2008 September | Dan Tudor

The Financial Crisis: Will It Change the Way You Recruit?Monday, September 29th, 2008

Bail-outs, Bank failures. Stock losses. Foreclosures. Recession. Depression? Financial crisis

According to some, we’re headed for uncharted territory. The financial crisis will effect all of us in some way, shape or form. That includes you, and it includes recruiting.

Here are some things that you’re going to start hearing about from your prospects when you talk to them about coming to your school:

Student loans are starting to dry up. More parents are competing for less money, and its starting to effect the ability of some students to remain in school (not to mention get into school in the first place). If you’re at a school that offers full ride scholarships, you can breath a little easier. If you are a non-scholarship, or only offer partial scholarships, this might start impacting you in the near future.
Students and parents might start turning to credit cards to pay for school. One study suggests that a weak college student job market, coupled with the tightening private loan market, means that students and parents will turn to alternative financing options to pay for school – like credit cards.
Is there some good news out there? Yes: The government will pull out all the stops to protect student financial aid programs. Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed an extension of a program that funds federally guaranteed student loans. That’s good news, since many schools rely on federal financial aid to help fund the tuition of their student-athletes.

However, even some rays of hope shining here and there, the long and the short of all of this can be boiled down to one simple statement: The topic of money is going to become an even more critical issue to address when you are recruiting athletes.

We’re not experts on the economy, and nobody is going to be calling me anytime soon to help negotiate bail-out deals in Washington, but I think I can give you some pretty clear advice on how to take this crisis head-on when it comes to recruiting.

Here are the things you need to know, and some things you need to make sure you do:

Ask the parents of your recruit how this crisis is effecting them. That type of question is one of the "15 Great Questions" we usually recommend to college coaches during our On-Campus Workshops. You need to understand how this crisis is effecting them, and what obstacles it creates when it comes to considering your school.
Be prepared to talk about money with your prospects. Get comfortable having that conversation. It’s going to be on the minds of your prospects more and more, especially if you’re not offering them a full scholarship.
Be a guide. Coaches who take the small extra step of being a guide through this increasingly confusing process at your school will win points with the family they are recruiting. Your prospects are looking for help, and we don’t think you should rely on admissions or your financial aid office to be the one-stop spot for answers and super sweet "customer service" – an attitude that shows you take ownership of the idea of helping them through this area of the recruiting process.
The coach who proves they have the best "bang for the buck", wins. Families are still going to place a college education high on their list of things they are willing to invest in. Unlike a lot of sectors of the market that will go through real struggles over the coming years, college educations – as well as the dream of playing college sports – should remain a high priority in the minds of athletes and parents. The key to success in the coming months will be making sure you demonstrate to your prospects that you and your program offer the most opportunities for success and the best chance to become a great athlete. You are going to see families "shopping" more when it comes to choosing a college, especially if you are asking them to pay for part of it. I hope you are ready to be the master sales professional that I’ve been begging you to become the last few years…you are about to really rely on those communication and persuasion skills we’ve been teaching.
How you communicate what you have to offer counts more now than ever. Especially your letters and emails, Coach. If you have a family who is struggling financially, or worried about their job, your average recruiting letter is going to have an even harder time getting through to them and getting their attention. Communicating clearly, systematically and with some originality is crucial. This all goes towards proving yourself to be a guide and a leader, which is going to be a valued commodity in the eyes of parents.
Get to know your school’s financial aid officers, and their process for determining who gets what. Are you a coach who has kept an arm’s distance relationship with the people from financial aid and the admissions office? You can’t afford to do that anymore. Get to know them, what they look for, and how they make their decisions with regards to your incoming prospects. Coaches who invest the time in these relationships tell me that it has made a tangible difference in the process of getting an athlete they really want. Personal relationships matter: Invest in those relationships that can make your job as a recruiter easier, and more productive.

All of us are, in some way, effected by what is going on in the financial markets. Nobody (that I know, anyway) can predict what is going to happen and what the specific results are going to be.

However, I do know this: How parents and athletes look at investing in a school is going to change. Who they listen to is going to change. How they make their final decision is going to change.

My question for you is, "How are you going to change?"

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Do You Know When Enough is Enough?Monday, September 22nd, 2008

I had just completed an On-Campus Workshop at a D1 college, and was starting to pack up and get ready for the drive back to the airport.

After most of the coaches had left the room, one coach came up with a question that I thought was pretty unique. I don’t know if I’ve ever been asked this before, although it’s a great question that most coaches are probably thinking.

She asked me, "Dan, how do I know when I should stop selling them on my program? In other words, how do I know when enough is enough?"

I kind of stood there with my mouth half open and (I imagine) kind of a blank, clueless stare on my face. I just didn’t know how to answer her, because each situation is so different from the next. But I penciled out some good principles to follow if you find yourself wondering if you’ve reached the point in your recruitment of an athlete when it’s time stop selling, and ask for their commitment.

There are some good examples from the business world that coaches can use to help form this part of their recruiting strategy. In their textbook "Hospitality Sales: Selling Smarter", Judy A. Siguaw and David C. Bojanic said:

"If you have made a good presentation and the prospects are satisfied that the benefits offered will improve their situation, and are believable, any further presentation is overselling. Overselling can create, in the mind of the prospects, a feeling of disbelief as to the validity of the owner benefits. It can also result in the loss of favorable attention because excessive repetition of benefits and use of other motivational tools can lead to boredom or confusion, which, in turn, causes an unfavorable emotional reaction. "

Dan Tudor In other words, "overselling" will kill a sale. Just like "overselling" can kill your chances at signing certain athletes that you have spent a long, long time recruiting.

You can prevent this from happening by learning how to recognize the moment your recruit is ready to "buy" from you. If you continue to sell beyond this point, his enthusiasm for the product is going to wane. Not only that, but you risk saying something that will quash your prospect’s interest in an instant.

Example: You’ve got them convinced that your university is best, even though it’s far from the prospect’s home. They’re ready to commit. But then you mention that the only thing you hate about working at the school is the 90 minute drive to the closest airport. All of a sudden, the parents family’s excitement about sending their daughter away to school turn to concern…they hadn’t thought about that drive. When they come to watch their daughter play, will they get tired of that drive? Will it be inconvenient? They start getting second thoughts…and you may have just killed your chances of converting all of that hard work into a new recruit.

In this regard, coaches who do their recruiting face to face have an advantage over those who do their selling via mail or by phone. By paying close attention to the effect their words are having on their customers, they can custom tailor each recruiting presentation. If the prospect looks doubtful, they can pile on proof of their claims. If the customer looks confused, they can clarify the point they’re trying to make by restating it – over and over again, if need be.

And when a recruit begins giving signals that he is ready to buy, savvy coaches know the time is right to swoop in and close the deal.

These are the clues they look for in the prospect:

A relaxed position – arms open, facing the salesperson
Excitement in the eyes
Nodding the head
Oral affirmations – saying "yes," "right," "uh huh"

When you are writing recruiting copy for your letters and emails, you don’t have signals like these to guide you. The same holds true for us here at SFC when we produce their recruiting campaigns through our Total Recruiting Solution program. So, you have to find another way to keep your sales message on track. Here’s what I recommend you do:

Put your recruiting copy through a peer review. Here’s how it works:

You put together a group of five or six fellow coaches - ideally, experienced coaches and recruiters. Ask them to rate the various parts of your copy – the opening, lead, body, and close – and give specific suggestions for improving them. You also ask your reviewers to indicate any sections that are boring, unbelievable, or confusing. And you ask them to highlight the point in the copy where they feel ready to buy.

That point should be about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the copy. If it comes much earlier, you know you have to delete some of the "overselling" you do after that point and move directly to the close. (If it doesn’t happen at all, you know you have to completely revamp the recruiting letter text and make it stronger.)

Try this the next time you’re working on a recruiting letter and see if it helps. (Or, ask us for help with developing your next recruiting campaign!) Don’t make the mistake that a lot of coaches make and "talk" yourself out of landing a great recruit. You’ll be blowing a perfectly good opportunity…and you’ll never know why.

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What Your Prospects Are REALLY ThinkingMonday, September 15th, 2008

Here’s the deal, Coach:

Your prospects think differently than you do. I point this out because many of you don’t realize it, and it’s killing your chances at being good recruiters.

As a coach, you get really concerned with your facility, your field, your court, and other "stuff". It needs to be bigger, better, more modern. And, you need more money. Otherwise, you can’t get the best recruits to come to your campus, right?

Wrong. At least in the majority of cases, that kind of thinking is flat-out wrong.

I can tell you that with 100% certainty because over the last few years, myself and my staff here at Selling for Coaches have personally interviewed hundreds and hundreds of your student-athletes. They’ve told us how they make their final decision, and what matters most to them. And in the end, if you look at the data, it’s obvious that your prospects have different priorities than you do. They value different things than you do. They think differently than you do.

Here are some of the most common examples:

They think how you treat them and communicate with them is more important than what your weight room looks like. Personal relationships rank higher than the stuff you have on your campus.
They think how your team treats them during their campus visit will tell them if your campus makes them feel wanted. If your team doesn’t make them feel welcome, the prospect will almost NEVER sign with your school. You can take that to the bank, Coach.
They think their parents are important to the decision making process. This generation has given their parents the power to act as manager and agent. If you aren’t recruiting the parents at the same time you recruit the athlete, you are making it harder on yourself than you may realize.
They think that you talk too much during your phone calls. Nothing personal, Coach, but if you’re doing most of the talking during a half-hour phone call with a prospect, you aren’t doing anything to help you in signing that prospect. More time talking does not equal more interest from the prospect.
They think your letters and emails that promote your school are too bland, and too much about you. You need to change them.
They think it’s great when you talk to them consistently. Don’t spill everything out at once. Use a slow drip method to communicate. A little bit at a time, time after time after time.
They think you demand too much of them once they get to campus. There’s nothing you can do to change that, necessarily, but I wanted you to know that this is an epidemic across college sports. Be prepared to re-sell them on the value of working hard and dedicating themselves to your program. This generation of athlete is the most challenging ever. Be aware that you’ll need to keep recruiting them even after they commit to you and your school.
They think its GREAT when you write them personal, hand-written letters and post cards. They’ll read every word of a hand-written note you send to them. They understand that hand-written notes take more of your time, which they think means you put a higher value on them than other recruits.
They think you give them too much to do during a campus visit. Cut out some of the meetings with department heads (if you were 17, would you want to meet a department head?). Cut out the non-stop meetings that rush them from place to place. They think it would be great if you would slow down the pace of the visit and let them spend more time getting to know you and your team in a relaxed setting.

Are there exceptions to these rules? Sure. But I’ll guarantee you that more the majority of the prospects you are recruiting, this is what they are thinking.

So now that you know what they’re thinking, let me throw out the big question: How does it change the way you will communicate with them and recruit them?

Here are some quick tips:

Simplify your communication with them. Be more direct and to the point. That’s what they want.
Make it personal and all about them. Make it less about you and your school.
Overhaul your campus visit. Make it shorter and more relaxed. Give them more time with your team, less time with Professor Schnizlehoeffer in the English department.

One more thing: If you would like Selling for Coaches to help you become more effective with your recruiting, there are two options I will suggest that works for college programs: Our On-Campus Workshop, and our new Total Recruiting Solution program.

If you have questions about either, email me personally at dan@sellingforcoaches.com. Whatever you decide to do, know this: You need to start thinking like your prospects.

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Put On Your Reporters Hat to Become a Better RecruiterMonday, September 8th, 2008

by Charlie Adams, SFC Workshop Leader

To grow as a recruiter, it’s helpful to become a reporter.

In the offseason of your sport, or in the summer, call the admissions department at your college, or whatever campus office that conducts campus tours. Try to find out what tour guide has been there the longest, went to the school, and is passionate about it. Then go on an hour tour with them. You’d be amazed how many little nuggets you can pick up that you can share with recruits and their parents.

Campus Visit As you go on the tour, be a reporter when you come across various professors and deans. Ask them what are the longterm benefits of a degree from their department. Parents are especially interested in long term benefits. When you can tell them that a graduate with such-and-such degree can make such-and-such then the parent justifies the cost of sending their kid there.

As you take the tour, listen for all the things that you can use to help sell the experience of going to that college. As a coach, you may have been so focused on your team, studying game film, and working hard that you never really got around to understanding the various campus traditions. A good campus tour guide can fill you in. You may need to get someone from the main office that doesn’t lead that many tours anymore, but has a wealth of knowledge. Those kind of people actually like getting back out to give an occasional tour.

Take notes on your tour, like a reporter would. When you get back to the office develop a list of all the nuggets and share them as a staff. Post them where you can reference them. You want to have a stockpile of info you can use to help sell the EXPERIENCE of going to your college. More than ever people are looking for an experience. Find out what the unique things are all over your campus. You never know when you may be on the phone with a recruit and she says something out of left field like, "You know, I’ve always wanted to go ice skating." And you can draw on the nugget you learned that when a green flag is put on the campus lake, it’s clear for ice skating.

I was in television news and sports for 23 years. Before leading a Selling for Coaches workshop recently, I went on a 30 minute campus tour to get a feel for the campus. I asked the guide over 45 questions. I came away excited about all the cool things about that campus. I took a bunch of notes along the way and was somewhat of a campus expert in that short time.

The problem that I find many times is how little the coaches on campus have taken the time to go on a campus tour. They don’t know what happens, what is being told to their athletes, or what is highlighted by the tour guides at their own college.

Speaking of campus tours, also try to be aware of who is guiding your recruits around campus. Different coaches have different philosophies on this, but I have heard of some coaches letting recruits go with whatever guide the office decides upon. There have been cases where that guide is not a sports fan. The guide inevitably turns to the recruit and says, "Those are our athletic facilities, but we’re not into sports that much at this college."

Ugh! Can you imagine how the recruit feels?

You probably think you know your campus well, but you’d be surprised of what you’d pick up on a campus tour – the same one you eagerly send your prospects on when they come on campus.

Be sure to do this at least once a year and always make sure new coaches go on tours. Make sure they take a notebook – and a reporter’s mentality to ask lots of questions – when you go on the campus tour at your own school.

You are going to be amazed at what you uncover that will help you in your everyday recruiting at your school!

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Why the “Personal Touch” is a Key to RecruitingMonday, September 8th, 2008

Sometimes, college recruiting turns into a non-stop whirlwind of phone calls, letters and fighting to get commitments from recruits. That’s true in D1 football or NAIA soccer.

Likewise, a lot of coaches get bogged down in the details of recruiting. Those phone calls, letters and fighting to get commitments often result in lists, contact tracking…all of the stuff that takes a toll on giving your recruits that personal touch they crave.

That toll can also result in the loss of key recruits. Especially the ones that have a number of schools pursuing them…how do they choose between the offers? More often than not, it comes down to a "personal connection" they feel with a coach at a certain school.

One great example of a coach who has the "personal connections" thing down cold is Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer. Coach Beamer has to compete with other ACC powerhouse programs like Florida State. And yet, with his school tucked away in the Appalachian mountains, Beamer is competing with other more prolific programs.

How does he do it? By making those coveted "personal connections."

An example that sticks out in my mind is when Coach Beamer recruited Victor Harris by making a personal connection. Harris, who is a starter for Virginia Tech, was being recruited by Beamer (and other coaches) in high school. Coach Beamer made a personal visit to Harris’ home one night when things suddenly went wrong.

A kitchen fire had started. Harris, concerned for his mom and younger siblings, covered the pot which had caught fire on the stove with a blanket and carried it out the back door. Along the way, the fire spread to Harris’ arm, burning him badly.

Suddenly, Coach Beamer went from recruiter to father figure. He helped get Harris to the hospital. He comforted him. Encouraged him. Made sure everything was OK. There was also a natural connection that was made because of the accident.

You see, Frank Beamer had also been a burn victim as a young boy, disfiguring his neck and part of his upper body. Beamer was able to use his experiences to encourage the recovering Harris, as well as make an all important "personal connection" that aided his recruiting efforts with Harris. As Harris remembers, "when I was thinking about what college to go to, it was just obvious. I had a connection with Coach Beamer…I wanted to be a part of what he had going at Virginia Tech."

I’m not saying that Coach Beamer used this horrible accident years ago as some kind of veiled recruiting tool. I really believe at that moment of crisis, Beamer was doing what came naturally for him – he just cared about a young man and his circumstances. But it’s a great example of what can happen when coaches take the time to become involved in an athlete’s life. Really take the time. Not being rushed, not getting to the next prospect on a list…just taking the time to make that personal connection that ends up being the deciding factor for many athletes when they’re choosing a program.

I’ve seen lots of coaches use simple, effective personal techniques at different colleges I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years. Here are some ideas for you to think about:

Personal letters and notes to mom and dad.
Inviting their high school coach to practice and then out to dinner.
Making sure to use their name a lot when they are talking to them (people love hearing their own name spoken by someone else!)
Surveying them before they come on campus to see what they would want to do and see during their visit.
Have athletes from other teams come up and introduce themselves during a campus visit.
A light touch on the arm while speaking with a prospect in person.

Those are just a few random ideas I’ve seen work wonders for different coaches around the country when we conduct our On-Campus Workshops for athletic departments and coaches. Do you see how some of these little things could add up to big dividends for coaches who use them?

Think back to the last five prospects you talked to, Coach. Did you take time to really hear what they are looking for in a college? Did you shoot the breeze for a little while before you dove in to all the great things there are to list about your school? Did you really take some time to make a personal connection with your prospect?

Coach Beamer should be an inspiration to everyone out there who’s school isn’t located in paradise, or has a much more prestigious competitor down the street, or whose facilities aren’t the best in the conference.

Frank Beamer built Virginia Tech using a personal approach to recruiting. You can, too.

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What is the SFC Total Recruiting Solution Plan?Monday, September 1st, 2008

Are you a coach that would rather spend time coaching and managing your team instead of creating and managing a consistent recruiting campaign?

Let Selling for Coaches help you be more effective, more creative, and get more results from your recruiting letters, emails and phone calls. Use our newest program created exclusively for college coaches who want the edge in college recruiting: The Total Recruiting Solution plan.

The Total Recruiting Solution (TRS) is a turnkey recruiting management service provided by the team of recruiting experts at Selling for Coaches.

TRS manages your program’s recruiting message from start to finish, acting as your virtual, behind-the-scenes recruiting coordinator assistant. We give you that extra edge when it comes to getting the attention of your prospects, increasing their interest level in your program, and getting better recruiting results.

TRS closely works with you and your staff to create a 12 to 18 month master recruiting plan. We map out a logical, compelling series of messages that leads more of your prospects to your campus. Here is how it works:

We create effective letter and e-mail campaigns to send to your prospects.

We consult with you on how to have more productive phone calls with your prospects

We produce special recruiting campaigns exclusively for your top tier prospects – the “difference makers” that you really, really want to sign.

We give you and your fellow coaches in-depth, ongoing training on how to sell your program more effectively. We will teach you how to communicate with today’s teenage athlete in a very different way.

We also customize our additional services to your program’s specific needs. We know that every school, every program, and every coach is different. We pride ourselves in meeting your individual needs with no additional costs for you and your program.

Dan Tudor Your investment in this comprehensive turn-key recruiting plan? Only around $8 a day. Does it work? You bet it does!

Let us help you power-up your recruiting this year. Here’s what you need to do next: Just email Dan Tudor personally at dan@sellingforcoaches.com and ask him for the Total Recruiting Solution Overview packet. Take a look at it, see examples of what Selling for Coaches can help your program produce, and let us answer questions about it for you.

Remember how you’ve been promising yourself to do something to improve your recruiting results? This is it. SFC’s Total Recruiting Solution plan will give you a guaranteed improvement in the results you get from this year’s recruiting efforts.

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6 Secrets to Writing Better Recruiting LettersMonday, September 1st, 2008

We’ve just completed delivery of our Total Recruiting Solution program to coaches all over the Dan Tudor country who use our team of experts to help create more effective recruiting plans.

Even for myself and our team of team of experts that create these recruiting plans for coaches, starting with a blank page on a computer screen can be pretty intimidating some days. It can take a while to get those juices flowing and come up with something creative that will get the attention of a high school kid who is bombarded daily with all sorts of advertising and marketing messages.

Over the years, we’ve developed some tricks and techniques that help us to break through that occasional writer’s block hurdle, and I wanted to share a few of them with you today in case you face the same kind of struggle from time to time.

Here are six of our break-through secrets that you can try the next time you’re struggling to come up with a great recruiting letter:

SECRET #1: Compartmentalization

Writing an out-of-the-park grand slam recruiting letter or email is a process that consists of many steps, hundreds of actions, and thousands of tiny decisions:

Thinking about who your prospect is and why he needs your product…

Coming up with your attention-getting strategy – your theme, headline, and lead idea…

Researching what your school offers, your competitors’ strengths, and their recruiting strategies…

Organizing your attack – determining the order in which you’ll guide your prospect through your reasons why he or she should commit to your program…

Pouring the appropriate research, notes, and ideas into each section of your recruiting plan outline…

Writing your first draft…

Buffing and meticulously detailing each succeeding draft until you know that you couldn’t improve it even if someone held a gun to your head – and that any change you consider at this point will actually weaken the copy…

And, finally, sticking a fork in it, because it’s done.

Now if you have a lick of common sense, you’re going to feel overwhelmed when you contemplate all the steps you have to complete in order to perfect the project at hand. And that’s okay. It just means you’re in touch with reality.

But you’re going to have to get past "overwhelmed" and on to work. And the only way I know to do that is to mentally chop the job into little, tiny, manageable pieces. So you tell yourself something like this: "I do NOT have to write a recruiting campaign today. All I have to do is the research. Or part of the research."

Thinking about the work this way does more than just relieve your anxiety about producing recruiting letters and emails. It blows all that procrastination you’re usually guilty of at the beginning of a project right out of the water, and gets you moving forward towards creating a good recruiting letter.

SECRET #2: Getting into a good flow

Ever have a day when you sit down to work and the next thing you know it’s time for dinner… you have to force yourself to stop… and when you reflect on the day, you’re amazed by the quantity – and, more important, the quality – of what you accomplished?

That, my friend, is the "good flow" that I’m talking about. And getting into that flow state is my goal every time I sit down at my desk to work on a client’s recruiting package.

The fact is, good flow equals better recruits. Because the more flow you experience during planning and writing your recruiting campaign, the faster the project goes and the better your end product is.

Hummingbird recruiting But good flow doesn’t "just happen." Flow is kind of like hummingbirds: They show up naturally if you just create an environment that attracts them. For me, that means a quiet work area and a good night’s sleep. The right background music. No interruptions. No distractions. And every tool I need to do that day’s job readily at hand.

That’s just me. You’ll have to figure out what works for you.

SECRET #3: Constantly visualizing success

Yes, I know. What could possibly be more cheesy than dusting off the decades-old concept of "positive thinking"?

Thing is, like all laws that survive the test of time, positive thinking works. Good coaches know this, deep down.

What personally drives me is the phone call I’ll get from a wowed coach client when he sees my recruiting plan I’ve created for them for the first time… the call telling me he had too many recruits reply back to their recruiting email campaign…and, of course, the high fives we do here at Selling for Coaches when a coach gets the athlete they really, really want.

Whatever your motivation, try keeping it in mind as you write. Make that the thing that drives you and commits you to doing your best.

SECRET #4 "Know thyself"

Feelings are more intense than thoughts.

So, they can have a way of blanking your mind and freezing you like a biker who just spotted a grizzly in his headlights. That’s why you have to understand how negative emotions affect your work.

For example, you may feel overwhelmed at the beginning of a project to come up with new recruiting Worrying letters or emails. Discouraged when a solution doesn’t come fast enough. And then your inferiority complex kicks into overdrive when you see how you think your competition is doing it a lot better than you and your coaching staff is.

It helped me when I realized that 99.9 percent of all negative emotions are probably not caused by objective truth. And, therefore, the vast majority of all bad feelings are baloney.

So when I experience a negative emotion while I’m working, I pause for a moment and ask myself, "What thought zipped through my mind just before I got bummed out?" After recognizing how ridiculously wrong that thought was, I can almost instantly dismiss the negative emotion and dive back into the work.

Try it. It works.

SECRET #5: Screw the rules!

You’ve learned too many letter-writing rules. And, frankly, they’re getting in the way. If you’ve hosted SFC for one of our On-Campus Workshops, you know what I think of many of the letters that go out to your recruits (they need total re-working, in most cases).

So instead of worrying about the rules you learned in high school and college, focus on your prospect and be a salesman in print. Think, "If I were in a room with my best prospect and needed to get his attention, engage him, present the reasons why he should come to play for me and my program – what would I say to him?" Then let the conversation flow naturally out of your fingers to the keyboard and into your document, as if you were talking to them one-on-one. Less formal, more conversational. That’s the key.

There’ll be plenty of time in later drafts to think about which rules you broke or didn’t follow. The first draft is about speed.

SECRET #6: Do some bedtime reading

Let your last action each day be to read what you wrote to a recruit that day. File it away in your subconscious mind. And go to work the minute you wake up in the morning so the connections your brain made overnight find their way onto the page. Try it once…you’ll see how well it works.

Take advantage of the above six "secrets" from Selling for Coaches religiously on your next recruiting message project, and you’ll be surprised by how much more quickly it goes and how much easier the writing feels.

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Recruiting Phone Calls: How Many is Too Many?Monday, September 1st, 2008

by Charlie Adams, Selling for Coaches’ Team Motivation Specialist

It goes without saying that calling your recruits is important.

The big question on college coaches’ minds is this: How many calls should you make when you sit down to make calls?

One college coach told me recently that she sets a limit on how many calls she makes in a night. Why? She said her energy level would wear down and her last calls didn’t have the passion and focus compared to her first calls. So, she set a limit. She didn’t want any hint of "going through the phone call motions" to come across to that young person on the other end of the line. Charlie Adams

I thought it was an excellent point. As the coaches that attended the Selling for Coaches Recruiting Kick-Off Conference in Indianapolis know, I love to deliver motivational talks to coaches and their players. Recently, my daughter’s middle school asked me to deliver three motivational programs in a row. They wanted me to speak to the 6th graders, then the 7th graders, then the 8th graders. Back to back to back.

I had to decline that format of doing three 30 minute Talks in a row because I knew the last group, the 8th graders, would not get the same passion and energy of the first group, the 6th graders. I did not want to sell myself short, or them.

The same holds true when a coach brings me in to work with pumping up their team as they start their season or are setting goals for the new year. I have to know my limits, and I was impressed that this coach knew her limits. She wants to give each and every prospect her best, and isn’t going to just power through her call list and not worry about how it sounds.

So, here’s my advice to you: As you plan phone calls you might want to look carefully at your personality, energy level and focus. Think about a limit of how many calls you make on a particular night. Kids are smarter now, and much more in tune with the sound of your voice, and how well you are engaged with the conversation. They can sense when they are number 13 of a 15 call night.

Right before you make the call, do this quick exercise: Stand up and get focused on that particular kid. Get yourself wound up for the call. For those next 5 or 20 minutes or whatever, they are the only recruit in the world. That approach will come across on the phone.

Phone calls to recruits are not just another piece of the puzzle. They are THE big factor on keeping their interest in your program. As our groundbreaking study proved, what you say on the phone is going to be one of the biggest factors in determining if you are the right fit or not for that athlete you are speaking with on the phone.

Share and Enjoy:

Dan Tudor

The Financial Crisis: Will It Change the Way You Recruit?Monday, September 29th, 2008

Do You Know When Enough is Enough?Monday, September 22nd, 2008

What Your Prospects Are REALLY ThinkingMonday, September 15th, 2008

Put On Your Reporters Hat to Become a Better RecruiterMonday, September 8th, 2008

Why the “Personal Touch” is a Key to RecruitingMonday, September 8th, 2008

What is the SFC Total Recruiting Solution Plan?Monday, September 1st, 2008

6 Secrets to Writing Better Recruiting LettersMonday, September 1st, 2008

Recruiting Phone Calls: How Many is Too Many?Monday, September 1st, 2008

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Dan Tudor

The Financial Crisis: Will It Change the Way You Recruit?Monday, September 29th, 2008

Do You Know When Enough is Enough?Monday, September 22nd, 2008

What Your Prospects Are REALLY ThinkingMonday, September 15th, 2008

Put On Your Reporters Hat to Become a Better RecruiterMonday, September 8th, 2008

Why the “Personal Touch” is a Key to RecruitingMonday, September 8th, 2008

What is the SFC Total Recruiting Solution Plan?Monday, September 1st, 2008

6 Secrets to Writing Better Recruiting LettersMonday, September 1st, 2008

Recruiting Phone Calls: How Many is Too Many?Monday, September 1st, 2008

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