It's a question admissions, enrollment and marketing staff should be asking themselves every week. It's a question I ask often and early in a project. Unfortunately it isn't a question I have answered with many new clients.
When I take my daughter for her annual visit with her physician, a nurse (or aid) typically takes us to the exam room. Then she takes her temperature, gets her weight, height and then takes her pulse.
All routine things. Yet those are simple tests that help a doctor identify any basic abnormalities.
Knowing whether or not a staff knows how many applications they need on any given week of the year is my way of taking the pulse of an operation.
When I am called in to help a team correct an enrollment problem, the leaders/staff at the respective institution want me to delve deeply into data to assess why things aren't going the way they planned.
When you go to see your physician for an appointment because you think you have something seriously wrong, they still take your temperature and your pulse. Then your doctor may or may not investigate more deeply, including having you schedule additional tests.
Here's my point: When I ask new clients or even colleagues attending one of my conference presentations to identify the culprit behind their enrollment issues, "new leads," is the answer for over 65% of them.
Yet, on client visits, new leads is usually on a part of the issue. In fact, roughly 40% of the time, I can correct an enrollment situation and meet enrollment goals without needing any new leads at all.
If your admissions, recruitment and/or marketing staffs don't know how many applicants are needed for any given week, what is it specifically they are working toward? I realize that isn't the end-all, be-all, but it is a significant test I use to understand what is shared with the staff, and where their focus is or is not.
There are times when they are too focused on numbers, and times when they aren't focused at all on numbers.
There's a careful balance that must occur, and as the leader of an enrollment team, it is your responsibility to understand where the balance is, and how to use it in your efforts coaching and mentoring the team toward success.
So, do you or don't you need more leads? How many applicants do you need this week?