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Irrational Recruiting Decisions Made by Recruits (and College Coaches)Monday, May 14th, 2012

It’s the thing that drives recruiters absolutely crazy when it comes to understanding how teenage athletes make their final decisions.

Most of the time, they make irrational final decisions.

This past year it seems like I’ve seen more examples than ever of that in our ongoing work with college coaches.  Here are some of the constants I see in this generation of recruits when it comes to how they are choosing the school that they would describe as “the right fit” for them:

They are deciding based upon their emotions. That includes both male and female prospects, Coach.  How they feel – and how their parents feel – about you and your program seem to consistently seem outweigh the logic and facts behind your program.

They aren’t taking a long term view of their college experience. Make no mistake, they start thinking about it right after they make their decision (hence all the de-commits and second looks) but as they are making their final decision (the first one, anyway) they are, in large part, considering what feels right at that very moment.  I’ve said it many times before: They choose with their hearts, and justify that decision with their head.

They are conscious of the highs and lows in recruiting. If you skip talking to them for a few weeks, expect them to be looking elsewhere for options.  If you’re consistently talking to them?  You earn big points.  And so it goes…up and down, over the course of recruiting.  And they are remembering who is giving them those highs (and lows) and factoring that in to their final decision.

They are relying on others to help them make their decisions. Primarily their parents, followed closely by their high school and club coaches.  Our research shows that they will often go against what their own gut is telling them and side with these highly influencial outside decision makers.  It doesn’t make sense, but that’s what is happening.

They will often turn to irrelevant statistics to justify their actions. You’ve seen it before:  You hit it off with the prospect, mom and dad love you, she’s a perfect fit for your program, but then at then end she chooses the school that finished two spots ahead of you in the U.S. News rankings for their major.  Will those extra two spots on the list make her happier in the long run?  Of course not.  But right now, it makes her feel like she made a smarter decision.

We could add more to that list, of course.  Or we could end it here and just agree that this generation is a tough one to recruit, and resign ourselves to just rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky every few years with a great recruiting class.

That’s not the smart approach, though.  Yet that’s the attitude of many college coaches: They lament the problem after correctly identifying it, and then don’t do anything to change their prospect’s irrational outlook despite knowing that they are taking that approach.  In other words, I see coaches reacting to their prospects’ irrational behavior during the recruiting process with their own irrational behavior.

Am I suggesting you fight irrational behavior with your own version of irrational behavior?  Yes.  I’m giving you permission to attract this next class or recruits using techniques that will help prompt your recruits to stop in their tracks and snap out of their irrational decision making process.  See if any of these ideas might work for your recruits:

  • Make your case with more passion than the other guy. If your prospects are using emotion to make their decision, we’ve seen plenty of cases where the coach who shows the same kind of passion and emotion connects the best with that athlete.  And the last time I checked, passion isn’t a budget related item that your competitor has more of (unless you let them).
  • Challenge them: Tell them that they are going about all this the completely wrong way.  Once you have their attention, make your case that they need to reconsider how they’re deciding on a program.  Get them to take a second look.  Compel them to continue the conversation with you…but start it off by contending that they are doing it wrong right now.  Get their attention!
  • Ask them, “Is that the smart way to do it?”  Maybe the answer is yes.  Or maybe it isn’t.  Asking that question and actually getting them to think about everything in a new light is one of the most productive challenges you can issue during the recruiting process.
  • Counter their illogical views with logical facts.  Again, the theme here is “do the opposite”.  It worked for George Costanza, it can work for you (if you aren’t a “Seinfeld” fan, that won’t mean much too you).  If they are all about the feelings, and you can’t seem to connect with them, stop them in their tracks with facts that go against their emotions.
  • Always include the parents and coaches.  Clue them in on what you’re talking to the prospect about, and why it’s important that your point of view should be seriously considered.
  • Exude a confidence – even if you’re not feeling like you have any! – that tells them they’d be CRAZY not to choose you.  No explanation needed, Coach.  The only thing I’ll tell you is that your prospect and their family are looking at you closely, and trying to figure out if you really believe what you’re selling.

Don’t fret about a prospect acting irrationally, Coach.  Develop a strategy around it to ensure that they’ll pick you and your program!

We’re beginning our planning sessions with new clients for this next recruiting class.  Want to talk to us about working one-on-one with you and your staff to develop a rock-solid recruiting plan?  Contact Dan Tudor directly at dan@dantudor.com so we can set up a time to discuss how we do it, and why it works.

     

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    Cementing Your Prospect Relationship Using This Tested TechniqueMonday, May 7th, 2012

    There’s a great deal of psychology that the professional business world uses daily in their interactions with their prospects and clients.  As a college sports recruiter, you can (and  should) use the same kind of techniques to solidify your relationship  with your athletic prospects.

    One such technique is what I  call the “stay the course” technique.  Here’s a sampling of how it  works, using an actual study that was conducted to back up my ideas to  you today.

    When most people (your prospects included, coach)  decide on a course of action, they have a very strong desire to stay  with that course.   Frequently, this desire is so powerful that they  will refuse to alter their chosen path … even when there is  overwhelming evidence that it is unwise.

    There are several reasons  for this. For one thing, there’s the simple power of ego. Nobody likes  to feel like they made a bad decision.  Perhaps more important is that  nobody likes a “flip-flopper.”  A classic example from the world of  politics would be a candidate who “flip-flopped” on positions and,  therefore, couldn’t be trusted. There have been numerous instances over  the past decade where the allegation alone were enough to derail the  political aspirations of many politicians.  As a society, we don’t like  people who appear to not keep their commitments.

    Once a person chooses a certain position, their desire to be consistent will compel them to behave as promised.

    An interesting study illustrated this universal human tendency. A “beachgoer” (an accomplice to the study)  would stroll onto the sand and choose a spot near a target subject. The  “beachgoer” would then spend about five minutes spreading out his  blanket and setting up with suntan lotion and a small portable radio.    Just another person enjoying a day at the beach. He would then stand up  and walk away, without saying anything to the target.

    Shortly  after the “beachgoer” left, a second accomplice would approach the  unguarded blanket and make a move to steal the radio. Only five percent  of the time would the target make any effort to confront the “thief” or  do anything to try and prevent what appeared to be a crime.

    Now  … here’s the interesting part of the study: With a second group of  targets, instead of simply walking away from his blanket, the  “beachgoer” asked them to keep an eye on his things. And the results  were drastically different. Ninety-five percent of the time, these  targets aggressively attempted to prevent the “thief” from stealing the  “beachgoer’s” radio.

    What made the difference?

    Like  the first group, this second group of targets didn’t know the  “beachgoer.” The only communication they had with him was that single  verbal exchange when he asked them to watch his things.

    But because these subjects had agreed to do something, they aggressively stayed the course … despite the  fact that it was not in their best interests.   In fact, it put them in  the potentially dangerous position of confronting a brazen thief in  order to protect the low-value property of a stranger they’d only spoken  with for one moment.

    Understanding this tendency of people to  follow a consistent course of action can help you persuade them to act  in a way you want them to act – whether you want to get your boss to  assign you to a particular project or get your child to do better in  school.  Or, get your recruit to commit to your program.

    One of the things that we constantly hear from college coaches who read our two foundational recruiting guides is that they now understand how their prospects feel makes them most  likely to commit to a particular program or a coach.  How they feel  about the coach, how they feel about the players on the team, and how  they feel about the thought of playing for you as a coach.

    There are three steps to making this technique work, Coach:

    1. Make a statement of fact that your prospect can agree with. (“Playing for us here really improves your odds of being able to start as a freshman.”)

    2. Link a conclusion to this statement of fact. (“In order to make sure that happens, we need to make sure you’re one  of our early commitment prospects so that we can stop recruiting other  athletes that play your position.”)

    3. Obtain a commitment from your prospect based on that conclusion. (“So, you’ll get that application paperwork I sent you  last week turned-in early and start planning your college career here  at our university right away?”)

    It’s easy, it works, and it begins to get your prospect thinking about a permanent athlete-coach relationship with you and your program.

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    The Fear of Loss, and It’s Impact On Your ProspectMonday, March 26th, 2012

    The saying “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone” comes to mind when I talk about the fear of loss.

    And just as the saying suggests – that there is an added appreciation of something once you don’t have it any longer – there is could be a valuable benefit to you by implementing the “fear of loss” into your recruiting message.

    “Fear of Loss” is a successful, long-standing sales technique that is used by politicians and advertisers alike.  Essentially, it’s the introduction of the negative idea of “loss” into the mind of a buyer – in this case, your recruit – to cause action.

    As humans, we react more passionately to the idea of losing something.  Science backs that up, as illustrated by “Roger Dooley, the author of “Brainfluence” on his Neuromarketing blog:

    If I gave you $50 with the following two choices, what would you do?  Keep $30, or gamble, with a 50/50 chance of keeping or losing the whole $50.

    An experimenter posed that question to subjects, and found that 43% of the subjects chose to gamble. Then the options were changed to:  Lose $20, or gamble, with a 50/50 chance of keeping or losing the whole $50.

    Same thing, right? In fact, though the dollar amounts are the same, with these options, 62% of the subjects chose to gamble. Expressing the first option as a loss caused a 44% jump in the number of people avoiding that choice! (The purely rational choice, of course, would be the non-gambling option, since the average value of the gambling choice is $25 vs. the certain $30.)

    This research, published in Science and described in Dean Buonomano’s book “Brain Bugs”, exhibits two key points:

    • Framing (the way we describe something) has a huge effect on behavior.
    • People are loss averse.

    To underscore the importance of loss aversion in humans, the researchers found that over the course of a series of decisions like this, 100% of the subjects gambled more when the other choice was posed as a loss.  Although individual variations existed (some subjects gambled a little more, others a lot), it’s quite surprising that every single one was influenced by the way economically identical options were framed.

    So, how do you ethically and professionally put this idea to work in your recruiting message?  Here are some quick ideas that we’ve seen work for our clients:

    • Set a fair but firm deadline. You’ll notice that many times, even when a coach will set an unfair but firm deadline (“Now that you’ve been on campus, you have 24 hours to decide or else we have to give the scholarship to someone else”), prospects respond by committing.  Why?  I would say it’s because that coach at least set some kind of guidelines for the recruits to commit at the end of the process (if I’ve conducted our On-Campus Workshop for your athletic department, chances are you’ve heard me explain this in detail).  I’m not a fan of fast deadlines that pressure a recruit, mainly because I don’t think it presents you and your program in the best light, and I also have seen evidence that those recruits are more likely to de-commit or transfer.  So, what is a “fair but firm” deadline?  Based on what I’ve seen work in the recruiting scenarios that I’ve been a part of with coaching staffs, it’s when a coach tells a recruit that they want them to take two weeks to think about it, but then on a certain date you will need to know if the prospect will want to accept your invitation, because after that you’ll need to move to the next person on your list as you start to wrap-up your recruiting.  “Fair but firm” deadlines that gently suggest loss for your recruit if they don’t act is one strategy that we’ve seen work well.
    • Casually mention loss in your next conversation with your prospect. If you’re not quite at the point of urgently needing them to commit, I’d suggest you be a little more casual about it.  In your next email exchange or phone conversation, casually mention that if they aren’t sure they are feeling like your program is the right fit, they can just let you know and you can move in another direction.  Or, you can suggest that you understand if they need more time to wait for another coach to get their offer to you, because it’ll give you more time to host those two other prospects on campus visits while you’re waiting to hear back from them.

    There is, of course, an inherant risk in this strategy: You might lose the prospect.  Your positioning might not work, and it may give them the open door they need to permanentaly reject you.

    However, if you’re willing to risk that outcome (an outcome, many coaches would agree, would have happened whether or not this strategy was in play or not) it’s an effective way to get an indication as to what your recruit is thinking, and just how important your program is to them.  It’s an effective indicator of their thinking, and just how much your school means to them.

    I often point out that this generation of prospect that you are recruiting can define what they don’t want in a school, program or coach instead of what they do want.  The “fear of loss” principle matches-up with this trend, and can give a coach some incredible insights inside the mind of their recruits.

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      Are You Proving That You Care More Than Other Coaches?Monday, March 19th, 2012

      What’s your answer to that question, Coach? 

      Because more and more, what you do during the next few weeks is going to determine whether or not you get those prospects.

      Late Winter and early Spring, for many coaches, is sit-by-the-phone-and-sweat-it-out time.  For many coaches who aren’t able to offer full scholarships, your financial aid and admissions department are working their magic to try and put together packages that will lure your prized prospects to campus in the Fall.  And, even if you’re a high level Division I coach who signed his or her recruiting class months ago, there is a time period late in your recruits’ decision cycle where this question applies at some point:

      Your teenage prospects and their parents are trying to figure out if - and how much – you care.

      Respected business marketing guru Seth Godin makes the same point when it comes to what we look for as adults:

      “We’re hyper alert to the appearance of caring. We want to do business with people who appear to care, who appear to bring care and passion and dedication to their work. If the work expresses caring, if you consistently and professionally deliver on that expression, we’re sold.

      The truth is that it’s what we perceive that matters, not what you bring to the table. If you care but your work doesn’t show it, you’ve failed. If you care so much that you’re unable to bring quality, efficiency and discernment to your work, we’ll walk away from it.

      And the irony? The best, most reliable way to appear to care when it matters–is to care.”

      It’s probably hard to argue against this line of thinking.  The vast array of our research shows that prospects are looking for who cares the most from start to finish.  Especially when they’re on campus, followed closely by how coaches treat them at the end of the process.

      So really, we’re faced with a simple yet challenging question:  How do coaches show their prospects they care more than their competition this time of year?

      After reviewing some case studies of the clients and athletic departments that we serve and help get those prospects that they have at the top of their list, here are four basic strategies that we see working on a consistent basis:

      1. Keep them updated as the process unfolds. We find that a lot of coaches make the fatal mistake of not communicating regularly with their recruits during this nerve-racking time of year.  You’re waiting for information along with your prospect, and so you…wait.  And that’s o.k., but you need to give your recruits an update on what’s going on.  Even if the update for the week tells them “nothing new to report, but I’m calling over to the admissions department every day and I’ll keep you updated.”  I can’t stress this key point enough…it’s a must-do, Coach.
      2. Give them examples of how you’re working behind the scenes to help get them the best possible package. We actually recommended this to one of our newer clients a day or two ago in dealing with a prospect he was trying to wrap-up after a campus visit this past weekend.  The more that you can use this time to demonstrate how you are doing some heavy-lifting behind the scenes for them goes a long way towards getting them to perceive that you care more.  Remember, what we perceive is even more important than what we are doing in many instances (actually caring and working hard behind the scenes is important too, of course!)
      3. Use the time to get to know the parents. Sometimes, the recruiting process is so rushed that you never really take the time to get the parents on your side (if you’ve had us on campus for our two or three day recruiting workshop, you’ve seen the research on why that’s a no-no). While you are waiting for answers from the other side of campus, make a concerted effort to contact your prospects parents and ask them questions about their son or daughter.  Answer their questions that they haven’t had a chance to ask you.  Go over what you’re seeing as your plan for the athlete.  Spending time with the parents is critical to setting yourself apart from other coaches who don’t have a deep relationship with family members other than their prospect.
      4. Ask them what objections haven’t been answered yet.  Just because your prospect is still talking to you this late in the process doesn’t mean they are ready to say ”yes” once you decide what kind of scholarship you can offer or your financial aid department finally gets them their final numbers.  Take this time to ask them these two questions: “Give me one or two big questions about our program or school that you’re still trying to fugure out?”, and “If there was one thing about our campus or my program that you could change, what would it be?”  Those two questions just might open up a new conversation about an objection that’s still on the table…one that just might prevent them from saying yes to you in the end.

      This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, but each one of these basic strategies have proven to work in the past.  Why?  Because as your recruit is trying to figure out how to “break the tie” between you and the other programs recruiting them, what you do over the next few weeks is going to help them do that (by the way, if you want a great way to set-up a tie-breaker to your advantage for your next recruiting class, click here)

      Use this time of year to prove that you care more than the other guys.  It may be even more important to your prospect – and your prospect’s parents – than everything else you’ve done to this point!

      If you’re looking for more creative ideas to take into your next recruiting battle, you absolutely have to be at our next National Collegiate Recruiting Conference!  There’s still time to sign-up, so click here for all the details!  You won’t be disappointed.

       

       

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      Why You Should Reach for the Phone to Reach New RecruitsMonday, February 13th, 2012

      We’re entering that odd time of the recruiting year when coaches are finishing-up one class, and beginning the recruiting process with another.

      And with that new class comes the same age old question that has perplexed recruiters for the last two decades:  “How should I first contact my next set of recruits?”

      That’s been a question which we have devoted a good amount of study to over the years.  And after crunching the numbers, conducting research studies all over the country during our On-Campus Workshops for college athletic departments, and hearing the feedback from this current class of prospects, the verdict is in:

      Your prospects want to be called on the phone when you first start recruiting them.

      Interesting, isn’t it?

      I  think it’s surprising because most kids find it challenging to talk on  the phone with you when you call them at some point during the  recruiting process.  So why would they want to hear from you by phone as  the first point of contact?  Here are some of the answers we  discovered:

      • They want to know that you’re serious about them. When you call them, that shows them that they are a serious recruit in  your eyes – otherwise, why would you take the time to call them?
      • They want to hear how you found them. Sometimes those introductory letters that you send are a little to  vague: “You’ve been identified as a prospect…”  Or, “You’ve been  recommended as a prospect…”   Both are a little bit cryptic, and this  is one area where you don’t want to be mysterious.  Today’s athlete  wants specifics, starting with how you have found them.
      • A phone call automatically puts you at the front of the line. They’ve heard your voice, which is one better than most coaches who are  only going to send out a letter.  It will be hard to ignore you after  they hear your voice because they’ll be comparing you to the rest of the  coaches that aren’t taking the time to call them.  For this  generation, they want to be able to starting ranking colleges and  figuring out who’s serious about them, and who isn’t.  This is one of  the best ways we’ve found to make sure you are doing just that.

      So,  have I convinced you take the time to make a phone call first with this  new group of prospects you’re getting ready to recruit?  Good.  Here’s a model for what should be included in the call (and a few things that shouldn’t):

      • Do include a short greeting and your phone number.  Your name, your college and your contact number.
      • Tell them that you want them to know that they are officially being recruited by your program.  You can play around with the wording a  little, but make sure they understand that you are serious about them  and that your phone call warrants their attention.
      • Tell them the  next two things that they should be looking for from you and your  program.  A letter and then an email, two quick emails with questions  they need to answer…whatever.  Give them an agenda of whats coming up  in the near future.
      • DO NOT ask them for information.  That’s not the purpose of the phone call.
      • DO NOT sell your school, unless they answer this next question:
      • Ask  them: “Before I hang up, do you have any questions about me, my  program, or the college?”  If they say no (which they likely will,  because their heart will be pumping a little too hard to focus on  questions they might have), tell them that you can’t wait for the next  time you can talk to them and end the call.  Leave them wanting more.  If they do have questions, take the time to answer them and sell your college where appropriate.

      That’s  the simple formula that we’ve seen work over and over again.  The calls should last no more than a minute or two, they should have a purpose,  and you need to sound both confident and excited.

      The results should be significant:  You will see greater engagement sooner from all of  your prospects, and you will clarify exactly where they stand with them as soon as possible (which is what they all want).

      If you’re a coach who see’s an increased emphasis on recruiting phone calls as a way to differentiate yourself from your competition, keep this strategy in mind for your new group of recruits.

      Want more information on creatively attracting recruits to your program instead of your competition’s?  Here are two ideas we’ll recommend:

      - Order our two popular recruiting guides for college coaches, outlining the key foundational strategies that many coaches now rely on to win the best recruits available.  Click here for the details.

      - Reserve your seat at this Summer’s National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.  It’s a weekend of networking with other coaches, listening to some of the best recruiting minds in the country, and formulating a great plan for the next season’s recruiting battles.  Click here for the details.

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      New NCAA Rules Mean New Potential Pitfalls for College RecruitersMonday, January 23rd, 2012

      The dust has settled, and the new NCAA rules for 2012 are in place.

      And with new rules come new opportunities:  In Division II, coaches now have more time to contact recruits and a variety of new ways to reach them – text messaging, social networks and even message boards.  In Division III, text messaging is now allowed (however, contact via social media websites like Facebook and Twitter is still prohibited).

      But with new opportunities come new challenges for savvy recruiters.  In reading over the new rules, there are a few pitfalls I can see an unprepared college coach stumbling into as they begin to recruit new prospects using these new rules.  (And by the way, even though these new rules mainly affect Division II and Division III college coaches, Division I and NAIA coaches can learn from the potential mistakes we’ve outlined and apply them to their own recruiting strategies):

      Division II coaches can now visit a prospect in person on an unlimited basis beginning June 15th prior to the prospect’s Junior year in high school. Here’s the problem:  Our research is showing that coaches who stage multiple visits without sharing new information or giving the prospect a sense that the recruiting process is moving forward risk alienating the prospect.  Current college athletes we interview as a part of our On-Campus Workshops tell us that they grow impatiently very quickly when coaches contact them, but don’t have anything new to say or don’t outline where the process stands.  I see this as a potential risk for coaches who begin regular visits to view a recruit:  The recruit sees a coach, talks to a coach, and nothing new is verbalized by the coach.  If you plan on increasing the frequency of your visits, make sure you are consistently outlining new information and new steps in the process to your prospect and their parents.

      Division II coaches now have more time to personally recruit athletes, beginning June 15th prior to an athlete’s Junior year. The same potential pitfall exists here as it did in the previous item.  More face to face time, but not enough new information to keep the prospect engaged and feeling like the process is moving forward.  Additionally, if you are starting the recruiting process before your prospect begins their Junior year as the new rules allows, focus your questions on what they want out of the process and what they want to talk about…not what they want in a college or a coach.  That’s too big of a concept to grasp for most of them, so don’t introduce a conversation about the topic (yet).

      Division II coaches can use text messaging and message boards, as well as private messaging through Facebook. This holds one of the biggest potential pitfalls for coaches.  We see college coaches wasting the opportunity to form a deeper relationship with their recruits by simply posting athletic department sports information releases and other bland communication via Facebook.  Don’t do that, Coach.  Facebook – and text messaging – is an extremely personal way of communicating for today’s teenagers.  If you supply them with a steady stream of adult news about your program, don’t be surprised when they tune you out.  Keep it real, honest and personal.  Use YouTube videos made by your team versus professionally edited videos from your sports information office, and write in a personal blog style instead of using “news reporting” language in your messaging.

      Division II and Division III coaches have an expanded use of text messaging. What not to do?  Trying to “sell” your school and your program through text messaging.  There is no faster way to be rejected by your prospect than sending anything resembling a sales message via text message to a recruit.  We know this because of the testing and research we’ve done with our list of college coach clients we help as we formulate their recruiting strategy and actual messaging communication, and I can tell you as bluntly as possible that a coach who uses text messaging to overtly sell their program will ruin their chances of connecting with that athlete in a trusted way as the process moves forward.  Save text messaging for discussing the recruiting process, building a friendly relationship, and talking about specific points in the recruiting process as follow-up to other conversations via phone, mail and email.  Remember, texting is very personal and very informal.  Keep it that way and use it to build a relationship with the athlete…not to sell.

      The new rules reflect the way we see communication with recruits heading, and I think they will provide coaches with some important new avenues for making strong connections with recruits.  However, there are also some real dangers in not approaching these new liberties correctly.  Make sure you’re one of the coaches that uses the new rules correctly right from the beginning.

      We strongly recommend you make plans on attending this Summer’s National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.  It’s designed specifically for motivated college recruiters who want to be the best that they can be in the battle for their top prospects.  Click here for all the information and to reserve your seat at this year’s event!

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      The Value of Being First in RecruitingSunday, November 6th, 2011

      Will Ferrell’s character Ricky Bobby said it best in the movie “Talladega Nights”:

      “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

      O.K., so maybe we won’t go to that ridiculous extreme.  However, when it comes to recruiting, we’re finding that being first is a huge advantage for the college coaches who can manage to be the initial contact for a prospective athlete.  Especially if you’re a coach who is still at the game as a prospect’s final two or three choices.

      Here’s why:

      Most of today’s recruits, for some reason, have a strong allegiance to the first program that recruits them.  Big or small, winning or losing, close to home or far away from home, it doesn’t matter…recruits have strong feelings for the first coach and program that they have contact with.

      We know this because when we conduct research and focus groups on campuses around the country, the vast majority of current college student-athletes talk about making their decision and describe having a strong allegiance to the program that they first heard from, even if it isn’t a program that would be a good choice on paper.  In other words, some of the critical filters that a prospect might judge another program through don’t apply to that first program that shows serious interest.

      Their comments on why this is true range from the serious to the just plain odd.  Here’s a sample from comments we’ve heard in just the past few months:

      • “I just figured that I the first school that recruited me meant more to me than the others.”
      • “As I thought about it, I guess I realized that because they saw me first and contacted first, they should be my first choice.”
      • “My parents said to choose the program that I thought wanted me the most, and so I went with the one who was talking to me the longest and was most persistent.”
      • “At first it wasn’t really important to me that ____ was the first school that recruited me.  But at the end, I came back to them because they were first and I realized that I was comparing everyone else to the them anyway.  So I decided it made sense to come here.”
      • “I was really confused at the end, and started stressing out.  So I just figured the coach that talked to me first probably believed in me first, and so I ended up committing to her program.  And it’s been great!”

      There are a couple of serious points that I’ve settled on over the years when it comes to the whole idea of being a coach who is first to contact an athlete.  Here’s why I see this being a strategy that’s worth considering if you’re a coach who wants to put this “tie-breaker” in your favor when it comes to decision time:

      Being first is better than being last. This comes from the question I get a lot when we first start working with coaches one-on-one in a client relationship:  “Should we jump in early, or wait until later on and hope they don’t like their initial choices?”  Easy answer.  Be first.  By a nearly 4 to 1 margin, we’re finding that athletes trend towards programs who recruit them earlier rather than later.

      Consistency matters over the long run. It’s true all of the time with this generation of recruits, but it’s especially important if you want to maintain the advantage of being first.  Don’t let-up when it comes to the emails, letters and phone calls.  Consistency is something that always wins, and it really underscores the standing you have as the first program to recruit them.

      One thing they don’t want early?  Pressure. Show excitement early, but avoid talk about a deadline for making a decision or any kind of early pressure to visit campus.  Take your time – which you should have the luxury of doing since you are starting early!  If you wait until later to recruit a prospect (unavoidable at times, I realize) then you may need to put more pressure on them simply because of deadlines you are facing.  But just understand that pressure at the start isn’t a great way to win the majority of recruits.

      The other person who really values the first program?  Your prospect’s coach. Interesting, but true.  We find that coaches have a strong allegiance to the first program to reach out to their athlete, especially if it’s a program that isn’t a traditional power or that hasn’t had a lot of coaches contact their recruits.  So, along with your prospect, make sure your recruiting plan has a focus of reaching out and selling your recruit’s coach on your program.

      With recruiting calendars continuing to get pushed back earlier and earlier, you have the opportunity to implement this strategy really easily.  For some of you that are Division I and II coaches, this is going to become the new standard for successful programs.  Make sure you are always on the front end of the recruiting timeline with your prospects.

      If you are a Division III coach, I’d encourage you to start actively recruiting Juniors who are on your list at this point.  Not enough Division III coaches are recruiting Juniors, so those of you who start now will find yourself having a big advantage while your competition remains stuck in following an older-style recruiting timeline.

      And, if you’re a NAIA program, the rules really allow you to contact athletes earlier than anyone else.  And, you can use more communication methods to recruit earlier.  Are you taking advantage of it?

      Whatever your situation, there is a lot of value in being first in recruiting.  Make sure you are the one that wins that early battle.

      There are outstanding ideas we have for you on video from the 2010 and 2011 National Collegiate Recruiting Conferences!  If you want insider secrets on ways to recruit more effectively from fellow coaches and respected national experts, make them part of your coaching library.  Click here for all the details.

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      Facilities: Just How Important Are They to Your Recruits?Monday, October 17th, 2011

      There is an important change that takes place at some point between you recruiting your prospect, and that prospect joining your team family on campus.

      And the more you understand it, the more you’ll be successful at clearning some important hurdles in recruiting.

      It’s a change that many college coaches aren’t conscious of as they build out their recruiting plans, and it ends up hurting their efforts to attract the best prospects to campus.  The change I’m talking about probably does more to impede the success of how a coach goes about recruiting than any other factor I have seen in many years of working with college coaches around the country.

      Here’s what you need to know:

      Your prospects have a change in their mindset when they come on to campus as a new recruit.  They aren’t looking for all of the same things that they were as a prospect that you were recruiting.  At the same time, once they officially become a member of your team, there are a totally separate set of things that they are now seeking…and their long-term success as an athlete in your program hinges on how you respond to those needs.

      Here’s an example of what I’m talking about, and why it’s important for success-minded college coaches to pay attention to it…

      Our national studies show that a programs facilities – the track, the weight room, stadium, and other areas where they will spend time as an athlete – actually factors very little into their final decision as to whether or not they accept your offer.  Yet, facilities and the surroundings are usually one of the things that a coach will primarily focus on in their recruiting; moreover, I’ve seen coaches base their entire recruiting strategy around what they feel those facilities will sell to a potential student-athlete.

      However, facilities are important!  Especially when that same athlete joins your program and is now a part of the family.  When that happen, your facilities take on added importance because the condition of those facilities can directly effect their experience at your school.  Once they are on campus as a student-athlete, it matters to them because you they are directly effected by the surroundings that they find themselves in.

      The bottom line to the example I’m citing is that there is a change in perspective that is happening in the mind of this athlete.  As a prospect, your facilities are not going to be what finally draws them to your program; conversely, all of the facilities might be what makes them stay with your program.

      The disconnect I see with coaches is that they are approaching prospects in the same manner that they are seeing their current athletes’ view of their facilities: Some coaches think facilities are what draws the athlete to their program when they are a high school prospect.

      For the most part, that’s incorrect.

      Now, there might be instances where facilities – or some other aspect of your program – drives them away from seriously considering you.  And a new, wonderful facility might be something that they end up listing as a smart reason to have picked your program in the end.  But in both instances, facilities are not the overriding reason for choosing a school or a program, according to our research.

      There are three other big changes in perspectives that we’ve noticed taking place in the mind of student-athletes once they become athletes at a school versus just being prospects of a school:

      • The quality of the equipment and uniforms. On their visit while you are recruiting them, this is something that isn’t even on the prospect’s radar of what makes a great program that they would consider.  Once they become a part of your team, this one out-ranks facilities as something that will cause dissatisfaction and frustration.
      • The academic support that they receive during their Freshman and Sophomore years. As a high school recruit, this is something that doesn’t even enter the mind of most prospects.  And that’s understandable, since they don’t have any idea of what most college programs do to ensure academic success of their incoming class.  Once they are on campus, its something that they cite as one of the most important aspects of their early college athletic experience.
      • The social integration of the different teams and athletes within the athletic department. Did you know that this is an area that most Athletic Directors and Coaches overlook completely?  Afterall, your job is to produce winners not run a cruise ship activities calendar, right?  Yes, but I hear over and over again from your athletes that are interviewed when we fly in and do an On-Campus Workshop at schools that they wish there was more of an effort to “connect” all of the athletes within the program and across sports.  That’s something that they won’t be looking for as an incoming recruit, but it will be something that they expect once they are a part of your program.

      Again, the importance of what I’m telling you exists in the way you approach each set of kids.  If you focus too heavily on these issues that I just listed with your prospects, you may not be touching on subject matter that is important to them…yet.

      But if you fail to focus on them once they get to campus as one of your athletes, you can expect that you are going to have to deal with frustrated athletes who won’t be afraid to look elsewhere for other opportunities with other programs.

      Facilities, uniforms and equipment, team unity and academic support are all things that can make or break the recruiting experience with many of your prospects.  The secret to recruiting success is about how a coach balances the two different mindsets between the time that their kids are prospects and when they are part of the team.

      This is just one of the topics we’ll be covering at the National Collegiate Recruiting Conference.  Click here to get the details and find out why you need to be there with your fellow recruiters!

      And, if you want to watch past conferences and take away the material we’ve covered in the past, you can order them here.  They come with a complete workbook and a full 3-DVD compilation of everything that was covered. It’s one of the best recruiting learning tools available today!  Click here for all the details.

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      The Importance of “Passion” vs. “Pressure” in RecruitingMonday, October 10th, 2011

      There’s a big, big difference.

      And quite honestly, most college coaches get it wrong.

      When you’re trying to close a recruit, and get them to commit to your program, one of the worst things to do is to give them the feeling that they are being “pressured”.  Pressure might lead to an initial commitment, but in the long run that athlete is going to be a strong candidate for transferring or talking negatively about the way he or she was recruited.

      In my opinion, after interviewing hundreds of current college prospects on how they made their decision in committing to a program, pressuring an athlete is bad.

      Passion, on the other hand, is good.  Very, very good.

      If you demonstrate passion to your prospect, it’s very likely you’ll achieve the same effects as you would hope to achieve by pressuring them: Excitement about your program, a strong reason for committing to you and your college, and a faster commitment.

      Very few college recruiters, unfortunately, don’t do the passion part very well.

      To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, and to show you what a big difference there is between the two, let me give you a few contrasting examples of “passion” versus “pressure” when recruiting your athlete:

      Passion is when you tell your recruit why you like him, and what value you see him having in your program.  Pressure is when you matter-of-factly tell your recruit who else you’re recruiting at his position, and what he’s going to lose if he doesn’t make a fast decision.

      Passion is when you tell them that you’ve decided you want her to play for you, and they officially ask her if she’s ready to commit because you are really excited about her future in your program.  Pressure is when you give her a 48-hour deadline after her campus visit to make her decision, or else you’ll yank the offer and give it to the next girl on your list.

      Passion is when you smile and sit forward in your chair when you’re talking to your prospect.  Pressure is when you lean back, look at your cell phone every two minutes, and seem like you’re ready to walk your prospect over to admissions so they can start their exciting two hour PowerPoint presentation with the assistant to the assistant Director of Financial Aid so you can get back to work.

      Passion is an impromptu visit to the office of a coach of another sport on your campus to introduce you to your recruit on campus so that they see the opportunity is with an athletic department family, and not just their sport.  Pressure is sitting with your prospect cooped-up in your office talking only about your sport.

      Passion is taking a blank sheet of paper, sitting next to your recruit, and explaining to her what you see as the plan for her after she commits, and what the next twelve months look like for her when she joins your program.  Pressure is you talking about how she’ll have to pay her dues and wait her turn if she decides she wants to play for you.  (Note: Yes, that might be an honest assessment of their chances in your program.  But most recruits want to hear about what they need to do to beat out that Senior returning starter…because most of them think they can, and they’d like to see that you’re on board with that dream, too).

      Passion is getting him spend time with the Freshmen and Sophomores on your team and letting them sell him on coming there.  Pressure is putting them with a 23-year old redshirt Senior who they have nothing in common with, and sending the two of them off to lunch together for two hours (true story example there…one of the more awkward observation sessions we did for one of our clients when we were on campus).

      Passion is involving her parents in all aspects of the recruiting message, which is what most kids want according to our research.  Pressure is what she feels back at home when you don’t do that, and she wants to go to your program but doesn’t feel like she can because mom and dad never really got to know you as well as your conference rival that she’s going to settle on.

      Passion is consistently keeping in touch with her, showing him that you are in it for the long haul and don’t take them for granted.  Pressure is what they feel when they try to figure out why you haven’t talked to them lately (they assume you might not be as interested in them as you once were, and begin to look for coaches who they think will be more interested).

      That’s a short list, but an important list.

      The big question now is: What are you going to do with this information, and how will it change the way you recruit this current class of prospects?

      (No pressure).

       

      There is still time to team up with Tudor Collegiate Strategies and let us map out a successful recruiting message and strategy for this year’s class.  We’ll bring a research-based methodology to your program, and help you create the best message possible for your prospects.  It’s working wonders for college coaches around the country, and we can do the same for your program.  Email Dan Tudor directly at dan@dantudor for a complete overview of what we do, and how we do it.

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      The Secret to Finding Out What Their Objections REALLY AreMonday, September 26th, 2011

      Overcoming a prospect’s objections is a tough challenge, even if you happen to know what those objections are.  Most coaches struggle with identifying the real reasons one of their recruits tells them no…and it’s one of the most frustrating parts of their jobs.

      But I got a phone call from a coach who became a client a few weeks ago with a bit of a twist to the traditional objection question:

      “What do you do,” he asked, “when you know there’s something a prospect isn’t telling you, but it’s obviously something that’s going to keep him from choosing your school?”  Call it a gut feeling, or something else, but sometimes a coach just “knows” when something isn’t right with one of their prospects.

      It’s actually a great question…and that’s a tough one to overcome, no doubt.  So to provide you with a map to guide you through the complicated maze of figuring out how to address your prospects’ real objections, here are a few proven strategies you might want to try the next time you have a recruit come right out and tell you that they’re “not interested”, or give you that gut feeling that they’re holding something back from you and not telling you about an objection they’re thinking about:

      • First, ask them what they mean by “not interested”. Does it mean that they aren’t interested in playing college sports? Not interested in the offer you have for them? Not interested in going to college in your part of the country? Asking probing questions is the key to getting to the heart of their lack of interest.  You’ve got to get them to be specific, so that you can give them an answer that helps redirect their interest back towards your program.
      • If you think they might be holding back an objection from you, you’ll need to do even more probing. Try asking your prospect to give you three reasons a prospect would have a problem with you or your program.  By taking them out of the equation (you’re asking about another prospect, not them or their views) it might free them up to give you answers that will, in fact, be their feelings toward your program.
      • Next, try to get them to them to clarify the general answer they gave you. “Do you mean you already know what our offer is going to be?” Or, “Have you already read about our program’s success but have decided that it doesn’t matter to you?” Or maybe, “How did you become familiar with the part of the country that our school is located in?”

      The point in asking these types of questions? Get your prospect to clearly clarify what they mean by their objection, and how they came to feel that way.

      Next, you’ll want to focus on trying to solve the problem and overcoming that objection. That is the goal of any conversation when an objection arises, and what we spend a lot of time on in our recruiting guides for college coaches. A problem-solving discussion might start something like, “I understand…so, if a full-ride offer was on the table, you’d take a serious look at us?” Or, “I see. So, if I could show you how well you’d fit into our championship caliber program, you would keep an open mind and consider us?” Or, “If we were able to show you how valuable a degree from our school is out there in the real world, would you give us another look?”

      Again, my strong recommendation to you is to be a problem solver. Your prospect may not be raising an objection as much as he or she is reaching out to have their problems solved. Most of your competition still tries to hard sell a prospect by throwing out a lot of sales-oriented bullet points and trashing their competition (that would be you, Coach).

      Approach things from a different perspective, and stand out from your competition: Deal with objections with the frame of mind that you are a problem solver, and your prospect is someone in need of help solving that problem.

      Whether they come right out and state an objection to you, or they hold back and make you dig for it, overcoming objections is THE biggest challenge you face as college recruiter.  If you learn how to effectively deal with objections, you’ll build a long, successful career for yourself at the college level.

      We’ve written two advanced recruiting workbooks for college recruiters.  Have you read them?  If they aren’t in your library, they need to be.  Click here for all the details.

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