by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
One of the most important things you need to do with recruits is guide them through their college decision process.
These teenagers you are communicating with are largely lost as they go about this recruiting process. They’ve never gone through this before. You have!
And so, your guidance is something they are seeking. The coaches that do the best job of guiding will often have the best chance at landing their top recruits.
One of the most critical parts of the process that recruits need to be guided through is their final decision.
When should they make their decision? When will they be ready? When will you as the coach be ready for them to commit? How will they know?
These are all questions your prospects have and need answers to. The best solution?
You as the coach of the program, decide when you want to wrap up recruiting for that class. Then communicate that to your recruits. And most importantly, stick to it.
Why is it so important to stick to your timeline?
1) If you don’t, it brings doubts into your prospect’s mind
A core part of being successful at recruiting is explaining to recruits why they should choose you. Why are you a destination program they should be excited about?
Well, regardless of how you answer that question, when you don’t stick to your timeline, you give off the impression that you’ll wait around forever for that recruit.
Which would be the nice thing to do right? Maybe. But, when this is the case, some doubts actually creep into your prospect’s mind.
They start to wonder, “if that coach will wait around forever for me, how good is that program? Is there no line at the door of prospects that want the spot they are offering me?”
This kind of doubt can cause a recruit to disregard positive thoughts they previously had about your program.
2) If you don’t, you’ll be recruiting later than you’d like
Would you rather be done recruiting when you want to be done or whenever your recruits decide on their own that they are ready to fill up your roster?
I would hope that you would like to be in control of your own recruiting class.
This is your job, coach. Your career. How you provide for your family. The recruiting class you bring in is critical to the success you have in all of this.
One of the most stressful parts of the year is when recruiting is continuing when you’d like to move on to the next class or focus on other aspects of your job.
But, because you do not have a timeline, or didn’t stick with the one you started with, you are having to wait until April, May, June, July, or even August to finish up your class. Not ideal right?
Coach, stick with your timeline. Being in control of this process provides so many benefits for you and your staff, besides just bringing in solid recruits.
Have questions about how to handle your timeline effectively? Email Dan at danchristensen@dantudor.com to set up a strategy call!