Six reasons parents talk about your tennis program

Why people talk about your tennis program to their friends? It is not about you, it is because they want to look good in front of people they are talking to!

People talk about things to other people for number of different reasons, they want to be helpful, resourceful, build credibility and trust or perhaps they want to be seen well connected - “It’s hard to get lessons with coach Patrick but I can introduce you to him, he will find a spot for you, just mention my name!”

My tennis program is based in Regional Victoria near Ballarat, about 90min drive from Melbourne.

This story comes from one of my clients, a tennis parent named Sarah.
Sarah has two sons: 10-year-old Oliver and seven-year-old Leo. Oliver has trained with me for four years. He is now part of the Super 10s program and beginning his tournament journey. Leo has recently started training with me in a group setting.
One Saturday, Sarah and her family were invited to a BBQ hosted by Emma, whose seven year old son, Jack, is in the same school class as Leo.

Everyone was having a great time, but Sarah explained to Emma that they needed to leave early because Oliver was playing in a tournament the following day. That one comment sparked a curious four minute conversation.

Emma said Ollie seems to be doing really well with his tennis, “I saw he was in the school newsletter that Ollie was representing school in tennis”. Sarah shared how much Oliver had improved and learned through the program. She also spoke about the quality of Leo’s group lessons, the reasonable pricing, the make-up lesson options and how easy it was to organise a trial.
Sarah then added, “How great would it be if Leo and Jack could do tennis together?”
Sarah left the BBQ, and the conversation ended and Emma went back to hosting the BBQ.

The following week, Emma saw Sarah at school pickup. She said she thought about tennis classes for a sec but then forgot about it all but when she saw Sarah she remembered to ask her that she would love to organise a trial lesson for Jack and asked which day Leo attended tennis. Emma then made an enquiry and eventually booked Jack into a trial lesson in Leo’s class.

As I mentioned that people talking about your coaching business for different reasons. This can be put into 6 main drivers STEPPS:

Social Currency: Does talking about your tennis program make people look good?

Triggers: What cues make people think about your coaching business and how can you grow and make them come to mind more often?

Emotions: Does talking about your coaching business create emotions ?

Practical Value: How can you highlight incredible value, how can you package your expertise into useful information other want to disseminate?

Public: Does your coaching business advertise itself? Can people see when others are part of it?

Stories: Is your coaching business embedded in a broader narrative that people want to share?

Now let’s break up Sarah’s story:

Social Currency: because Sarah’s boys are doing well, it makes her look like a good parent investing in their boys sport, health and wellbeing

Triggers: Emma immediately remembered to organise a trial lesson in Leo’s class once she saw Sarah

Emotions: Sarah is proud that boys are enjoying sport, healthy lifestyle and doing well

Practical Value: Sarah was talking about the quality of the program, pricing and easy booking process

Public: mention in a school newsletter as well as Emma and other parents could see how well Oliver is doing in tennis being coached at Open Pro Tennis Academy

Stories: Oliver was featured in school newsletter representing their school at the school tennis tournament

As is often the case with community-based businesses such as our tennis club, word of mouth is still considered one of the best marketing tools for growth. If we get it right, we can grow participation incredibly quickly!

We always want to provide the best coaching service to our clients, be approachable and personalised and create a striving tennis community that leads to long term sustainable coaching business. But we have to realise one hard truth about the best marketing tool we have - word of mouth and that is when it comes to word of mouth, it is never about us - it is always about the person talking about your tennis program because they want to look good in front of people they are talking to!

My question to all tennis coaching business is: How do you control what your clients, tennis parents say about your coaching business when it comes to social currency, triggers, emotions, practical value, public and stories drivers commonly known as STEPPS?

When people talk about your tennis program to their friends, It is not about you, it is because they want to look good in front of people they are talking to!