Speaker 1:        So today we're gonna talk about, uh, personality traits, motivations, really what we're trying to get a handle on is what, what is the, what's the story it's driving the decision in the prospect. What's the, what's the thing that's driving their behavior and how do we better respond to what that, how that person [00:00:30] is thinking and feeling in order to help them. So, um, to set this up, we, we pulled some information on lead flow, going back to May, 2019 through to pretty much today or the end of November. And it was super interesting. So we, we pulled all the leads divided by the amount of clients. So this chart represents broadly [00:01:00] leads generated per client, who is in our system. So they're either a, a, a marketing services client, or they're a, a subscriber virtual advisor and, or helping them generate leads. And what this showed was that, you know, things totaled along in the typical up and down of a month prior to March, 2020, which was pretty much ground zero for COVID. 
Speaker 1:        And then right around March, cut a dip down, [00:01:30] and then it's been steadily growing all the way through to about August this year, super like a lot, like things increased a lot. So 170% plus. And what, what we found interesting about is, is it, it was opposite to the behavior that we were expecting, right? So if you can visualize yourself back in March, 2020, I'll tell you my experience, our experience, that moment resources is, uh, we were all pretty freaked [00:02:00] out, right? <laugh> it was, um, didn't know what was gonna happen. Everyone had to close their doors, try to pivot around, um, figuring out, Hey, are we gonna try to enroll students? Are we gonna have to cease operations? And there was a ton of anxiety and, and kind of disruption, right? And that was the, the starting point of that sort of middle of March. 
Speaker 1:        And I remember thinking, oh, housing's gonna collapse the dollar's gonna like, there's all [00:02:30] these students day scenarios. And then, but what's happened over the last 18 months is things have grown. It's been, it's kind of been good for us, right? As, as horrible as that is to say. And so this, this lead flow, this lead flow growth has contributed, um, to a, kind of a boom of enrollments for most schools. And particularly in vocational kind of schools where we've enjoyed the disruption [00:03:00] in the labor force that COVID has caused. It's been pretty amazing for us traditional school, not so much. Those guys have been suffering enrollment problems. And, and I think there's a, um, a, a big portion of the population that's, you know, reevaluating the ROI in their, but certainly career in it's been awesome us, but there's always a, but if we look at kinda August, things are starting to taper down [00:03:30] now, partly this is seasonal. 
Speaker 1:        There's a normal fluctuation and leads over the course of a year, but it's, it's starting to drop and it's dropping a little bit more and say, if we looked at August, 2019, where things were more or less flat, we're, we're starting to see some declines. And anecdotally, we're also starting to feel it in like AdWords campaign. It's an advertising. It's a little harder to get leads than it was. Costs are inching up a bit. People are, um, [00:04:00] we're having to work a little bit harder to get leads. And so my take on it is that we're in a cycle we're, we're, we've, we've, we've hit peak leads in August-ish and, and we're transitioning back to a cycle that is gonna be a little bit harder to market and, and risk. And the reason I'm bringing this up the risk is it, is that historically in the sector, what we've observed, what we've observed is that during times of [00:04:30] like high marketing admissions practices suffer, and a good example would be whenever there's, I don't know, workforce money that's available in the state, right? 
Speaker 1:        The, it comes up with some workforce money and that the schools can basically make an administrative enrollment, right. They just work with the workforce offices and they submit their paperwork and they, they ship 'em students. Whenever that happens. There's a period of time where the schools really enjoy the bounty of it. But the cost of them is that it hurts their [00:05:00] admission, right? Cause they get habituated to doing administrative type enrollments and they, they lose the kind of hustle that normally they have to have, uh, in a, in a normal environment. And so on this pendulum and this Seesaw here, we're at a high marketing time, tons of leads. So we're, we're getting lots of enrollments out of it. Uh, our admissions practices are, are suffering a little bit, cuz it's a little, been a little bit too easy. [00:05:30] That's the, the notion in this, um, anecdotally I would add, we've seen this in use of to jump our own tools in our own product. 
Speaker 1:        So, um, I'm not sure on a call, who's familiar with virtual advisor or not, but so virtual advisor's a tool that powers kind of a number of things that help increase enrollment. Part of them are lead generation tools. Some of them are admissions related [00:06:00] type tools. What we've, what we've observed is that peak pre COVID. So if we go back to March around here, lots of interests, lots of openness and willingness to engage in admissions kind of innovation, right? Like, Hey, how do do we handle this? We're happy to do it over the last 18 months. Um, or 18, 20 months, kinda less receptive to that people have just said, Hey, things are great. We don't have to worry about, so [00:06:30] that's the setup to this talk. 
Speaker 1:        And it's the, it's the important it, I think it's the important piece of this to understand why we need to understand pro prospect motivations, right? Cause we need to be in the, the sort of humanized business of understanding who our people, who our prospects are and, and how we can best help them. So in a little bit, I'm gonna share, uh, a, a, [00:07:00] a method we use or a, a, a framework we use for that called social styles works great as a way to understand people, but I wanna share a test and I think Tammy or team might be using this test as a, a different example later on. So I'm not gonna go very deep in it. But, um, we were trying to under, so on the buying continuum, think about when somebody's buying something, the generally the first question they're wrestling with is, do I even wanna, right. 
Speaker 1:        [00:07:30] Is this even something that matters to me? Right. Do I even wanna be a cosmetologist? Do I even wanna buy a sofa? Do I even wanna buy a new car? Right. And that's the, the journey is sort of an exploration around, do I even want that thing once they've decided? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I think I do, then it becomes a selection, right? Do I want this, this school or that school? Do I want this? So for that school, do I, or so for that sofa, do I want this car, that car? And so [00:08:00] we added in this test, we added as a, a next step into an inquiry form, a question around, um, a, a question designed to ask what the motivations of the prospect were. So if you can visualize, somebody's already filled out a form, this thing then pops up and says, okay, Hey, thanks. What best describes where you're at? I've decided to pursue a career as a cosmetologist. So I've made the decision and now it's, you know, school selection, or [00:08:30] I'm still exploring career options. And then we gave some options that kind of add some color on one of those two choices. 
Speaker 1:        So interesting in this cosmetology test, roughly 70% of the prospects they'd already made the decision, right? Yes. I want to be a cosmetologist. That's what I want to do. Uh, 30% were, well, I'm still exploring. And if you can imagine, [00:09:00] um, the value to an admissions team and knowing this, right? So if, if your admissions team or your marketing people know that, okay, 70% of our prospects they've already committed to this, then it would, it would make sense that that probably the thing they're gonna about in the marketing material, right. Or the collateral or the website are gonna be more around, um, school choice. Right. You know, how you're differentiated from other people of other schools, like the stuff that Dr [00:09:30] was talking about this morning, right. And less, less why you should be a cosmetologist, right. Because it's, they've already decided that they've already committed to that with the prospect motivation stuff. 
Speaker 1:        And then we were able to dig in a little bit on kind of what aspects of that were important. So I would, I would call these kind of features and benefits that are important, that were important to the prospect. So for the ones that were trying to figure out, [00:10:00] uh, or the ones that, yeah, I want to be a cos college, I'm trying to pick a school schedule, financial aid work experience, you know, basically time to graduation. So sort of like the li logistical matter. So, Hey, if you can win on schedule or you can, uh, went on, on, uh, work experience and you've got an accelerated program, or you can cobble together some features and benefits, or some, some differentiators that respond to that, your market, Hey, go shot of winning [00:10:30] the enrollment versus the future career people, which was more around, you know, they want money. 
Speaker 1:        They want to be self employed. They want to be creative, which are what we've no observed or kind of typical, um, of cosmetology students. And then, but what was super interesting we thought was that it's different depending on the program that's being offered. Right. That, and that's, what's, that's kind [00:11:00] of the lesson in this. This is the, really the, the, I would say the avenue of our exploration internally. And what we're trying to figure out is if we're building a profile of who a prospect is, right. And we're trying to understand how do we communicate really effectively to the constituents that make up, you know, the potential students to make up the student body of the programs through marketing. What's the thing, what's the song [00:11:30] in their heart, right? What's the thing that is driving that person to make a big decision like this. So with rad tech, uh, 55% they've decided on, okay, that's the career. 
Speaker 1:        So we know that's the career, 30% had indicated that I'm still exploring it. 15% had really a vague notion of, uh, you know, I know I gotta go to college, but I dunno, right. That's where they're at. And [00:12:00] it's, you can see it's a different marketing and admissions challenge, right? It's just a different way to think about how you're trying to engage with that prospect. And then medical office assist is about by oh 50 50 between the two, but they're different. And as, as we, you know, run this kind of test and do this kind of analysis over time, we're gonna be able to build a bigger profile of each of the, you know, the main program areas that are being offered. And we expect that it's gonna be a [00:12:30] little bit different for each program. And as such, the, the pitch is gonna be a little bit different for each program. So that's the stuff that kind of gets us to, it gets our mind focused on, um, how we, why it's important to understand motivation it really the, we think it's kind of the main current, it's the main marketing currency, right? Cause if we can understand [00:13:00] what a prospect wants and needs, who they are, how they feel, what they're, what they care about, then we can kind of build a system to respond to that person, right, who that person is. And as a result, we create higher performing marketing and, and better admissions processes. 
Speaker 1:        The thing that this tool we use, the social styles model. So it's social styles is a kind [00:13:30] of a less obtuse version of Myers, Briggs, or desk, or the big five. It's a, it's a way just to slot people into boxes based on their personality and how they're, but what we like about it, and the reason we use it in virtual advisor, in the crew training readiness quiz, and the reason we advocate for it is, um, a training practice and admissions that it's, it's easy to understand, like, unlike, [00:14:00] I don't remember which one disc or what's the one where you, the N I P H or whatever, like, you know, these contrived kind of personality tests, if you're really into personality tests, it makes logical sense for most of us who just try to get a general on who, who somebody is and how I can respond to them. 
Speaker 1:        It's to translate that into actual useful information when you're dealing with another [00:14:30] Wes that, um, and find that it give us, and it's pretty quick to learn. And it's a way to get insight into who, who that prospect is in a way that we can change our behavior to better respond to that. And it would have application both in admissions and marketing. So to admissions, it's kind of a media, right? You get a beat on who somebody is and you can model the behavior, but in marketing it, it gives us opportunity [00:15:00] to build communication streams. That would be more responsive to the nuances of, of that particular personality. So in the, and stop sharing for a sec chat, I'm gonna just post a link. So if you wanna do it right now, you can go take this personality quiz right now, just click the link here in the chat. 
Speaker 1:        And it takes literally two seconds. You're gonna go in and you're gonna say, Hey, what's my social style. And this's just a slider system. So this [00:15:30] is a version of what we use in our, our, the, our career readiness, uh, quiz on, in the, in powered, by our virtual advisor suite. So you're gonna say, well, what best describes myself? Hey, am I more a goes along person? Or am I more a take charge person? Am I a little more quiet? Am I a little more talkative? Kind of here? Do I have a, a cooperative nature? Am I more competitive? You know, I'm kind of here. [00:16:00] Am I calm? Am I excitable? Is this a, you know, I'm kinda, I dunno, excitable ish, maybe, um, or serious or friendly, serious, you shouldn't construe as a negative. It's just more, do I have a more thoughtful nature? Am I more, um, concerned about others? Like how I perceived others? So I maybe I'm a little more, hear more serious, serious, pretty important. Yeah. After 
Speaker 2:        15 years working together, would you be surprised [00:16:30] to find that I came out as an aimable? 
Speaker 1:        No, I'm <laugh> no, not at all. No, not at all. 
Speaker 2:        Yeah. I thought we were gonna have some real personality revelations here. I was excited to dig deep and get into, I thought I was gonna have a whole new personality coming out of this, but no. Yeah, just, uh, yeah, it's the dead 
Speaker 1:        Tracks. So I, oh, Hey, we had a bunch of them done. That's awesome. So we had some expressives, [00:17:00] uh, a lot of, expressives got a driver, an amiable couple. Amiables another expressive. That's great. So here's why this is helpful to know because when part of like the maturity and an interaction with somebody is if you know who you are and you know who they are, you can kind of reorient around [00:17:30] them, understanding that they may not be like you. So most admissions people are expressives right. They just that's their nature. Hey, we're outgoing. We like people, people, people will go into the profile of, of what they're like. Most of us are like that. However, about 40% of our prospects, 35, 40% of our prospects are analytical and analytical people [00:18:00] are not at all like expresses. And in fact, they, they perceive the world in much different ways, right? 
Speaker 1:        So they're facts and details. People, money numbers, uh, you, you think about an analytical person. It's like, they're, they've already come prepared. They probably already know all the answers to the questions they're asking. Right? They've, they've, they've kind of thought you could characterize em, as analytical, thoughtful researchers, um, less, not [00:18:30] receptive to be in buddies, right? They don't want to hear the pitch. They don't wanna, uh, feel like you're leading them somewhere. They don't want to go. They, they need to organize information in a way that's logical and make sense for them and to, to set the, sort of the, their need to be right in order to make a buying decision about something. And the challenge with an expressive is that if, Hey, you're like [00:19:00] most admissions people, um, your nature is like opposed to their nature by a lot, right? It's it's so your, your natural way of being is like UN unpleasant for them, cuz they viewed as superficial where, and, and you probably view them as kind of annoying annoyingly detail oriented, right? 
Speaker 1:        And that's the challenge in, in working with different personality types. Now we can do some things to sell, be more effective [00:19:30] with analytics. So Hey, never rush 'em. These are people that do not like to be pushed and do not like to be moved along. So this is, these are checklist type people and the, the enrollment process is gonna be longer, just is, can assume they've done their research. And when you make a claim about something, right, when they're, when there's a, a, uh, something [00:20:00] is presented as back to a, to an analytical person, you better back it up with real stats. Right? This isn't sort of, it's not about this or about that. It's it's, it's a specific number. Hey, we've got a 97.2% graduation rate. Cause otherwise they're not gonna believe it. So Does this make sense, Katie? 
Speaker 2:        Yeah, absolutely. I'm [00:20:30] thinking about also I have a, this is a so example mm-hmm <affirmative> but um, it's where we might see this in your day to day. Life is, uh, any, if you know anyone who's near atypical, 
Speaker 1:        What? Say that again? Neuro 
Speaker 2:        Atypical or maybe, maybe someone who's on the autism spectrum. Okay. Yeah. Right. They have a different gauge. They very often for someone who's not narrow atypical, we might find a fence to something that they've said where they find no offense. Right. [00:21:00] I have a friend she is often asked if she is autistic and what it is is her family is German. It's just communication style. 
Speaker 1:        Right. There's nothing. Yeah. Everyone is using the same language, but we are interpreting it differently based on our backgrounds based on what's going on for us based on our personality types. Yeah. And so the social styles is a way of getting a cheat sheet for this person that you're gonna have a conversation with. They're telling you, this is the way that I like to communicate. Yeah. Interesting. [00:21:30] That's a great insight. So drivers, so I personally, I'm kind of a, I dunno, driver expressive. I, I generally score kind of right around here. So I'm outgoing. Um, I I'm more to the point than being buddies. It's just my core nature. So for a driver, someone in my spectrum, for example, Hey, let's get to the point. 
Speaker 1:        You know, let's, let's [00:22:00] focus on outcomes. What what's gonna happen. What's gonna be the result of doing this, uh, outgoing and extroverted, typical, you know, an independent kind of person and competitive, right. I wanna win. How are you gonna help me win? Right. Um, and tip, and usually in a, in a kind of a sales presentation type environment, admissions presentation, I, I don't really wanna, like if someone's coming to pitch me on [00:22:30] something or, you know, try to initiate a business relationship, I don't really want to chit chat that much at the front. Right. I don't the, the relationship part isn't important to me at that point. Cuz I don't even know if I, if there's any fit. Right. I don't know if there's any value to be had by what the person's presenting. And so until we figured out if there's any value there or not, I, I don't see the point in it now Katie, or to anyone who's [00:23:00] an amiable on the call. 
Speaker 1:        If hearing me describe that makes you cringe and think it's so rude. Right. It's just so it's so dehumanizing. You're probably an amiable cuz the, the perception is much different. Right. But for me, let's establish value first as a driver, let's establish value first and then Hey, good. If there's value, if there's a fit, right, we can be buddies. We can have a chit chat, we can talk about the weather and what your kids did on the weekend. [00:23:30] And you know how your ball team did great. All that. Stuff's fine. But it happens afterwards. So selling to a driver, you know, it's, you gotta be preparing, right? You want an agenda, okay. With the value front, not a big log setup to get to the point, not a, a bunch of jitter chatter prior to like the value proposition, you gotta lead with the value. Right. And then substantiate it backwards [00:24:00] and say similar to analytics in that we like facts. Right. So if you're gonna make a, a claim, you better be to back it up with something that's more than an estimate or a kind of a hunch. Cause it's, it doesn't seem credible. We appreciate efficiency. We appreciate when people kind of get to the point and don't dance around with their trying to say, I mu personally I much prefer that. 
Speaker 1:        [00:24:30] Um, and what's that? I love a dance. Well that's okay. So Katie who's adore Katie in fairness. I know. I cause you stress. Sometimes 
Speaker 2:        We have found a, we found a strong footing, but I'm sure if we had had these type of cheat sheets coming into this relationship, we could have saved ourselves a lot of Arctic. 
Speaker 1:        Yeah. Cause my, I used to pray around the office. Hey, my impatience [00:25:00] is my greatest asset. Right. It's my superpower. And I would say it thinking I was being funny and like all the, I hated it. They're just like, oh man, shut up. You're just causing a stress. Right. And I just meant it like, okay, let's, let's put pat let's get at it. Right. There's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff that has to happen. We need to innovate. We need to win. We need to, you know, provide value for our customers. We need to go, we need to go. And it creates a, a lot of stress for those around you that aren't oriented in that [00:25:30] way. So I I've had to modify how I manage just to, to respect the nature of other people. And the same thing applies in like a sales presentation or like an admissions interview. It really applies in marketing too. Right. How you communicate the value of what you do, changes based on the orientation of the person that you're, you're talking to now, Katie, in fairness, I think I've gotten better. 
Speaker 2:        Yeah. Well and likewise <laugh>, [00:26:00] I'm learning to be a more direct communicator, but it's not intuitive for me. I don't come from people who are direct communicators. I come from I'm, you know, D deeply entrenched in Canadian culture. So everything is couched in a politeness and we dance around everything. 
Speaker 1:        Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So let's describe you, Katie. Here we go. Amy bowl, lovely. Amy bowls, relationship friendly, likable just, oh, I just wanna give him a hug. Nice people, right? [00:26:30] Not huge risk takers need support around them to make decisions and careful in decision making, but considered and so similar to analytics in that way. Right in that they're both, um, slower, more considered decision makers. Um, amiables are on the emotive side, analytics are on the more controlled side, but like they're similar in that they're lower assertive, um, [00:27:00] need to feel comfortable before making any decisions, right. Unless, and as a result, less time oriented. So unlike a driver, who's okay. Let's get at it, you know, need to feel kind of safe. So that like the, the sales process, it's almost reverse for those two roles. Right. Build the relationship first, then get to the, to the, because without the relationship, there's not, um, a foundation for discussion around [00:27:30] value versus a driver with without value. There's not a foundation for discussion around relationship. Does that make sense? Does that sound like you Katie? 
Speaker 2:        Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, oh man. I'll take forever to make a decision, 
Speaker 1:        So, okay. So if we're selling to Katie though, right? Pitch picture a vision, Hey, here's the dream here's what's gonna happen, right? This is, this is what could happen when you've, [00:28:00] uh, gone through school. Right. And gonna build rapport. We're gonna Chi chat. I remember early in my career way before this business, even I had a, I was a graphic designer and I had a client at a, uh, like a, um, scientific facility. They did, they created reagents, they sold the scientific labs. I would produce all their collateral and I kind of fluked into this just [00:28:30] intuitively. Right. So she was very much an amiable person and I'm kind of in there and okay. You know, being big and consuming a lot of space, which I can tell she didn't like. So I, I quickly learned to pivot with her. So I kind of make myself smaller and I'm a big guy, right? 
Speaker 1:        I'm like six, four. So try to make myself smaller, talk a little quieter, talk a little slower, you know, just try to chill out the environment a little bit. And then she was way more responsive [00:29:00] to right. And she was a terrific client for years cuz I would change how I was to be respectful of her nature. That's really, the whole point of this idea is if we can kind of meet our prospect at where they live, right. It's, it's more respectful to them and um, creates an environment where we are better able, able to get mu mutual needs met [00:29:30] and you're an advisor appeals to the heart, right? So this is about, oh, what's it gonna mean for your family? What's, what's your hopes and dreams. How are you gonna improve people's life? How you know, how you can improve your life and how is that? 
Speaker 1:        What's that gonna mean for the people in your life? And it's this, this beautiful story of what, what the transformation that can happen with through education. Now us drivers are, are [00:30:00] crap at this. Right. And it's not good we're cuz we con con conceptually know, and it's just like the, the, the desire to move on is so much greater than the, the, the maturity to kinda smell the roses and enjoy the experience. Right. So we can learn a lot from the it as well. And it, but it's, it's work. It's hard to like slow down. Okay. Let's let's see what this is. Let's let's feel [00:30:30] it like let's, let's enjoy this journey. So we don't wanna rush. We don't wanna rush anything. We don't wanna rush first point of contact. We don't wanna rush 'em through an admissions process. We don't want to put pressure on, okay. 
Speaker 1:        If you apply by this state, then you're gonna get this or Hey, here's the deadline. You gotta meet the deadline. None of that's gonna matter. It's it's gonna turn em off. They're and then, so the last [00:31:00] one's the, which is probably the, of people in this call, kinda dreamers Greg's in expressive. Right. He's just, you know, he just loves being in front of people and he just loves that interaction just that it gives him it's fuel for his life. Right. So, uh, punches, you know, not super worried about the details. The details will get sorted out. It's yeah, I feel good about this. Yeah. I think this is [00:31:30] gonna be good for me right. Needs to be around people generally. Other pretty quick decision makers, kinda like to plan, but in, I would say an abstract way. Right. We're trying to, you know, there's sort of a vague sense of how the plan is play out, but it hasn't been plotted. 
Speaker 1:        Right. It's just, Hey, we're gonna do this and this'll happen. And it's gonna be awesome. Right. That, that kind of like I can initiate and then the details will sort themselves out and those [00:32:00] are the generalities and less, again, less time-oriented generally outgoing and extrovert now expressives whereas me and Katie have diametrical personalities. Um, and so need to modify our behaviors to kind of like better connect expressives and analytics have that same problem. Right. Cause the expressives, uh, details will get sorted out. What's the big, [00:32:30] what's the vision? What are we doing? Where are we going? What's it gonna be like, yeah, hell yeah. Right. Analyticals like, well, no, Hey, hold your horses. I need to know, okay, where are we stopping? What are we having for lunch? <laugh> where are we? What, what's the next thing that's gonna happen? Where are we gonna fill up with gas? 
Speaker 1:        What, like those details become important for the emotional wellbeing of that analytical person, for them to feel safe, they need to feel organized. [00:33:00] And maybe this is really a, I don't know, an exercise in safety, right? This is just, we feel safe within our kind of core orientation. And, and maybe that's really what we're talking about here. So express case studies are awesome, right? A case study is a story of somebody else that succeeded in a way that they're considering trying [00:33:30] to succeed. Right. Awesome. Catered case studies, testimonials, things like that. Things that offer social proof that, Hey, a fact guy did it. I can do it. A fact did it. I can do it articles. Anything that, that is an aspirational tale, their relationship people, right. How they are perceived by others is important to them. And so, and in [00:34:00] fact how they exist within a social structure is paramount, important of paramount importance, right? Cause it's, that's how they derive their sense of self, right? Where analytics and drivers less. So right. We're more kind of an island people and you know how people perceive us as nice, but it's not the thing with expressives. And, and amiables how they're perceived by others is vitally important to their wellbeing. 
Speaker 1:        [00:34:30] So listening, you know, reinforced, Hey, it's a great decision you're making, uh, this is gonna be great for your life. Things that reassure them at the end of the process and that the yet, because they haven't done the plotting, right. They haven't mapped out every little bit of it that can create anxiety. Right. Cause at some part they know, well, oh gosh, I haven't really thought this through very hard. Uh, and so I'm often I'm going on trust [00:35:00] and my gut and oh, should I be like, there's those pains of anxiety can be overcome by reassuring them along the way I'm gonna just end quickly with broadly. This is how the prospects, we of 148,000 prospects, the majority are expressive, but the second largest group are analytics. So it's worth doing.