Explaining Why You’re Better
Something big your prospects are looking for
Traditional recruiting tells college coaches to list-off features and benefits of their program and campus to their recruits.
The problem with that is obvious:
All of your competitors are doing the same thing. Throughout the process, coaches are engaged in hand-to-hand recruiting combat with each other, battle to a five way tie for first place (or last place) with most recruits.
Now look, you can keep doing it the way you’re doing it. How you tell your story is up to you. But let’s not be surprised when we see kids break the tie by completely illogical means: What the color of your uniforms are, what their uncle’s opinion of your assistant coach is, or the angle that the grass is cut at on your campus is.
(Each one of those has been used as a tie-breaker in the focus group research we do for our clients when we asked their freshmen why they said no to their #2 choice. Including the last one. I swear to our good Lord in heaven.)
Can I suggest a different approach?
Instead of telling them what you have, tell them why you’re better.
I’m not talking about negative recruiting, I’m talking about giving your prospects a reason to choose you. You’re all sounding the same, Coach…and your prospects are confused.
They want you to tell them why they should choose you.
How is your business degree better than the other choices I’m thinking about?
Why is your coaching style the one I should want?
When I get to campus, why will I have more fun as a student?
Where you’re located: What should I think about that?
Try it, Coach. You’re going to see an immediate difference in the way your recruits begin to picture you - and, more importantly, how they define you compared with your competition.
A good companion to this advice is the article we published for subscribers earlier, “Ask More Questions in Your Recruiting Emails”.
At the core, your recruits are trying to answer their internal questions about you, your competition, and the recruiting process. Be the coach that answers those questions, and watch them gravitate towards you…and not your competitor. That article will give you insights on how to do that.
By the way, if you’re not a subscriber, give it a try. You can always cancel, but we doubt you will…we’re dedicated to giving you next-level, daily recruiting insights and research that helps you be a better college coach. All for a whopping 95 cents a day. That’s like four or five Starbucks coffees.