Dan Tudor

There is an age old sales statistic that I’ve always found fascinating for two reasons. First, it makes a whole lot of sense. Secondly, most salespeople (and college sports recruiters) don’t have the mental stamina, organization and drive to make it work for them.

 

Here’s the statistic: The average customer (athletic prospect) doesn’t buy something (sign with your school) until they’ve been asked to do so five times.

 

Not once. Not twice. Not four times. Five times.

 

It makes sense, doesn’t it? Don’t you feel more comfortable buying something or committing to something after you’re familiar with it, or have been given the opportunity to buy it a few times? On the flip side, how often do you buy something without knowing anything about it? Or buy it the first time you see it? It probably doesn’t happen very often.

 

So, how does all this apply to recruiting the prospects you are targeting this year? It comes down to persistence. Fewer and fewer salespeople in the business world have the patience to be persistent. They want you to buy now. Commit now. They want the sale NOW. Likewise, it’s tempting for college coaches to insist that their prospects commit now. You want your recruiting done now. Now, now, now. You put pressure on your prospects to hurry up and make up their mind in the first one or two conversations you have with them about signing, and then get frustrated when they drag their feet. Don’t fall into the same trap that salespeople do. Don’t get impatient.

 

One more thing: Make sure you ask for their commitment over and over and over again. "Ask for the sale" would be the term used in the business world. You have to ask your prospect for their commitment over and over again, and develop your relationship with the prospect along the way.

 

On the surface, it sounds contridictory to recommend "being patient" with "asking for the sale" over and over and over again (remember the five times rule we’re talking about here). But it’s not. In fact, persistence and patience go hand in hand. You have to be patient to be persistent. But most sales people aren’t persistent or patient, and many coaches aren’t patient enough to be persistent either.

 

Go back to the beginning of this article: Most prospects have to be asked five times before they buy. Do you want to know the second half of this interesting statistic? E-mail me at dan@sellingforcoaches.com with the subject line of "Tell Me The Other Half, Dan!" and I’ll e-mail you the other part of the statistic along with some more information you can use in your everyday recruiting efforts.
 

 

Ask for the sale five times at a minimum, coach. Be patient. Be persistent. See what happens.

 

A short time ago, we talked about eliminating risk for your prospects in one of our recent Tuesday Training Newsletters.  It spoke about the importance of taking away risk in the minds of your athletes, and how doing so can clear the way for getting their commitment for your program.

Well, your response was huge.  I got 50+ questions from coaches wanting some more thoughts on eliminating risk, and a strategy for doing so.  Enter trainer and consultant Dave Kahle, with his three point plan on addressing risk for your prospects.  He’s approaching it from a traditional "sales" point of view, but I’ll tie it in to recruiting at the college level.

• Develop a closer relationship.  As Kahle puts it, "The closer the relationship, the lesser the risk.  The lesser the relationship, the greater the risk."  All true, to be sure.  If you’re a coach, its imperative that you form as much of a bond as possible with every prospect.  That means you need to talk about things other than sports, scholarships and your coaching experience.  Athletes want more.  They want to feel like they can trust you.  Once that happens, they’ll listen to what you have to say.
• Make the deal tangible.  It can’t all be talk.  You need to get them on campus whenever possible, and get them to experience campus life up close and personal.  Can’t get all the prospects you want to come make a visit?  Get creative…give them virtual tours of the dorms.  Pictures of the gym.  Comments from players on why they like playing at the school, and how they’d do it all over again.  Those types of things can take a prospect’s thinking from theory to fact.  And once you’re dealing with facts, you can start to finalize a decision from your prospect.
• Use proof.  Kahle notes, "Anything that you can add from someone else that in any way adds credibility, even if it only distantly or remotely is tied to what you’re offering, will go a long way to reducing risk."  If you’re a coach who wants to take recruiting to the next level, give your prospects testimonials and "profiles" of the athletes who are already playing in your program.  It’s a powerful way to get your prospect to connect with your school and team, and will then allow you to start talking seriously about what you could offer them if they chose your school.

Like we’ve said before, taking a prospect’s risk out of their decision making progress can help you land far better athletes more quickly, and with much less effort.  It takes the right questions, and it takes a clear focus on identifying and eliminating the risk in your prospect’s mind.

One of the first things Selling for Coaches does when we work one-on-one with an individual program or coach is go through a ten point check on how they go about recruiting now, and identify any mistakes they may be making in terms of their approach. 

 It’s usually pretty revealing, and we are almost always able to identify some mistakes that are being made by a coach when it comes to approaching the topic of recruiting.  Pointing out the mistakes someone is making is the first step in determining how to get better at what you’re doing, and is key in determining how we need to work with that individual coach or program.

There are five areas that we focus on, each one having the potential to really hamper recruiting efforts.  Even if you’re doing O.K. in four out of the five areas I’m going to talk about, that one area that you’re failing in can short-circuit your entire recruiting strategy.

What are the five critical recruiting mistakes that you need to make sure you’re not making?

• Failing to Follow a Consistent Procedure.  I find that most coaches don’t have a set, measureable recruiting plan that establishes a week-by-week approach that coaches should take with their prospects.  If you don’t have that plan in place, you need to.  Whether its bringing me in to work with you in developing a winning strategy, or doing it yourself with your staff, it needs to be done.  It gives the the chance to measure results, follow a consistent strategy, target the right recruits, and get the results you’re hoping to get.  Do this first: Make sure you have some kind of recruiting plan in place, and make sure its a written plan.
• Failing to Set An Objective for Your Prospect’s Commitment.  Here’s what I mean by that.  Coaches don’t often set up measureable goals for each recruiting contact they make.  If there is no goal, or no set desired outcome that a coach is gunning for on each particular contact, a coach risks extending out the recruiting process longer than it needs to be.  You should have a clear set of steps that you work through as you move deeper into the recruiting cycle, and each one of those steps need to have a desired outcome associated with them.  Once this happens, you will see that your conversations with prospects are clearer, and the conversations you have with them are much more productive.
• Failing to Ask the Right Questions.  I’m working on a new book on this subject because I’ve found that coaches really struggle in coming up with creative, thought-provoking questions that actually help sell the prospect on you and your program.  Good questions are the key to engaging your prospect, and helping them feel a connection with you as a coach.  The "right" questions are ones that are open-ended, and cause the prospect to have to really think about the answer he or she is giving a coach.  My recommendation: Come up with five great questions you could ask any prospect, any time.  Write them down.  Commit them to memory.  And, always make sure they get asked at the start of your recruiting efforts with each prospect you begin recruiting.
• Failing to Present Themselves Correctly.  One of the biggest mistakes I put under this category?  Talking too much.  It happens all the time…coaches feel the need to list all 106 things that are great about their program, their school, and their offer.  The problem?  You aren’t engaging your prospect.  Whey you’re "presenting", there is usually very little interaction.  The way you present your information can often determine if it gets heard at all.  Want a great tip on how to get your information out to your prospects and engage them in the process?  E-mail me at dan@sellingforcoaches.com with the subject "I Want The Tip!" and I’ll give you a good strategy for engaging and informing your prospect. 
• Failing to Ask For a Commitment.  I know, I know…those of you who read my tips regularly are probably getting tired of hearing this one.  But it’s important, and coaches still struggle with it.  They don’t ask for the prospect’s commitment, and don’t build in commitment goals to each part of the recruiting process.  You can do this easily, really.  By the types of questions you ask.  What your recruiting materials say.  How they say it.  Everything you do in recruiting should go towards asking for your prospect’s commitment to your program.  If you want more information on being effective in asking for a commitment from your prospect (i.e., "closing the sale") read our new book with an entire chapter devoted on the subject.

Are you making any one of these five critical recruiting mistakes?  Make sure you take action on correcting them, and get the training and information you need to get better at this critical part of your job as a coach and recruiter.  

The end of summer means the beginning of the battle for recruits with your fellow coaches.  Selling against your competition is probably the most important battle you’ll face outside of the sport that you coach, and just as important as the wins and losses during your season.

I got a question from a volleyball coach at a smaller school on this very topic.  She wrote:

"I have a top recruit who is looking at five schools, including ours.  Some are similar to us and others are major universities.  How do you tell the kid that you know that other schools, and those coaches, aren’t right for them without slandering those schools or coaches?  How do you say this tactfully and still keep the respect that the athlete and her parents have for you?"

Great question.  And, one that every coach faces at some point in each recruiting season.

Here are my five ways to beat other coaches for recruits…tactfully, without slandering them.

• Find out what they like about the competition, then chip away at them.  Before you can chip away at the other guys, you need to know what your prospect perceives their strengths to be.  Ask them to list the strong-points of each of the other schools that are recruiting them.  As you hear the answers, reply to each one with a phrase like, "That’s interesting that you mention that, because actually we are stronger in that area than them."  Then, list why.  Even if they’re a bigger program, or more presitgious, this subtle reply works well.
• Have the prospect create their own doubt about the competition.  A good way to do this is to ask your prospect, "As you’ve had the chance to get to know these other coaches that are recruiting you, what are some things that you’ve noticed that you don’t like that much about the coach, program and school?"  You might word the question differently, and that’s fine.  But the point is to get the prospect to start actively thinking about your competition’s weaknesses instead of their strengths.
• Spend time connecting with your prospect.  This is a big focus in our two books, "Selling for Coaches" and "What They Didn’t Teach You About Recruiting".  Most coaches are too focused on "getting the sale" than they are about really connecting on a deep level with your prospect.  Ask questions of the athlete, and of their parents.  Spend time talking to their coach.  Invest your time in your prospect, and try to dig deep into the non-sports areas of their lives.  Coaches who do this usually beat their competition, and you always come across as more professional than your counterparts.
• Make sure you overcome ALL your prospect’s objections to what you’re offering them.  This is another big topic in our book, and one that we’ll be focusing on with our members later this fall.  Why?  Because its the most important part of recruiting an athlete, and it may be something that your competition isn’t doing.  Find out specific objections your prospect has, and make sure they get addressed.  Each situation is so different, its hard to give a general technique that would work in any situation…e-mail me at dan@sellingforcoaches.com with any specific question you have about the topic. 
• Ask your prospect how they’d like to be recruited.  Here’s what I mean by that: Tell your prospect you really want to tailor a specific recruiting conversation to them personally, and then ask them how they’ll be making their decision.  What information do they need?  What questions do they need answered?  What’s important to them?  What aspect of your offer (you, your program, your college) means the most to them?  Most of your competition doesn’t ask these kind of direct questions.  But they should…they work! 

Competition is tough, and its only getting tougher.  Use these strategies to start to get an edge on your competition in the battle for recruits, and let us know if we can train you further on any of these techniques.

Internet message boards and fan recruiting sites are big draws for fans and players.  Now, they’re becoming a big destination for college coaches, who find the need (and opportunity) to check in on the latest rumors and happenings surrounding the kids they’re recruiting.

From the article in the Palm Beach Post:

Coaches who read the boards have differing opinions.

"Sometimes they make sense, other times they’re just talking," Central Florida’s George O’Leary said.

Asked for his opinion about the boards, Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer wasn’t as tolerant: "You really want me to say? I don’t know if I can say all that and print it."

Like them or not, schools monitor the boards. Steve McClain, who heads the sports information department at Florida, has staff members check message-board content the same way they always have clipped newspaper articles about the program.

"When you think there’s no more room for growth, it continues to grow," McClain said of the message-board chatter. "It makes you wonder how much room there is for growth. But I wouldn’t be surprised if in five years I’m making the same statement."

Bare-bones Internet chat rooms sprung up in the mid-1990s, but were accessible primarily to the computer-savvy. A decade later, everyone can easily join the discussion.

"It’s not like it used to be, when everybody got up and read the sports page," Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said. "Now everybody gets on and logs on to the Internet and either reads it or posts on it.

"It changes how people get to interact with the world of sports."

Click here for the entire article.