Your 2021 Recruiting Message Goal
Aiming for greatness when it comes to your program's recruiting results? Aim for this:
The truth is, your recruiting messaging may be in desperate need for an overhaul.
It was in desperate need before the pandemic of 2020 hit, and it’s only grown worse, for some of you. What used to be fading interest and the challenge of landing a good conversation with your top prospects has devolved into an even slower moving, more indecisive process on their part.
One of our new clients put it this way:
“I feel like the longer the process goes on, the hill I’m climbing gets steeper and steeper to the point where I can maintain my footing. That didn’t used to happen when I started ten years ago, but it’s like everything’s changing in the way this generation is communicating with myself and other coaches.”
If that’s true - if this next generation of your best recruits are truly aiming for something in a different direction - then it makes sense for you to adjust your aim as well, right?
As we enter 2021, let me suggest a new goal as you’re creating your next round of messaging:
You don’t need to tell them everything they need to know about you, your program or your school. You need to tell them just enough to create a conversation with you.
For the last 15+ years of working with college coaches, the fatal flaw I see coaches at all levels make when it comes to communication with this generation of teenage student-athlete is when they pummel their prospect with so much raw information that it creates confusion and communication paralysis. They literally don’t know why you’re telling them everything you’re telling them, especially when they didn’t you about it. And since it’s so much information being sent to them, their go-to response to it is to wait for more information.
They don’t want more detailed information, necessarily, but they’ll wait for it. Why? Because…what else are they supposed to do? Nothing, because most coaches don’t tell them what they want the prospect what to do next. (I think the picture I’m painting is what they call a vicious circle, Coach).
How do you get out of that vicious circle in 2021?
Tell them just enough to create a conversation with you.
Example:
Instead of listing off all of the awards and rankings your college has garnered over the years, list the two most impressive and then ask your prospect, “Does any of this really matter to you? Are you using any of this to make your final decision? If you aren’t what kinds of things will your decision come down to?”
Listing off all of the awards and rankings your college has garnered over the years is what every other college does, and probably won’t create a conversation. Using a pared down version of that as an introduction to some good follow-up questions will.
Coaches who have followed TCS and this Honey Badger Recruiting training site for a while now understand the power of the story - not only can it establish reasons for choosing you, but it can also insulate you from negative outside influences (and influencers) who might otherwise be effective at swaying your recruit away from you. The power of a great story, in the form of your consistent recruiting message, can also lead to better, deeper, more impactful conversations with prospects this new year. And for many of you, that’s the simple difference-maker you need to move from good to great.