Recruiting Isn't Sexy

It gets old quickly, which is why most coaches struggle with it. You need a plan.

In the previous post I wrote about the necessity of outlining a plan to recruits when you are communicating with them.

I did that on a plane after finishing a workshop for an athletic department staff in the Northeast.

Not even two minutes after I pressed the “publish” button, I realized I had blown it.

I didn’t blow it by suggesting a coach should outline a detailed plan for a prospect they’re recruiting. That’s a must. But I realized there’s another aspect of ‘outlining a plan’ that is completely centered on coaches in this college athletics industry that we work in:

The plan that a college coach has to execute their recruiting strategy. To the extent coaches have one, it’s the execution of it that usually fails. Not what you’re telling the prospect, not even the medium you’re reaching them through…the actual boots-on-the-ground daily grind of churning out messaging for your recruits.

It’s not sexy, it’s not fun, it takes up time, you don’t feel like you’re good at it, you don’t know what to write them…it’s all a part of what paralyzes a vast number of otherwise talented, motivated college recruiters.

But you know what comes next, right? If you don’t execute, you won’t get better and better student-athletes year after year, your program will struggle, you’ll doubt yourself, your boss starts to doubt you, and…well, we know what comes after that.

If there’s any element to what I just said that hit a little too close to home, make a point of fixing it. I’m putting this in the same category with getting exercise, watching scouting video on your next opponent, or mowing your lawn (except those three things might technically be more fun than sending out emails or folding letters to recruits).

I’m going to dive in deep for our Honey Badger Recruiting community on this topic over the next few days, because I’m realizing that we’re getting into that time of year when the shine of a new recruiting class is getting a little dull, and the weight of the year is beginning to press down on you a little harder, and recruiting is the first thing to get ditched. But when that happens, you don’t get connections and recruiting ‘wins’ like this and this.

Want to know what to start with? Something that nearly every effective recruiting staff we’ve worked with does, whether by accident or design:

Set aside a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes a week to do nothing but produce and send messaging to recruits. Same day, same time, every single week. Or on whatever schedule you want. Not to talk about recruiting, or read our stuff, or scout new prospects, but to deliver messaging to your current prospects.

Go to the mine, mine the ore, deliver the ore.

It’s not sexy, but it’ll be the most immediate, most effective way to quadruple your recruiting results without spending a dime on your budget.

More to come on this…but by God, we’re going to come up with a plan for all this, Coach.