How Do Great Coaches Manage the Grind of Recruiting?
Here's what three leaders of consistently good college programs have taught me over the last decade
One of the things that coaches preach to their team all the time is consistency: In practice, in competition, in the classroom. And yet, based on nearly two decades of experience, do you want to know what hurts more coaches’ careers than anything else?
You guessed it: A lack of consistency…especially in their recruiting efforts. Based on all of our research over the years, and if you’ve followed our training and advice over time, I don’t think you need much convincing that being consistent in the message you send them, over a long period of time, is what college coaches need to be doing.
But the idea is easier than the execution. Just like that pick-up, it used to be shiny and fast, but years of being on the road and out in the elements have worn it away.
In truth, recruiting is hard. It can be a grind. And it definitely ain’t sexy.
One of the coaches who sat in on one of the talks I did recently at their coaches convention emailed me about ‘The Grind’ after hearing me outline this:
Dan, thanks for the info you gave at the talk today. It’s something that’s been in the back of my mind for a while now, but it’s a struggle. I feel like I fall behind with every recruiting class, and now I’m seeing that we’re actually regressing. The players I have now are slowly making our program worse. The girls are great people, but they aren’t want we have to get her to be competitive and grow the program.
So I listen to what you said, and it makes sense, but honestly it just seems so overwhelming I don’t know where to start. I get the feeling I have a lot of catching up to do.
Did any of that strike a chord, Coach?
He knows that the data we talk about all the time says recruits want to hear from a coach every 6 to 9 days with a written message that explains why they should choose your program, and why you’d be the better option compared to the other schools they’re looking at. Again, easy to agree with in theory, tougher in actual practice.
But it can be done. I’ve seen it with my own eyes… (here’s how):
Three different clients we’ve worked with for close to two decades have developed outstanding habits that, for a coaching peer on the outside looking in, kind of look like just part of The Grind.
In actuality, it’s not. They have a system, and it governs how they manage their recruiting process.
And while what I’m about to tell you shouldn’t be viewed as a 3-step cure all for every one of your recruiting and organizational struggles, it can prove to be the core of what you would put in place as the start of a more systematic process to get better recruits into your program. They’re what these three coaches lean on, and it seems to be working for them, so I just wanted to share with you what I shared with that Division I coach I heard from:
Those three good coaches all had a designated time of the week that they focused on their recruiting message. One of the staffs found their best time was 9am to 11am on Tuesdays. Every Tuesday, that’s a repeated time slot blocked out on their calendars…whether they’re in the office, or everyone’s in different cities, or they’re waking up in a hotel room while they’re scouting summer tournaments, that is their time to organize all of their recruiting messaging for the next 7 days, and make sure they’re all on the same page with all their top recruits.
Those three good coaches make sure they set a defined timeline for their prospects’ decision making process. And they don’t sway from it that often. It’s one of the core concepts we teach when we go to a campus and lead one of our multi-day recruiting workshops for athletic departments. Two of these coaching staffs were taught the principles of setting and maintaining a timeline, and the other coaching staff had just learned it on their own through trial and error. All three now firmly, and fairly, control the process by discussing and agreeing to a timeline for decision making with their recruit. Are there exceptions they make to that rule? Absolutely. But it’s rare, and when they do it, it’s justified.
Those three good coaches put a priority on connecting with the parents of their prospects really early in the process. When you create a simple, straight-forward plan to communicate with parents right away, you stand out compared to your competition - and parents take notice.
Simple? Yes. The key for them is putting each one of those things into practice weekly, which has helped each program become consistently great recruiters.
Look, it’s up to you as far as what to do, how often to do it, and what your message is. The big point I want to get across is that like with anything else in your program that you deem successful, organizing a strategy around how you execute a consistent, long term message to your recruits is going to quite possibly get you over the hump when it comes to landing the recruits you really, really need.
It’s working for three consistently successful coaches. It’ll work for the coach who asked the question a few days ago. And, it’ll work for you.
Questions? We’re here to help, however we can. Email me at dan@dantudor.com and we’ll try to point you towards many of the free resources we have for coaches in an effort to make them better recruiters.
And if you don’t subscribe to this daily Honey Badger Recruiting email, where this was originally published, consider it for this upcoming recruiting year. It’s roughly 95 cents a day, and provides you with the very latest research, strategies and advice for an incredibly modest investment into your career…much of the same strategies and advices we give as we work one-on-one with our coaching staff clients. It’s an affordable, relevant investment into your college recruiting career. Try it. You can cancel at any time (but you probably won’t)