I feel the intial greeting is the most important part and my reasoning is I have always felt the person you are trying to do business with has to be comfortable with you.

Following the School guidelines and having eye contact shows you care

Building a rapport with the student can be complicated with the various student personalities. However, I think the best advice is to listen to the student and try your best to understand their issues. Not only understand their issues but offer some sort of solution.

Listen to the student problems and help them to solve the problem as mush as you can!

This will hopefully be useful, does everyone on this website frequently visit?

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If you're like a lot of schools/colleges out there, admissions performance metrics have taken a back seat to a hyper focus on compliance.  Just curious how your organization is improving typical admissions metrics and enrollment results while staying compliant?  Is it possible?

I'm curious.....what will it take to let go of sales methodologies used in career college admissions for decades?  

A group of us will be presenting at APSCU about how the "sales" approach used in Admissions can also improve student retention vs, just getting students in the door. I'm curious if anyone has measured this at your school/college?

Just curious what the thinking is out there on the impact of the admissions office in student retention.  Specifically, how does the sales methodology used in admissions impact student retention?

I believe leads are most successfully generated by satisfied customers (students).  They can sing the praises of their educational experience to their peers. 

So I've been on the road a lot lately attending conferences and speaking with those involved in compliance and accreditation.  In fact, one group had a keynote speaker from the NY Times who offered the following advice.  He said that the career college industry MUST engage in proactive reputation management and re-train anyone working in recruitment!  

The accreditors echoed this belief at a recent CAPPS conference when asked about the pressures being put on them by the DOE.  The methods used in recruitment in the past must change.  What are you seeing at your school (or the industry) that… >>>

I have found that referrals are best secured from students that are having a positive experience, which is most students.  Within a few weeks they are realizing goals that they have set for themselves and see the support being received on campus to help them achieve those stated goals.  Usually at this point they feel more comfortable and excited about referring friends and family.

Admissions offices all across the country need strong leadership - today more than ever!  These leaders need to bring about major change to recruitment practices way beyond what is mandated through compliance.   To move forward, schools have let go of decades old practices used in recruitment and seek a new model that is in touch with the times!

As James Bertrand wrote, "Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking, we can get on with creating the future." But change is NEVER easy.  Any ideas on how to make this happen?  

How important will social media be to an admissions representative?

I have recently moved into Admissions and I am curious to find out what other successful admissions specialists are doing to build on their referrals.  I have noticed that a large amount of my signed students come from word of mouth and I want to learn how to build upon that.

Suggestions.....

We have incorperated DISC Assesments in our Admissions Process as well as our curriculums. This information is essential to be a good communicator with our perspective students. It is also very prevalent in todays job market.

We are finding more and more emplyers are looking way beyond just a persons hands on skills, they want to see the whole picture. In many cases employers will take the hands on skills for granted especially for applicants with formal training and credentials. They are much more interested in is this person going to show-up everyday and will they get along with their… >>>

So I'm curious what others think about the admissions rep of the future.  Will successful professionals of the future need different skills than what we've had in the past?  If so, in what areas?

Working with a large state university this week on their customer service and recruitment challenges.  Although the environment is very different, the challenges are similar - They are seeking ways to adapt to the needs of today's student in effective and innovative ways, too.  Everyone wants more of the right students and there is much to be learned from both sectors.

It appears the career college sector is ready to change in a variety of ways - in fact...there is no choice.  Many have seen the former models of admissions training and "selling" to be less effective anyway.  So what's holding people back?  It's the fear of change.

We find some would prefer to stick with tried and true methods (albeit much reduced effectiveness) since they are at least predictable.  Trying something new means letting go of long held beliefs - and that is a challenge. It will be nearly impossible to change the behaviors that are necessary unless we can… >>>