Amid yield season, many VPEMs and directors of admissions have their eye on deposit/enrollment counts. In this hyper-competitive higher ed landscape, meeting enrollment goals are not just your benchmarks, but lifelines for institutional health. It’s not easy for recruiting teams to link enrollment goals to their daily work. The challenges are real, but they aren’t just with meeting goals. The challenges are in managing an enrollment team to hit these numbers – and do it year after year.
Here are a few tips to manage – and motivate – your team.
1. Explain the Targets
Too often teams are handed goals set by executive leadership. (Obviously, that is not going to change!) However, be transparent with the team. Discuss what’s driving the goals. Translate the numerical goal into what does “50” more students mean to the institution.
2. Build a Culture of Mini-Wins
An end-of-year enrollment goal can be daunting. Break down territory goals by inquiries, apps, admits and deposits into weekly or monthly goals. Also have weekly or monthly visit goals for each team member. Create reports that don’t just measure numbers against last year at this time, but measure against the weekly or monthly goal. Most importantly, celebrate the small victories! Recognizing weekly or monthly progress will keep the team motivated.
3. Focus on Strategy
Don’t get bogged down in the tasks that clutter day-to-day work. Help the team understand the strategy behind moving students through the enrollment funnel. Empower team members to create strategy plans by territory. Regular check-ins with individual team members to review strategies will shift actions from reactive to proactive.
4. Assign Accountability and Invest in Your Team
Empower the team to “own” their territory – recognizing that not all territories are going to convert at the same rate or behave the same. Tactics and strategies can vary by territory. But don’t just measure the performance and conversions, invest in your team. Equip the team with training (professional development, CRM etc.), tools and autonomy they need to lead their area with confidence.
5. Be a Coach and Cheerleader
Don’t save feedback for performance reviews. Have frequent one-on-ones with recruiters to review strategy and progress toward goals. If challenges arise, this is the time to coach a recruiter through a change in strategy or new tactics. Be present, encourage, and reward the team as appropriate. Your leadership will set the tone.
Overall, managing toward goals will be time-consuming. But when executed well, the numbers tend to follow!
