Hello and welcome to this episode of the approaching schools podcast. Now, before we get into the topic of this week's episode, which is all about how you can get a school or nursery to buy into your services, I want to share with you that the approaching schools Academy is currently an open for enrollment until the third of February 2023. So what is the approaching schools Academy it's an online hybrid programme, especially for children's activity providers who want to have a consistent approach to making sales with schools and nurseries all year round. It is CPD accredited learning with a self paced framework where you can learn everything I know about contacting and making sales from schools and nurseries all year round. It also has a dedicated live support coaching membership that runs alongside it. So you can get the answers to all of the questions that you have about approaching your local schools, and how to apply the theory specifically to your business. You will also benefit from a monthly business strategy call with me and a monthly business mindset call of our approaching schools, mindsets experts. So if you want more information about how you can get the extra support, accountability, and strategies needed to make sales from your local schools and nurseries all year round, please head over to bit.ly/approaching schools Academy.
So how do we get our local schools or nurseries to buy into our services? I believe it's all about showing the key decision makers how your service is a valuable investments its really, really important that we start looking at our services as an investment for schools, because this is what's going to encourage them to want to buy. We've talked about solving problems. When we listen to what a key decision maker really wants and needs for their school or setting, we're in a much better position to talk about the services that we feel will really help them at this time. So I want you to think about how you can be communicating value, demonstrating value, and packaging value. This is a concept that my approaching schools Academy members learn with me. And I'm very, very proud that my members actually managed to get their schools buying more from them. And for longer after learning this concept. So how do we communicate value? We've talked a lot about this with regards to the marketing. But even when you're having a sales conversation with a school head teacher or a member of the senior leadership team, perhaps a subject lead or a nursery manager, we need to be reminding them of the value of what's on offer, we need to be talking about how our service is different how our service meets the needs and requirements of the school, its teachers and its pupils. How we align with the national curriculum or with the Early Years Foundation Stage framework, we need to be offering ways to demonstrate that value. We've talked on previous episodes about putting together a valuable offer, like a free assembly or something that demonstrates what you will deliver in some way so that you can show how you're different so you can show how the children respond to you. So you can show progression for learning across different year groups. So you can show what it might be like for a school to have you residents in their setting for a longer period of time.
But one of the crucial things that we haven't yet spoken about is how you then package that value. So you will be likely to be selling a school a package of some sorts, a package of your services. But in these times, we need to make sure that we are offering different options that are going to suit different budget levels. This way, you will never feel like you have to discount. They'll have seen the value of what's on offer through your demonstration anyway, so they will already know whether your service is likely to be worthwhile or a valuable investment for their school or nursery. But does it suit their budget level? Do you have different options to suit them at this time? Are you showcasing your highest value package? Are you also offering an alternative for schools to meet you partway? What a lot of my approaching schools Academy members have found is that in some cases, it's even easier to have an annual option where school decision makers only need to Find the budget off once a year, it actually makes things much simpler for them. And it makes cash flow much easier for you. So is this something you could consider as one of the options that meets different schools at different budget levels, you also, of course need to consider your pricing and pricing is a huge topic, my biggest advice I can give you at this point is that your pricing needs to reflect the value of the service on offer. Now, that doesn't always mean that you have to be the cheapest, it doesn't mean that you have to be competitive with other providers, it actually means that you need to be charging what you feel your service is worth to a school or a nursery. Because I have it on very good authority from several different key decision makers, that if they see a service that looks a little bit too cheap, they're going to be wondering if it really is a valuable investment or suitable for their school, they're actually going to be looking at the slightly higher priced packages, perhaps because they can see more of perceived value in choosing that option. Now, this is something that our mindset coach and the approaches schools Academy has said time and time again, because she used to be a senior manager in a middle school, and she would wonder what was wrong with the lower price options, and she would want the very best for her pupils. She now coaches are approaching schools Academy members on their money mindset to help them with the pricing if they're a little unsure about how they should be pricing their services. And what they should be charging their local schools or nurseries is also something we help you with in terms of strategy. We give you training, we give you templates, we give you examples of what has worked forever approaching schools Academy members, so you can be confident in your the strategy regarding your pricing, but also seeking get some coaching. So you feel great about offering this amazing value. And so you feel excited to be having these conversations with key decision makers in your local schools and your local nurseries.
Now, it's not always simply about approaching new schools or new nurseries. When you've got some schools and nurseries on board. It's also much easier to get further buy in from the key decision makers within those settings. So be thinking about how you can add more value to your existing schools or nurseries. At this time, I want to tell you a story about one of my amazing approaching schools Academy members who is an early years dance provider. And she's actually had a fantastic 33% increase in her revenue in her business this year, simply by adding more value by learning the sales techniques that we teach inside the approaching schools Academy members and using them to actually upsell and upgrade her current schools and nurseries to a point where she was able to add them more value, upgrade them to longer sessions, upgrade them to longer packages increase the price to reflect that value. Because remember, that's extremely important as well. And this gave her that fantastic boost in her income in her business across the year. So it's always about thinking about how you can be adding value. Where do you solve problems? Where is there a gap in the provision where you can actually come in and help improve what this school or this nursery already does already has in place? And how can you help complement that service to make it even better and add even more value to them.
It's always about what these head teachers, and what these nursery managers really need. So the more conversations you can have with them, about this and about what they need, the better. Because when they start telling you what they actually want and need, you can start putting together a really highly valuable experience for them, their teachers and their pupils. There was even a school that I used to work with who I had approached many, many, many times in the past who had said their children simply weren't interested in dance on the curriculum. So they probably wouldn't be interested in an after school dance club either. When I showed them the value of getting me in by offering them a free taster of my services, they got so excited and saw the impact of what I could provide upon the school. They started coming up with ideas for ways they could get me in things that were never would never have entered onto a simple price list I would have put together before having this conversation and With the school key decision makers at that particular setting, because suddenly when they saw the value from the demonstration when they saw how the children responded to the demonstration, when they saw what an impact this could potentially create on their school, suddenly they wanted far more than what I was initially selling. They didn't simply want an after school club. No, no, they wanted a teacher's club. They wanted not one extracurricular club, but two, before school clubs per week, they wanted curricular dance, they wanted help for their gifted and talented children. They wanted to get the children ready for a performance then they wanted early years to have a go. So they wanted some work with the nursery. And suddenly it spirals into me trying to sell an after school club that they desperately didn't want, to me taking orders from a school that just wanted this dance experience to continue in every single area of the school, not just for the pupils, not just for the teachers, not just as a fun club, not just for children who might perhaps be struggling with something, but actually children that needed additional challenge that gifted and talented children, and then any untapped areas of the school, like the nursery, for example. So you see how when you communicate value, you demonstrate value, and then you package that value together. The school sees your services as a worthwhile investment. And that's when you get their buy in.
So if you've enjoyed this podcast episode, and you do want to learn more about how you can add value to a school, how can have better conversations with key decision makers, how you can find out what head teachers and nursery managers in your local area really need, how you can package and price your services at a level that a school is going to be interested in what you have to offer, because you're no longer guessing and trying to sell them what you do, but you're actually giving them what they need. Do come and check out the approaching schools Academy, our CPD accredited learning course with additional live support, which is currently open for enrollment until the third of February. We'd love to have you join us and you can find out more about this fully accredited programme at bit.ly/approachingschoolsacademy