Campus Visit | Dan Tudor

Creating a GREAT Recruiting Environment for Your ProspectsMonday, October 24th, 2011

Let’s break that title down:

Creating. Somebody has to do it, and it’s probably going to be you, Coach. It’s a verb. It denotes action. And it’s a challenge to do.
Great. Would you say you are great when it comes to recruiting, the visit, your rapport with parents and athletes? Why not?
Recruiting. That’s sales, Coach. You’re a sales professional, like it or not. Recruiting is selling.
Environment. That’s what I want to focus on today…the environment you can develop for great recruiting interactions with this next recruiting class you’re going after.

What have we found are the best ways to build that great environment that will put you in the best possible position to land the recruits you really want?

Here’s a basic list that every coach should make sure is happening at their program:

Make friends with your prospects (and their parents). I think this is the basis for every good relationship, including your recruiting relationship with your prospects and their parents. What’s the best way to establish a friendship? Spend time on everything that’s not about your program, your college, or their sport. That’s the simple three step rule to live by. Focus on creating rapport. Find common ground. By communicating conversationally, the atmosphere is relaxed and communication is more open. The conversation is natural, not salesy.

Entertain them and feed them. Do you find that when you’re eating with someone, that the conversation strays from recruiting and scholarships? The more personal the prospect and their parents are willing to be with you in a relaxed setting, the more likely you are to gain the “sale”. Can I make another suggestion? When you have recruits to your office on campus, think about having some snacks on hand. Fruit, cheese cubes, crackers, something to drink…not messy, hard to eat stuff. Just enough to make sure they’re comfortable. Food relaxes people.

Engage them. Talk about their present circumstance, their key motivators, and the core issues that are driving their current situation. Don’t probe, engage…ask…listen. By engaging, you will be able to elicit full answers, and exchange meaningful iinformation. Study-up on their situation before the on-campus meeting started, so that you don’t have to ask stupid questions. And because they already know you, and feel good about you, I am able to get truthful answers and ascertain key facts about their recruiting situation. We’ve also found that because this meeting is taking place in your meeting room, rather than theirs, they feel more open about sharing information.

Provide some kind of real, tangible value. This is going to be defined differently by each coach that’s reading this. And, that’s O.K…there’s no right or wrong definition of “value”. Basically, look for something that gives to your prospect and their family before you ask them for something (like their commitment). Maybe it’s a one-on-one meeting with the Athletic Director or President of the school. Maybe it’s a list of workouts you’d suggest they do as they finish up their high school career (whether they sign with you or not). In your next staff meeting, be the one that asks, “What can we give our visiting prospects that gives them something of value?”

Help them be a better athlete. Give them insights on how to train better. How to train your way. Even coach them up a little while they’re there. Better yet, have your current athletes talk to them about what they’ve learned under you and how they’ve taken their game to the next level. By the way, this might be the area where you can give them value.

Don’t settle for an “O.K.” visit. Aim for GREAT! As we talk about in “Selling for Coaches”, our advanced recruiting guide for college coaches, you need to look at every possible area of your visit ad your interaction with them. Why? Because they are watching your every move, and making judgement calls along the way as to whether or not to buy what you’re selling. They’re looking at you, your current team, your dorms, how many boring meeting they are forced to sit through in the admissions office…everything. When we are invited to a school to conduct one of our effective On-Campus Workshops for an athletic department, a big area of focus when we research the strengths and weaknesses of their recruiting experience is what happens during a prospect visit and why. Start dissecting your campus visit now, before this next class arrives and finds it just “O.K.”

Ask for the sale after you’ve created an environment for them to buy. Once all the pieces are in place, don’t let your prospect leave campus without being asked for their commitment (assuming you still want them sign after the things you learn about them on the visit). Not asking is one of the worse mistakes a coach can make. It’s safe to say that there will be no other time during the recruiting process that they will be more inclined to say “yes” than at the end of an engaging, energetic, original visit with your team on your campus. If you don’t know how to ask for their commitment effectively, and want to learn, come to our National Collegiate Recruiting Conference this Summer (or order a copy of the conference DVD and conference notes if you can’t be there in person).

Your focus should be singular: Build a relationship before you ask them to “buy” your program. Each one of these steps that I’ve outlined are components for building a relationship, not sales techniques. Don’t put the selling them on your school ahead of connecting with them on a personal level.

Questions about this concept? Or, do you have other things you’d like to ask Dan and his staff? Email him at dan@dantudor.com and get a personal reply. We’re here to help, Coach!

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Why “Relaxed” Prospects Are WAY Better Than “Excited” ProspectsMonday, August 22nd, 2011

You know how you want to create an exciting campus recruiting visit, with wall-to-wall fun and non-stop heart-pumping activities for your guest prospect?

Well, what if I told you there was emerging science that showed it’s actually the calm and relaxed recruit that is more likely to buy what you’re selling at your program?

It’s true.

Researchers at Columbia University did extensive marketing studies that found relaxed subjects in their experiments assigned more value (and volunteered to pay much more) for the same products that “excited” subjects were less willing to pay more for. Overall, the relaxed subjects assigned higher monetary values to the items than the control group. The researchers determined that this effect was an inflation of the value by the relaxed subjects rather than a deflation by the less-relaxed subjects.

That’s, for example, why high end car dealerships have big, comfortable leather chairs and soft music playing. And, it’s why those same dealerships get you to focus on the feeling you’ll have driving that new car, instead of closing the sale with gas mileage statistics and other features. They know that a more relaxed customer is going to be more likely to buy than an excited customer.

This matches the overwhelming comments we hear from current college athletes we interview during focus group sessions as a part of our On-Campus Workshops: They much preferred just “hanging out” with members of a prospective team instead of the highly scheduled itineraries that most prospects are subjected to by some college coaches (if that word “subjected” sounded a little too much like a prisoner being forced to do things outlawed by international accords, good…that’s what I was going for).

Not that excitement doesn’t have a place in the recruiting process, of course. Much of the time, you need to get them excited about what you have to offer before you can reassure them in a relaxing manner as they get nervous in the later stages of the recruiting process. However, there’s a time to focus on relaxation and reassurance, and a campus visit - something many of you are going to be hosting in large numbers over the next few months – is the perfect place to give your important recruits that feeling that will compel them to choose you over your competition.

So, what should you be aiming for in a more “relaxed” and calming interaction with your next recruit? Here are some ideas that we’ve seen work in the past:

Make the planning of their visit to campus more collaborative. In other words, rather than dictating their campus visit from start to finish before they get to campus, let them be a part of the planning process. Ask them what they’d like to do, and what they wouldn’t. Let them feel like they’ve helped design the visit, which should result in them feeling a little more relaxed coming to your campus for the first time.
Have one or two of your team write a short, non-sales note to them prior to the visit. I’d recommend an actual hand-written note versus an email or Facebook message. The more personal, the better. Let them know that there are friends waiting for them that are looking forward to the visit. That little gesture can go a long way in relaxing your recruit.
Start the visit slowly, but with something “big” to think about. This is one of the biggest mistakes we see otherwise savvy recruiters make: They don’t paint a big picture for their visiting recruit to consider while they are on campus. An exact offer, what their plan for them is if they come to compete for that program…something “big”. Why is that part of relaxing the prospect? Your prospects, we find, are looking for more detailed specifics of why you want them, and what their role would be, if they do indeed choose your program. Giving that to them right at the start could enable them to take a deep breath, get their big question out of the way, and let them spend the rest of the visit figuring out if you’re the right fit for them or not. And the more relaxed you make it for them, the better that ”right fit” feeling will come across.
Carve out LOTS of casual time with your team. There’s a growing body of research that we’re putting together that demonstrates one of the most powerful weapons you have as a recruiter is one that you actually choose to bypass as a part of a recruit’s visit: Casual, relaxed “hang out” time with your team. Specifically, I’m talking about time that is non-structured, where your recruit and a few of the younger members of your team can just sit and talk. No coaches, no parents, no structure. Trust me, it works.
Set a reasonable deadline for a decision. What, am I crazy??? A deadline as a part of “relaxing” a prospect? Yes. As you are ending that nice, relaxed campus visit, I’d let them know that you’ve loved having them on campus and (if they are someone you’re ready to hear a ”yes” from) ask them if they’d like to commit. Most of the time, they’ll want to delay that decision. Let them know that it’s not a problem, and then give them a general date that they can take to think about your opportunity that you’ve just presented them. Ideally, two to three weeks unless they’ve already outlined future campus visits that would take them past that point (but you can make it longer, if needed). This tactic achieves two important things: One, it reassures them that you want them and that you’re offering them an opening for making that commitment. Secondly, you appear to be reasonable with the amout of time you’re giving them to consider your offer; most of the feedback we get from prospects after the fact is that a timeline like that seems “fair”. What I like about it is that it puts you in control of the process and gives them some reasonable guidelines for making a decision.

Relaxed prospects are in a better position to make a life-changing decision like this more quickly, and with more confidence.

So, as you begin hosting a new group of recruits on campus, ask yourself (and your team) this important question: “How can we re-tool our campus visit and make it a more relaxing, less hectic experience for all of our upcoming recruits?”

We’re working with our growing list of clients to help them create better (more relaxed) campus visits right now. And, we’re identifying and creating more effective recruiting message content that is resulting in more high-level recruits showing interest in their programs.

Want us to help you? Schedule a time to talk one-on-one with Dan Tudor by emailing him at dan@dantudor.com. It’s more affordable than you may think, and the results are turning heads on campuses across the country. See if it’s the right fit for you, Coach!

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Strategies for Combating the Too-Close-To-Home ObjectionMonday, August 15th, 2011

In a previous article, we talked about some proven strategies for combating the “too-far-from-home” recruiting objection.

You’ve all heard it before…a recruit you really want, and may have even been the one that initiated the first contact, tells you “no” because they’ve decided that you’re too far from home.

But many coaches also face the opposite side of the coin:

Recruits that decide you’re the wrong choice for them because you’re too close to home.

The biggest hurdle for you behind this objection, according to our research, is the fact that many prospects will have already defined you. Growing up nearby, they’ve heard people talk about you, made some observations about your campus or your program, and have decided that you’re not “exciting” enough for them as they look forward to the next four years of playing their sport in college.

We’re finding that more and more of this current generation of student-athlete prospects are up for the adventure of going “away” to school. So, if you’re a coach that is recruiting a prospect that is starting to tell you that you’re too close to home to be a serious consideration, here are a few proven strategies that we’ve seen work with the coaches we work with around the country:

Focus on mom and dad as soon as possible. Whenever you hear a prospect talk about your college being too close to home, you need to find out how your prospect’s parents are playing into the equation. Normally, according to our national research, parents are a primary outside factor in the decision making process of a recruit. The question here is simple: “Why do you want to see your son/daughter play away from home?” We see parents tending to encourage your prospect to stay close to home whenver possible. Find out what their view on the matter is. If you see that there is a conflict within the family (i.e., prospect wants to go out of the area and the parents are hoping he or she stays close to home) then you need to find out which side is going to win out in the end.
Ask about their friends. One of the big factors in a decision by a recruit to not go far away to play for a program is their friends back home (that includes boyfriends and girlfriends). When you find that a recruit is not open to staying close to home, you’ll want to ask if they’ll miss their friends, or why they see themselves being o.k. with leaving them behind. That doesn’t mean you should use friends or family as a “guilt trip” on your recruit. Rather, you view it as your responsibility to bring up factors that we see playing a major role in the final decision of your recruits so that they are taking into account all possible factors in determining what schools (yours included) they should be considering.
Get them on campus spending time with your team. Assuming that a big reason your local recruit is not that interested in your program is the fact that they have been on your campus and grown-up nearby hearing the good, the bad and the ugly about the school and your program, you need to get them to take an up-close-and-personal look at what you have to offer as soon as possible. And, since they have probably already made up their mind about you and the campus, I recommend that you have them spend as much time with your team as possible. Not you, coach…your team. The one big thing we see being able to alter their initial assumptions about you and your college is a strong bond with your team. As we conduct studies with current college athletes as a part of our On-Campus Workshop training sessions for athletic departments, they tell us that their ideal percentage of time they’d like to spend just hanging out informally with your team is 60% of their total time on campus. If you can achieve that kind of time with your team, you’ve got a shot of creating a bond that overcomes their initial perception of your program.
Make the case that staying close to home gives them a choice. Make the phrasing your own, but the basic thinking we’ve seen work goes something like this: “If you stay close to home, you get the best of both worlds: You get to be your own person here on our campus, but still get to see your family and friends whenever you want. Athletes that go far away to school don’t get to have that choice. They’re stuck on a campus far away from home.” It’s a valid concept that you should encourage your recruit to consider.

In summary, let me go back to a thought that I started the article with:

This generation of recruit is more open to going away to college and play their sport. Social media and familiarity with other parts of the country are just two of the reasons we see athletes willing to leave home and compete elsewhere.

In the long run, you’re going to hear more and more of the “too close to home” objections from your recruits. You can overcome it using these strategies some of the time, but you’ll also want to expand your recruiting base so that you can take advantage of this growing trend. There are lots of tools and resources we recommend that make this easier than ever.

That being said, when you find yourself recruiting a local athlete you really, really want on your team, these proven strategies just might do the trick in getting them to take a serious second look at you and your program.

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Strategies for Combating the Too-Far-From-Home ObjectionSunday, August 7th, 2011

It struck me a few days ago how often the “distance from home” objection so completely controls whether or not your recruit takes your interest seriously or not, and ends up packing up the family car and coming to your campus for four years.

That epiphany probably shouldn’t have made such an impact on me, but some previous conversations this past week with our clients – who are working with us to map out the start of this next recruiting season – seemed to be coming face-t0-face with the hard, cold reality that they weren’t exactly sure how high to place their really good out-of-area recruits on their developing recruiting boards.

For a lot of coaches – maybe you, too – the distance from home question can end recruiting before it even begins.

The difficult part of all this is the prospect, and their parents. Once in a while, you’ll get an honest family who tells you right from the start that they don’t want to compete that far away from home, and politely suggests that you don’t need to put any energy into trying to convince them otherwise.

It works otherwise, too: There are some prospects who won’t want to compete for you because you’re too close to home. They want something different in a college, and since they’ve already defined you over the past few years, it’s going to be a long-shot to convince them that you deserve to be a serious consideration.

As a college recruiter, the problem with these all-too-familiar scenarios is simple:

Your prospects will rarely offer-up their true feelings and tell you how they feel.

Today, I want to make the case that determining those feelings right away is probably one of the hurdles I’ve seen really good recruiters clear, leading to consistently good recruiting classes. They know when to pursue the out-of-area recruits, and when to cut bait and run. And they don’t waste a lot of time making that determination.

Taking a cue from these recruiting pros, and mixing it with what I’ve seen work over the years, here are five proven ways to figure-out whether you should invest your time and resources in that tantilizingly good prospect in an area code far, far away:

As soon as possible, ask the prospect why they want to look at out-of-area colleges. If they don’t give you an answer that centers around a specific reason that they can verbalize, that should be a red flag as a college recruiter. Answers like “oh I don’t know, I just want to see what’s out there” or “my parents want me to keep an open mind and listen to everyone that’s interested in me” don’t necessarily mean you should throw in the towel, but it should cause you to really dig deep and find out some additional thinking behind those statements. If, on the other hand, you hear your out-of-area prospect say something like “I really want to look at a college in your part of the country because I’m looking for warmer weather, and plus my best friend is going there and she loves it”, then that’s a great indicator that there’s a substanitive reason behind their desire to talk to you. Ask the question, coach.
Ask the parents why they would want to see their son/daughter go “away” to college. You need to phrase it exactly like I worded it, coach: “So, why do you want to see your son/daughter go away to college?” If you hear a response like, “well, I don’t really want them to go away…I just think it’s smart to keep all their options open”, approach with caution! Our research shows that when push comes to shove, mom or dad (or both) is going to play the emotion card and push for them to stay close to home. Again, a response like that doesn’t mean you give up; however, it does mean that you really need to have the parents define why they see you – as an out-of-area program – being a smart consideration for their son or daughter. Asking this question will help you get an answer that tells you how to move forward.
Ask sooner rather than later. Want to totally bog-down your recruiting efforts with out-of-area recruits? Wait until later in the process before asking them and their parents those questions. Asking them at the start will tell you exactly what you need to do next in determining whether you keep pursuing that recruit, or walk away before you begin to invest your valuable time and resources. “Wait an minute,” you say. “Did you just say that maybe I should keep pursuing that recruit who is giving me those red flag warning statements you just listed???” Yes…
Keep recruiting them, but do it efficiently. Wishy-washy out-of-area recruits may change their mind as the recruiting process moves forward: Some of their other local top choices may not come through with an offer, they may like what you have to say about your college and your program as time goes on…in short, teenagers and their parents change their minds. While I’m advising that you approach with caution, I still think a consistent message sent efficiently (group letters and email) is smart to do. Too many coaches give up too soon and just stop messaging those kids at the first sign of trouble. Don’t be one of those coaches. Continue to consistently, efficiently sell them on you and your program.
The good prospects that reach out to you should be your priorities. Note that I said “good” prospects, not all prospects. When you have a solid recruit who can compete for you at your level, and they have taken the time to personally send you something in the mail or fill out your online recruiting questionnaire, that shows a high degree of interest in you no matter where they live. These prospects have invested their time in you; if they’re good, do the same. Show special interest. (Note: We find that another outstanding source of verified out-of-area prospects is NCSA Athletic Recruiting. Those athletes can indicate what areas of the country they are open to considering, removing a lot of the work associated with determining whether or not to add them to your recruiting list. The number of college coaches we see using this free resource is really spiking this time of year, so you might want to take a look at their searchable database).

One final note on out-of-area prospects:

When we conduct our detailed athlete surveys as a part of our On-Campus Workshops when we are asked to teach at college athletic departments, we’re finding a real rise in the willingness to go far away from home from a significant number of top prospects. The reasons vary greatly, from perceived academic opportunities in particular parts of the country to a desire to experience a different climate. The point is, they’re willing to listen.

Your job? Ask smart questions on the topic, be consistent and persistent, and look for signs that your prospect is more open than most to looking seriously at out-of-area scholarship and playing opportunities.

If we haven’t been to your campus yet, make this year the year you get us there! We’ve worked with high level Division I athletic departments, as well as small, private college coaching staffs, with one goal in mind: Finding the right story to tell for those coaches, and training them to be the most effective recruiters possible. For all the details on reserving a date for your athletic department, click here.

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Warning: Beware of Summer Prospect Visits to CampusMonday, May 9th, 2011

I’m an optimist by nature…a “glass-is-half-full” kind of guy.

So when I was asked recently by a coach we are working with for my opinion on having a top recruit visit their campus during the Summer, my inclination was to put a positive spin on the possibilities. At least the coach is getting the prospect on campus, right? At least the family is going to get a look at the buildings…walk around the quad…see the dorms. All that’s better than nothing, right?

Just barely.

The stark reality is that on-campus visits during the Summer, when there are less students and less energy on your campus, are not factoring significantly in a decision by the prospect, according to our research. It’s not going to turn out as badly as it did for the Griswold family during their Summer vacation, but it could get close when it comes to the end recruiting results.

That should be significant to you if you’re a coach who looks at Summer as a convenient “down time” to take time and have a recruit visit campus. Here’s why:

A summer visit is missing a key ingredient to their final decision: Your athletes! Also known as their future teammates…their friends…the big reason they determine whether or not a particular school feels right to them. Yep, all of it is missing. That’s a big piece of the puzzle, and it’s difficult to duplicate during the Summer.

A summer visit is missing the normal energy of your campus during the school year. You know the great random moments that end up being the really memorable moments during your recruit’s visit? Those are probably going to be missing during a summer vacation visit. Even if you have some of your team working out and actually staying on campus, it can’t duplicate the normal school year feel that you can show your prospects.

However, in addition to being an optimist, I’m also a realist. Sometimes, the best time for a family to schedule a visit is during the Summer. They drop by while they’re at a tournament nearby, or they schedule you as one of four other colleges they’re going to visit on a family trip…sometimes, a visit by a prospect to your campus over the Summer is unavoidable.

Don’t misunderstand me: I think it’s wise to have them on campus during the normal school year. However, if it’s unavoidable, here’s how to make lemonade out of Summer recruiting visit lemons:

Focus on your one-on-one time with them. Much of the time, a prospect visit during the regular school year is packed with other items on their visit agenda (a separate problem that you need to address, actually…but we’ll save that for another day). So, make this day a lot of good one-on-one time with your prospect, and make it personal about them: Ask them the right questions, talk about how they fit into your plans, and what you see as the next step for them as you consider them for your future roster. This is an opportunity to make that connection with you as their future coach. Use it.
Schedule shorter visits. One thing we’re finding, when there’s no way around a Summer recruiting visit, is that coaches who schedule shorter visits with their prospects. You don’t want to create a vacuum with the missing elements of the traditional campus visit. So, shorten it. Make it two or three good hours with you, a quick campus tour that includes the dorms (a must…don’t fail to show them where they’re going to live!) and time in your athletic facilities. In fact, try to have a good deal of your conversation outside of your office at your athletic facility. You’ll want to create as many unique, positive visuals as possible since they won’t be getting some of the normal images and experiences that they would be seeing during the school year.
Use it to set up the NEXT campus visit. In other words, use a Summer prospect visit to justify their return trip once school gets back in session. If you accept this piece of advice, it could really alter your entire approach to the visit. How would your conversation and approach to their short time with you during their Summer campus change if you were totally focused on setting up the next visit? Radically, I imagine. I’d make the case to you that your next visit should focus on setting up a time when they can come back, experience the energy, and – most importantly – spend lots and lots of time with your team, which will be easier to do since you’ve spent the bulk of this visit talking to them one-on-one about your plans for them once they commit.

Again, I don’t recommend Summer visits when it’s avoidable. Your chances of signing a recruit that visits over the Summer is significantly less than a visit during the normal school year.

However, if it’s the only way to get a chance to visit with a prospect you really want, it’s better than nothing. And, you can increase your odds of having it turn out favorable by following a few simple rules built on our research from campuses around the country.

Summer recruiting visits are advisable, but becoming a client of Tudor Collegiate Strategies should be a definite “to do” on your schedule. It’s the perfect time to put a proven, systematic approach to work for your next recruiting class. Want to see how it would work for you? Email Dan Tudor directly at dan@dantudor.com.

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5 Ways to Use Your Recruiting SensesTuesday, October 26th, 2010

The coach I was visiting appeared to be slightly insane. At first glance, anyway.

She was walking as we were discussing what she told visiting prospects in her new locker room. As she walked, she held up what looked like a perfume bottle and gave one little squirt every two or three steps.

After seeing her continue this ritual into the hallway, I had to ask her why she was doing what she was doing.

Her answer was borderline brilliant: She was using scent to add to the overall “experience” that their recruits would encounter later that morning.

Think it’s a minor detail that is recruiting overkill? Maybe you should think again…

Most recruiters focus on written messages and phone calls to get their message across and create a “feeling” that their program is going to be the right fit. That means that two primary senses, sight and sound, are used to make that connection.

However, studies show that most “buyers” going through a decision making process (your recruit and his or her family) use other senses to make decisions, as well. Dan Hill, a marketing researcher and author, has some surprising data that shows we use multiple senses at one time to judge whether or not we feel connected and comfortable with a product or service (or college program):

One study showed a 40% improvement in one’s mood when exposed to pleasant fragrances during a buying experience.
Shoe buyers, for example, spent $10 more on purchases in areas that had a pleasant scent.
Touch (handshakes, putting your hand on a prospect’s arm or shoulder, etc.) matters. We all respond to touch, even in a professional setting like a recruiting visit. For example, massaged babies gained 50% more weight than babies who were not massaged.
One of the highest positive responses that a prospect can experience is taste. For all of us, that experience is remembered and valued the longest (so make sure that prospect dinner is extraordinary!)

One of the most important aspects of the study outlined by Hill should make a big impact with creative college coaches and recruiters: Marketers who added smell, taste and touch to a product advertising or display experience had three to four times more positive experiences than those that relied only on sight and sound.

The coach I just mentioned added a very specific scent to her environment to make sure that her prospects’ senses were firing on all cylinders. You’re welcome to steal that idea and use it yourself. Here are five more ways I think you can focus on some of your prospect’s senses to enhance their experience with you on your campus:

Kids love to eat. Make sure the food is really, really good. Taste is one of those senses that we remember the most. It adds to an experience, and helps us associate the experience with something memorable like a great meal. It works in the opposite way, too: Remember a horrible meal at a restaurant or someone’s home? Let me ask you…do you remember anything else about that experience? The conversation, who was there…anything? If you’re like most people, all you remember is the really bad food you tried to choke down. Your prospect’s visit can be largely defined by the food they eat on their trip to your campus.
Scent matters. I don’t need to go into too much detail on this point, do I? If you smell good, it gets noticed. If you smell bad, it really gets noticed. Enough said.
The right kind of touch can create a connection. A professional handshake is a nice start, but I don’t find it to be enough to create a really memorable connection with today’s prospects. Some simple ideas to take it further? One of my favorites is to lightly touch the back part of your prospect’s shoulder if you are walking and talking with them…not constantly, but every so often to make a point or to gently guide them where the two of you are going. If you’re comfortable with the idea, you can also have your athletes welcome them with a polite (but heartfelt) hug when they first meet. Our research shows that one of the most vital things you need to prove to your prospect is that they are wanted and accepted by you and your team. This goes a long way towards doing that.
Smile a lot. Your prospect will read your face as they try to quickly figure out if they like being around you or not. Be upbeat and show energy and a positive spirit through your facial expression. Studies consistently show that when we meet someone new, we refer to their face as we try and figure out if we like them, if they are telling us the truth, and if they can be trusted. We can even sense whether someone is smiling or not when we’re talking to them over the phone. What is your face telling them?
Paper is important. I say this because emailing prospects is becoming the exclusive way many coaches will recruit them these days. That’s fine, especially if you use cutting edge email programs that gets your recruit’s attention and brands you effectively. However, you need to send them at least a few letters written on paper. Why? Paper seems more “real” to the prospects we talk to. It’s “official”. It’s something they can hold, it has your signature on it, and it tends to verify the idea that you’re important. Make sure you include some good old fashioned letters on a regular basis to reinforce the idea that you are serious about them, and to let them touch and feel something tangible from your program.

Are these minor details? Sure they are.

But I find that most prospects make their decisions using little details and observations during their visits on campus and their conversations with coaches on the phone. Sight, sounds, smell, taste, touch…all of those senses are ways we as humans use to process information. “The devil is in the details”, as the saying goes; I see a recruit’s final decision being found there, too.

Want more easy to use resources and tools to use in your recruiting efforts? Visit our recruiter’s store at dantudor.com. Many coaches are using our instruction to change the results of their recruiting efforts. Are you?

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One Super-Easy Way to Improve Your Campus VisitMonday, May 17th, 2010

I’m going to make it very, very easy for you today.

A big focus for many coaches that we meet with, or who we get to serve as clients, are curious about how to improve their on-campus visits with recruits. Among all of the complicated, in-depth strategies that we might suggest, there is one which any coach can put into practice immediately.

No dent in your budget, no extra time involved on your part. It’s easy.

Here it is:

Stop having your visiting prospects meet with professors and sit in on a class.

Let me explain why this is one of the best things you can do as a college coach interested in securing a visiting prospect, and also two reasons why you might be hesitant to actually follow through with erasing it from your campus visit schedule.

First, why is it such a good idea? Simple: Your athletes tell us. Quite regularly, in fact.

Bored in class Just about every week, we’re on campuses leading workshops for coaches and athletic departments. As a part of our review and research for those projects, we conduct detailed focus groups and surveys with current college student-athletes. When we do, one thing we ask them to tell us are what factors were most important - and least important – in helping them choose a college program. Without fail, nearly 100% of the time, student-athletes tell us that sitting in on a class and meeting with a professor or dean is the least effective, least important aspect of their visit to a college campus.

“A big waste of time”. “I was bored the entire time, and it was way too long”. “I would have rather just hung-out with the team”. All of these are actual comments from your recruits.

So is it smart to make that a significant part of your campus visit? No.

That being said, let me give you two reasons why you will probably not make any changes to this part of your campus visit, even though most of your prospects would be much happier with their visit to campus if you did:

Campus culture. Your friends in admissions, and the deans who are a current integral part of your campus visit routine, might protest your decision to change this part of your campus visit. Everyone has a role to play during a campus visit, and you’ll be reluctant to eliminate their role in the process.
“But we’re a college. Shouldn’t they experience a class?” Let me answer by telling you what many of your athletes have told us: “It’s a college…we get it…they have classrooms.” In other words, it doesn’t matter. Now, let me clarify: If you have a prospect who asks to meet with a dean or sit in on a class, that’s a different matter altogether. However, for the vast majority of athlete prospects visiting your campus for a short period of time, they would rather spend time interacting with your team. Still, chances are you won’t be able to get around the whole ”college…classroom…professor…must make them see it” line of thinking.

So there you have it. One easy solution to better campus visits, along with two major hurdles standing in your way.

The ball is in your court now, Coach. Are you ready to start revamping your campus visit by starting with this one very easy and inexpensive fix that’s based on national research and advice from the very people you are trying to attract to your program?

We have more campus visit strategies ready to talk about at this summer’s National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in June. You should be there, Coach!

The discounted early registration price expires soon. Register today!

And by the way, if you can’t make it but still want all the information from the conference, order our DVD and notes…it’s the next best thing to being there.

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5 Disneyland Recruiting Lessons for CoachesMonday, May 11th, 2009

A recent trip with the family to Disneyland yielded some great lessons that can tell almost ANY college coach how to recruit more effectively when they host recruits on a campus visit.

If you’ve ever been to Disneyland in California or DisneyWorld in Orlando, you know that the "experience" is what they’re selling to the millions of people that visit each year. However, not every experience goes well…and that’s where coaches can step in and learn from the good and the bad from a visit to the "magic kingdom".

Consider the pictures below, and apply them to your campus visits:

Dan standing in line

Here’s a picture of me standing in line with 1.3 million other people waiting in line for a roller coaster.

I hate to wait in lines, and after a day of walking around the look on my face says it all. I’ve had enough, and I’m ready to end the day.

A lot of your campus visits are the same way, coach. Your recruits are visiting, and instead of a relaxing, insightful relationship-building experience, their campus visit turns into an exhausting ordeal that they just want to see come to an end.

That’s NOT what you want. This is what you want… Dan having fun!

Happy, excited, screaming fans (that’s me along with my two daughters).

We’re not thinking about the lines, or the $4 bottled waters, or the hot sun, or the exhaustion. We’re experiencing what we imagined we would experience at Disneyland: Big time fun!

THIS same experience is what you want to shoot for with each and every one of your campus visits when you have a prospect come to your school. Here are five ways to make sure it happens:

Don’t wear-out your prospects. In the last On-Campus Workshop that we conducted for a school on the East coast, we made a point of making sure they understood the importance of creating a balanced campus visit for their recruits. Resist packing the schedule full of meetings and activities. Make sure you leave time for some rest and lots of "hanging out" time with their potential teammates. That’s what your prospects really want, according to our studies.
Sit-in on interesting classes. This may be something that you end up eliminating all together, since our feedback from recruits indicates that most of them would be fine if this wasn’t a part of your tour (but check to make sure). If you do end up scheduling them for a class, make sure it’s a class that is discussion based rather than a lecture, or a class that is about a subject that they won’t usually find in their high school (like Astronomy, Anthropology, and classes like that). The best attractions at Disneyland are the ones that create a lot of hype and a little bit of mystery. When it comes to your campus visits, skip the "kiddie rides" and go straight for the big time rollercoasters.
Build in time to rest and hang out. After eight hours of darting around Disneyland, we were exhausted. I can’t even say that we really "enjoyed" every bit of it. Why? We were spent. Lots of your recruits tell us that they feel the same way…the campus visits you schedule for them are too intense. What they want most is time to hang out and get to know the team, and a little bit of time to just walk around campus and explore the place they might be calling home. Build that into your schedule.
Choreograph the visit. When you go to Disney, the interactions with the characters is really interesting. They are all about playing the part and giving you the best experience possible while you’re visiting the park. Your prospects are looking for the same thing. You need to work with your fellow coaches and your team to make sure you create an amazing experience while they are on campus. The goal here is not to create a "fake" visit experience; rather, it is to accentuate the best of what they would find on your campus if they were to become a part of your team. That’s best achieved through a choreographsed visit.
Beware! Your prospects are looking for reasons NOT to commit. One of the things that we recommend you do is to design a thorough recruiting plan that eliminates objections and removes hurdles, just like we do for our TRS clients. That holds true for campus visits, as well. Just like a bad employee at Disneyland is magnified because the rest of the experience is so flawless, your campus visit is going to make any inconsistencies or mistakes stand out. And like the warning states, when it comes to campus visits your prospects are there to figure out what is wrong with you and your program, so be on your toes and make sure you leave no part of the visit to chance.

A bad experience at Disneyland will leave you a few hundred dollars poorer, exhausted and sun burnt.

A bad recruiting visit will probably be THE reason they say no to you. In the dog-eat-dog world of collegiate recruiting, too many "no’s" can be career killers. Learn from these lessons, and correct the mistakes that may be happening when your prospect comes for a visit.

Did you know the recruiting pros at SFC can help you design a winning strategy for hosting a campus visit as a part of a Total Recruiting Solution package? It’s an effective way to make sure you develop the kind of campus visit that leads to the best possible chance at success with your prospects. Email Dan Tudor directly at dan@sellingforcoaches.com with the subject line "Help Me Plan my Recruiting" and we’ll set up a time later this week to discuss your individual situation.

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Dan Tudor

Creating a GREAT Recruiting Environment for Your ProspectsMonday, October 24th, 2011

Why “Relaxed” Prospects Are WAY Better Than “Excited” ProspectsMonday, August 22nd, 2011

Strategies for Combating the Too-Close-To-Home ObjectionMonday, August 15th, 2011

Strategies for Combating the Too-Far-From-Home ObjectionSunday, August 7th, 2011

Warning: Beware of Summer Prospect Visits to CampusMonday, May 9th, 2011

5 Ways to Use Your Recruiting SensesTuesday, October 26th, 2010

One Super-Easy Way to Improve Your Campus VisitMonday, May 17th, 2010

5 Disneyland Recruiting Lessons for CoachesMonday, May 11th, 2009

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Dan Tudor

Creating a GREAT Recruiting Environment for Your ProspectsMonday, October 24th, 2011

Why “Relaxed” Prospects Are WAY Better Than “Excited” ProspectsMonday, August 22nd, 2011

Strategies for Combating the Too-Close-To-Home ObjectionMonday, August 15th, 2011

Strategies for Combating the Too-Far-From-Home ObjectionSunday, August 7th, 2011

Warning: Beware of Summer Prospect Visits to CampusMonday, May 9th, 2011

5 Ways to Use Your Recruiting SensesTuesday, October 26th, 2010

One Super-Easy Way to Improve Your Campus VisitMonday, May 17th, 2010

5 Disneyland Recruiting Lessons for CoachesMonday, May 11th, 2009

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