A University violated the marketing creed: know your audience!
As the story unfolded, it was clear that greed got in the way. The University was offered $20 million to establish a new campus for the envisioned MBA program. The only stipulation was the program take place in Palm Desert!
How many candidates for a graduate student program do you believe already live or wish to live in Palm Desert? “Not too many” would be the correct answer. It was only after the project got under way that the University stepped back to recognize the error of their ways.
Education is a business. All businesses must know where to find their target audience which will soon become their prospects and clients. The school is now re-thinking their promotion, fund-raising efforts and need to sell the benefits to attract and convince their scholarly candidates to move to the desert.
When you take the time to observe the errors the larger companies make, you will avoid them yourself and save a lot of wasted time and dollars. Business development takes vision and working backwards while setting in motion your plan of appropriate actions to make the vision a reality.
Careful planning, analyzing intended growth from all angles and moving forward in a deliberate manner without the temptation of greed, plus building relationships will work to your advantage for achieving a Smooth Sale!
