Leads360 released a study today evaluating the enrollment processes at the top private sector higher-education schools in the US. Unfortunately, many schools had a hard time earning a passing grade, you can download the full report here.

We thought we’d provide some practical advice on Coffee for Closers, providing a few tips for admissions departments at for-profit schools to improve their approach to recruiting high quality students.

Tip #1 – Don’t Underestimate the Power of an Email: Many prospective students do their research online, and make their first inquiry to a school by filling out and submitting an inquiry form. A simple way to instill candidate confidence in the professionalism of the school and provide additional information relevant to that particular candidate’s interest is through email. Remember to use each email touch-point effectively, with the optimal number of e-mails being two to four according to research.
Tip #2 – Be the First to Follow-up via Phone: Leads360 research has also demonstrated attempting to respond to an inquiry within one minute of its receipt increases the chances of enrolling the prospect by 391%. This dramatic increase is due to the fact that prospective students are most likely to engage with a school right after making their initial inquiry. Schools can also increase their success by not only being the first school to contact the student but also matching the candidate to the ideal admissions personnel through “skill-based routing.”
Tip #3 – Calling too much or too Infrequently can be Detrimental: Just as important as the ideal number of calls – six per previous research – is properly timing contact attempts. Calling three times during the first day, once on day three, again on day four, and a sixth and final time on day 11 or 12, is the optimal call attempt strategy according to research on building the optimal inquiry response strategy.

Tags: Education