The 6 Most Common Reasons Your Prospects Are Delaying Their Commitment

Frustrated by recruits who just can't seem to pull the trigger and commit to your program? Here are the reasons - and what you can do to fix it.

Three times this past week I had three different coaches, from three different division levels, talking to me about three prospects who seemed stuck. Right on the verge of making their final decision, but stuck.

What causes that? Not only with our prospects, but also with us when we are deciding whether or not to buy something as an adult?

There are many different reasons why our mind seems to dig in and resist us making a final decision in those situations, and they’re all rooted in psychology. And as a coach, you should understand the principles that are affecting whether or not you get the prospects that you really want and need. So what I wanted to do was share six of the most common reasons your prospect may be struggling in making their final decision, according to our research and ongoing work with the coaching staffs we partner with.

1. Your Prospect Fear Making the Wrong Choice

We’re more motivated to avoid losses (“loss aversion”) than to gain something of equal value. In other words, we’d all rather avoid the risk of 50% of pain rather than potentially get 50% of gain. So when we're buying - you, me, your prospects - we tend to think:

• “What if this doesn’t work out?”

• “What if there's a better option I didn’t find?”

• “What if my friends or social media followers criticize me or laugh at me for choosing the school I want to commit to?”

This fear can paralyze decision-making, even if the potential gain is significant. Many of your prospects are struggling with exactly what I just outlined, and they’re going to need your help to get out of this (and the other five things I’ll be talking about).

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2. Your Prospect Gets Overwhelmed from Too Many Options

Too many choices = mental burnout. Another term for this is “decision fatigue”, and your prospect is just like us - the more we compare, research, and analyze, the harder it gets to feel confident about any one decision. Especially when they haven’t made this kind of a decision before in their lives, for the most part. Even if it’s your fourth child going through a college decision, as a parent you know that each child is unique, as is a decision like this.

• We delay or avoid choosing just to escape the mental drain.

• Fatigue leads to indecision.

• Indecision leads to delay, ignored text messages and voicemails from coaches, and putting off the decision until directed to make it.

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3. Your Prospect May Like You, But They Aren’t Sold on You Being the Smartest Choice

If we can’t clearly see the benefit vs. cost, we hesitate. Specifically, as a recruit, we know from our research that prospects generally decide with their heart, but then