News

College Admissions Rely on People Skills in a Social Media World
Paskill Stapleton & Lord’s SMART seminars on training admissions officers to be more effective recruiters growing in popularity among colleges and universities.

Glenside, PA – July 15, 2011

Even with the exploding growth of smartphones and the increased use of social media networks like Facebook, higher education admissions officers are discovering that high quality student prospects still need more personal one-on-one attention, especially if the college wants to recruit them successfully.

Paskill Stapleton & Lord, the higher education marketing and enrollment management firm has witnessed increased interest in sales training for admissions staff and techniques for more one-on-one recruiting.

"Our SMART (Sales Management and Academic Recruitment Training) workshops have become more popular among colleges and universities this year than they have in the past five," says John Stapleton. "These colleges have all told us that to increase their yield in this competitive market, they need their admissions team to know how to build strong relationships with top prospects."

For the past 20 years Paskill Stapleton and Lord has been offering its SMART workshops. Designed for new and experienced admissions staff, this two-day on-campus training emphasizes a hands-on, how-to sales approach to recruiting and relationship building.

"What we’ve found is that in this era of internet communications, it’s actually quite easy to attract initial attention," says John. "What’s difficult is making a real and lasting connection. And this is critical because, in the end, successful recruiting is all about getting one student at a time."

The SMART workshop covers a number of areas including one-on-one recruiting skills, telephone skills, team building, territory and time management, self-motivation, relationship and educational salesmanship. "What we’ve found over the years is that colleges and universities who focus on personal sales skills experience higher yields than those that just rely on their marketing," says John . "After each SMART workshop the admissions staff comes away charged and focused, ready for the challenges ahead."

Many higher education schools schedule their SMART seminars as two-day retreats. To find out more about the SMART seminars, go to Paskill Stapleton & Lord’s website http://www.psandl.com/seminars_recruit.php, or contact Janet Sieff at 412-904-3133 or email her.