If you’re the parent of a teenager – or remember what it was like being one long, long ago – you know that’s the age where remember things is a little challenging.
Chores, the paper that’s due tomorrow, feeding the dog…they all seem to fade in that space between the ears that’s occupied with more important matters like the crush of the week, who you’re gaming with that night, and where that hungry dog of yours may have hidden your left shoe. The teenage mind is a crowded, fluid mess much of the time (min certainly was!) – which most coaches, strangely and unfortunately, overlook when they’re in the process of recruiting those teenage prospects.
Here’s how it usually manifests itself:
College coaches are extremely sensitive when it comes to repeating themselves. For example, let’s say your recruit visited campuses a month and a half ago, possibly even spending the night. Most coaches would cringe at the idea of that athlete receiving something from admissions highlighting the dorms and giving details about the housing on campus, since the recruit had just been there and spent time there. Or, a coach might not want to repeat a conversation about their business major after a recruit had already asked about it at the start of the process eight months ago, since they got all the basic information they needed in that conversation.
My point is simple: Without repetition, college prospects forget. In fact, one of our focus group studies highlights this fact. We studied visiting prospects and tracked what they heard on campus tours, and in conversations with the coaches who were hosting them. Then, a week later, we quizzed those same athletes on some basic facts that were presented verbally and visually during their visit. We found that recruits could only recall 14% of what was told to them, or shown to them, on their visit.
Now, did smart, college-ready prospects all of a sudden get dumbed-down once stepping onto a campus? Of course not. They weren’t able to recall most of the facts and information they heard because of two key things:
- They are bombarded with so much new information in that setting, and over the entire recruiting process, that they can’t take it all in, much less retain it. Their maximum information intake stream resembles a stream of water from a faucet, but coaches and colleges are pumping it out to them in an ongoing blast of information that feels like a firehose.
- When they’re on a campus visit, they’re not there to ‘learn’ about it or collect data. They’re visiting you to get a ‘feeling’ for the campus. It’s like going to the latest Spiderman movie and being expected to focus on the expert editing throughout the film, rather than getting lost in the feel and visuals and the story of the movie we’re watching.
- None of us – especially the easily distracted teens we’re recruiting – do all that well at taking in and remembering facts that we’re told verbally.
Couple all of this together, and you understand why I’m making this simple but important case to you, Coach: You need to repeat messages, facts and stories over and over again throughout the process. Your recruits forget way more than they remember, and we see that happening on a regular basis, across sports, genders and division levels.
If that makes sense, begin to implement three simple but effective protocols as soon as possible with your recruiting class:
- Commit to a regular written message series that recruits can take in over time, again and again. Many coaches make the observation that when they see prospects interacting with messaging from their recruiting management apps, that recruit may open and read an email or other message six or seven times. Really??? Do you read your emails six or seven times? No. But the reason they do is because they are taking in information that you’re presenting, over and over, making sure they’re not missing anything and confirming that you’re interested in them. They will read your emails, and they will read your letters, if you write them correctly and are consistent in sending them every six to nine days.
- Don’t be afraid of repeating your story about things that they may have already seen or heard. It may sound odd to you to repeat something they just went over with you in person or otherwise, but for your recruit, it’s one of those “oh yeah, I forgot about that, thanks for reminding me” moment. And, it’s one that most of your competition doesn’t know they should be doing.
- Explain the ‘why’ behind what you’re saying. What I mean is, give them added or repeated information but add in why it’s important, why it sets you apart from other programs and campuses, and how they should think about it. You’re not forcing them to think a certain way; rather, you’re giving them your opinion on how they should look at what you’re saying as the way to define what you’re offering them as a student-athlete. Doing this simple third step is key in cementing the information into their otherwise distracted, forgetful developing minds.
Is this a cure-all approach? Hardly. But it’s by far the best method for defining your story – and separating what you offer – compared to their other choices. Repeated explanations of what your campus offers, and why they should want it, is something that every coach will see as a long term difference maker as they build their programs.
Did you know Dan Tudor and his team work with more than 500 coaching staffs and programs around the country to help them produce exactly what we’ve been talking about in this article? It’s true! If you’d like to find out more, and discover why so many coaches team up with Tudor Collegiate Strategies, click here.