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Building Anticipation Instead of Anxiety When You’re RecruitingMonday, April 1st, 2013

Think about it:

If we can define anxiety as “experiencing failure in advance of it happening”, then the opposite definition must be true also, right?

I’m talking about anticipation.  When you’re anticipating something, it’s usually because you just can’t wait for it to happen.  Buying your first new home, moving in, re-decorating and having your first family gathering there all involves anticipation.  You’re excited about seeing those things come to fruition.

On the other hand, for families that are experiencing financial difficulties and are in risk of losing their home to foreclosure, they are experiencing anxiety. Lots of anxiety.  Why?  Because they are experiencing that failure in advance of it happening.

So, how does this all apply to recruiting?  More than you probably think it does, actually.

When you recruit with anticipation, you will highlight the highs. Chances are, you will automatically focus on the things that will excite your prospects and push you and your staff even harder in your pursuit of that next level recruit.  And, you’ll probably put a lot of time and attention into how you do that.

If you recruit with anxiety, on the other hand, chances are you will hesitate.  You’ll second guess yourself.  You’ll talk yourself out of that recruit that (on paper, anyway) you don’t seem to have a chance at landing.  If things are really desperate, you’ll be insuring yourself and your program against disaster and most of all, building deniability into everything that you’re doing on the recruiting front. When you work under the cloud of anxiety – whether it’s in recruiting or the general operation of your coaching staff – the best strategy is to probably play it safe, because if (when?) it fails, you’ll be blameless (or so you think).

Not only is it more upbeat to work with anticipation, it’s often a more self-fulfilling point of view, too.  Especially when it comes to recruiting, Coach.

And by the way, your prospects notice when you recruit with anticipation compared to recruiting with an attitude of anxiety.  True, sometimes introducing a small amount of anxiety at the right times is a smart strategy during certain stages of the recruiting process, building ongoing positive anticipation in your consistent recruiting message should be a priority for any savvy college recruiter.

Here are three easy concepts I feel you should make sure are a part of your recruiting strategy moving forward:

  1. Look at the tone of your messaging. There are two different tones that we see being used all the time which are not usually effective, according to our research:  First, when you are too “sanitized” in the way you sell your program, you’re going to fall short of building anticipation.  By “sanitized” I mean rattling-off statistics about your college, listing facts about your campus, outlining the recent history of your program…all of that is too detached, and too unemotional to make a connection with most prospects.  Secondly, you don’t want a constant tone of pressure, negativity or anxiety.  You don’t want to present a tone of pressure on an ongoing basis, for all the reasons we’ve just outlined.  So as you review your recruiting materials, define how it builds anticipation (and if it doesn’t, work on changing it).
  2. Ask yourself, “What can I get them to anticipate next?” If you’re a client of ours, you know how important it is to have the flow of the recruiting process move as quickly and as efficiently as possible toward securing a campus visit.  In that scenario, we would want to have the prospect anticipate the campus visit?  If possible, we’d want to focus on selling the idea of meeting the guys on the team…or sitting down face to face with the biology professor if the recruit was a strong pre-med candidate…or the opportunity to hear what kind of scholarship offer you’ll be outlining for she and her parents.  It could be anything that is the logical next step in the process.  The key question is, “what are you getting them to anticipate next?”
  3. Define what they should anticipate. Don’t wait for prospects and their parents to assign value to the next phase in the recruiting process, do it for them.  That’s not manipulative, by the way…it’s intelligent.  You know how important it is to get to campus for that early unofficial visit, but does the athlete?  Do her parents?  Does his coach?  Smart coaches will focus on defining the importance on building anticipation for the next phase of the recruiting cycle.  So, are you defining exactly what your prospect should anticipate next from you?

Setting the tone, outlining the tone, and defining the tone.  Those three aspects of your recruiting message can result in exciting positive changes for your recruiting efforts moving forward!

There’s a live event coming up this Summer that will help you gain cutting edge recruiting skills from a gathering of the best experts, authors, coaches and communication gurus: The National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.  Make sure your staff is represented at this one-of-a-kind event!  CLICK HERE for the details.

 

5 Things Your Prospect’s Silence Could Be SignalingMonday, January 28th, 2013

Sure, it may be a virtue, but patience is still tough to come by if you’re a college coach who isn’t getting the kind of response he or she expects from their prospect.

Especially this time of year.

Early winter is one of the roughest times of year to maintain, or continue, good communication with recruits you have been in contact with.  I could be describing some of your Seniors who have an offer, but haven’t come to their final decisions yet.  Or, I might be talking about your underclass prospects, who are done with the initial excitement of first hearing from you and are now feeling ill-equipped to continue the conversation with so much time left to go before they are close to reaching a final decision.

In either scenario, or a cavalcade of others that you and your fellow college coaches could easily add to that list, the immediate reaction is a combination of frustration and urgency.  And when a college recruiter is frustrated and feeling pressured when engaged in ongoing communication with their recruits, bad things often follow.

Those are the coaches who set unfair deadlines late in the game…stop communicating all-together…ask end-of-the-process questions way too soon in an effort to get a decision (or the hint of one).

All of these actions could be devastating, not only in your efforts to continue effective communication with your prospects, but also in your efforts to eventually win over that prospect as their final choice.

But rather than give you a list of things you should be asking or doing with your recruits at this point in the process (check our blog archives for lots of information on that topic), I wanted to take you inside your prospect’s head and give you an idea of what they might be thinking or feeling.  There’s a reason for the silence, and it’s important that you understand some of those motivations that will lead them to stop communication with you.  That understanding will give you the roadmap you’ll need to continue – or reignite – effective communication with your recruit.

Are are five of the most common factors behind your prospect’s silence:

  1. They aren’t interested any longer, and they just don’t want to tell you. This is one of the most common reasons for non-communication, which you probably already know as a college recruiter.  Why don’t they just tell you that they’ve lost interest?  Our research tells the story: They are afraid you’ll get mad at them, first and foremost.  Secondly, they don’t want you to criticize their lack of interest.  That fear manifests itself through silence.  By being silent, they hope you just sort of fade away so that they don’t have to have that uncomfortable conversation with you.  If you don’t confront it and address it, you might find yourself months down the road still hoping for a revival in good communication with your recruit.  (If you’re a Premium Member or TRS Client, look for video instruction from Dan Tudor in this Thursday’s Client Insider email on how to effectively reignite conversation with your recruits when this is the issue at play)
  2. They don’t know if you’re serious about them, so they aren’t sure they want to invest time into you. How could they get the impression that you aren’t serious about them, when you clearly are?  The most common answer we hear when we conduct focus groups on the topic is simple: Inconsistency in the story that is told, primarily through letters and emails.  Coaches who send a few things at the start of the recruiting process, and then slowly trail off into inconsistent messaging, almost guarantee this result.  How can you expect your recruits to have a reason to keep communicating with you when you haven’t done the same with them?
  3. They’re interested, but don’t know what to do or say next. This usually results from coaches who make their conversations and messages all about giving information about their school and program, sprinkled in with “how-you-doing?” phone calls that don’t progress the conversation to the next step.  And that’s what they’re looking for: “The next step”.  They might like you, they might like your school…but what are you talking about that actually focuses on the topic of what the next step in the process is?  Is it talking with the prospect’s parents?  A visit to campus?  There has to be a logical next step that you guide them towards.  If you are noticing increasing silence, it could be because they’re stuck and don’t know what to do or say next.  Lead the way, Coach.
  4. They don’t like talking on the phone. Seriously, Coach…it could be as simple as that.  If you’ve moved through the communication process and are at the point where you think talking on the phone is the most personal, most effective method of communication, make sure your prospect feels the same way.  Most recruits don’t like speaking on the phone, but just won’t tell you (again, because they don’t want to offend you).  Better make sure you’re on the same page with them, and if you find that phone calls just aren’t working then revert back to email or text communication in an effort to get some kind of conversation going again.
  5. They’re busy and overwhelmed. When we look at our research data, the two most common reasons recruited high school student-athletes give as reasons for not being prompt in returning a coach’s call is that they’re busy with high school life, as well as being overwhelmed with the number of different coaches they have to talk to.  There is a real inability to devote time to all of those coaches, as well know what to talk about with all of them.  I’m not suggesting that you utter a few magical words to fix this situation – nor am I suggesting there are any.  However, I want you to know that your prospect might be very interested in what you’re offering them. They just might be a little overwhelmed at this point and feel like they don’t know what to say next (or if they’ll have time to say it).

Silence from your recruits later in the recruiting process is a common problem, and I would advise you to expect it from the vast majority of your recruits. What results from that silence on their part is the crucial aspect of all this.  That part is up to you, Coach.  Make sure you know why they’re being silent, and then effectively address those concerns.

Cutting edge research and techniques are just a few of the reasons to be at this June’s annual recruiters weekend, the National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.  You need to be there, Coach…it’s going to be an incredible weekend of learning and networking from some of the best recruiting experts in the country!

Click here for all the information on this popular event for college coaches from around the country.

Building Traditions: What Is Your Selling Point?Monday, January 7th, 2013

by Ellen Sawin, NCSA College Relations

College sports are home to some of the nation’s most famous traditions: Wisconsin football fans “Jumping Around” before the 4th quarter, Florida fans “Gator Chomping” at their opponents, the Fighting Irish slapping their “Play Like A Champion” sign as they take to the field, and so on. High school athletes dream of playing for a team with a tradition and fan base like these. But less than 1% will realize that dream. One school is changing that…

Picture this:

A gym packed to capacity with college kids and community members lining the court. Everyone is dressed in eccentric and hilarious outfits.  And the crowd is perfectly still and dead silent. Two teams take to the court and nothing changes. Play begins and the crowd remains silent. Both teams put points on the board, and the crowd doesn’t make a sound. Then, the home team scores their 10th point… and suddenly the gym erupts in absolute madness.

Sounds like a top tier Division I athletic event, but this occurs at Taylor University, a small NAIA school in Upland, Indiana. It’s their annual Silent Night Game (see a video version here). The tradition originated in the early 1990s and goes well beyond silence and then cheering at the 10th point. The entire crowd also comes together throughout the game for other crazy events, including this year’s half-time dance to “Gangnam Style,” where fans danced right onto the court. And the game concludes with the crowd singing the famous Christmas carol, Silent Night.

Even though Taylor University isn’t the nation’s largest or most well-known University, news and video of this event is spreading like wild fire, garnering them national notoriety. They’re changing the stakes in the recruiting game. They’ve proven that a team from any level can make headlines and develop a tradition of value to their university, athletes, fans and community.

Taylor’s tradition gives a handful of the more than 99% of high school athletes who won’t play at the Division I level, the opportunity to realize their dream of playing in front of a sellout, loyal, and involved crowd. This is a valuable selling point when recruiting high school athletes.

 

Curing Your Prospect’s Analysis ParalysisMonday, January 7th, 2013

You’ve heard of “analysis paralysis”, right?

It’s the term we use when someone over-analyzes a question, situation or choice so long that he or she is “paralyzed” with the inability to decide what to do.  As a coach, you’ve had moments of analysis paralysis, right?

So do your prospects.

Especially as the recruiting process enters the final stages.  The fun of being pursued is over, and now it’s decision time.  And making a final choice is tough for many prospects.  Heck, it may happen way before the end of the process…some prospects freeze in the face of the decision of where to take a campus visit, or even which phone call to return.  ”Analysis paralysis” is at the root of a lot of the recruiting hurdles college coaches face when it comes to getting their recruits to get to the next step in the recruiting process.

If you want a more detailed, psychological study explaining the reasons behind the very real phenomenon that is analysis paralysis, click here.  But if you’re ready to jump into a strategy that will provide you with a good opportunity to help your prospect (and their parents) overcome paralysis analysis, let’s get started.

First, understand that the fear of moving forward is going to be commonplace for most of your prospects.  While you’ve been through the recruiting process multiple times, your prospect and his or her family are trying to maneuver through unfamiliar territory for the first time.  And the easiest thing to do when they reach that fork in the road in the process (“what campus should I visit?”…”which coach do I like the best?”…”who is giving me the best offer?”) is do nothing.  You should expect it, and plan for it.

Secondly, understand that you – and only you – can take control and help manage the process and lead your prospect out of the morass of inaction, and begin moving towards a decision.

Thirdly, regarding their decision: It could be “no”.  And as I’ve talked about before, hearing that answer earlier rather than later in the recruiting process is always preferred.  One of the things I often mention to coaches while getting the opportunity to train them during one of our On-Campus Workshops is that I take a “real world” approach to the recruiting process, and the philosophies that should guide it.  That includes taking a realistic approach towards understanding exactly where you stand in the eyes of a recruit, and doing so as early as possible.  Getting a “no” early and having months (rather than days) to pivot and adjust your recruiting strategy effectively, based on the scenarios I’ve seen play out recently in our work with our clients.

So, assuming you’re agreeing with my observations so far, let me offer you a few ways we’ve seen work well in moving your recruit out of “analysis paralysis” and back onto the road towards making a decision (hopefully one that is favorable to you and your program):

  • Be direct. If you’ve been your normal sensitive, polite self to this point in the communication process, I’d want to see you change your approach and be more direct.  By “direct”, I mean short and to the point.  There needs to be a noticeable difference in your tone and approach in an effort to subconsciously let them know that they are entering a new phase of the recruiting process, one that will require a new sense of urgency.
  • Present an assumption. In other words, in an effort to get them to say something (anything!), throw out a statement that they will need to either confirm or deny.  This was a strategy we recommended to a D1 lacrosse coach who is our client: The coach had been waiting for a recruit’s answer on a scholarship offer for months, and together we wanted to find out where this recruit stood with regards to our client’s program.  The question had our coach ask was “so, it looks like we’re #3 on your list at this point, right?”  Of course, we were hoping the athlete would tell our coach, “Oh, no Coach…you’re my top choice.”  However, the athlete finally confirmed what we had assumed: Our coach’s program was the #3 choice in the recruit’s mind, but didn’t want to hurt their feelings and tell them that they weren’t going to go there.  Disappointing news?  Absolutely.  But it moved the process forward in a way where our client could then adjust their strategy with their next three recruits that they had waiting in the wings.  None of it would have happened had the coach not presented an assumption, and then let the prospect react to it.
  • Set a fair but firm deadline, and explain why you have to do that. It’s an interesting thing about this generation of recruits: If you are the one asking them for a decision, they tend to look at it as “pressure”.  If you can find another outside reason (your admissions department, your head coach, the athletic administration) that you are being “forced” to move the process along at this point, their reaction is much more accommodating.  All of a sudden, they’ll open up…they’ll reveal what they’re really thinking…and they’ll take the next step in the process.  The key to this is setting a fair but firm deadline, and explaining why you are having to do that.  The deadline should be a few weeks out so that it doesn’t seem like you are “pressuring” them, but once the deadline is in place, you need to keep it.  No answer from your prospect translates into “we’ve got to move in a different direction” from you and your program.  This recommendation is one of the most effective tactics to shake a recruit and their parents from analysis paralysis, especially later in the process.

The analysis paralysis phenomenon is real.  It happens when we look at real estate, it happens when we consider buying a car (which is why the salesman tries so desperately to get you into that little room inside the dealership…if they don’t, they know you’ll stay “paralyzed” out in the parking lot) and it happens with your recruits and their parents during the recruiting process.

You have some power to change their thinking, Coach.  Don’t waste it!

How to Get Your Prospect to Stop Believing in SantaSaturday, December 22nd, 2012

It’s actually not as harsh as it sounds.

In fact, it’s something that is essential if you’re the coach that is going to direct them most effectively as they maneuver through the often confusing recruiting process.

A little clarification before we get to far into this idea:

What I’m talking about here is a line of separation between believing in Santa, and not believing in Santa.  When our kids are young, believing in Santa is fun.  And they buy into it because their perspective on what is real and what isn’t is a little wishy-washy.  One winter, I earned “Father of the Year” points by sneaking out of our bedroom, scaled a ladder to our roof, and stomped around bellowing “Ho, Ho, Ho!” so that our subsequently terrified kids would believe in Santa (I was even able to make it back to bed before they came in to wake me up telling me that they had just heard Santa).  Getting them to buy-in to Santa was easy.

Fast forward to our adult years.  We know Santa isn’t real (sorry if you’re reading this and you’re a 7-year old kid whose mom or dad who is a college coach…there really is a Santa Claus, I’m just trying to trick your mommy or daddy, o.k.?  Don’t tell them).  Not only do we not believe in Santa, but it’s hard to remember when we did, and why.

There’s a mental chasm that has formed between what we used to believe and what we know as reality now.

And that’s where most coaches begin to make a fatal flaw as it relates to recruiting…

  • Are you wondering why your B-caliber prospect is insulted when you don’t offer him a full scholarship, when you know full well that he isn’t going to get any full ride offers from coaches?  It’s because he (and his parents) believe in Santa, and you don’t.
  • Are you confused when your prospect gets bored with you six months into the recruiting process and no longer replies to your occasional emails or mediocre form letters?  It’s because she (and her parents) believe in Santa, and you don’t.
  • Are you incredulous when your top tier prospect loves you, your campus and your great offer but is calling you to tell you that the other coach just offered $1,000 more at the last minute so he is going to take their offer?  It’s because he (and his parents, plus his club coach) believe in Santa, and you don’t.

When I talk about “believing in Santa”, I’m describing the often unrealistic expectations that your prospects have as they move through recruiting.  So much so, in fact, that they will let those emotions and beliefs rule their decision making process.  They’re “believing in Santa”…something that looks and feels real, but is actually a fantasy.

As a high level college recruiter, one of your core responsibilities is to explain reality to your prospect – and those individuals helping him or her – that it’s time to stop believing in “Santa”.  Your other core responsibility is to tell them how.  Most coaches fail on both counts.  However, the coach that is able to achieve those two objectives during their recruitment of a student-athlete is going to have a rich, successful career as a college coach.

If that’s your goal,  here are a few of the successful ways we’ve helped college coaches lead their prospects back to reality:

  • Influence their parents and/or coaches. That means you’re going to have to come up with a separate recruiting messages aimed specifically for them that will give them logical justification to point the prospect to you and your program.  Sometimes, it’s hard for a prospect to trust and believe in what you say (especially if you are inconsistent in your messaging with them).  They’ll trust and believe those already close to them far more quickly.
  • Explain the “why” behind your talking point. Whether you are trying to justify why they should choose your program that is far away from home, or explaining a partial scholarship offer, going into detail about why that makes sense is essential.  Most coaches skip over that part of the conversation, thinking that today’s prospect might be insulted or confused by a lot of details.  Our research shows the exact opposite to be true.  Going into detail will often be the reason they connect the dots, see your logic, and (possibly) change their view of what the “right” decision is.  If you leave out the details, it’s unlikely that will be the case.  That doesn’t mean you’ll never get prospect to commit; rather, it means that your results will be far more sporadic.
  • Talk about a deadline far in advance. We’ve become fans of fair, long-standing, established deadlines for a prospect to make a decision, primarily because it works.  Telling your prospect when you’ll be needing their decision – and then sticking to that deadline – tends to cut out the sugarplums dancing in their heads, and focuses them on the task at hand: Seriously considering your offer, and making a final decision.  The coach that fails to set a deadline, or mentions a date and then gives-in when a prospect tells him that she needs more time, is more likely to see that recruit take an unrealistic approach towards the decision making process.
  • Tell them that maybe it’s just not the right fit, and that they should pursue other opportunities. In other words, give them a little taste of “loss”.  Let them know that you’re prepared to move on.  Give them the feeling that life will go on – and that your team will actually suit-up next season – even if they aren’t there with you.  Talk about walking away.  When you do, you’ll often see the prospect (and their parents/agents) respond with verbiage that tells you “whoa, wait a minute…we’re still interested!”  It’s an effective verbal technique when used properly, and at the right time in the process.

The most important lesson in all this is for you, Coach:

It’s your responsibility to lead your prospect from fantasy to reality, and to do it with sensitivity.  You shouldn’t be surprised that your prospect holds the world view that they do…many of them have been told that they’re the second coming of (insert name of your sport’s legend here) by their parents and coaches, and they have been slaving away at year-around training and private coaching with the expectation that it would pay-off with a full Division I scholarship within easy driving distance from home.

Your job is to get them to stop believing in Santa, while understanding why they still believe.

Easy?  No.  But if you’re able to perfect this important part of the recruiting process, you’re going to be a solid, successful recruiting who can close the recruits they want down the stretch.

Not a bad Christmas present, right?

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, coach!  Want to give yourself the recruiting gift that keeps on giving?  Make sure you attend our annual national conference designed for coaches and recruiters, the National Collegiate Recruiting Conference!  Spend an early Summer weekend with fellow coaches from around the country and a line-up of amazing speakers and experts.  CLICK HERE for all the details!

 

Why Old-Fashioned Paper Still Has a Place in Your Recruiting MessagingSunday, September 9th, 2012

Coaches that we work with are often surprised by how often we recommend written letters on paper as one of the primary ways to communicate important messages to they’re recruits.

And I completely understand why.

After all, your recruit can’t hit “reply” and send a message right back to you like they could via email.  You can’t share a video, you can’t send them a link to your online questionnaire…there are a lot of limitations to an old-fashioned letter landing in front of your recruit when it comes to a response.  No argument there, Coach.

However, all of the research we’ve conducted over the years keeps pointing us back to the impact that a letter has when it arrives to your prospect.  And now, there are scientific studies to back-up our reasoning, and explains the psychology behind why all of us – your teenage prospects and their parents included – respond so favorably to the printed word.

The studies come to a somewhat surprising conclusion, given the Facebook-liking, Twitter-obsessed culture we find ourselves in:  Mail outranks electronic media when it comes to some really important areas.

  • Physical media, such as recruiting letters and other creative materials, caused more emotional processing in the brains of those tested.
  • The same physical media left a deeper footprint in the minds of the recipients.

The bottom line of the latest study, which you can read in full here, is that physical mail and media seems more “real” to the reader.  That’s an important fact to pay attention to, Coach, because the areas of the brain that are engaged during this process are some of the places that make the deepest impact when it comes to our emotional connection with the sender.

There are some really effective ideas that are NCAA compliant that we recommend you focus on when it comes to making the most out of your physical mail recruiting:

  1. Pay attention to the stock and quality of the paper you use.  The study seems to indicate that the weight, brightness, and other quality factors are noticed by the reader.  For example, what if you wrote about wanting to talk to your recruit about an offer, and did so on a heavier card stock?  The look and feel of the paper you use helps to underscore the message you’re sending them. In other words, the weight of the paper often will signal the “weight” or quality behind the message that you are sending them.
  2. Since paper registers deeper with our emotions, save your more emotional messages for the printed page. Things like your vision for your program, an official invitation to campus…those kinds of messages should be written.
  3. Paper messages are almost always better for parents. Why?  First, it’s a more accepted form of communication compared to their kids (who may not even be able to find the mailbox at their home, much less know they can actually open it up every day to receive mail).  The other thing we personally like about written letters, and one of the main reasons we recommend them to our clients, is that they have staying power with parents.  Very rarely do printed and hand-written letters get thrown away.  We can’t say the same about email messages.
  4. Paper is a great place to emphasize your program’s logo and mission statement. And, recruits are looking for those kinds of  ideas from you – especially in the beginning of the recruiting relationship as they attempt to figure out what you’re all about and define you moving forward.  Go into as much detail as possible as you lay out a vision for why they need to take a serious look at you, and try to make your emotional appeals to recruits on the printed page.

Does this mean you should ditch electronic recruiting altogether and start licking stamps all day?  Of course not, Coach.

Electronic communication with your recruits, when done consistently and correctly, can be a primary way to communicate with them.  There are ways that you can interact with a recruit electronically that you just can’t with written letters.

However, what I am suggesting is that you put a stop to the growing trend I see when we consult with coaching staffs…the trend of moving totally away from written mail in favor of all-electronic recruiting campaigns.  When you do that, you risk not seeming “real” to your prospect as you lack the seriousness of what a written letter tends to convey.

It’s an easy lesson:  Balance your more modern communication with some physical mail, as well.  When you do, you’ll find that you give a much more in-depth, personalized feeling to your recruit as you try to separate you from your competition.

And when it comes to your recruiting message plan, isn’t that what it’s all about?

Are you feeling like you’re off to a slow start with this next recruiting class? Do you want to avoid making messaging mistakes that could cost you that great class you need (again)?  Bring in Dan Tudor and his team to help you take a research-based, scientific approach to building effective, consistent recruiting messages for your recruits.  Click here for more information on how we work with college staffs around the country, and why it’s so effective.  You can also email Dan Tudor directly at dan@dantudor.com to ask specific questions about your individual situation. You can also request a complete overview of our client program and the ridiculously affordable plan options.

3 Ways to Get Your Recruits to “Buy” You SubconsciouslyMonday, June 4th, 2012

I  often find that the primary thinking of most college coaches when it  comes to getting prospects interested in their program could be  described as a simple three-step process:

• Throw everything we can at them as soon as possible.
• They focus on one or two big selling points for our school or program.
• Those big selling points compel the prospect to want to come to our program.

Oh, if it were only that simple…

In  reality, we’re finding that today’s teenage recruit takes a much more  sophisticated approach to identifying with a school and, ultimately,  choosing a program.  While they have trouble explaining the process, our  research as a part of our On-Campus Workshops around the country and continuing work with our clients shows that their decision making process mirrors that of grown adults.

The best example of this is found in a recent fascinating study just published in the Journal of Neuroscience.   Researchers have shown that we make buying decisions even when we  aren’t paying attention to the products, and that electronic observation  of brain activity can predict these decisions. Here are the details  from the study:

Imagine you are standing at a  street with heavy traffic watching someone on the other side of the  road. Do you think your brain is implicitly registering your willingness  to buy any of the cars passing by outside your focus of attention? To  address this question, we measured brain responses to consumer products  (cars) in two experimental groups using functional magnetic resonance  imaging.

Participants in the first group (high  attention) were instructed to closely attend to the products and to rate  their attractiveness. Participants in the second group (low attention)  were distracted from products and their attention was directed  elsewhere.

After scanning, participants were asked to  state their willingness to buy each product. During the acquisition of  neural data, participants were not aware that consumer choices regarding  these cars would subsequently be required. Multivariate decoding was  then applied to assess the choice-related predictive information encoded  in the brain during product exposure in both conditions. Distributed  activation patterns in the insula and the medial prefrontal cortex were  found to reliably encode subsequent choices in both the high and the low  attention group.

Importantly, consumer choices could be  predicted equally well in the low attention as in the high attention  group. This suggests that neural evaluation of products and associated  choice-related processing does not necessarily depend on our processing  of available items. Overall, the present findings emphasize the  potential of implicit, automatic processes in guiding even important and  complex decisions.

So, let’s circle this back to recruiting:

If  subtle messages do indeed play a key role in your prospects’ view of  you and your program as psychology suggests, what are the most effective  ways to reinforce your story to your recruits?

Here are three foundational ideas that we think work for practically any coach, at any college level:

• Consistency. No matter what college staff we happen to be working with,  the one consistent measure that we find important to today’s prospect  is consistency.  Your message to them has to be consistent, both in  timing and in content.  From a timing perspective, we find it is  critical that your prospect has some kind of contact from you – either  through letters, social media, email, phone call, a visit to your blog, seeing you in  person – on a weekly basis.

From a content perspective, consistency is  important in your message: You need to make sure you are telling a story  that takes them through the recruiting process step-by-step, building  on your message and leading them to a decision.  If you’re a coach who  has had trouble mastering this aspect of your recruiting approach, as  many do, make it a priority to build out a plan for accomplishing this  before the next recruiting class is ready to make their decisions.

• Keep it short. What we find works the best in terms of message retention is a shorter,  more straight-forward message.  Your prospects have told us that most  of the recruiting letters and emails that they open and read are way too  long, and centered on all the wrong things (mainly, you, your college,  your facilities, your facts and statistics, etc.).  Your messages need  to be re-worked so that they are shorter and more easily understood by  your prospects.  That enables them to pick-up on those little details  that will stick in their mind…and stand out from the rest of the crowd.

• Head towards the edge. It’s safe and comfortable to look and sound like everyone else.  For  example, your admissions department’s brochures do a great job of  looking exactly like every other college in the country in terms of the  photography showing the smiling photos, highlighting your school’s  impressive statistics, and bragging about the education that they can  deliver. The problem with that?  Every single other admissions  department presents the same message.  And, that trickles down to the  marketing philosophy of most college coaches.  You head towards the  middle, and play it safe.  For 1% of you reading this, you can get away  with this because of how your program is performing at the moment.  But  for the other 99% of you mere mortals, if you want to get the attention  of today’s marketing savvy teenager you’d better say things differently  than your competitors.  So, when I advise you to “head towards the edge”  I mean that you need to come up with a compelling story, told in a  different way, and not be afraid to define yourself so precisely that  you will let a few of your prospects know instantly that you aren’t for  them.  While you’ll lose a handful of recruits that would have said no  eventually anyway, you’ll attract three times more who will gravitate  towards your philosophy of being unique and different from everyone else  that’s recruiting them.  I’ve seen it work numerous times, for coaches  willing to take a leap and tweak their approach to their prospects.

The  science backs me up on this way of approaching your prospects.  And,  that same science could just hold the key for you and your program making this year’s upcoming recruiting class the best ever.

7 Ways to Make It All About You (and Why It’s a Smart Recruiting Strategy)Monday, May 28th, 2012

Last week at an On-Campus Workshop, it happened again.

A coach that I was speaking with had way too much modesty for his own good.  He was the nicest, most humble person you’d ever want to meet.  However, from a recruiting standpoint, it could be making a hard task even harder.

Why?  Because your prospects are trying to get to know their potential coaches.  They are trying to understand whether you want them or not.  And they are trying to formulate the beginnings of a relationship with you.

And when a coach is reserved, quiet, and – yes – even a little too humble, it makes it hard for a recruit to get a good “read” on who you are and, more importantly, whether or not you’re excited about the prospect of them competing for you.

It all illustrates a hard, cold fact of life for coaches that they need to understand about this generation of teenage prospects: Our reasearch shows that one of the two major factors in how they decide if a college is right for them is their view – and their relationship – with the coach at that school.  Take the coach out of the equation, and suddenly the college isn’t viewed in the same light as it once was.

Agree with me so far?  Good.  Now that I’ve established this nearly universal truth about today’s college prospect, here’s the bad news for a lot of you that are reading this:

The letters, emails and other printed material you send a prospect barely reference you.

I’m serious, Coach: What percentage of your mailings talk about you as a coach?  What you are like as a person?  What your coaching philosophy is?  What your plan for them is?  What you’d like them to do next in the process?

When we begin working with a college coach and their program as one of our Total Recruiting Solution clients, one of the first things we do is to establish the coach as the person that is going to be the main attraction to the program.  Sometimes, college coaches are uncomfortable with the idea of not being modest.  I try to make the best case I can for them to get past that feeling.

If it were all about the school, logic would dictate that a coach could leave and the recruits wouldn’t care one bit.  But that doesn’t happen: When a college coach leaves, it causes the recruit to reconsider.

So, how should you put yourself in the spotlight more effectively?  Here are some ideas that we’ve found to work well for our clients:

  • Make all of your messages centered around you.  As you lay out all of the nice facts about your school, make sure the conversation comes back to you.  Never assume that the school or your program is going to sell the recruit on coming to your campus.
  • Talk about the personal side of you along with the professional side of you.  Yes, your impressive win totals count, as do your Coach of the Year awards.  But your prospect is looking for more than that…they want to know the person behind the whistle.  Learn ways to reveal the real you to your recruits.
  • Unveil your screw-ups.  Your prospects know you’re not perfect.  Don’t be afraid to talk about the mistakes you’ve made, and what you learned from them.  In our workbooks for college recruiters, we make the point that this is one of the best techniques for breaking down walls that might exist between you and your recruit.
  • Get on Twitter. It’s an incredible social networking tool that is paying off for the coaches that are using it to build a following.  Twitter is free, it’s easy and it’s a great way to reveal the real you to your recruits (and your fans, and your boosters, and other coaches and Athletic Directors that might be looking to hire you).
  • Create a fan page on Facebook. Update your recruits on what’s going on with you and your program using the most popular communication tool in the world.  This can be one way communication out to a group that broadcasts the daily pulse of you and your program.
  • Write a blog.  The benefits are too many to count.  If you want more ideas on what makes a great blog, and how to get started, click here for a popular article on the topic that we wrote a few years ago on the power of this under-used medium.
  • Make it all about the conversation.  All of your communication should focus on building the relationship between you and the prospect.  Not the school and the prospect, you and your prospect.  Everything you send out should prompt them to feel more connected with you.

Here’s the bottom line, Coach:

Whether you’re a Division III softball coach that only won three games last season, or a Division I coach that we see interviewed regularly on ESPN, the facts remain the same: Your prospects are going to pick the program who has the coach they feel most connected to.

Still don’t believe me?  Just ask one of the dozens of recently de-committed prospects who are searching for a new coach they feel connected to…they’ll back me up on what I’m saying.

Struggling Prospects, and What You Should Do to Help Them (and Your Recruiting)Monday, April 9th, 2012

As coaches, you often search for the best stuff to talk about with your prospects.

What’s going right in their lives, what they’re excited about, what they did for fun last weekend.

Generally, coaches search out the line of conversation that will make the prospect smile, laugh and feel comfortable talking.  And most of the time, with most your recruits, that’s the right approach.

But there’s another possible conversation that may win their allegiance in a faster, more effective, more meaningful way.  And we discovered it by accident!  Here’s the story:

In review focus group research we’ve gathered over the past two years working with coaches who have us help them develop their recruiting campaigns and storylines, we noticed something curious that we had previously glazed over.  Occasionally, but consistently, prospects would reveal that there was a moment in the recruiting process where the coach that they ended up committing to would stumble upon something the prospect was struggling with – family issues, a tough class at school, a painful relationship break-up – and offer some deep, heartfelt sympathy.  In the prospect’s eyes, for both males and females, they achieved a powerful connection with these coaches that “connected” with them and showed them that they cared for them over and above what they could bring to their college sports program.

Three stories stood out as we started uncovering these previously hidden strategic gems, told to you below as direct quotes from the recruits themselves:

  • “When Coach ____ called me right after my dad left the house, I really didn’t want to talk to her.  Two minutes into the call I was just a wreck and was balling and basically sounding like an idiot. It was really embarassing.  But she was so kind, and spent a lot of the call just trying to talk me through it.  She didn’t try to sell me on her program, she just was a friend.  The next day I knew that was the coach I wanted to spend the next four years playing for.”
  • “I struggled with math my Senior year and I was afraid it was going to ruin my chances for earning a football scholarship. I wanted to pick a place where it wasn’t just all about football day in and day out but still play D1, and the way the coach tried to help me feel better about what I was going through with academics in high school really made me feel like he was the guy who was going to watch out for me and make sure I was successful when I played ball in college.  The way he handled that told me a lot about who he was as a person which is why I chose to play here.”
  • “Most coaches would just email me or call and it was about sports 24/7.  I started feeling like I was just a piece of meat almost.  I liked the way that Coach _____ made it more that just about the sports side of college.  I felt like that’s who I wanted to be around.  The way he tried to get to know me and help me through some stuff I was dealing with at home was awesome which is the main reason I came here.”

You see the common thread through those comments, right?  The coaches who came alongside the prospects and helped them through a difficult situation, and offered heartfelt encouragement, ended up making an impact and most of the time, earned the commitment of the recruit.

In other words, simply by taking a few minutes to comfort a male or female athlete you are recruiting, you set yourself apart from other coaches.

It works the same outside of sports as well.  In the Malcolm Gladwell book “Tipping Point”, it was revealed that doctors who spent an extra three minutes chatting with patients and getting to know them personally had dramatically lower rates of medical malpractice suits filed against them.  The reason mirrors the principle I’ve outlined here today:  Showing concern and investing even a few minutes of your time with your prospect can help in creating a much deeper, much more meaningful bond with that recruit.  Male or female, it works the same.

The most common areas that athletes felt were important were stressful situations with grades, a family crisis, boyfriend or girlfriend problems, or other issues specific to his or her family.

In one respect, it’s a bit odd to be recommending a “strategy” revolving around just being a good person.  I’m hoping that any coach would take time to do what we’d all probably agree is “the right thing”.  However, analyzing this from a strictly psychological and relationship point of view, cementing your relationship around you offering encouragement to your prospect who is going through a difficult, stressful situation is the smart thing – and the right thing – to do.

As you plan for next season’s recruiting campaign, why not have a team of experts help you behind the scenes?  Work with Dan and his team one-on-one and have them put together a strategy and a system that’s proven to get results.  You can go to www.dantudor.com for all the details, or email Dan directly with your questions at dan@dantudor.com.

Four Facts to Focus On That Your Recruits REALLY Care AboutMonday, February 27th, 2012

You throw them around all the time.

You use them to sell your college, and you use them to combat a competitor’s advances.

If you’re a fan of classic television, Sgt. Joe Friday on the old “Dragnet” detective show was famous in asking for only these things.

We’re talking about facts.

But here’s the challenge for savvy recruiters:  Which facts are worth talking about, and which ones just take up space in your messages our to your prospects?  Moreover, what facts may actually be hurting your recruiting efforts?

We began asking that very question, beginning in 2011, with the athletes of our clients and during focus groups at our On-Campus Workshop.  Our theory at the time was that all the facts a coach presented to a prospect played a part in their final decision.

We were only partially correct.  Here’s why…

While today’s prospects do rely on facts about a college to form their overall opinion of the place, it is most effective when recruiters tie that fact directly to a benefit the athlete will receive as a result.

This is a very important distinction that coaches need to begin implementing.  Again, when you state a fact as a selling point of your program, it is vital that you take the extra step in explaining to your prospect exactly how they will personally benefit from that fact.

The reason is simple, really:  Our research shows that prospects won’t “connect the dots” between your points of benefits and what it means for them personally.  As we discuss at length in our two recruiting guides for college coaches, your recruits rely largely on their feelings – how they feel about you, your team, and your campus – to make their final decision.

However, when you can add facts that will personally benefit the prospect, and get them to understand those selling points, you win; more often than not, good feelings about your program coupled with these personalized facts are almost impossible to ignore.

To get you started, here are a few of the top facts that we’re finding recruits rating as most important in their decision-making process:

  • Your on-campus housing. According to the research we’ve conducted, it’s the clear #1 on the list in your recruit’s mind.  Interestingly, you don’t always need the newest and biggest dorms or apartments to win.  Instead, you need to make sure your recruits understand how they will have fun living there.  By the way, your team’s opinions and personal stories go the furthest in selling your on-housing campus to your recruits.
  • The food on campus. Prove to your recruits that they will eat well, and you’ll have an advantage over most of your competition.  Food, and the socialization around gathering together in a community on campus and “breaking bread” together, is one of the biggest comfort areas that your recruits are looking for when they come to visit campus.
  • The vision for your team. It’s very important that you clearly explain where the program is heading, and how the prospect will play a part in the plan.  Make sure you go into as much detail as possible when it comes to your plan.  And, if possible, have a separate conversation about that plan with your prospect’s parents.
  • How a degree at your school will trump a degree at another school. Coaches love to talk about the academic strengths of their college, but talk is cheap.  You’d better be ready to prove it to your prospect, and give them real-life examples (personal letters from your former players are great, by the way!) as to how your school is going to give them a better launch into their career after sports is done.

The misuse of facts is a major problem in recruiting.  We see it almost daily.

If you’re a coach who commits themselves to taking the extra step of stressing facts that your athletes care about, as well as finding how best to tie that fact personally to your recruit, you’ll most likely gain the upper-hand over your competitors who are content with reading this research and then choosing not to change the way they are telling their story.

Tudor Collegiate Strategies can help you formulate your strategy when it comes to presenting facts about your program that get attention. We can take our research and put it to work for your program, making a big difference in your overall recruiting efforts as you get ready to communicate with your next recruiting class. Want more information on how we can do that for you and your program? Contact Dan Tudor directly at dan@dantudor.com.

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