Remember when eating eggs was going to send you to an early grave? Think again.
And how you’d better be using anti-bacterial soap if you wanted to really, really, really clean your hands? Yeah, not so much.
Those are just two of a long list of things that were once accepted as scientific truth, only to be undone by changing information discovered at a later date.
However, the need to re-think what we’d now define as myths isn’t limited to breakfast foods and clean hands. No, there are plenty of old recruiting myths that are still held as firm truth by many college recruiters around the country. And unlike some of the other things we experience in our daily lives, these tales can really hamper effective recruiting – and, damage the chances for coaches to develop their careers.
Here are a few that I’d recommend you take a second look at, based on our focus group testing with the clients that we serve, and observing recruiting practices that just don’t result in effective results. This isn’t a complete list, but it’s a few that any smart coach should consider changing.
The myth that paper mail isn’t effective as a communication tool. Easily, this is the number one myth that I see coaches clinging to. Partly, I believe, because it gives them permission to eliminate the postage and materials cost from their budgets, and it also saves a lot of time (writing letters, even the printed ones that you used to send to 200 recruits at a time, took a heck of a lot of time, right Coach?) But it’s exactly because of that second point that they’re so effective now with this generation; so many coaches have abandoned the practice because of their mythical belief that ‘this generation doesn’t read mail’ that the ones that do send it find kids will hold it as tangible proof that a coach is “serious about them.” (One thing I need to clarify: They will respond to well-written, engaging letters. If you are sending them stuff that sounds like traditional, boring, mass-mail messaging, then it doesn’t work).
The myth that small schools can’t get early unofficial visits. Can I talk to you coaches at Division II, Division III and NAIA programs for a moment? One of the things that is killing you right now is that you’re not acting like a D1 program when it comes to asking for visits. More and more prospects not only want to be invited for an unofficial visit, they expect it. And when you don’t extend that offer (usually by early Spring of their Junior year in high school, at the latest) they begin to develop their own campus visit list – and you probably aren’t on it. The myth that kids won’t make unofficial visits to smaller programs doesn’t have a basis in fact. If I’m talking to you right now, re-think your strategy on this one, Coach.
The myth that their high school and club coaches aren’t deeply involved in helping a recruit form an opinion about you. They absolutely are. Actually, I think you know that, right? But here’s the question, Coach: What part of your recruiting plan is actually addressing the type of ongoing, effective contact you have with this influential group? Can you show me – or others on your staff – how you are outlining an effective story to those coaches? I’m not talking about calling them or the times you bump into them at their practices or games…what are you telling them on an ongoing basis that gives them enough information to get them to the point where they think to themselves, “heck, I’d be crazy not to want to send my kids to their program.” Because that’s the standard they demand, especially if you aren’t a program that is going to make them look good when their athlete commits to you.
The myth that you might accidentally pressure them into committing. In other words, “If I ask them what their decision timeline is, or ask them if they feel like they’re ready to commit to your program, I’ll drive them away or force them to commit when they really don’t want to.” Let me ease your fears, Coach: You don’t have that power. You can’t trick a kid into committing to your full ride D1 offer, and you definitely can’t trick a kid into paying $30,000+ to attend your Division III university. Now, if the issue really revolves around your nervousness about putting yourself out there and hearing some truthful feedback from your prospect after you ask it, or if you just haven’t been trained to complete this vital part of the sales process, that’s another story. The good news is that with training, you can overcome that fear and begin to direct recruits through the different stages of the decision-making process (especially at the end, when it counts).
With any procedure you employ in recruiting, you need to ask yourself why you do it the way you do it. And, evaluate if the way you’re doing it is working as well as you want (need?) it to.
Myths, fables and bedtime stories were a fun departure from reality when we were kids. As adults who are now college coaches, they are potential career-killing practices that need to be stopped immediately.