They aren’t optional – you have to answer them.
And, they aren’t multiple choice (not if you want to be successful in an increasingly challenging recruiting environment).
These four questions I’m going to ask you are going to need to be answered in detail, and specifically for your program. Your answers aren’t going to be the same as the college down the street.
They are questions that revolve around your central approach to your recruiting message. Most college staffs haven’t answered them before, which gives you an automatic advantage if you take a few minutes to answer them for your program. Why? Because it’s hard to recruit coherently and effectively without any kind of philosophical guidelines you’ve established – no matter if you’re a major college staff, or a one-man show.
That’s what we’re aiming to fix today. Here are the questions that I’d love to see you develop answers for as you head into the meat of your recruiting season:
- Who are the recruits you are trying to connect with? I’m not looking for names, I’m looking for traits. Not athletically, but demographically…geographically…personality type. Once you define those types of characteristics of the recruits you’re going after, you’ll be surprised at how well you focus on those recruits. That’s a major problem we find with many coaches: No definition of what they’re all about. Are you trying to sell your program to everyone? You’ll end up selling it to no one. So, how do you answer that question, Coach?
- Why are they going to choose you? For most of you reading this, you aren’t coming off a conference championship – much less a national championship. Heck, forget titles. Chances are there’s a program you compete against that has better locker rooms, newer dorms, more scholarship money, or a better location. So the big question is also a simple one: How are you going to change their perspective? How do you change your story? And once you change their minds, what then? You need to know what your end game is before you enter a serious recruiting battle for a recruit you really need. So, how do you answer that question, Coach?
- What tools are you lacking? Most coaches can easily define what they are good at doing when it comes to recruiting. On the flip side, many aren’t aware of what skill sets they lack (a more popular expression of this concept would be “they don’t know what they don’t know). So, if you’re being honest with yourself and the coaches on your staff, what three things do you need to get better at right away? What are the things you do wrong? An honest self-evaluation is in order if you want to be a long term success in college recruiting. So, how do you answer that question, Coach?
- What do you need to make successful recruiting happen more often? Think about the times everything has fallen into place, and you land the next level prospect. What went so right? What happened that time that didn’t happen all the other times? I recommend you develop a prototype of the ideal recruiting process, the ideal campus visit, and the ideal sales message. You should also be asking yourself what some of the common mistakes in your ongoing recruiting efforts are (again, be honest!). What do you need to do in order to duplicate the big successes in the past? So, how do you answer that question, Coach?
More than ever before, you and your program need to define what you’re all about. Stand for something. Tell a GREAT story (in case you haven’t noticed, mediocre stories don’t cut it anymore).
Defining the answers to those questions will go a long away towards helping you build a firm foundation that you can recruit from – and be much more successful with it in the process!
Dan Tudor and his staff at Tudor Collegiate Strategies can help develop the answers to those important questions. We help programs around the country, at all different levels, year around. Click here to learn more about what we do, and why it works, or email Dan directly at dan@dantudor.com.