Starting a Daycare | A Daycare Sales Approach

A Daycare Sales Approach

To ensure that your daycare is always full and that you are running your business at it's most profitable level you need to ensure that you have a steady stream of new enquiries. Your advertising and other marketing efforts will bring new leads to you but you then have to figure out how you will convert these parents and children into new business. A good daycare sales approach is needed.

Enquiries over the phone should be answered and dealt with immediately. An appointment for a visit should be made, contact details should be taken down and important details should be explained to the prospect. Walk-ins should be greeted politely and asked to wait no longer than ten minutes before being shown around or sat down for an informative welcome and interview.

It is important that when prospective customers are being shown around that you make some effort to have everything ready for them. While a daycare facility should be running well at all times it doesn't hurt to let your staff know that you have prospective customers looking around. Even if they only have five minutes to get ready they may be able to clean up some unsightly mess or organize an activity for the children that may be impressive for the visitor. It is amazing how little things can create a positive impression of a daycare in the prospects mind while other little details can totally turn them off.

An extensive interview session should be scheduled before or after the tour whereby you can soft-sell your services to them and inform them of all of your policies and procedures. You should also ask in depth questions about the child's background, their health, personality and interests to show that you are interested in them and to find out if they would be a good fit for your daycare.

When meeting a family for the first time some daycare professionals either bond with the child or the parents but don't seem to be able to relate to both. Finding something in common with both the parent and the child is the best way to have both go away satisfied and wanting to return. When welcoming prospects to your daycare for the first time try to show that you genuinely care about them and their interests. Try to impress them by displaying a good knowledge of child care and early childhood development. At the same time you want to come across as being sincere and genuine so try to act as natural as possible.

Develop a sales routine or a basic sales process to follow that can be refined over time. A full sales script is not really necessary but you should have a few great statements to throw into the conversation as you get close to closing the deal. Think of some typical concerns that families will have and then work on some well thought out answers to their questions.

Consider putting together a sales folder with testimonials from satisfied customers and photos of any interesting activities, meals or trips that you have organized in the past.

Try to present a professional image overall with the way that you dress, act and present your business. Try to look like a child care professional rather than a busy housewife who looks after kids part time for extra cash.

The marketing effort required to bring new customer enquiries to your daycare business can be expensive and time consuming. Therefore you must make sure that no enquiries from prospective families are wasted and that you work on maximizing the percentage of leads that you are able to turn into new customers. Having a well thought out sales approach will help to ensure your success in the daycare business.

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