What to Do When You're a Toyota Corolla Competing for Recruits With a Mercedes

Five teaching points, along with a fantastic example (that'll make you laugh)

1. Own your story. Don’t be ashamed, don’t apologize. And for God’s sake, don’t let your competition define you.

2. Tell it with passion. Your recruits may be coming into the recruiting process with a negative view of you and your program or your school, but you can’t control that. What you can control is your tone and temperament in the way you sound, act and are viewed. If you’re going to own your story, act like it. Heck, overact like it!

3. Think you’ve told enough of it? Go longer. Give them more details, make them think more, and (if you can) make them laugh. Long term consistency, and keeping your audience engaged (even when you think they probably have had enough) is a huge key to long term recruiting success.

4. Speaking of making them laugh: Poke fun of your deficits. Laugh at your non-remodeled locker room. Laugh at whatever is going wrong. Of course, answer it and provide your take on it all, but let them see that you aren’t as sensitive and upset about it as they may think you could be. It’s powerful, and when you do it, it’s going to make you feel way better about your situation.

5. It’s about your attitude, Coach. And like I’ve said, your prospect is looking at how you answer and talk about your potential objections, not just the actual objections.

Want the perfect example of what I’m talking about?

Here you go: