it qualify as lifeless and boring (regardless of how serious or important the information being taught is)? Is it a good workout? Do the students leave smiling and sweating? Is what’s being taught in each class related to what’s required to get to the next level? Is there variety? Would anyone call what comes out of your mouth during class (or any of the other instructors’ mouths) positive, negative, or verbally abusive? How would they characterize you? Do you seem bristly or friendly, focused or distracted, arrogant or passionate? How do the students interact? Are they friendly or cliquish? Are you cultivating a culture of inviting or one that’s closed off?

All of these factors and more, not only affect whether someone signs up with your school, but also whether they refer someone. Think about it. Have you ever been someplace because it was cheapest or because of some other unique place but wouldn’t recommend it to someone else because of how it would make you look? I’ll give you an example. I have a guy here in town that supplies t-shirts and other screen printing and embroidery items. He’s cheap, will let me order low quantities and is usually pretty fast. However, I have to ride him like Zorro. Otherwise, my order will be wrong or something else will be amiss. Consequently, I go to him because he’s cheap and we’re friendly, but I would NEVER recommend him to anyone because of the damage it would do to my credibility when he inevitably screwed up my referrals’ order. Your reputation is the most important thing and you wouldn’t just recommend anyone to your clients, similarly, they won’t just recommend you because they’re your clients or you’re friendly.

Beyond examining your program for yourself, you’ll need to bring your spouse or significant other through the school and ask them (especially if they’re not involved in martial arts) to give you their honest impression and what sort of things they would change or make better. Explain to them (and mean it, because they may be afraid of hurting your feelings) that you are committed to making your program better in all ways and need their honest opinion and advice. Get your mom, best friend or anyone else who can be honest with you. Don’t explain why or be defensive in any way. Simply take notes so that you can reflect on your own about how best to use the information. Of course, thank them for their help and take them out to lunch or something to let them know you’re not holding any kind of grudge. The reason I’m emphasizing all this last part is because this can be a very touchy subject for you (it is for me) and we don’t like hearing that what we’re investing our time, heart, and soul isn’t the best it can be. So, remove your emotions and really listen. If what others say makes sense, then take action. Don’t let fatigue be your excuse to not take action.

If you can do all of this, ask a few select clients or give everyone a parent survey that can not only get testimonials but give you vital info into how people see your program. Remember to be careful to not open the door for it to be a less funny version of a roast.

Required Reading: Business by Referral – Ivan Misner

Filed Under: Business Development, marketing, Referrals

The Problem With Awareness Campaigns

October 17, 2011 By Manny Cabrera 1 Comment

Tomorrow is the National Day of Silence to raise awareness about Abortion. My friend, Dan Segale, has been greatly impressed with the courage one of students in his high school ministry has had to take a stand. She should be lauded for her courage to stand up for what she believes in. No doubt, the purpose of the youth of America (because let’s face it, almost certainly it’s high schoolers and college kids carrying out the majority of this “silent protest”) is to get people to consider other options when it comes to unplanned pregnancy. I do not wish to take anything away from the girl the Dan has lifted up, but it did raise some thoughts that I’ve had. The problem with awareness campaigns is that rarely do they ever provide any actual benefit to those that are supposed to be a beneficiary of the campaign.

Let’s set aside the National Day of Silence for a moment. Recently on Facebook, women went around playing a game of sorts involved in posting their bra color one day, and their foot size the next. It was meant to be provocative and get men (and women) in on guessing why a woman would post “mine’s 8” “ This was all designed to raise breast cancer awareness. That’s all good spirited and all, but here’s the problem, what did it do to actually help in the fight against breast cancer? Nothing.

In business, the majority of people make the mistake of marketing their business in a way that only promotes brand awareness. Brand awareness is important, but more important is that the business makes money. What most marketing lacks is something very simple. They forget to ASK for your money in a compelling way. These awareness campaigns are generally suffering from the same problem. First, they lack any educational component, because just going around and making people aware of breast cancer isn’t enough. Second, they don’t ask for you to take action and do anything. They don’t ask for you to do anything (like a self-examination of the breast for lumps) or donate (which is certainly a great need). In the case of the national day of silence, the student in Dan’s high school ministry has presented more education and statistics to get people thinking than most. Unfortunately, most of the time these types of things rarely do anything compelling to change people mind’s or get someone to take action.

So, what should you do if you want to raise awareness?

1) Provide some sort of compelling hook that encourages others to find out more.

This could be a news article, or personal story. I was reading an article a few days ago about children starving in North Korea. The article outlined what the challenges the UN’s World Food Programme was having in getting vitally needed food to these orphanage where the kids were suffering from skin issues that were easily treatable with food. The article had a link to the WFP’s website. The article was so compelling that I was moved to click on the link and donated fifty dollars.

2) Provide a compelling argument that challenges conventional thought.

In the Bible, Jesus had this one down pretty good. He would start his teachings with “You have heard it said…” then follow up with some aspect of the Levitical law and then turn each statement on it’s head with “but I tell you the truth…” in which he’d present something completely counter culture to conventional thought while at the same exact time being true to the spirit of what the original law was expressing.

3) Provide an opportunity for your target to take action and then ask them to do it.

I have several friends online that walk in the 3-Day, 60-mile walk for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. It’s a worthy cause that raises millions and millions of dollars across the US for breast cancer research to find a cure. The difference in their case from the ones that play clever on the internet, is that these men and women ask you to take action. They even challenge you to get on their team and do something.

There truly is nothing worse than passion that has nowhere to go. Let’s be smarter about what we’re doing and ask others to take action when we bring a cause to their attention. Most won’t take action, but if you at least ask you’ll up the percentage that do.

Filed Under: marketing, Rant, Social media

5 Ways to Combat the Bias of the Initiated, “Black Belt Eyes.”

August 5, 2011 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I had a great conversation on the phone, catching up with one of our community leaders here in Brandon. She recently left her previous position to start a new venture here in the Brandon area for the same organization. New startups, even if they’re part of established organizations are always fun, especially if it goes in a different direction from where the organization traditionally heads in. It’s almost like being out there on the frontier or the wild, wild west. It’s a lot of fun and scary at the same time. If you’ve ever started a business or pioneered a new division, you know what I’m talking about. It forces you to step out of your comfort zone and do things you’ve probably never done before.

During our conversation she mentioned how, even though she’s starting this new adventure, she was still working out of the same office and that it was a little weird seeing all the same people, but not really being involved in what they were doing. She works in a membership based organization and there’s direct interaction with the members going on in the building every day. Not being part of the program, she said, was different—but not a bad thing. While she told me that it dawned on me what a great opportunity for her that was. She, for the first time in years, had the opportunity to look at the organization she had been working in for years from the outside—in just the same way as someone that’s brand new would. Over the years, we’ve come to call that in the martial arts industry, stepping outside of your “black belt eyes.”

Black belt eyes is a term that I heard first from John Graden, founder of the National Association of Professional Martial Artists, and later the Martial Arts Teachers Association. Over the years, he has championed the idea of bringing professional business practices to the martial arts industry to be coupled with high level martial arts training. Even if Master Graden didn’t come up with the term, he certainly has been the biggest proponent of making all the school owners and instructors he’s encountered over the years aware of the pitfalls of looking at your marketing or your business systems through “black belt eyes.” In his own words:

Black Belt Eyes [is] making the assumption that the world sees the martial arts the same way we do, when in fact the public sees the arts and your school through Market Eyes.

- John Graden “Black Belt Eyes and MMA”

The problem with Black Belt Eyes is that we have been initiated into every aspect of our martial art through years of training, hard work, and indoctrination. Not everyone has that same knowledge, especially those that are brand new to your program or are prospective students. You look at the martial arts with the eyes of someone with a passion for the martial arts and in many cases there are things that you do in your program (and me too) that you don’t question because that’s the way you’ve done them for years and already understand the reasoning for it. New people don’t have that luxury. Black Belt Eyes even spill over into your marketing:

When Black Belt Eyes see an ad with a jump side kick, they are drawn to the most important aspect of the ad for black belts. It’s not the headline, the copy, or the offer. Black Belt Eyes will check to make sure the kid has his foot bladed and the other foot is tucked. That’s not a bad thing. It reflects your standards as a black belt. But if you choose not to run that ad because you don’t do jump kicks, then your Black Belt Eyes may have cost you 40 to 60 phone calls which should have converted to 20 to 30 new students.

- John Graden “Black Belt Eyes”

When your prospect views your ad, they don’t care really about any of the details of the ad (color of the uniform, if the technique is perfect). What matters to their Market Eyes is, of course, What Can You Do For Me? So, how do you bridge the gap between Black Belt Eyes and Market Eyes in your Marketing, Business Systems, and especially in your direct interaction with your clients? Here are a few ways to step outside of yourself and your Black Belt Eyes to facilitate your new students and prospects to better connect to your martial arts school, or for any business or organization.

1. Ask Hard Questions of Yourself.

“Logic is the Beginning of Wisdom, Not the End.” – Spock, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The first step in any evaluation is to start with yourself. Ultimately, you have the most power over yourself to make changes. Evaluate your daily habits, how you speak, how you write, what your introductions to people are like. Everything. Always asking yourself, “How does this look to someone that doesn’t know about martial arts?” My wife has sometimes pointed out to me that I come off as though I’m dismissive of people, when that’s not actually the case, I’m just very busy. However, the people I interact with don’t know that. Even the people that know me best could feel slighted or less than valued, when I’m just lost in the thoughts of going through my day and all the plates I have spinning at any one time.

You have to take a look at what you’re doing and if necessary change it. Is your conversations laced with techno babble? Speaking to prospects about katas, or hyungs, or any other terms that only other martial artists would know is sometimes a turn off as well. There are many different things that you can examine about yourself, but the real point is to be HONEST and change what needs to be changed. Don’t let your martial arts cloud the point your trying to convey if the details of it are strictly relevant. Learn to project and explain in a way that they will relate to.

2. Ask For Help from those you trust.

“He who is afraid of asking, is afraid of learning.” – Danish Proverb

Even harder than asking yourself the hard questions and being honest with yourself is asking someone else to evaluate your program. I know, it can be hard to hear someone criticize your program even in a constructive way. I sometimes feel myself become defensive because I’ve poured so much of myself and my effort into my program. However, if you’re like me, then that’s exactly the reason you should be asking for someone’s help in evaluating your program, processes, and systems.

In one of the articles I read of John Graden’s before writing this one, he explains our lack of objectivity, relating it back to an advertisement:

A Black Belt Eyes ad will have someone getting kicked in the head. The owner knows that one of life’s simple pleasures is wrapping your foot around someone’s head with a hook or round kick. The readers, however, with their Market Eyes, may translate that image into what will happen to them at that school. They can’t even imagine getting their leg up that high, so they are not identifying with the kicker.

Asking for help, however, is a tricky process. You can do many things, but the biggest danger you could run into is having it turn into a XYZ Karate bashing fest. The best thing to do is keep it positive and steer the conversation in the right direction. Then, really listen. If your close ones that you’re asking for help from are worried about you becoming defensive, then you’ll never get anythign that is useful.

When I mentioned this topic on Facebook, one instructor from a martial arts school in Maine wrote that his “significant other” double checks him. This is often a very good way to go. I remember having a conversation with my wife a few weeks ago in which she informed me that our martial arts school, of all the places that she goes, was the most “unfriendly” to her bringing our twin toddlers with her. Not that anyone’s rude to them, we love kids around here, but because there was no place for them to be other than in the lobby which made it VERY difficult for her to participate in the iLoveKickboxing classes we have here. My wife represents a prime demographic we are trying to reach with that program—young mothers with children. In a community like ours, there’s a lot of them that have small kids that are too young to participate in any of our classes, yet (we typically don’t start kids until 4 years old). At first I was defensive (not with her, in my chest I could feel the adrenaline pumping, like I was a bear protecting a cub). However, once I pushed that down, you know what I realized? She was right! (She often is, don’t tell her I said that.)

Now, the process from there is what to do with that information? In the case of the exchange with my wife, do we create a “kid’s club” for toddlers? I’m not interested in making one that’s available to kids older than 3, because we want those kids enrolled and taking class if they’re here. In any case, I don’t have a solution for that problem (opportunity!) yet. However, the very fact that I am aware of it now is worth gold to me because I can overcome it as an obstacle.

3. Use Survey’s and After Action Reports at Every Level.

As a physician, I understand how important it is to collect data on people so we can understand what’s happening with them. I will be in the position to help enable that knowledge.

- Laurel Clark

One of the most brilliant martial arts schools I’ve had the chance to observe uses these to gather valuable data about the experience each one of their clients is having. When I say they use them, I mean they use them multiple time per year with each category of students, including students coming to the end of their 30-Day Trial Program. Then, unlike some schools I’ve seen, they actually compile the data and use it to notice trends and make plans or adjustments to the way they operate their programs. The sheer volume of data they’ve managed to accumulate with regards to customer service, teaching methods, satisfaction, understanding why people quit, why people enroll, allows them to make decisions based upon real information instead of their best guess. This eliminates a lot of the fog that sometimes can be created with black belt eyes. If this is what large companies do, then it’s probably a good idea for us to do it as well.

In the case of survey’s, the structure matters. You want to structure it in such a way that you get useful data. Like asking for help, if you go about it wrong, it can turn into a XYZ Karate bashing event. Which is not what you want because like using negative language in the classroom, that rarely encourages you or tells you how to adjust and make changes.

After-Action reports are small recaps of events and/or daily operations performed by the staff. Sometimes this can include customer data, but for the most part it’s from the perspective of the staff and even the owner. Some of the biggest questions that are answered by after-action reports are:

Was it successful? (By what criteria?)
What went well?
What went wrong?
What can be done better?
What can be eliminated?
What should be added?
What were some specific comment feedback from clients?

After-Action reports are important in getting rid of the black belt eyes, because you WANT to come up with things that can be improved. So, like being honest with yourself, this is an exercise of setting aside your views on the way things should be and dealing with the way things are. It’s also important to complete these, even if you are a one man operation, because the next time you go to do an event or something similar you’ll have data that was gathered fresh about what you guys thought of it ready for you to use.

4. Develop Specific Systems that Deal with the Perspective of New Students and Prospects Clearly

If your thinking is sloppy, your business will be sloppy. If you are disorganized, your business will be disorganized. If you are greedy, your employees will be greedy, giving you less and less of themselves and always asking for more.

- Michael Gerber

If I had to make a prediction, one of the main reasons people fail to get outside their black belt eyes is because it is simply too much work. The previous three bullets could take you hours, days, maybe even weeks to complete and even longer to make all the changes or improvements that result from it. Then, once a new line of thinking emerges that’s a little bit more in line with Market Eyes, it has to be implemented and a new habit of that thinking emerges. When you’re in your school everyday, I understand how tired and burnt out you can get. I feel it, too.

However, developing a system—a standard operating procedure—that leads potential clients, new students, and even veteran members through the client fulfillment process will greatly improve your ability to avoid black belt eyes and be able to connect greater with your clients and prospective clients because they will be happier and more successful in your program. Clearly defined parameters and objectives coupled with step-by-step process will help you avoid most of the pitfalls of your black belt eyes. On Facebook, one school owner said:

The first thing you want to do is make sure your staff has a specific dialogue for teaching that includes what beginners need to know so it’s not overlooked. This is a way to be sure that it’s not missed.

We want to be specific and clear at every step. Sure, there are going to be people that are only half listening and not reading the stuff you produce, however you can reduce the confusion and let people know exactly what they need to do, what you’re doing for them, and how to find you.

5. Train on Your Systems Often and Consistently.

Good acting is consistency of performance.

Jim Dale

This point could be part of the previous section, however, I wanted to place emphasis on being consistent with the implementation of whatever policies or procedures you have. If you just produce a set of policies and procedures and then set them on the front desk. They’ll never get followed. You have to train and train and train on them. Not just so that it becomes less like an awkward high school production of Annie, but so that your staff has confidence in what they’re doing and feel empowered to actually handle client and prospect events instead of running to you every five seconds for the answer.

It also creates accountability. If you’ve trained on the procedures, you can expect (demand?) that your team follows the procedures because you’ve given them all the tools they need to succeed. If they fail, it’s because of one of three things. 1) The disregarded your procedure/training, 2) The procedure doesn’t work the way you intended, 3) you didn’t give them a procedure or you didn’t train well enough on the procedures. As one instructor put it:

Teaching my leadership team the basics of teaching and business skills helps me see where my blinders are. When they skip steps and leave a new student staring blankly at them, I realize where *I* skipped steps in teaching them to explain it.

Ultimately, you have to accept responsibility that every thing that happens in your school is probably your fault. When your team is successful and creates excited and motivated students, you should praise THEM for their hard work and dedication. When they screw up and someone’s unhappy, you should be looking for where you messed up in the creation of the system. Yes, sometimes the person executing the system is the problem, but that’s still your fault because wasn’t it the management that hired that person in the first place?

What do you think? What are some other ways to combat “Black Belt Eyes”? I’m really interested in hearing from you in the comments section.

Filed Under: Black Belt Eyes, Business Development, marketing, Uncategorized

Small churches, big churches. Small schools, big schools. Big Impact, greatest impact.

July 27, 2011 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

A few days ago, while cruising the internet, I came across an article from the United Methodist Church’s Rethink Church website (see: http://www.rethinkchurch.org/article/little-church-prescribes-big-impact-clinics-uninsured). The article describes a small church in Little Rock, AR that has taken up the task to minister to the poverty stricken in the surrounding area of their church’s facilities. The article describes how a small church is doing big things by providing clinic services free of charge to the poor and uninsured. I think it’s a powerful testimony to the amazing grace God gives everyone to create an impact that is far beyond their small numbers and I commend them greatly on their work. Truly, when people work together, it’s not a sum of 1+1=2, but rather 1+1=200.

However, it got me thinking about churches and how the United Methodist Church, which is a denomination I’m a member of is actually in decline in the United States as far as sheer numbers of members. I think that’s unfortunate, because I love much of the philosophy and tradition that makes the UMC different from other denominations (just to clarify, what makes all denominations the same is what really matters). Many websites and forums greatly debate the reasons why and their isn’t a general consensus as to the reasons why. For this post, I’m not here to debate those reasons other than to inform that I personally believe that besides a declining geographic location of the church, it has a lot to do with local churches not making recruitment of new members or new believers a priority. Whatever the reason, whether church culture, not understanding what brings people in, etc., there are hundreds of churches in all denominations that are closing or dwindling in numbers to just a few hundred, a hundred, fifty, members.

It’s my belief, that with a church like Oak Forest UMC in Little Rock that is able to serve over 2,500 people in their community with free medical services, how much more of an impact could they have if the church was double its size, triple, quadruple? Certainly, the fire that this small church has would have to be maintained as it grew and that would largely fall to the leadership of the church to maintain.

These thoughts pop in my head, not just because I’m concerned with the future of the denomination I grew up in and chose to remain with as an adult, but also because churches and martial arts schools are very similar in many respects because they are both membership based organizations. As a martial arts school owner, I believe that our school and our students have a responsibility to impact the community in a positive way. In fact, one of the lines from our student oath is that we will “build a more peaceful world.” So, with these thoughts in mind, I took to my Google+ account to express some of these thoughts.

If your small congregation makes a big impact, imagine what the size of your impact would be if you worked hard and had a large congregation?

I think the same thing applies to martial arts schools. How much greater of an impact in the community could you have if you had 500 students out there doing good works rather than 50? I don’t mean to put down your school/club, but if you have a true black belt spirit you almost have a responsibility to multiply your numbers so you can multiply your efforts. Yes/no?

I still don’t have a ton of people following me in their circles on Google+, but Professor Larry Shealy of Jacksonville Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu (http://www.jaxbjj.com) chimed in that he agreed with me completely. As long as you stay true to your mission, culture, and values of your school, the more people involved in your efforts the exponential impact you begin to have in the community. In being honest with myself, I replied to Professor Shealy, again on Google+:

[Professor Shealy], I will be the first to admit that I don’t think Sidekicks is fully living up to its potential, both in terms of number of students we’re directly impacting and in terms of number of non-members we’re impacting with our works.

I got to thinking about this yesterday during the message portion of the youth service at church and then again when an article off the UMC newsline was talking about a small church that was making a big impact.

If we really are going to be all about what we’re trying to produce in our students, our schools (and churches) have to lead the way. Recruiting new members into the school isn’t just a matter of increasing the bottom line, but ensuring that we’ll have the greatest impact in the community. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to network with many of the top martial arts school owners in the industry. I’m proud to say that almost to the man or woman, each of them use their influence in the community to help others. One such person is Shihan Randy Holeman of Seattle Washington. His school has nearly 1,000 members and he’s leveraged that success into doing incredible charitable works in his community and around the world. They even built, in the last year, a school for children in Africa, fully funded by his school, and their students and the work they’ve done to raise money in the community.

One of the things I’ve learned from Holeman is that there has to be a reason, beyond money, why you’re in business. I think the ability to multiply the good and positive impact we have in our community is a great reason why. I’m not just on a mission to increase enrollment so that all of the bills get paid (but that’s a good reason too!) we’re on a mission to change the world. And people on missions are unstoppable.

Filed Under: Life, marketing, Motivation/Inspiration, The Why

How I Know You Don’t Care About Me (as a consumer).

February 14, 2011 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

As part of my day to day routine, I visit web pages of things that I hear about and interest me or things I’m searching out. Often, I come across websites or receive e-mail where it’s clear that the person sending the message or creating the site doesn’t actually care about whether they’re really going to help me or not or that they really value our relationship.

Email:

Recently, I received an email from someone I actually know, who was broadcasting about some event that he was trying to refer to his “network.” The problem with it however is that it was basically like email terrorism complete with color highlighted text, lots of bold face, italics, an annoying background image, and no less than nine links in his email signature. On top of that, his wording for the event (which was for a jewelry party) was mildly sexist towards women. Basically, his email broadcast was crafted in such a way that he’s giving the intentioned appearance that he’s not really interested in dialog or conversation with the intended target.

Email is a great medium and even though the numbers of youth that use email is beginning to decline, it’s still one of the most powerful communication tools in business and among decision makers (you know, the people who have the check books). However, like television and radio ads, we’ve become desensitized to email that screams “look at me! Look at me!” Why would I click on your link simply because you put all that text emphasis on it?

Your communication with someone even if you are trying to sell them something should make it almost compulsory that they take the next step. If it’s a sales letter make your copy so engaging and relevant to their life that they WANT to click on your link and take the next step. Don’t jump up and down about it. Some will, some won’t, so what.

Pop-Up submission forms:

Imagine this for one second. I know nothing about you or your product, but I come across your site while I’m searching for your product. I click on the link in the search screen and we’re off to your website. The first thing that pops up is a lightbox with a submission form for your free report or to join your email newsletter.

Let’s be serious for a second. Why on earth would I EVER submit? I know NOTHING about you or your product. You have to build a relationship with your potential client and establish a need to take the next step. In a side note, as instant preview becomes more important on Google, those popups will probably prevent clicks from search engines altogether because it has a hunter mentality. Go instead for the farmer mentality and cultivate a harvest of leads and referrals that place you where your customers are when they’ want to be your customers.

Filed Under: marketing, Web design

Manny Cabrera Speaking This Weekend at the MASOU Annual Convention

November 28, 2010 By Manny Cabrera Leave a Comment

This weekend, December 3rd and 4th, I will be a featured speaker at the Martial Arts School Owners Union’s 1st ever Mega Convention in Clearwater Beach, FL. I will be speaking on the topic of marketing your martial arts school using the internet, social media, and mobile marketing to help generate more students.

I get most of the email marketing from others out there promoting their web design and internet marketing products and to be honest with you, my approach is a lot different from the others. So, my talk this weekend will certainly be interesting, even if you don’t end up agreeing with me.

1) I’m not a fan of long form sales letters. Yes, if I was selling an e-book, or some other tangible product, a long form sales letter combined with an introductory video and video testimonials would be the way to go. However, you have to consider your audience when approaching martial arts lessons. More than likely, they’re moms with not a lot of time, who are being pulled in multiple directions. In addition, as mobile devices are emerging as one of the dominant ways in which people connect to the internet, more and more people are going to lose patience to read a long form sales letter with embedded flash video (as I have an iPhone, that pretty much makes their flash video useless to me – but I’m not the demographic I’m marketing to, but I can tell you that the majority of the mom’s that sit in my lobby are surfing the internet on an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android (and not the ones with flash). Your copy has to be short, to the point, expressing exactly why they should try your free trial program.

2) I do not advocate using a cookie cutter service. There are several services out there that are selling template driven services that includes “search engine optimized” content. The problem with this is that a simple Google search of a few choice sentences reveals that more than 200 other sites just like it exist on the net. Now, that wouldn’t normally be a bad thing except after a certain point you start having people in close proximity pop up with the same template OR with the same copy. These same sites don’t offer a ton of flexibility in terms of what you can do with them to service your existing clients or keep the content fresh either. How do you stay at the top of the search engine if you don’t continually add new and relevant content that shows that you’re website (much less your school) is a vibrant and authoritative community.

3) I don’t believe that getting a gazillion likes on Facebook or Ashton Kutcher levels of followers on Twitter is going to generate tons of new students at my school in Lithia, FL. However, you can use these social media tools to communicate with your client base and be accessible so that they can refer you to others or spark interest in your program when they @ mention you (both twitter and facebook have a way of tagging your social media account and thus putting a link to your page right in their status update). Again, I’m not expecting the person who sees their post to like us on facebook or follow us on twitter, however once at either page they might be enticed to visit our website and then learn about the benefits of trying our free trial program. So, it’s definitely a way to go about soft referrals (where the person making the referral just gives your information to someone and you have no way of following up) but I wouldn’t use number of likes as an indicator. Certainly the more clients and friends and business associates you have on there the easier it will be for them to refer you online (this shouldn’t replace your offline referral marketing efforts, just add to make it easier for them to make referrals).

4) You shouldn’t be obnoxious with your internet and mobile marketing. I would take that a step further, you shouldn’t be obnoxious with any of your marketing. Let’s think of it this way. Many of you, like me, have a younger brother or sister. Think back to when you were both kids and your brother or sister would come around and pester you to play. Did it make you want to play with him or her? Probably, not. In fact you were probably super annoyed with them. I think a lot of marketing ideas fall into this intrusive category, both online and offline. The key to marketing is to be found when they want the information you have. I’ll give you an example of how we already know this instinctively. I used to advertise in print media. If you’re like me then you discovered that advertisements in newspapers and coupon books don’t really yield results. That’s because when someone is flipping through the paper they’re not interested in martial arts lessons. If they’re interested in any advertisements at all it’s probably the Michael’s, Target, or Best Buy insert – which is as consistent as the sports section in most papers. However, I found lists of new students for my after school program when I advertised in a publication that specialized in being a child care guide. Why? Because people reading it were looking for my product. Your website, mobile, and social marketing should be the same way. Be where the people who want and need your product are. In the end you’ll save time, money, and effort because you’re focusing efforts on the people that already need the benefits your program provides (notice I said people looking for the benefits you provide, not martial arts. Only a small percentage of people are actually looking for martial arts lessons but there are tons and tons of adults looking for fitness and parents looking for fun activities for their kids).

5) Use text message marketing properly. There’s a growing trend to start using SMS messaging to help market your school. Now, it gives me a little thrill to say that I was already doing text marketing before it was starting to be advertised by some of the industry experts or created a debate among school owners. However, I don’t equate text marketing to basically an extension of your auto responder marketing. Yes, over 90% of SMS texts get read, however that doesn’t mean that they want to be advertised to that way. The best way I’ve found to use SMS marketing is to use it as an added means of collecting their contact information. At my school, Sidekicks Family Martial Arts Centers, we use rack cards in local businesses in lieu of flyers or lead boxes. On each and every rack card, in addition to the regular contact information, is an invitation to text us in order to get started with their FREE TRIAL PROGRAM. They send the text to the five digit number and I, in turn, get an e-mail with their phone number. I then pass it off or call the number myself and set up their first 1 on 1 lesson at our school. Easy peasy. I think the SMS updates function, that operates more or less like an autoresponder is better for a different type of industry like a restaurant OR with a different demographic, like Youth. The people paying the bills for the kids your trying to enroll, aren’t really interested in getting advertisement through their texts.

This weekend, I won’t actually be talking about any of the five points I listed above. What I will be talking about is what I think you should do in order to create a presence in the electronic world that will help drive new clients to your school as well as keep you connected and your current clients electrified about your program. Should be fun.

If you’re interested in seeing me speak at the MASOU Mega-Convention, visit: http://www.masouonline.com/convention

Filed Under: Blogging, marketing, Social media, speaking engagements, Web design