by Dan Christensen, Tudor Collegiate Strategies
In recruiting, you are constantly trying to get the attention of some prospects, build deeper relationships with others, and close the ones you really want for your program. Whether it’s during normal recruiting years, or a unique crisis like the Coronavirus pandemic.
At different stages, there are different parts of your story that need to be told. There are certain questions to ask in certain situations.
Even with all this variety, consistency needs to be at the forefront of your recruiting strategy. Here are two reasons why that is so important:
1) It can allow you to set an unfair standard of communication
Whether you are beginning to recruit an athlete or have been for a while, you want to stand out.
There needs to be things you do differently and better than every other coach that is recruiting the student-athletes you are talking to. If you can communicate differently than other coaches by being the most consistent, it is one of the best ways to stand out. In a sense, you’re creating that unfair standard that other coaches are forced to try and keep up with.
Some coaches try to stand out by over-communicating early in the process. The problem is that it can be hard to maintain throughout several months or even years. And recruits don’t want to be overwhelmed. They want to hear something meaningful from you every six to nine days. Which is a little more manageable but still a challenge.
Coach, if you accept that challenge and communicate your story effectively, every six to nine days, there will be very few other coaches, if any, that will be able to compete with the standard of recruiting communication you have set for that prospect.
2) If you are not consistent, the number of responsive athletes in your pool will dwindle
Eighty percent of the time, when recruits lose interest in communicating with a coach, it is because of a lack of consistency in the coach’s communication.
Without consistent communication, your recruits will stop responding when you do end up contacting them. If you instead set that standard from reason number one, recruits will not only respond but look forward to your next message.
We’ve created several special online training sessions on our Tudor University site that will teach coaches how to communicate consistently, and why it’s such an important facet in a recruit’s decision making process. Click here to start going through the program we’ve designed for serious college recruiters.