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Programming is part of any bona fide instruction business and New Student Assessments are the cornerstone of programming. At least that’s our belief here at Proponent Group—and we’ve seen a lot of evidence to support it.
As we hit the mid-season mark for golf coaching in much of the country, it’s a good time for members to engage in some business review activity. A logical place to start would be your New Student Assessment tool, and its performance.
We’ve got three metrics worth keeping in mind as you look back on how things have gone with the NSA, your “gateway product.” They come from our pilot data-collection project, now in its fifth month. Participating members have been averaging 4.7 NSA sessions per month, successfully converting 81% of golfers from the NSA to an extended coaching program. Most impressive of all is the average size of that initial post-NSA booking, $940.
Under normal business conditions, that per-month average of just about five NSAs might seem like cause for renewed marketing energy and a bumped-up goal of 7-10 per month, or even more. This season, with quality teaching so much in demand, a typical Proponent Group member may lean toward letting things ride and making sure they keep their stamina up. If you find your physical and mental endurance being seriously challenged, you may even want to temporarily suspend your NSA program, especially the active marketing of it.
Indeed, no NSA effort is going to work if there is no space on the scheduler for a new arrival who enjoyed their initial session and wishes to buy a big lesson pack from you. This brings us to a topic often raised in 2021—rate increases. Backups in your pipeline or “sales funnel” are a clear signal that higher rates are appropriate and very likely called for.
Consumer demand is the theme here: The NSA tool will help you turn it into active bookings (by cutting through golfer confusion and steering people to your lesson tee efficiently) and rate increases will help you monetize demand even as you lengthen or tighten that sales funnel, to keep from getting overwhelmed.
Naturally, going quiet about your New Student Assessment offering is a move you would make temporarily, until demand slackens or your capacity somehow increases—perhaps because you’ve been able to bring in more coaching help. Whichever path you choose to take, keep looking at your NSA analytics and checking to see whether they are in sync with what best fits your business at any given time.