Recruiting: Horse Race or Beauty Pageant?

GREAT article from Dan Tudor (www.DanTudor.com):

Your Recruiting Strategy: Horse Race or Beauty Pageant?

One of our clients alled a couple of weeks ago, and she was worried.
A couple of her new recruits hadn’t responded to her first two emails and was wondering if we needed to highlight more of the things her Division I college had to offer their students and athletes.
“I’m worried if we don’t out-shine a couple of our other competitors soon, we won’t be able to get her on campus this Spring”, said the coach.
What I told her is what I want to tell you:
Recruiting isn’t a beauty pageant, it’s a horse race.
Here’s what I mean:
A beauty pageant is all about picking who looks the best, and who presents themselves the most convincingly to the judges.  Now I’ll admit, there are some recruits who fall into this category…they’ll pick a program using the most basic criteria:  How new your facility is, how big of a conference you play in, or strictly based upon something that they want for themselves.
The beauty pageant prospect is the toughest to land because they are making choices based on assumptions and stories that they’ve already defined for themselves:  The decision that they “deserve” to play in the best facility…what your conference will say to their friends and teammates back home…or some other off-the-wall criteria that they usually don’t reveal until they’ve already made their decision.
In short, if you’re recruiting a prospect like you’re judging a beauty pageant – which many coaches choose to do – then you’ll going to experience a tough road when it comes to recruiting great athletes for your program:  Your results will be random, and while you will experience some incredible highs when your prospect decides your program is the most “beautiful” in their eyes, there will also be far more soul-crushing defeats when they decide they don’t like the way you look.
If you’re interested in another way to approach recruiting, you should think about recruiting as a horse race.
Why a “horse race”?  Because the more I observe recruiting at different levels, the coaches that take a horse racing approach usually have more consistent, more reliable results.
Here’s why successful recruiting resembles a horse race:

• Everyone starts evenly right out of the gate.
• There are always two or three horses that jump out into the lead right away, and take a position along the rail.  If you’re one of those top three, great.  If you aren’t, don’t panic.  Find your spot and settle in for the race (remember, it just started a few seconds ago!)
• This is where things get interesting: Before they field makes the first turn, horses start dropping out.  Usually that’s because those “horses” don’t hear back from their recruits right away.  They haven’t filled-out their questionaire, or returned the first email.  Due to that lack of interest, they drop out of the race for that prospect.  My recommendation to you is to not be one of those drop-outs!
• The longer you stay up with the leaders, the more you’ll be viewed as a serious consideration by your recruit.  As you enter the halfway point in your recruiting efforts, stay consistent and understand that there’s still a long way to go in the mind of your recruit.
• What gets it done “down the stretch”?   Outlining the differences between your program and the others still in the race.  The more radical and unique the differences, the better your chances of jumping out into the lead.
• Want to make sure you win at the finish line?  Stay connected and talk with your prospect regularly.  It is extremely important, Coach.  The worst thing we see a coach do is step back and leave the prospect alone to make their final decision.  Guide them down the stretch…that’s what they want.

Beauty pageants are random, and produce subjective results that rarely make anyone but the winner happy.
Horse races are about preparation, strategy and strength down the stretch.
My main point: You can choose the strategy that fits you best, but what I see working most consistently with programs around the country is a strategy based on a long term approach that doesn’t necessitate immediate interest from high profile prospects, but instead relies upon a consistent, compelling and creative message that forces them to take serious look at you and your program.

"Passion" vs. "Pressure" in Recruiting

 

With thanks to @DanTudor for this great article from his  excellent newsletter...if you don't know Dan, you need to check out his website www.DanTudor.com and subscribe to his newsletter!



Passion vs. Pressure.
There’s a big, big difference.
And quite honestly, most college coaches get it wrong.

When you’re trying to close a recruit, and get them to commit to your program, one of the worst things to do is to give them the feeling that they are being “pressured”.  Pressure might lead to an initial commitment, but in the long run that athlete is going to be a strong candidate for transferring or talking negatively about the way he or she was recruited.

In my opinion, after interviewing hundreds of current college prospects on how they made their decision in committing to a program, pressuring an athlete is bad.

Passion, on the other hand, is good.  Very, very good.

If you demonstrate passion to your prospect, it’s very likely you’ll achieve the same effects as you would hope to achieve by pressuring them: Excitement about your program, a strong reason for committing to you and your college, and a faster commitment.

Very few college recruiters, unfortunately, don’t do the passion part very well.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, and to show you what a big difference there is between the two, let me give you a few contrasting examples of “passion” versus “pressure” when recruiting your athlete:

Passion is when you tell your recruit why you like him, and what value you see him having in your program.  Pressure is when you matter-of-factly tell your recruit who else you’re recruiting at his position, and what he’s going to lose if he doesn’t make a fast decision.

Passion is when you tell them that you’ve decided you want her to play for you, and they officially ask her if she’s ready to commit because you are really excited about her future in your program.  Pressure is when you give her a 48-hour deadline after her campus visit to make her decision, or else you’ll yank the offer and give it to the next girl on your list.

Passion is when you smile and sit forward in your chair when you’re talking to your prospect.  Pressure is when you lean back, look at your cell phone every two minutes, and seem like you’re ready to walk your prospect over to admissions so they can start their exciting two hour PowerPoint presentation with the assistant to the assistant Director of Financial Aid so you can get back to work.

Passion is an impromptu visit to the office of a coach of another sport on your campus to introduce you to your recruit on campus so that they see the opportunity is with an athletic department family, and not just their sport.  Pressure is sitting with your prospect cooped-up in your office talking only about your sport.

Passion is taking a blank sheet of paper, sitting next to your recruit, and explaining to her what you see as the plan for her after she commits, and what the next twelve months look like for her when she joins your program.  Pressure is you talking about how she’ll have to pay her dues and wait her turn if she decides she wants to play for you.  (Note: Yes, that might be an honest assessment of their chances in your program.  But most recruits want to hear about what they need to do to beat out that Senior returning starter…because most of them think they can, and they’d like to see that you’re on board with that dream, too).

Passion is getting him to spend time with the Freshmen and Sophomores on your team and letting them sell him on coming there.  Pressure is putting them with a 23-year old redshirt Senior who they have nothing in common with, and sending the two of them off to lunch together for two hours (true story example there…one of the more awkward observation sessions we did for one of our clients when we were on campus).

Passion is involving her parents in all aspects of the recruiting message, which is what most kids want according to our research.  Pressure is what she feels back at home when you don’t do that, and she wants to go to your program but doesn’t feel like she can because mom and dad never really got to know you as well as your conference rival that she’s going to settle on.

Passion is consistently keeping in touch with her, showing him that you are in it for the long haul and don’t take them for granted.  Pressure is what they feel when they try to figure out why you haven’t talked to them lately (they assume you might not be as interested in them as you once were, and begin to look for coaches who they think will be more interested).

That’s a short list, but an important list.

The big question now is: What are you going to do with this information, and how will it change the way you recruit this current class of prospects? (No pressure).

The Elevator Speech

The quietest place on planet Earth is a crowded elevator in the morning. That is unless I’m in the elevator with you...


(I'm editing this article to first highlight the points that can relate to coaches; follow that up by reading  Dan Jourdan's blog post)

1. Smile at strangers and say good morning even if you don’t feel like it. If you act friendly and approachable you will become that way.

2. Always be on the look out to meet more people. Your database of contacts will be your most important asset and will be your road to making your fortune.

3. Be prepared with standard opening lines to start a conversation. Somehow poke fun at yourself and be prepared to laugh if people join in at your expense.

Shakespeare wrote once that “All the world is a stage and we are merely players”. It may have been the rock band “Rush” who said it that way in 1981 but the point is made. We are social creatures and communication is for enjoyment as much as it is necessity. Use your opportunities to meet people even if it means having some strangers on an elevator laugh at you once in a while. Remember, it’s not who you know, but who knows you!

Most people put their head down or look up at the numbers, which one are you? There is of course the option of being the guy that talks loudly on his cell phone, but nobody would admit to that one. Me, as soon as the bell rings, I am on stage. I figure as long as I have been selling I have been taught to have an elevator speech, a 30 second description of what you do and how you do it. Why not use it in the most obvious place?



The other day I was on the elevator going to the seventeenth floor of the building for a breakfast meeting. There were five other people with me. The doors shut, and…show time. I gave my standard opening line to the audience, the same one I used for the first sentence of this article. Judging by the smiles I then decide which group to begin a conversation with. If you are not smiling now, I probably would not be talking to you.

In this case I got three smiles, one texting on their phone and one person with I-Pod on and earplugs in, both in their own world at the moment. The brief conversation went well with people offering pleasantries as they were exiting the elevator. One gentleman who I was talking to stayed for the entire ride to the Seventeenth floor with me. When we decided to exchange business cards, you guessed it; this was the guy I was to meet for the breakfast meeting.

The meeting went well and I made the sale, not because of any sales tactic or system. I made the sale because I was having a good time on an elevator and made a friend and a good first impression with a person just for the fun of it. How many opportunities like this do you have every day that you are not taking advantage of?

Dan Jourdan – Managing Partner at Neighborhood Business Brokers and Gitomer Certified Speaker