I’m sure many of you remember just yesterday when, in this very space, I announced the arrival of my
first daughter. You’ll be shocked to hear that this morning, I enrolled that child in high school.

Sadly, I live in a city with a school district that’s only provisionally accredited, so if you have any
higher education hopes for your children, private school is the way to go. There are several nearby, and
I’ve been astonished at the sales effort they put forth to increase enrollment. We have literally been receiving direct mail pieces since sixth grade — invitations to basketball games, parties and promotions. One of the schools even has a monthly newsletter just for potential incoming freshman.

In the fall, we attended open houses where we took guided tours of the facilities and heard lectures
on the missions and goals of the schools.We met with counselors to discuss “phasing” and course selection.

And my daughter “shadowed” at each school, which means she followed a freshman for a day
through her classes and extracurricular activities. She came home from each shadow day with a gift bag.
Seriously, a gift bag!

This is apparently a very serious business and I found myself comparing the quality and completeness
of the brochures and even the content of the gift bags. Predictably, the more expensive the school,
the higher the quality (and quantity) of their materials. Yet when it came time for the real sales job — the
interview with me — the most expensive school on the list lost the sale.

Obviously, I want to make sure my daughter is making the right choice for the right reason. Most of
the schools are pretty serious college prep academies, and will be academically challenging. So I asked the question: “What do you do if a student starts struggling in classes?”

The first school, the most expensive one, answered, “It’s up to the student to ask for help.”

The second school said, “We have a learning resource specialist who will re-evaluate their course
selection and phasing. They will be reassigned to a tutored study hall. And we’ll set them up with a
peer-tutor.”

Now for all I know, the first school also offers all these benefits — but they didn’t bother to tell me.
And the second school may also require that the student ask for help. But they answered the question the
way they knew a parent would need to hear it.

I wonder how many of us are missing this distinction in our own sales processes. Do you know what
potential exhibitors need to get out of your show? And are you explaining to them the systems you have
in place to help them meet those goals? Sometimes we all fall into the habit of selling what we have,
instead of listening to what our prospects need. I’m sure we could all use a little refresher on “feature vs.
benefit” selling. And if that doesn’t work, we can always throw in a gift bag.

Donna Sanford, Publisher