Hello Ed Reps!
I hope everybody’s rental season is going really well, you’re renting lots of horns, and getting lots of instruments into lots of kids’ hands. It’s a super exciting, crazy busy time of year!
What I want to talk about this week is the work that needs to happen AFTER the rental meeting is over. When you finish a big competitive meeting with lots of vendors, or even an exclusive meeting that was exceptionally busy, just getting everyone taken care of and on their way home can feel like a huge accomplishment. But don’t forget that the meeting isn’t the end of your work with that school when it comes to rentals. One of the best things we can do to strengthen our relationships with educators is to show that we’re fully invested in making sure every kid in that band or orchestra room has an instrument to play.
There are two reasons this matters. First, it makes the educator’s job easier because it’s really hard to teach students who don’t have instruments! Second, it helps fulfill our mission of making sure every kid has an opportunity to access music education. (I mean, ask any director how much they enjoy teaching students without an instrument!)
The first thing I want you to do is take care of the loose ends from the meeting. You probably have a list of people whose rental didn’t go perfectly smoothly. Maybe they didn’t have a credit card, maybe the card was expired, or maybe they were your third tenor sax customer and you only brought two tenor saxes. Maybe you ran out of baritone B.C. books because you were absolutely sure they were only going to start two baritones, and then four of them showed up. You get the idea. Take that list and make it a priority to follow through. Order the books, schedule the instrument delivery, and close those loops. It shouldn’t take hours, but we do need to make sure those students are taken care of.
Next, follow up with the director and look for students who may have joined band or orchestra after the rental meeting. Maybe someone started on flute and it isn’t working, so they need to switch to clarinet. Maybe they missed the rental meeting entirely. Whatever the situation, make sure those students get what they need. If the teacher gives you their information, contact the family directly, or work through the director to get everything handled.
Finally, use your next two or three visits to make sure everything is squared away. Does every kid have an instrument? Did anything weird happen along the way? Are all the instruments you rented working the way they’re supposed to? Keep checking until you and the director are confident that everybody is up and running.
Remember our end goal. The goal isn’t simply, “How many rentals did we get?” The goal is to make sure every kid is playing. If we genuinely focus on doing that well, our relationships with our educators will get stronger, and I think you’ll find that the rental numbers tend to take care of themselves anyway.
Rental season is almost over, guys. We’ll see you here next week!