The familiar concept of admission funnels illustrates the process of generating leads from a pool of prospects (wide end of the funnel) and the subsequent conversion of a relatively small percentage of these leads to applications, deposits and enrolments (narrow end of funnel). Two illustrations of traditional admission funnels are available from Mongoose Research and Smart College Visit
Despite being widely documented, existing models neglect to include the role of education agents in the admission funnel. What impact, if any, do agents have on the admission funnel? Can agents be a source of competitive advantage for institutions recruiting international students? To answer these questions, we examine 4 scenarios related to the level of utility of education agents.
Agents as lost opportunities
In this scenario, agents are not used in the marketing and recruitment process. Given that the pool of prospects in many countries is made up of direct applications and indirect (agent) applications, this effectively results in a smaller pool of prospects for institutions to draw from. Institutions not using agents therefore have to focus their efforts on both expanding the pool of prospects by seeking new markets and developing existing ones while maintaining competitive conversion rates at the various stages of the funnel. Some good questions to be asking at this stage:
- Have you established cross-functional processes for assessing potential new markets?
- How do you mitigate risks associated with investing in new markets?
- What are your conversion rates at each stage of the funnel?
- What are the most effective strategies for offsetting the impact of having a reduced prospect pool size?
- If you plan to explore the use of agents, how do you get buy-in at the institutional level?
Institutions at the early stages of developing their agent practices are typically using agents as supporters for increasing the pool of prospects for the institution to draw from. This allows institutions to focus on improving conversion rates while delegating a portion of the lead generation activities to education agents. In this stage of agent utility, institutions benefit from having a local and cost effective vehicle for testing the waters in new markets. Some good questions to be asking at this stage:
- How do you determine which agents to work with and then how do you monitor and measure their performance?
- How do you make your institution a priority for agents?
- What processes have you established to protect your global reputation and brand?
- Should you be using a global, multi-domestic or transnational agent strategy?
Institutions with experience in dealing with agents are at this stage of development or have at least espoused the processes necessary to allow agents to be active participants in the various stages of the admission funnel. The utility of agents at this stage extends beyond increasing the pool of prospects. Institutions at this stage are developing agent strategies in addition to recruitment strategies and are integrating agent performance metrics into their processes. A key development at this stage is the involvement of agents at the cross-functional level. In addition to being a source of lead generation, agents are viewed as valuable contributors to the entire marketing, recruitment and admissions process. Some good questions to be asking at this stage:
- Should you be using centralized or de-centralized approach to managing cross-functional communication challenges?
- How do you motivate, retain and support the growth of your best agents?
- What role do agents play in the employment and repatriation process of your graduates?
Agents of change – inverting the funnel
The idea of inverting the funnel is often presented in marketing literature. From an admissions perspective, inverting the funnel implies generating a large number of applications from a relatively small pool of lead generators. How can this be done and what role do agents play? The first step in this process requires recognizing the inherent differences between direct and indirect recruitment methods and allowing for different strategies and resources to be allocated to each. By answering the questions presented in the previous sections, a well-defined agent strategy emerges. Key elements of this strategy include:
- Institutional buy-in for selected agent strategy (global, multi-domestic or transnational)
- Documented cross-functional processes for managing agent relations
- Small pool of dedicated agents around the world
Agents of change are involved beyond the student’s academic career. Agents play a role in career development, repatriation and alumni referrals. By designing processes that encourage agents to maintain contact with their students well beyond the admission cycle, institutions can benefit immensely from their global country ambassadors. This agent model allows institutions to invert the admissions funnel by engaging global alumni in the marketing and recruitment process with the support of a select group of agents. At the narrow end of the inverted funnel you have your top agents and their country ambassadors (your global alumni) and at the open end of the inverted funnel are the proportionality higher number of quality leads generated as a result of your global ambassadors.
Interested in this topic? Join our upcoming webinar to learn more about the issues, strategies and opportunities presented in this blog.
Further reading
- Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones by Joseph Jaffe. Available from Amazon
- The Admission Funnel: How to Streamline the Private School Admission Process by Weldon Burge. Available from Amazon
Related events
- Agents of change - inverting the admission funnel webinar
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