Being Tempted to Go Long When You Should Be Going Short

One big habit we try to get college coaches to change is overwhelming a prospect with information when they first show signs of interest. Here's why:

Remember these rules of teenage prospect interaction - especially in a stressful first-time buying decision process (which is what your recruit is going through, Coach):

• I’m not sure I’m interested in you and what you could offer, even if I fill something out and send it to you.

• The more information you send me about your school, team, and the process all at once, the less I read and remember.

• I’m a squirrel. I’m scared, I don’t trust what I’m seeing, and this interaction with you could end up being a horrible mistake.

Now, assuming that’s usually true about the prospects you just added to your recruiting list (and it usually is), I want to ask you this simple question:

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“What changes should you make to the way you interact with, and reply to, your recruits?”

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The reason I’m bringing this up is because a lot of coaches we’re talking to lately have been noticing that the way they’ve been communicating early on with new recruits doesn’t seem to be getting the same response as it once did. All the interesting, relevant and ‘important’ facts that you just know your prospect needs to know aren’t getting received with the level of love and enthusiasm that you think they should.

One coach reached out and asked for some feedback on a situation he was dealing with on this whole topic. He had a gut feeling he should be doing it one way, but he was battling with his head coach who wanted to take the more traditional, long-winded approach. Here’s his core situation, and a question related to how he should respond to prospects who fill out his program’s recruiting questionnaire:

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“I want to keep it really short and sweet, essentially welcoming them to our program whereas my director wants to add stats, photos etc. to the email. However, I think it's too much information and will overwhelm the PSA.

I couldn't find any content on Tudor Collegiate Strategies that spoke about this sort of thing. What would you recommend for a follow-up email to a PSA completing our recruiting questionnaire? Better yet, do you even think it is a good idea to automate a follow-up email?

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First things first, we have done some articles on the topic of length of recruiting messages and replies, and the basics around the idea of what gets a prospect to respond and connect the fastest when it comes to the amount of information you’re giving them at one time. Here are some quick samples, just in case you want to dig into this important concept a little bit more:

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Length Matters

Why Shorter Recruiting Messages Are Better

Keeping It Short

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But let’s dig into the particulars of this coach’s question: Should he send out more data and information, or less? What gets the best long term traction?

Here was my reply (along with some teaching points afterwards that you should start applying to situations like this):

Your situation may need a slightly different approach, and as I mentioned to this coach, these ideas can be customized. But when it comes to the shorter vs longer debate in messaging to a recruit, here are the rules to live by when it comes to this generation of prospect that you are talking to: