Flight School FAQs
Step 7: Marketing Assistance
Here are some helpful tools our schools use to more effectively integrate our finance programs into their day-to-day marketing operations.
The first link if for tools you use with your students to sign up more of those who might walk away from training or drop out over money issues. For a number of reasons, the students will usually not tell you about money concerns.
The other two links are helpful to use when discussing our programs with your administrators and instructors.
Tools For Students
Tools For Students
These items are to be handed out to your prospects and students. They provide valuable information and can do the heavy lifting for you in explaining the advantages of applying for flight training financing. We encourage you to request printed copies in the original format. Place our brochures on your counter for easy access. Have application forms readily available. Use the 3-Reasons brochures when meeting with customers.
The Application Form
We provide a supply of these applications to all ENROLLED schools, personalized with their flight school name. Simply give a copy to any student interested in financing.
The Program Trifold Brochure
This is our principal brochure for students. ENROLLED flight schools are provided with a supply of them, along with an acrylic holder for the counter.
The Preferred Customer Program Information
This is an insert included in our program trifold brochure that shows students how they can save a substantial share of their interest by making payments on time.
The Credit Card Considerations Sheet
This is an insert included in our program trifold brochure that helps your students understand the pros and cons of financing their training program compared to charging the costs of training to a traditional credit card.
The 3-Reasons Brochure.
We recommend presenting this to students in face-to-face meetings to help them embark on their training realistically, with their eyes wide open.
Tools For Training
Tools For Training
These items are to be handed out to your staff for training purposes. They provide valuable information and can do the heavy lifting for you in explaining the benefits of offering flight training financing. You are welcome to request printed copies in the original format via email.
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Does it Matter How You Get Paid?
The hard facts here may surprise you. There are specific reasons why pay-as-you-go training produces less revenue and fewer pilots.
Do You Know… Trifold Brochure Wrap
A thought-provoking examination of why those brochures on your counter are more powerful than they may appear!
Custom Rates
Some Schools have requested a way to offer low-rate financing. This program is our answer and Flight Training Finance absorbs most of the cost!
Walkaway Joe Brochure
A light-hearted story of exactly why our programs will help your school. It is a great conversation starter with your CFIs.
Profitability Surprise
When you sharpen your pencil, you can see why a new incremental student – one you might have lost – affects your bottom line a lot!
Top Ten Humor
This is a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek look at why you may not need to use financing. It is a great meeting wrap-up handout to send everyone out excited to sign up more students.
Mentor Marketing Tips
Mentor Marketing Tips
Flight Training Finance published a series of 12 marketing tips in MENTOR Magazine, the official publication of NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors). They are reprinted here with permission of MENTOR and available as PDF files. Set aside 15 minutes in your regular staff meetings to address each one individually.
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1. Capture and retain that first day enthusiasm.
Why not sell your entire training program at once, instead of one lesson at a time? That is just what happens when your customer finances his or her training. 92% of Flight Training Finance customers complete their training.
2. Sign up more new students
Why do so many good prospects walk away from their dream of flying? When issue is money, most of them won’t tell you! Embarrassed, they will usually give another reason. Offering financing lets you learn if money is a concern and solve the problem all at once.
3. More flight hours, more revenue.
How can you keep your students flying on schedule? Make it easier for them to stay in the left seat, and harder for them to drop out or drift away! When your existing customers keep flying, your flight hours and revenue will keep rising!
4. Create a professional impression.
Do you anticipate your students’ needs and problems? Do you offer a full range of opportunities and solutions? If customers are not aware that they can pay for their training in low, level, affordable monthly payments, you are missing out. Because most customers will not ask.
5. Sign up Walkaway Joe…and Jane.
Have you met Walkaway Joe…or Walkaway Jane? We bet you have, many times. They are those nice people who came and talked to you about their dream of flying. They were so enthusiastic. But then they left without starting their training! You never heard from them again. Why? MONEY!
6. It matters how you get paid!
55 percent to 70 percent is the average dropout rate for all Private Pilot Students (per FAA). 8 percent to 10 percent is the average dropout rate for packaged and financed students
7. Are you creating a pilot or a Drift-Away-Dan?
Did you ever notice that very few of your students ever make a conscious decision to quit their training? And yet so many do not earn their certificate. They sort of drift away from their training. Why is that?
8. Your students are worried! Do you know why?
In the air or on the ground, flight training is challenging. It is even tougher when your student is worried about paying for the next lesson, or having enough money to finish.
9. Flight training is more than just teaching!
Is it enough to be a great pilot and a good teacher? Sometimes, it isn’t. You may be called upon to wear other hats; counselor, psychologist, or simply friend. The best CFIs also wear the hat of financial advisor!
10. Create a win/win for you and your student!
Reduce your paperwork by selling your training services only once instead of thirty or forty times! At the same time, wipe out your students’ money worries. When they finance their training, your students can concentrate on learning (vs. paying) and you can concentrate on teaching (vs. collecting).
11. Eliminate the #1 reason students drop out or drift away.
Don’t kid yourself. All your students think hard about the cost of flight training. They are always re-evaluating whether learning to fly is “worth it”. Sometimes these worries collide head-on with doubts brought on by a tough lesson or a new financial challenge. That is the exact point when they are likely to drop out or begin drifting away.
12. The eight second solution.
High gas prices, “sticker shock”, fear of stalls. Every day, these reasons and many others make students postpone their dream or drop out or “drift away” from their training. You can solve these problems in eight seconds with these magic words: “By the way, we have financing available. The payments are pretty low. Would you like a brochure?”
