The Art of Putting Your Prospects in a Holding Pattern

You think you might want them, but you're not sure yet. What's the best way to keep them interested while you evaluate their emerging talent?...

In a perfect world, coaches would instantly know whether or not the prospect they’re watching is the right fit. Or if they’re going to keep getting better. Or if you really feel like they’re the right fit for the team culture you’re trying to build.

In other words, even before you might make an offer and then starting feeling like you’d want to pull it back, there’s the evaluation process before all that happens that sometimes isn’t as clear as you wish it would be.

You don’t want to commit, but you might. But you’re not sure. But…maybe.

Sound familiar?

It did for several college coaches and recruiters, who asked two really good follow-up questions that I want to answer so you know how to effectively put your prospect in what I’ve always referred to as a recruiting ‘holding pattern’ like the image above illustrates…you’re intending to land, but you’re not ready to land.

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If we don't offer someone a spot or scholarship during their junior year, but we believe in their potential and think they may continue to develop, what do you suggest we do for the year plus between not moving forward with them and them signing elsewhere? 

Whether it’s a year, or a few months, or a couple of days, there are specific things we’ve seen work best when you want to keep a prospect interested:

• Keep your normal flow of communication in place. Hopefully that’s been a consistent flow of communication that brands and sells your program on an ongoing basis. So, whatever you’re doing with your communication back and forth with that recruit, keep it going. Don’t let them get the feeling that something has changed with your interest in them as you delay moving forward.

• Explain your timeline. One of the top things recruited athletes talk with us about in the focus group sessions we do with them is their frustration with not know where they stand, or what the process will be looking like down the stretch. That uncertainty can lead them to become more interested in a different program recruiting them who are being more clear with their interest. With that in mind, it’s imperative that as you put them in a holding pattern, you explain how they