by Paul Nemetz-Carlson, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
Your recruiting story is who you’ve been, who you are, and who you want to be. Your recruiting plan is the form, frequency, and timing of how you deliver it. It’s never been more important to have a clear idea of both.
– @PNC_777, August 12, 2020
In recruiting, the best ideas are the ones that work. They capture attention, they’re memorable, and they provide answers to why prospects should want to join your program.
A few months ago, I thought it was a good idea to share my recruiting experience in short form. Because coaches are busy people and still in need of help, I’m sharing a second version. Here are 20 of the better tips I’ve offered over the last three months on my @PNC_777 Twitter account as my “Recruiting Tip of the Day.”
The Basics:
- The easiest way for coaches to take control of the recruiting process is to tell recruits how it starts, when it ends, and use the middle to show them what they should think about their program.
- A great recruiting story provides answers – why they should answer the phone, why they should want more info, and why they should ultimately join your program.
- If your approach to recruiting is based on how you feel on each day rather than part of a comprehensive plan, you will continue to get inconsistent results.
- Great recruiting messages are an extension of your coaching – they tell prospects what you’re committed to deliver as a college athletic experience. It’s a promise that forces you to create that reality.
- The BEST way to get better players is to become a destination by presenting yourself as a place recruits want to be.
The Most Liked:
- In recruiting, success comes from the ability to pull out a prospect’s true thoughts, concerns, and objections. Failure often comes from putting your thoughts and assumptions on to them. Let them speak, don’t guess.
- 2 ways to get better – out-recruit teams for the best talent or outwork them to build impactful depth. The secret is the players all think they’re all the first one, so either way you need to personalize a great story and deliver it consistently.
- Identifying talent is easy. The separator at most levels is the ability to see potential. And the key to a recruit’s potential is having perspective to know what you need that individual to do for your program.
- The only program who should be recruiting like Alabama Football is Alabama Football. Tell your own story – making the most of your resources, your creativity, and your unique passion for the future of YOUR team!
- Recruiting may happen in cycles of seasons and classes, but you can’t be good at if it’s not an everyday thing. And if you don’t adapt your message to meet the current moment.
Your Recruiting Story:
- At the core of your recruiting pitch, you need a comprehensive STORY that explains why recruits should CHOOSE you. It’s a performance story, a culture/experience story, an outcomes story, and an aspirational story all-in-one.
- Your recruiting story needs to address PERFORMANCE – i.e. W/L’s, accomplishments, awards. If you’re successful, address WHY you win. If you’re not, address WHY you WILL win in the future.
- Your recruiting story has to provide insight into your CULTURE/EXPERIENCE. Find creative ways to connect recruits to your team members – messaging, social media, personal interaction – to SHOW what it WOULD be like to be a member of your team.
- Your recruiting story has to demonstrate clear OUTCOMES. What happens after – the opportunities, the value of your degree, and what your alumni do with it – are essential answers to why recruits should want to be a part of it in the first place.
- Your recruiting story must also be ASPIRATIONAL. There is a ton of info available about where you currently are, but if you want recruits to choose to be a part of your future, you need to better articulate the vision of where you plan to go!
The Value of Repetition:
- A good first impression is very important – but a successful recruiting plan isn’t built around one interaction, it’s built around consistently telling a great story.
- When you share parts of your story only once, your best hope is to get lucky and catch recruits’ attention for a moment. When you continue to share it – over and over – you can capture their HEART.
- A good story can be told over and over again in recruiting because the audience keeps changing. Like a successful band – figure out what connects and keep playing the hits. You don’t have to write a new song for each recruit.
- Recruits want to be excited about the decisions they make. They want to share it with their friends. Tell them why they should like you. OVER and OVER again!
- Just because you said it, doesn’t mean they heard it. Your goal is not just to present information but to get prospects to retain it and know why it matters to them.
Hope there was something in there to spark a conversation in your office about how to improve your approach in this challenging time.
As we all look to meet this current moment and redefine the future of college sports, I’m constantly reminded that we’re all part of a special, connected community. One that is caring, supportive and full of people improving and changing lives. Blessed to be a part of it. Thanks for letting me continue to be on this journey with all of you.
Be Distinct. Be Different.
Paul Nemetz-Carlson is a former college coach and operations director who is now part of the team of experts at Tudor Collegiate Strategies working with coaches around the country to improve their recruiting results through better messaging. To get more details on how we can help you and your program by working with you one-on-one, click here.