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There are many things you must do to stand out from the competition and get noticed by potential students. One of these is to have a Unique Selling Proposition - or USP. A USP is, as the name implies, something about you, your program or your martial arts school that is unique and helps you stand out from all the other schools in your area.

Ask yourself, "What makes my school different than any other school?" The answer should never be price. Studies show that less than 5% of consumers shop on price alone. So you have to find something else. If you don't have something then you have to create it.

There is a circus in Britain that offers a series of counseling sessions for people who avoid circuses due to coulrophobia - fear of clowns. This is a USP that they can use not only to bring people in to their circus but they can also charge for the counseling sessions.

Basically, we all teach the same core principles - both in technique and philosophy. So you have to find a way to stand out.

Research

The first thing you should do is research your competition - something you should be doing anyway as a martial arts business manager. Call each school in your area and ask a series of questions to learn about their program. You should tell them that you just moved to the area and that your children were in a program for 6 months prior to moving. This way you can ask questions that a beginner would not normally ask.

Think of the information calls you get for your martial arts school. They usually ask about price and class schedule. But you should ask everything you want to know about them such as:

Is there an initiation or association fee?

Do they have contracts?

What supplemental programs do they offer? (Weapons training, etc.)

Do they charge for testing and how much?

Do they require students to compete in tournaments?

What is the rank and certification of the chief instructor?

What makes them unique from other schools in the area?

These are good general information questions that can help you see what the competition is doing. The last one is important because you can see what they think makes them special.

Put it everywhere

Once you've created your own USP you need to put it into words that can be easily used over and over. Domino's pizza is a classic example of a USP that pushed them to the top of their market. It said, "We deliver fresh hot pizza in 30 minutes or less guaranteed or it's free."

You should put your USP everywhere. Use it in all of your martial arts school marketing. Put it in your brochures, on your web site, in your yellow pages ad, everything. You should also use it as one of the first things you say when you take an information call. As a top martial arts management school owner you must do everything you can to stand out from the competition and having a Unique Selling Proposition is just one more tool in that arsenal. Find or create yours and start using it today.