by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
It is resolution season! Whether or not you believe in resolutions, as a college coach you need to always look for ways to set better standards for your team, your staff, and yourself.
Here are two important standards that many coaches do not hold to. If you can commit to doing these two things throughout the entire year, you will find yourself with more high-level players interested in your program.
1) Establish communication with every prospect’s mom, dad, or guardian within one month of your initial contact with that recruit
Many coaches wait until a prospect’s family is on campus to introduce themselves. There are many great reasons to communicate with parents early in the process. The problem is most coaches do not realize there is an issue with their current way of communicating with a prospect’s parents. Mom and dad come for the visit, they get along well with the coaching staff, and come away feeling great about your program. What did you really miss by waiting until then to talk with mom and dad?
Maybe those situations worked out fine. But, how many of your prospects that never visited campus, may have if mom and dad were communicated with right away? Probably quite a few. I would encourage you to have a phone call and begin email communication as early as possible but definitely within one month of starting your relationship with that recruit.
Here is one tip for making sure this happens. Every initial call with a recruit, tell them you would love to talk to mom, dad, or whoever is going to be helping them throughout the process. Tell them you could talk right then or that you will reach out to setup a time to talk later that week. This keeps you accountable because you certainly want to follow through with your intentions you verbalized to your prospect!
2) Never go more than 9 days without communicating with the prospects you would want on your team
Your recruits tell us that communication from a coach every 6-9 days is not only acceptable but expected. If you can commit to never going more than 9 days without having communication with a prospect you want, you’ll see a lot of good things happen. Their response rate and level of engagement will be much higher when you have that consistency throughout the year.
The wording of “prospects you would want on your team” is intentional. This is not the strategy for only your top recruits. This is your strategy for any recruit that you want on your team. Even if they are not one of your top prospects.