On our Leadership Mastery call on August 20th, Sherry Shaoling asked a question most school owners never get to ask, because most are not busy enough to have the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“They said, can we talk amongst ourselves for a second, and they stepped out of the office. The people who were waiting for me were downstairs, and they waited, but they took, like, 20 minutes to talk amongst themselves outside. What do I do if I have people waiting for me?” \u2014 Sherry Shaoling<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Twenty minutes, with another family sitting downstairs the whole time. Her instinct was right: somebody was about to get lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is what this article is about. Not how to close \u2014 how to run traffic when more people are in the building than you have hands. Grand Master Jeff Smith calls it the happiest problem he hears: “I love it when somebody says, how do you handle all these intros that are coming in? Because that means that you are doing your job in the marketing.” Your martial arts school marketing<\/a> is working. Don’t blow it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re doing things right, you’re going to be overlapping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Greg Moody made the point that reframes the whole night:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“If you’re doing things right, you’re gonna have back-to-back and overlapping appointments. Even if we plan back-to-back and we have enough time to finish the first one \u2014 what if the first one came in 20 minutes late? I’m not gonna shortcut it, because I don’t know if the next one’s gonna come in 20 minutes late.” \u2014 Dr. Greg Moody<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Overlap is not the failure state; it is evidence that the front end of your business works. A school with no overlapping appointments does not have a tidy schedule, it has a lead flow problem. His analogy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“When you go to the doctor’s office\u2026 if your appointment’s at 4 o’clock, you often don’t get seen until 4.15, or you sit in the waiting room and you fill out stuff, so you’ve got to be prepared for that.” \u2014 Dr. Greg Moody<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Nobody decides a cardiologist is bad because they sat fifteen minutes with a clipboard. They assume the opposite. Then the wrinkle that breaks most schools:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“What if you have a walk-in at the same time? You gotta go run out, take care of the walk-in, make sure they’re doing something, then come back here and do this, and do the next one, and maybe it’s while you’re doing a renewal conference. All that stuff needs to be normalized so you’re not surprised when it happens, if you’re doing things well.” \u2014 Dr. Greg Moody<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Normalized is the operative word. Not survived \u2014 normalized, so that when it happens you are running a system instead of improvising. The price of not having one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“You never want to send somebody away because you’re having struggles with how to stack all those people.” \u2014 Dr. Greg Moody<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That is the cost line for this whole article. The cost of a disorganized busy night is not that you feel stressed; stress is free. The cost is a specific family, with a specific kid, who was ready and who left. You never learn their name, because they never became one \u2014 which is why this belongs in your written operational systems<\/a>, not in your head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Triage starts on the confirmation call, not on the floor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
By the time four families are standing in your lobby, the sorting should already be done \u2014 and it gets done on the phone. In the confirmation call, after asking how Joey liked it and whether both parents are coming, I ask this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Now, how’s your schedule? Are you gonna be able to have 10-15 minutes after class, for us to go through the evaluation?” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes the answer is “oh yeah, we’re fine, we were planning on that.” Sometimes it isn’t:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Sometimes they say, oh, no, we got scheduled pretty tight, we have to go to a soccer game. Okay, no problem. Why don’t you guys come in a little bit early, and we’ll go through some of that information, try to go through it all before the class is over, so you’re in good shape.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I did not lose that family and I did not shove them to the back of the night. I moved them upstream, and I learned something I could not have learned any other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Great. What am I doing? I’m triaging.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
One question, and it decides whether you run the night or the night runs you. It is also why I will not turn Voice AI loose on confirmation calls: automate that conversation away and you throw out the intelligence triage runs on, on top of the appointments your online booking page is already costing you<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Build the schedule so both parents can be there<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
All of this rests on a decision you made months ago: what times you put intros on the calendar. Three or four in the afternoon gets you one parent, usually mom, usually rushed \u2014 you are triaging families that were never enrollable tonight. Listen to the times in a role play from that same call: “we have a time tonight, it’s at 7, and we have a time tomorrow night at 6.30,” then, “come in about 6.15 or so.” Evening, both parents home from work, arriving early enough that the paperwork happens before class rather than after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four intros, one night: the actual running order<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Here is the scenario exactly as I laid it out on the call. Four intros tonight: one not ready to go tonight<\/strong>; one ready, but who has to leave right after class<\/strong>; one I am not sure of<\/strong>; one good to go, with time to spare<\/strong>. Most owners run those in the order they walk in, or the order they were booked. Both are wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“If I have 4 intros tonight, I’m not gonna wait for the one who’s gonna have to go and start them at the end of the lesson. That’s gonna go south. I’m gonna end up not getting the enrollment.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The ready-but-leaving family goes first<\/strong> \u2014 not because they are the biggest opportunity, but because they are the most perishable. Everybody else in that building is still going to be there at 8:15. They are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“If I have four intros, and I have one that’s not ready to go tonight, one that’s ready but they have to leave right after class, another one I’m not sure of, and another one that’s good to go but they’re good after class, I more or less have my priority order. I’m going to pre-qualify two of them. And if the one I’m unsure of is sure, I’m gonna put them in second place, probably, but I’m gonna take the one who’s good to go who has to go, and then maybe I take the one that’s good to go but has some time, or I take the other one, depending on my decision making.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Note what is doing the work: two of the four get pre-qualified, and the one I was unsure of is not automatically last. Uncertainty is a data problem. The general rule:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Whether I’m doing a renewal blitz, 5 enrollments in the day, whatever it is, I’m always going to take the easiest, best first, and the hardest, most difficult last, and I’m going to thump them enough so that I have a pretty good idea of who’s going to be who.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Why the order matters more than the pitch: momentum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you talk to all four families anyway, why does sequence change the outcome? Momentum. I had just bought a book on momentum and had not read it yet, but I did not need to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“The whole principle of the book, which I absolutely believe in, is with a company, with sales processes, everything’s about momentum. When things are stale or have been flat, you have to put a Herculean effort to build momentum.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
At the school level, that is the argument I have been making for forty years: “It’s why I always say, nothing fixes a school more than 100 students. That level of momentum, of really jump-starting and putting the effort in, is way better than slow growth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The version that matters on a Tuesday night is personal, and it came from a question Christian posted before the call: he gets somebody who says no, or a hard conference, or gets raked over the coals. How does he get his head back in the game?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“If I have yes momentum \u2014 I did a sale, I did another sale, I did another sale \u2014 well, I’ll close a whole bunch more than I would otherwise, than if I, like, had a battle and lost this one, and then I did a knock-down drag-out for 30 minutes and couldn’t get this one. Now what’s likely to happen is I go into an easy one and I screw it up, just because I’m already stressed out and bummed out.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That is the honest mechanism, and it is not mystical. You carry the last thirty minutes into the next office, you get tight on the tuition question, and the easy family feels it and hesitates. Triage protects the families and it protects the person running the conferences. Order the night so that by the time you reach the hard one, you have three yeses behind you and genuinely do not need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thumping: how you know who’s who before anybody sits down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The system depends on one skill: telling an A from a C before the office door closes. Grand Master Jeff Smith calls it thumping, from thumping melons to see if they are ripe, and new members keep asking him to define it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“They were asking me, what do you mean, thump them? Thumping just means, I’m just checking their buying temperature, and how do I do that? I do it by asking questions, and I’m not gonna wait till they come into the office and then thump them, I’ve got to be thumping them before.” \u2014 Grand Master Jeff Smith<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Before<\/em> is the load-bearing word. Thumping in the office is too late for triage, because triage happens in the hallway. What it sounds like on the floor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Were you surprised he earned his white belt? Were you surprised he did those things around the house? How did he like the class? Ask some leading questions that gets them to talk about how much they’re into it.” \u2014 Grand Master Jeff Smith<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Thump with open-ended questions, or you learn nothing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Here is my addition, because the type of question decides whether you get information or noise. Yes-or-no questions tell you little. Closed-ended questions barely do better \u2014 “what town were you born in? Tulsa.” That tells me nothing about tonight. Open-ended is: “What are some of the things that you’d like to see this develop for your child?” Let them go wherever they want with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“They can tell me they want them to develop a perfect side kick, which no parent has ever said to me. That always cracked me up\u2026 Nobody gives a shit, right? I’ve never had somebody say that. What I have had them say is, we’d like him to be more confident, we’d like our daughter to be able to defend herself by the time she’s in high school, we’d like our son to be more responsive to us at home. I always hear developmental responses.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Ask “which of these times are more likely to work for you?” and you get ballet, music lessons, and everything else they are working around \u2014 which is what sorts tonight’s order. What happens once a family sits down is in the enrollment system we teach<\/a>; this article is about who sits down, and when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody in that building gets to feel unattended<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Back to Sherry’s twenty minutes. Here is exactly what I do when a family wants to talk privately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Take as much time as you want. I leave them in the office, right? I don’t have them walk out of the office. I leave them there. Any questions at all that you have, I’m happy to answer. But let me go touch base with the Jones family.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I do not want them out in the lobby talking to other people, or deciding to leave because I am busy with somebody else. All of that can happen, and all of it has. Then I go handle the people waiting, personally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“I would always make sure that if I have somebody who’s waiting around for a little bit, I’m gonna have an instructor on them. Let’s keep Joey working on some stuff, let’s keep you guys working on some things, somebody’s there talking to them, they’re not just sitting there feeling like they’re being ignored.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
An instructor on them. Not a magazine \u2014 a human being working that child on the floor and talking to that parent, so the wait improves the sale instead of eroding it. If nobody in your building can do that, this is a staffing problem, and you need to hire and build a staff<\/a> first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will interrupt my own enrollment conference to do it<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n“I’ve left in the middle of the enrollment conference. I do the evaluation, I say, can you excuse me just for a second? I have the Jones family waiting for me, I’ll be right back. And I go talk to the Jones family, make sure everything’s good.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
That does not damage the conference; it does the opposite. The family in front of me watches me run a real practice, and the family in the hallway gets saved. With new instructors, I did the same mid-intro: “the class just got over, and I’m going out there to make sure, you know, Michelle, did you make sure that this, this, this, and this has happened, and these we needed to reschedule.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when I go out there, the question is not “can you hang on a few more minutes?” It is: are you still okay on time? If not, I schedule them right there for tomorrow rather than let them evaporate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody leaves without a definitive appointment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n“Nothing infuriates me more than somebody says, oh yeah, I just thought we would call them back and schedule their next time. No. Nobody ever leaves a conversation without us having a definitive appointment for the next thing.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Nobody. Not the family that ran to the soccer game, not the one that waited and got bumped, not the walk-in who arrived mid-conference. The same rule governs the phone:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“It’d be like an info call or a lead call if I say, oh yeah, go through this information, I texted it over to you, call me back when you’re ready. No, no, no, no. That never happens. There’s always a follow-up.” \u2014 Stephen Oliver<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
“Call me back when you’re ready” is not a follow-up plan. It is a way of feeling like you did something while doing nothing, and the whole cost of that lead walks out with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This rule is what makes triage safe. Third or fourth in tonight’s order is not a punishment \u2014 it is a position in a process where every person leaves with a time on the calendar. Take that away and triage becomes a lottery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Sherry’s couple? After their twenty minutes they came back in, said the daughter was already in art, ballet, piano and singing and they were not going to do it \u2014 then said they were kidding, and that they were quitting ballet. That family enrolled. Twenty minutes of silence in an office is not a lost sale. Twenty minutes of somebody sitting unattended downstairs is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In what order should I run four intro appointments in one night?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easiest and best first, hardest and most difficult last. The exception: the family that is ready but has to leave right after class goes first, because waiting loses them. Pre-qualify two of the four on the confirmation call, put the one you were unsure of second, and run the not-ready family last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What question sorts tonight’s intro order?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
One question on the confirmation call: “Are you gonna be able to have 10-15 minutes after class, for us to go through the evaluation?” If the schedule is tight because of a soccer game, have them come in early and cover the evaluation before class ends. Their answer sets tonight’s running order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do I do with a family that wants to talk it over privately?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leave them in the office and give them all the time they want. Do not send them to the lobby, where they can talk to other people or simply leave. Step out, touch base with the next family, and put an instructor with anyone waiting so nobody feels ignored. Sherry Shaoling’s couple took 20 minutes, then enrolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is being overbooked on intro night a problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
No. Dr. Greg Moody’s rule: “if you’re doing things right, you’re gonna have back-to-back and overlapping appointments.” A doctor’s office runs the same way \u2014 a 4 o’clock appointment often gets seen at 4:15. Normalize the overlap so it never surprises you, and never send a family away because stacking them got hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is “thumping” a prospect?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grand Master Jeff Smith’s term for checking buying temperature by asking questions before anyone reaches the office: “Were you surprised he earned his white belt? How did he like the class?” Thump with open-ended questions, never yes\/no ones. No parent has ever asked me for a perfect side kick \u2014 the answers are always developmental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Come run this on a live floor with us in October<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We are covering all of it in October in Evergreen and Golden, Colorado \u2014 the confirmation call, the pre-qualification, the enrollment conference, and how to stack a night when everybody shows up at once. Quick Start is October 1st and 2nd, Leadership Mastery October 2nd and 3rd, Million Dollar Schools October 4th. Fly into Denver International (DEN); everyone who comes gets a chance to visit the Mile High Karate school in Thornton, much closer to the airport than we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bring your full-time staff, and let Bob Dunne know you are coming so there is a chair with your name on it and an accurate food headcount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before then, look at the Martial Arts Wealth Mastery Program<\/a>, or set up a call with me<\/a> and we will look at what your intro nights look like right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n