A fast-food restaurant once hired consultants to help them sell more milkshakes. The consultants learned that over 50% of the people buying milkshakes were buying them in the morning. Instead of doing a traditional exhaustive marketing analysis of the customers to (1) learn their age, sex, race, income level, etc. and (2) use that information to drive their advertising efforts, the consultants asked a different question:

What job are these people hiring a milkshake to do?

More broadly, what happens in a person’s life that causes them to hire a milkshake for breakfast? (Stick with me—I promise this is going somewhere college-admissions related.)

Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School and a leading thinker on innovation and growth, headed that group of consultants. One of his concepts that I find fascinating is this notion of identifying the real job a product is being hired to do. If you understand the job, the best ways to improve the product become obvious.

It turned out that the majority of the morning milkshakers were embarking on long commutes. They didn’t just need breakfast—they needed something they could get quickly and that would last so they’d have something to do while they drove. They needed something filling, easy to eat while driving, and mess-free. Bananas, bagels, donuts—they couldn’t do this particular job for these people nearly as well as the milkshake could. You can listen to Christensen talk about the study here.

Much like a product, a service can actually do a job beyond what the service provides. For example, while a family might hire a private college counselor to recommend schools, review applications, oversee the process, etc., the job they’re actually doing might be to provide a family with relief, enthusiasm, peer belonging/superiority, hope, joy, partnership or any number of other jobs that extend beyond college applications.

At Collegewise, we’ve learned from the testimonials we get from our families that parents seem to appreciate us most for taking on the aspects that are not enjoyable for them, like managing the process, nagging kids about deadlines, and preventing mistakes. For many of our families, the job Collegewise does is provide them an opportunity—the opportunity to enjoy an exciting time with their kids.

Of course, we have to do the mechanical parts of this job exceptionally well, like recommending schools and reviewing applications. Families won’t be happy with their experience if we don’t do all the things we promised to do.

But most people won’t rave to a friend just because a service does what they’re supposed to do. The more we focus on giving a family the opportunity to enjoy this exciting time, the better we’re able to improve it, and the more delighted they are with their experience.

That’s why we take pictures of our kids submitting applications and then share them with parents. That’s why we celebrate every offer of admission, even from a safety school. That’s why we try to inject positivity, remove fear, and remind families that good kids with supportive parents always seem to end up at colleges that make them happy.

Those steps aren’t part of our program. It’s not what people call a college counselor looking to buy. But they help families do something they appreciate. They get to watch their senior apply to college and cheerlead from the sideline, all without ever having to worry that something will go wrong. That’s the job our program actually does.

If you’re a private counselor who works with families, what job are you actually being hired to do? There is no single right answer—there are many different jobs to be done depending on the counselor, the offering, and the customers. But if you can identify the real job you’re being hired to do, you can focus on doing it even better. And that’s a sure way to get customers to talk about you.

• Writing that college essay
• Having that difficult conversation
• Calling that student’s challenging parent
• Starting that intimidating project
• Asking that tough question
• Completing that important but tedious task

Imagine how good it will feel on the other side when it’s behind you. Now, would you rather that relief start sooner or later?

Some families address particular college admissions preparation too late (many also do so too early, but that’s another post). Here are five important areas that will only exacerbate your stress if you wait until the senior year to address them:

1. Decide which schools to apply to.

Your process will be smoother and more successful if you have a complete, balanced list of colleges by the beginning of your senior year. A thoughtful college search takes time to complete, especially if you hope to research, seek feedback from your counselor, and maybe even visit some colleges. Don’t wait until your senior year to get serious about finding those schools.

2. Improve your standardized test scores.

I debated whether to include this because many students can improve their standardized test scores late in the process, often more substantially than they can improve their GPA or their extracurricular profile. But if you begin your senior year still hoping to improve those scores, you’ll need to find time to do so in between your school, activity, and application-related demands. You’ll have a more difficult time finalizing your list accurately as I mentioned in #1. And you may not be able to meet some early application deadlines if you decide to apply in an early application pool. The fall of the senior year is a busy and important time for college applicants. If you can avoid adding test-preparation to the mix, it’s best to do so.

3. Earn good letters of recommendation from teachers.

No matter how recommendation-worthy your senior year academics may be, those teachers will only have had you in class for a few months at most by the time you apply. That’s why colleges prefer that letters come from a teacher in your junior year, ideally one who can speak to your interest in the subject, participation, engagement, and other academic or intellectual qualities that are not necessarily reflected on the transcript alone. Be the kind of student who earns those letters so that the only thing left to do as a senior is to ask your chosen teachers to write them for you.

4. Make an impact in activities.

Frantically joining clubs at the beginning of your senior year is not a sound strategy to improve your chances. And while some students do have the opportunity to bolster their activities in the fall of the senior year (for example, by being named MVP in a fall sport), most find that their activity profiles are largely set by the time applications need to be submitted. So find the activities that matter most to you before your senior year. Work hard to make an impact in them. Then use the application season to decide how to best present those involvements for maximum admissions impact.

5. Talk about college costs.

Money can be a sticky conversation topic, especially when parents have to talk to their kid about college costs. But those conversations can get even more tense once a student has been admitted to college, especially if there is not enough financial aid to help pay for the costs. As your family begins the college process, learn about how to save, how to estimate your cost for each college, and how to avail yourself of financial aid. Spend a few minutes in the “Financial Aid and Scholarships” section of this blog (the subject areas are on the right side of my blog) , which has advice along with several recommended resources and outside experts. Don’t wait until the senior year to learn about how to best pay for college, or to discuss how your family’s finances might impact school selection.

My wife and I used to frequent a local Italian restaurant when we lived in California. It was our go-to spot for Date Night and the place that we’d always bring any out-of-town guests. And I think it was the only restaurant I ever told multiple people that they had to try.

Here’s the thing—the food was just average. What made this place so noteworthy, to me and to the crowds who showed up every night, was the experience.

The entire staff, from the host to the servers to the owner who always made his way around the tables to say hello, was effusively friendly and welcoming. You felt like you had just made their day by showing up. It’s hard to describe in writing how contagious genuine enthusiasm is.

They didn’t take reservations, but who cared when a cheerful hostess showed up regularly with a glass of wine and some focaccia while you were waiting?

The servers knew every dish. They all had their favorites. And they couldn’t wait to tell you whatever you wanted to know about the food and how it was prepared.

The vibe made every night out feel like a special occasion. In fact, we ate there once a week when the economy crashed in 2009 because it always helped me to enjoy a night out, worry-free. That’s a tall order for a small business serving dishes as common as spaghetti and meatballs.

There are two college admissions-related reasons I’m sharing this:

1. They weren’t trying to please everybody.

The foodie with the discerning palate, the selective diner who wants white linens and formality, the trend-seeker looking for the hot spot the celebrities frequent—this place wasn’t for them and it didn’t try to be. Rather than try to please everybody (which you can never do), they relentlessly focused on doing what they could do better than just about everyone, and they pleased the segment of customers who were looking for just that.

2. They were remarkable.

There were probably a hundred Italian restaurants in that county, and you could find similar or much better food at just about any of them. But if you wanted this experience at an Italian restaurant in this town, there was only one place to get it.

High school students, put your energy into things you enjoy. Bring your best self to them in a way that nobody else could. Then find the right colleges that are predisposed to appreciate you for exactly who you are, whether or not they’re prestigious.

Do it consciously, and you’ll have plenty of colleges wanting you to dine on their campuses as a student.

The drummer in the marching band

The president of the student counsel

The member without an office in the Red Cross Club

The advertising manager for the newspaper

The student in the third row, second seat from the left in AP English

The photographer for the yearbook

The after-school worker at the fast food restaurant

The vice president of the French Club

The center on the basketball team

The lighting tech for the school play

Guess what? None of those roles alone is special. In fact, when each graduates or just decides to move on, they’ll be replaced. Someone did the job before. Someone will be next. Not just at your school—at just about every school.

Are you feeling defensive? Are you thinking, “That’s not true!” Are you not like all those that came before you? Do you do things that others can’t or don’t or won’t do?

Great! Keep doing more of those things.

The role itself doesn’t make you special (this is true beyond high school, too). But what you do within it—the effort and energy and unique talent that you bring—can make you utterly irreplaceable.

Whatever you’re doing, do it in a way that when you leave, people will say, “We’ll never have another…”

One of my Collegewise colleagues shares a great story about his sister coming to visit him. She arrived and told him about a trendy new restaurant in town that was reportedly booked out months in advance. She was lamenting that they wouldn’t be able to try it.

But he took a shot and called. For some reason—whether she had bad information or he just got lucky—they had a table for two available that night.

When he shared the news, she immediately lost all interest. What had made the restaurant so appealing was the thought that she couldn’t get a table.

People want things that others can’t have—it’s human nature. And the longer the literal or figurative line of people out the door clamoring to get in, the more appealing it becomes. People talk about those lines (“They’re booked months in advance!” or “They sold out in two hours!”) as much or more than they do about what’s inside.

Just because something is hard to get doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than the other options. Scarcity is often a result of the story people tell themselves.

I’ve met plenty of students who are desperate to attend a prestigious college because they’re “great schools. ” But in fifteen years, I’ve never met one—not a single student—who could back up that statement with a factual explanation. They can point to generalities like connections or better jobs or admission to graduate programs. But the facts don’t support those statements.

Side note: “It’s a great school” is very different from, “It’s a great school for me, and here’s why…”

I’m not arguing that prestigious colleges aren’t good schools. But the reason they’re absurdly difficult to get into is not because they’re inherently better schools. They’re that difficult to get into because people want things that are really hard to get. The fact that this isn’t a rational desire is exactly why that desire breeds so much irrational behavior.

If the Ivy League schools agreed to change their names annually, eventually, nobody will recognize any of them by name. I wonder if the lines to get in would still be as long as they are now?