by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
“If we can just get them to visit campus, we can get them to commit.”
This is something I hear from a lot of coaches that I talk to. And it is usually true! If you get a recruit to visit campus, the chances that they end up coming usually skyrocket.
But, just having them visit doesn’t guarantee anything. That visit needs to go well. It needs to be different than the recruit’s other visits and they need to accomplish what they are looking to figure out on that visit.
I am going to give you two common mistakes that coaches make on campus visits. That way when you plan your next visit, you can avoid them and make sure that visit goes really well!
1) Little to no incorporation of the current team
I will say that most coaches incorporate their current team on the visit. But, how much are they involved? How much time does that recruit get to spend with your current athletes?
Our research at Tudor Collegiate Strategies says that your recruits want to spend at least 50% of their visit just hanging out with the younger athletes on the team.
That means whether they come for a four-hour visit or a two-day visit, they want to spend at least half of their time with the team. No coaches. No parents. Just hanging out with some of the younger athletes on your team.
That also means that a summer visit where no athletes are on campus is not ideal. At least if that is the only visit they plan to make. If they come on campus in the summer and none of your athletes are around, you should encourage them to make a second visit during the school year to get that interaction with the team.
Your recruits can find a lot on your school’s website. They cannot get to know your team and figure out how well they will fit in with your current group on the website, though. That is why it is such an important part of the visit!
2) Not asking a recruit to commit if you’re ready for them to say yes
Campus visits often end with the coach asking the recruit how the visit went and seeing if they have any questions (usually they don’t have any).
But, what happens less often is the coach asking that recruit if they feel ready to commit. Right then and there.
Why? It could be that the coach is unsure about the recruit. That is fine.
But, if the reason is that you don’t want to pressure the recruit or you want to give them some space to think about the visit back at home, I would highly suggest changing that approach.
What I would suggest instead is having them leave that visit with 100% clarity on how you feel about them. And the best way to do that is asking if they feel ready to commit. As long as you are ready to hear them potentially say “yes”, go ahead and ask!
If the visit went really well, you’ve built up a lot of momentum and they are feeling really good about your program by the end. They just might be ready to commit. But, they probably will not if you do not ask. And if you do not ask, that momentum might go down and will now need to be built up again from afar.
Even if they do not say yes, they’ll leave that visit knowing how you feel which will likely get them closer to ultimately choosing you. And they’ll be more motivated to figure out whatever else they need to figure out in order to make that decision sooner because they respect how straightforward you were with them!
If you give your recruit a lot of time to spend with your team on their visit and then ask them if they feel ready to commit at the end, you’ll get a higher percentage of those visits to turn into commitments!
Want more advice and training on what makes the most effective campus visit strategies? Bring us to YOUR campus to lead your athletic department through our famous On-Campus Recruiting Workshop. For coaches around the country, it’s changed the way they recruit on campus. Find out more here.