5 Points to Consider While Hiring a Counselor for Your Coaching Institute

We have often heard the phrase ‘first impression is the last impression,’ this phrase completely suits your coaching institute. Your admission counselor makes the first impression on your prospect by being the face of your coaching institute while representing the institute and determining if the potential applicant will join your coaching or shift to your competitor. So it’s vital to have the right kind of people working for your coaching institute. 

But, who is the right candidate for this role? 

The education industry has seen many swift changes lately, such as budgetary constraints, a new generation of students, and demands for better programs. All these have drastically changed the qualifications required for an admission counselor. 

If you have to make your hiring count, you will have to go beyond the orthodox hiring structure. Gone are the days when a simple recommendation, a past connection with your coaching institute, or basic communication ability could land a job in the admissions department. You will need to look at some of the new-age competencies to qualify someone as an admissions counselor. 

Below mentioned are 5 significant points you need to consider while choosing the most deserving admission counselor for your coaching institute.

5 Points of Consideration while Hiring Counselor 

Their Prior Experience

When reviewing job applications, there are many things you have to take into consideration before making a decision. These can be their salary expectations, the skills they have, or the knowledge required for the role. 

It will also mean choosing between someone with prior experience in the field or taking a chance with a fresh face. Both of these have their own advantages. By hiring experienced employees, you ensure that you’re not starting from ground zero. An experienced counselor can hit the ground running with little to no training. 

On the other hand, inexperienced candidates will be more eager to learn new processes than their more seasoned counterparts. Additionally, inexperienced candidates bring a fresh perspective and active approaches to the table, as they are still new to the institute’s classic techniques. 

Their Track Record

No matter how great the candidate sounds on paper, the real catch lies within the numbers! A coaching institute counselor plays a primary role in the effective enrollment of students and collecting tuition fees. For this you need to know, How many students did they finally enrol in their previous institute? 

If they don’t have prior experience in the admissions field, look for the required skill set. Your potential counselor should know how to intelligently discuss and promote the benefits of the program and increase conversion rates. To be successful as a counselor, the applicant should have excellent convincing skills, with a people-friendly outlook. 

Their Resilience

Let’s be honest. Managing Gen Z students is not easy! Talking to thousands of them every day is going to be an uphill battle. The admission process is a true test of patience when counselors have to deal with a volley of queries, questions, changes in plans, indecision, and last-minute deviations. On top of that, when it comes to the coaching institutes, the decision maker will be the parents, so, at the end of the day, the counselor should be able to communicate with both of these with the utmost convincing pitch. 

Dealing with anxious families and potential students requires a resilient mind. Someone who can stay calm and come up with unique admission strategies to tackle this unique situation will be a great fit for the role. 

So, what can you look for to find out if the candidate has the qualities of a resilient person? There are areas in the resume which can point you in the right direction. The most obvious one is having prior experience in a sales role. 

Other aspects can be – 

• Have they taken extra responsibilities in their prior roles? 
• Are there any instances where they have had to deal with conflicts? 
• Did they have to make major changes in their personal life due to requirements at work? 
• How do they take up the pressure? 

Their Readiness To Work

Times are changing. Technology is taking everyone by storm. The concept of a workplace is shifting. There is a new generation of tech-savvy, social media-obsessed students applying to your coaching institutes. The real question is, will your admission counselors be able to tackle these new challenges?

Your new hire should have that workplace readiness to handle change and act according to circumstances. They should be open to new ideas and new methods of working. You need to look for someone who can adapt to work pressure and plan alternate solutions when things don’t go as planned.

Their Adaptability

A coaching institute is a place full of hustle and bustle. Regular walk-in enquiries, calling, and constant follow-ups, make the place chaotic for the admission cell. Amongst this chaos, you need someone who is ready to fit into the troop, without missing out on any lead. A super-active admission counselor is the need of the hour. 

There are many new emerging industry trends and advancements in technology. The coaching institutes are undergoing a significant transformation due to the digitisation of the admission process through Education CRM. So it’s very important for the counselor to be tech-savvy and ready to work without leaving any stone unturned. They should be very adaptive in nature to take any change in the process effortlessly and indisputably. 

Conclusion

Recruitment is a costly affair. Thus it’s important to make the right decision when hiring an admissions counselor for your coaching institute. There are many more skills and competencies to look at when analyzing job applications. But these are core areas to focus on when selecting the right person for the job! 

Also just looking for the right admission counselor for your coaching institute is not enough. You need to look beyond the traditional admission cell processes and make them compatible with today’s era. This can be done by bringing the whole admission cell to a single laptop window via a good Education CRM. 

The CRM  will not only take care of leads but will also provide you with real-time analysis of your counselor’s performance through customisable reports. So that you can easily keep track of their conversion rates, which in turn helps you in calculating your recruitment ROI.