Developing Recruiting Actions That Compare and Contrast and Differentiate

Why it's the key action coaches can take to win more recruits than they realize

Your budget isn’t enough.

The facility is underwhelming.

A competitor who won the conference last season just weaseled his way into the recruiting conversation.

And yet, there’s still a budget-neutral, facility-negating, anti-weasle strategy that any coach, at any level, on any budget can execute. It’s not a 100% guarantee, but it’s the best long term communication and recruiting strategy helping coaches win recruits over the long term. I think you should put it to work.

But to win, you need to compare your oranges to their apples, and make sure your prospect understands what those differences are.

Why it’s so important to explain how you’re different:

Your prospect is making their decision over the long term, and when you are going up against a competitor that is in a better overall position in some way, it isn’t a quick fix. Coaches who want it all to turn around with a phone call or a simple email with some bullet points telling them how great you are won’t work. In fact, when you and I are in the process of trying to decide between one, three or ten options we’re faced with, we think about it a lot. Over and over again, for a decent amount of time. That’s 100% normal, of course, but we tend to forget about that method of decision-making when it’s applied to your prospect, and the decision they are making.

When we are faced with that problem I just outlined, we are searching out reasons to put one choice above another. And your recruits are the same: Don’t just tell them you ‘want’ them, tell them why your program is going to be the best choice, and why they should choose you. If I’m your prospect, I need to understand what you would say are the reasons I should pick you, and that involves drawing a line in the sand by listing some selling point that is in your favor for your campus and program, and then comparing, contrasting and differentiating yourself side by side with that competitor.

Some ideas working for college recruiters right now:

Again, none of these are guaranteed to work every time, in every unique situation. That said, these are strategic actions move the needle - and in many cases, equalize situations that were once deficits for a coach who is facing-off with a competitor who