by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
Over the next couple of months, there will be a lot of holidays happening. It’ll be a great opportunity for you to have some little resets. Spend time with family. Eat some good food. And get refreshed for the new year.
I want you to do all those things. But, I also want to give you a couple tips to make sure your recruiting stays as effective as it can be during what tends to be a downtime for coaches. Especially if you don’t coach a winter sport.
1) Talk to your recruits about their final decision
When are your top recruits planning to decide? If they’re not sure yet, talk them through the scenario that will 100 percent happen during the holidays. Their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, friends, and friends’ parents will be asking, “so, where are you going to college?”
And for some kids that can feel like a lot of pressure or an awkward situation if they still don’t know. If they can come out and say where they’ve committed during that holiday season, it could be a big weight off their shoulders.
So, talk about this with your top recruits if they haven’t already said they want to decide in the next several weeks. And ask them, “if that sounds like a nice idea, to have your decision over by the holidays, what would you want to see happen next from me to help you be ready to make your final decision about our school?”
See what they say. And proceed based on that feedback. They may have initially planned on just waiting until the new year to decide but your conversation might allow you to move things forward a little faster.
2) Send the “Happy Thanksgiving” text
This applies to all the various holidays over the next two months.
Is that “Happy Thanksgiving” or “Happy New Year” text the thing that puts you over the top to win that recruit’s heart?
No. Probably not.
But it does show them you’re thinking of them. And if another coach or two does not send them that text, it does make the recruit feel like you want them a little bit more.
Or worse, if you don’t send the text and the other coaches do, now you’re the coach that cares about them a little less.
Again, not a deal breaker either way. But this is an emotional decision for these kids. And if we can create good feelings and avoid creating bad feelings, we want to make sure we do that. The holidays create a great opportunity to do this.
Want to take it a step further? Send them a team holiday card. Maybe your team signs it as well. Do what you can to create feelings of being wanted and valued and you’ll get better recruiting results from this holiday season.
Want some more tips for how you can stand out with your top prospects? Dan Christensen and the team at Tudor Collegiate Strategies are working one on one with college programs to help them gain as many advantages as possible in the recruiting process. To set up a strategy call with Dan, email him at danchristensen@dantudor.com.