by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches 

I have been working with a lot of coaches lately who have experienced a string of disappointments with their recruits (such as poor performance, attitude problems and personality conflicts) because they failed to find that right personality fit for their program and team. 

If you are like every other coach out there, you spend a lot of time getting to know them as an athlete, you build a personal relationship, get them to commit, and truly believe that they are going to work out to be the difference maker your program needs.   Then for some reason, they don’t turn out quite like you thought they would on and or off of the competitive field. 

But it doesn't have to be that way. If you take the time to plan your recruiting process more carefully, you will see a huge payoff in the end in the performance and chemistry of your team. Recruiting is the lifeblood of your program, and choosing who to recruit doesn't need to be such a gamble if you approach it strategically.

A key part of the recruiting process is developing good behavioral type questions to ask via email, over the phone, or even better, when you are face to face with them in your office.  Here are 6 tips for digging deeper in an effort to find the recruits that will in fact be positive additions to your program:

1. First, know what kind of person you are looking for.  Notice I said person, not athlete.  A mistake I see a lot of coaches make is they recruit the athlete and don’t do much digging into what their values are, their leadership capabilities, and other character based qualities about the person.  Start by making a list of your own values and character qualities. Then list what values and character you want in the people in your program. 

2. Before you meet with a recruit, formulate and know the types of questions you want to ask recruits that will get you the information you need.  If you don't, you run the risk of the conversation turning into an informal conversation, and you'll end up offering a scholarship or roster spot to someone because you like him or her, not because he or she is the best fit for your program and team. 

3. To get the best information from your recruits, you want them to be comfortable with you. To do this, it is best to start off with questions that are easy to answer. This puts these 16-18 year olds you’re recruiting at ease and gives you an opportunity to develop rapport with them.

• What are the first three things you do when you get up in the morning?
• What music is on your IPod?
• What do you love about your current team?

By building trust and confidence at the beginning of the conversation through questions like these, you will be in a much better position to discover the recruit's attitudes, beliefs and past patterns of performance.

4. After you've warmed-up the recruit, you can then move to behavioral questions that will tell you how well they have demonstrated the values or characteristics that you have determined are critical to your program’s development, culture, and team. The thinking behind these types of questions is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. 

By getting recruits to talk about what they did in a specific situation, you get a glimpse of how they will likely react in a similar situation with your team or in competition. What's even better, with careful questioning you can start to understand the values and motivations of the person you're recruiting, and from this decide whether they have the positive attitude, competitiveness, leadership, or decision making abilities that you want in your program. 

Typical lead-ins for any behavioral type questions you may ask include:

• Tell me about a time when…
• Give me an example of…
• Please describe a situation where you…

5. Dig deeper.  A question that gets asked during almost every traditional recruiting conversation goes something like this: "What do you think are your strengths?" The recruit responds with an equally predictable answer like, "I'm very loyal teammate and I put 100% effort into my play."  You can take that information at face value and form a high opinion of the recruit, or you can ask for proof of the person's loyalty and commitment by asking a question like this: "Tell me about a time when you demonstrated loyalty. Why do you think this specific example shows loyalty?"

6. If you're not getting useful information from a recruit, try using a negative question: "Tell me about a time when this didn't work?  What went wrong?  What did you do to correct the situation?  Negative questions can help you discover how well recruits learn from their mistakes, as well as how willing they are to admit mistakes and take responsibility for them.

Every conversation you have whether it is via email, phone, or face to face, is an opportunity to find concrete evidence that a recruit can do what they say, and that what they do will result in a positive outcome once they are a part of your program. When a recruit describes what they did, don't assume it was done well. You must dig deeper than face value and confirm that what recruits say they did was actually advantageous to their team.

Getting the players who will be a good fit for your program takes preparation and practice. Be prepared to ask questions that will give you the best predictive information about how well a recruit will perform on the job once they are a part of your program. These six tips, if used properly, will bring you much success in finding the recruits that will be a positive addition to your program.

Mandy Green is the resident team development specialist for Selling for Coaches.  For information on bringing Mandy to your college to work with you and your athletes, email her directly at mandy@sellingforcoaches.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You are invited to attend the 3rd Annual National Collegiate Recruiting Conference, the nation's only gathering dedicated for one sole purpose: To make college coaches and Athletic Directors better, more informed, more confident recruiters.

The site for the 2010 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference is the upscale Mart Plaza Hotel in the heart of Chicago, Illinois. 

Join us on Friday, July 16th through Sunday, July 18th, 2010 for an incredible time of networking with fellow coaches and learning from some of the college athletics premier recruiting experts.

In the months leading up to this year's National Collegiate Recruiting Conference, we'll be unveiling the schedule of events and list of speakers, including this year's keynote guest speaker.  Stay tuned for a complete list of speakers and topics!

The registration deadline is June 30, 2010.  The cost for this year's conference is $199, but we are once again offering an early registration discount of just $149 for those that register before May 25, 2010.  In addition, we have a select block of discounted rooms at the Mart Plaza Hotel reserved for our first group of registrants.  Upon receiving your registration, we will send you the instructions for reserving your discounted room rate.

Year after year, coaches who attend this annual Summer conference say that it changes the way they recruit and gives them new ideas and direction when it comes to recruiting.  This year will be the best conference yet, with more ideas from more speakers than ever before.  And, we'll be doing it all from one of the most spectacular views in Chicago...overlooking downtown and the downtown waterway.

Space is limited, so make your plans now to attend this year's 3rd annual National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago, July 16-18, 2010!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER FOR THIS YEAR'S CONFERENCE!

Posted by Dan Tudor at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Babe Ruth said it best: "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." 

So, should you want to brag about your yourself and your program?

You bet!

As a society, we're surrounded by people who confidently promote their ideas.  And for the most part, we're drawn to those individuals.  They inspire us, challenge us, and make it impossible to ignore their message.

From the world of politics, you have an individual, Barrack Obama, on one side of the aisle who used confident bragging to win the historic 2008 Presidential election.  On the other side of the aisle, you have an individual, Rush Limbaugh, who uses confidence and bragging to build the nation's largest talk radio audience.  Both men have power, and both have used a certain degree of "bragging" to win us over (or enrage us, depending upon your political point of view).

Sometimes, that confidence and bragging happens with non-verbal communication.  In New Orleans' big Super Bowl win, Saints' coach Sean Payton started the second half unconventionally with an onside kick, which his team recovered.  Commentators, and the opposing coach, called that a "statement" play that ultimately swung the momentum in the Saints' favor.

And that's what bragging does...

It's a momentum changer.  It's the x-factor in recruiting.  It separates coaches who have a passionate vision of where they want to take their program from those that are content with just "holding down the fort".  Guess which coach a teenage prospect and their parents are going to be drawn to more often?

But in my work with college coaches, I know that the majority of you would bristle at the idea of "bragging" about yourself.  There seems to be something just not right about doing it...something unprofessional...something that is just plain wrong.

I'd agree with you, to a point.  There's a right way, and a wrong way, to brag about you and your program.  Because it's so important that you do it for this next recruiting class, here are five of the right ways to effectively - and professionally - brag:

1. Show unapologetic confidence.  Recruits have a very short window with which to judge you and your program.  Sometimes, it isn't so much what you say but how you say it (both in the way you construct your messages to them, as well as your tone).  Confidence is the professional form of bragging.  It isn't necessarily verbalizing "Look at me, I'm the best!"; rather, it is that look in your eyes, the confident tone in your voice, and the read-between-the-lines message that says, "If you come to my program, you're going to have a GREAT athletic career."  Do you regularly show unapologetic confidence to your recruits?  How? 
2. Define yourself, and make your program stand for something.  With this generation of recruits, it doesn't pay to be all things to all people.  One of the things that we've outlined in our two recruiting guides for college coaches is the importance of speaking in a certain way to them, both with your voice and your written words, that define who you are as a coach and what they would be a part of should they decide to come to compete for your program.  You and your program need to define what you want in an athlete, how you compete, where you are going, and what role that athlete is going to play in your program.  Have you defined yourself and developed an identifiable "brand" for your program?  How?
3. Use strong, consistent language.  When you present a message to your recruit, it needs to reach out and demand interaction from them.  It needs to tell them exactly why you're the best choice, and precisely why student-athletes like them excel under your leadership.  When we're building recruiting plans and messages for our clients, one of the things that we factor in is consistency...a weekly message that lays the foundation for future conversations, and the use of language that strongly demands a reaction from them.  The results are usually outstanding, and the same kind of message architecture can work wonders for you as well.  Do you use strong, demanding language in your letters and emails, and are you doing it on a consistent basis?
4. Don't blink.  One of my clients "blinked" last week in the face of an apparent defection by a verbally committed recruit.  What we perceived the prospect doing was "testing" the coach to see what the reaction would be if they didn't follow-through with their commitment to the program.  The coach in question berated the athlete for even thinking of switching commitments, and criticized the other school.  That's the wrong approach...don't blink!  Project the confidence that we were talking about earlier: Our client should have complimented the other program, said that they understood the last minute jitters, and then calmly laid-out all of the things about their program that originallly attracted the athlete to the idea of verbally committing to them in the first place.  That communicates to a recruit that you are confident in where your program is going, with or without them on board.  In effect, you are non-verbally bragging to them! When pressure situations arise, do you "blink"?  Are your actions telling an athlete that you are desperate for them? 
5. The MOST effective form of bragging?  When other people do it for you.  Your current players, your alumni, the parents of your past and present players, your athletic director, the strength and conditioning training staff, your team academic advisor, local TV and newspaper reporters, Internet bloggers...there's a seemingly non-stop list of potential third party references at your disposal.  And you know what?  They are all better at bragging about you than you are!  Why?  Because it's not you saying how great you are, it's someone else talking about how great you are based on their personal experience with you.  It's powerful.  That's why according to our research, your recruits want to spend so much time with your team when they take campus visits: They want to be around a group of people who they can ask, "So what's Coach really like?"  Getting written testimonials, and ensuring that your team is happy with their life on your team, is absolutely the best form of bragging in the world of college recruiting because it's the most believable in the eyes of your prospects.

So, don't be afraid to brag.  If you do it the right way, it will turbo-charge your recruiting message in ways that are going to really make you happy!

Want more great instruction on effectively creating a winning recruiting message?  Join experts from the world of college sports, and lots of your fellow coaches and Athletic Directors, at the 3rd Annual National Collegiate Recruiting Conference, presented by Selling for Coaches.  It's July 16-18, 2010 at the Mart Plaza Hotel in beautiful Chicago, Illinois.  There are discounts for early registrations, and a block of discounted hotel rooms we have placed on hold for our first group of registrants.  We want to see you there!  Click here for all the information.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you've somehow managed to tear yourself away from tuning-up the fax machine and making sure it's loaded with paper, and you're reading this article, I want to warn you about something as you prepare for signing-day frenzy...

There are a couple of disturbing trends that a lot of coaches - as well as our staff - are noticing this year.  Maybe its just a blip on the recruiting radar, but it's worth talking about.  And, worth preparing for.

DISTURBING TREND #1 - Your Prospects (and Their Parents) are Playing Hardball

Whether its about scholarship money or playing time, today's prospects are not afraid to play the role of the lead negotiator.  This is due in large part to the seat at the table that your prospects have given their parents in the process.

Moms and dads know how to negotiate better than kids, and they all know it.  So, prospects - both male and female - are using parents to help them with the evaluation process, as well as sifting through the details of the offer you are floating to them.

DISTURBING TREND #2 - Your Prospects Aren't Afraid to De-Commit

It happens everywhere, more and more.  It's happening here, and here, and here....all over the country, in almost every sport. 

Is it a "character" thing?  No.  They're realizing that the process that allows coaches to (rightfully) jump from job to job also allows them as prospects to (rightfully) change their mind.  And more than ever, they are doing just that.

DISTURBING TREND #3 - Your Prospects Are Making Decisions a LOT Differently Than in Years Past

It isn't just about how big your stadium is, where you finished in the conference standings, and how often you played on ESPN.  Not anymore.

Our research shows that recruits in all sports - from D1 football to D3 women's squash - are looking for other things that are more important to their generation of recruits: Things like friendship from their future teammates, honesty from the coaches who recruit them, and a general gut "feeling" of what place seems right to them.

So, what can you do about reversing these trends in your program the next time around?  Here are our recommendations:

• Don't make it all about the money.  I know, the total tuition package is the deciding factor for most recruits.  But what I don't like to see is a coach get caught-up "bidding" against another school for a prospect.  They give $1000 more, and you up your offer by another $1500...and so on, back and forth.  When you do that, everything that they should value about you and your program takes a back seat to who ends up being the highest bidder.  And often times, when you are the highest bidder, they still don't choose you.
• Never assume that the commitment is real.  It's great that they tell you that you're their number one choice, and that they are giving you a verbal commitment.  But don't believe it.  Take the attitude that verbal commitments aren't real.  Recruit them just as hard as you did before (maybe even harder, since verbal commitments tend to bring out the competitive spirit in your rivals as they come after your recruit even harder than they did before they gave you a verbal commitment).  I think we're reaching the point in college recruiting where a verbal commitment is going to count as much as them agreeing to a campus visit: It will be a good indicator of their overall interest, but by no means a guarantee that they are coming there.
• Especially at the end of the recruiting process, focus on your unique recruiting offerings.  What sets you apart from other schools?  What do you as a coach bring to the table that other coaches don't?  How does your school approach education and the student-athlete differently than others?  These things are just some of the list of "difference maker" traits that we have found work great down the stretch with our coach clients who use us to help them formulate a consistent recruiting strategy.  At the end of the process, we find that prospects are looking at all of their favorite schools in the same way...they like something about each of them, and generally like each of the coaches they are dealing with.  It's during this time that a smart coach will begin to remind them of the small differences in their program versus the others that he or she may be considering. 

I really should have ammended the title of this article to state that these are disturbing trends for coaches that won't adapt to the new decision-making standards of this generation of athlete.  For those that do, future signing days will be cause for celebration.

Need more tips to help you formulate a better strategy?  We have developed two recruiting guides especially designed for college coaches who want to recruit more effectively.  They're easy to read, offer concrete strategies to implement for your program, and use the latest recruiting techniques that we have seen work across the country.  For more information, click here.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Carrie Bigbie, Selling for Coaches 

Katherine Aiken, the Director of Technology Services for Athletics at the University of Buffalo assists coaches with the Dartfish Total Solution – tailored to meet the specific needs of sixteen UB athletic programs. 

Coaches decide what’s needed for their sport, then the Athletic Department Tech Team experts led by Aiken, create a customized solution using Dartfish technology.  How did it all start, and why did they choose Dartfish?  Read part one of this two part series to get the details.

Here's what they've implemented at the University at Buffalo:

Individual lockers on Dartfish.tv provide private access for viewing, commenting, and analyzing for coaches and athletes.

The University at Buffalo uses several Dartfish.tv Channels ‐ one for each of their sports. Each channel is set up differently depending on who needs access. For example, does the sport want to provide public access or sport camp access, or does that sport just want internal coaching access? Or are they sharing recruit videos between coaching staff that are currently traveling? As the administrator for these channels, Aiken is able to customize the channel to match the needs of each sport program.

“We found that by switching to Dartfish and Dartfish.tv for game preparation and scouting reports assistant coaches are more efficient in the breakdowns and are producing something to share much sooner with the athletes than they were with other systems. By uploading the scouting reports online the athletes are able to be more prepared for game scenarios in practice,” explained Aiken.

“The other time saver we have found,” Aiken added, “is when a sport is able to tag live during a game. When the game is over they upload videos immediately with each play tagged. For example, for a basketball game, by tagging just the offensive and defensive plays live we are able to quickly have a total of three videos available for the players and coaches to view. One video contains only offensive plays; the second contains just the defensive plays while the third is the entire game. With each play marked the players and coaches can view film within an hour or two of the game’s ending, allowing them to quickly find specific plays within the game. “

Technology set-up at the University of Buffalo. 

All programs at UB have equal access to the technology, thanks to the centralized technology budget model put in place by Athletics Director Warde Manuel soon after he arrived at the University of Buffalo.

Sports no longer have to make a choice within their budgets about whether or not to invest in technology. Aiken and her staff evaluate the technology needs of each program from a global perspective, allocating central resources considered essential for supporting the various sport programs in building winning programs while maintaining a level of fiscal responsibility. Her staff is constantly researching available technology and standardizes it throughout the Division of Athletics at UB with the goal of reliability on which the end user can depend.

“We purchase hardware and software centrally,” stated Aiken, “making it available to programs who have a justifiable need and proven desire to become accomplished in using the tools we are providing them. I was able to spread our Dartfish licenses and related hardware into the sport programs that expressed the enthusiasm to expand their coaching toolbox.
 
Aiken and the technology department provide a total solution ‐ from computers to cables, firewire cards, to portable hard drives making sure everything is compatible and working smoothly together.  This past summer the Athletics Director Warde Manuel (pictured) modified one of their practice facilities to include everything a team would need to record and review practices courtside.

“All the sport has to bring to practice is their camera and a laptop because everything else is already in place, providing the ability to capture and then project the footage via Dartfish In‐the‐Action onto a courtside flatscreen TV,” says Aiken. “This forward‐thinking investment is currently utilized by three separate programs.”

Katherine Aiken set a goal for all UB sports to develop an efficient way for both the athlete and coach to use technology effectively and Dartfish has helped her to achieve it.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 08:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Golf can be a complicated game.  Getting good college golfers to become great college golfers can be even more complicated for the men and women who coach at the collegiate level.

So it might not surprise you that it would take the brain-power of a molecular biologist to introduce a breakthrough technology to the college golf world that is getting praise from some of the West's top college programs who have started using it.

"Most stat tracking doesn't tell the whole story," says Bill Schneider, the brains behind MySmartGolf.com.  "We track the stats that are truly important for understanding and improving your game.  In the short time we have been around we have already driven other stat tracking providers to offer some of what we offer." 

Schneider has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics from Stanford University, and spent nearly two decades using his knowledge in the biotechnology industry.  One of his natural gifts was assimilating, analyzing and presenting data to his colleagues.

After 18 years as a respected technology guru in the biotech world, he decided it was time to put his expertise to work for his life-long love: Golf.  He teamed with Josh Zander, a former star on the Standford golf team who is now a regular contributor to Golf Digest magazine, and was named as one of the "Top 20 Golf Coaches Under 40" by the magazine.

The result?  MySmartGolf.com, a website that lets golfers and their coaches disect their game in a way they never have been able to do before. (Click here to find out how you can use it for free).

"Lots of golfers keep their stats but do not get much value for their effort because there was not a good way to turn that effort into valuable information", explains Schneider.  "Most stats end up in homemade spread sheets and little is done with the information."

According to Schneider, that's where the opportunity for most up-and-coming golfers exists, and what makes MySmartGolf the next big thing in analyzing a player's golf game.  "Most stat tracking does not give a complete story.  It is fine to know that you are hitting, say, 50% of the greens.  But it is better to know why you are hitting only 50% of the greens and what you need to work on to improve that."

"We are very good at what is called 'data mining', extracting useful information from large amounts of data", says Schneider.  "As more and more people use MySmartGolf, the possibilities of extracting more types of useful information grow.  We are excited about that."   

If you're a golf coach that is looking for the instructional edge for your team, MySmartGolf is an easy to use program that will give you more coaching tools that results in really useful information.  And, there's a way you can get it for free...click here for the details.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 04:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MySmartGolf.com is giving college coaches not just one, but two great offers:

1. Now through June 2010, college coaches can use the full suite of MySmartGolf.com features for free.  "It might be hard for a coach to know whether or not he or she would like MySmartGolf without first trying it out", says Bill Schneider, the founder of MySmartGolf.com.  "After all, $495 is a lot to pay without knowing if you really like it.  So we think this is a great opportunity to give it a try through the spring season with no risk or obligation."  Getting started is easy...just click here.
2. As a bonus, you can offer the MySmartGolf.com tools to all junior golfers who attend your program's Summer golf camps...at no cost to you!  It's something you'll be able to offer your campers as an added bonus at no additional cost to you, and give you additional tools to help evaluate their strengths and weaknesses as a rising golfer.  "We want to get MySmartGolf into the hands of as many golfers as possible", says Schneider.  "Plus, it's a good way to add value to a coach's camp package at no cost to them."

MySmartGolf.com, based in Northern California, is used by several Pac-10 golf programs.  But now, they're expanding their services to golf programs - large and small - around the country. 

To put the software to work for you and your program this Spring, get started today...try it for free.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Not only was the subject line in the email I was about to delete boring, it wasn't even spelled correctly!

So, in just six words, the sender told me that he wasn't very interesting, and he was quite possibly stupid.

But enough about him.  Now lets talk about your emails for a moment...

How much thought do you put into the subject lines in your recruiting emails?  The reason I ask is because the degree of creativity you put into your email subject lines is most likely directly proportional to the number of times your email gets opened by your prospects.

Think about it, Coach: You get hundreds of emails in the course of a month.  When you scan your Inbox, and decide which emails to open and which ones are going to be sent to the Trash folder, don't you make that first judgement from reading the subject line?

You probably do.  And, so does your recruit.

When we produce our Total Recruiting Solution plans for clients around the country, subject lines are something we pay close attention to.  Why?  Because our job is to get more prospect click-throughs for our clients.  And, great subject lines are a big key to that.

So, if you want to take this little aspect of your recruiting a little more seriously in an effort to get more prospects to open more of your emails, here are some ideas that we've seen work:

• Ask a question.  Make it short, and create curiosity.  For example, "Is your room at home as nice as our new on-campus suites?"
• Chop-off half the sentence.  It might prompt them to wonder what the other half says!  For example, "My athletic director wanted to know if..."
• Make it really, really short.  Short words or phrases get attention.  In this case, because most subject lines are long and rather mundane, something short and odd looking gets attention.  For example, "You".  Or, "Deadline".  Or, "Scholarship".
• Don't make it so formal.  If you're sending out a newsletter, don't make the subject line "ABC State Baseball Newsletter".  Borrow some old-time newspaper headline energy and write something like "EXTRA! The Inside Story on That Crazy 5th Inning".  See the difference?
• Be different every single time.  There are no subject lines so wonderful that they should be used over and over again.  Take a few minutes to be creative.  Don't be boring.

Oh, and speaking of boring...

Please, do something different with your "out of office" auto-reply emails.  What an opportunity to be creative and show your recruit some of your personality!  Yet most coaches don't take the time to have some fun with that email that goes out to peers, parents, your team and - most importantly - your prospects.  Take a look at what your message says...and then take two minutes to make it a little more interesting.

Little things?  Absolutely.  But the more I consult with college coaches, and see what makes one program good and another program great, the more I realize that getting the athletes you really want usually comes down to those "little things".

Writing emails and other recruiting communication is easy if you've read our two recruiting workbooks for college coaches.  They're loaded with insightful tips, new ideas and great techniques for creating better letters and emails.  To get these recruiting guides, click here.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Carrie Bigbie, Selling for Coaches    

When Katherine Aiken, the Director of Technology Services for Athletics at the University at Buffalo, begins working with the coaching staff of a sport program, she and her tech team begin by meeting with the coaching staff asking how they can best enhance that program by tailoring technology to meet that sport’s needs while saving the coaching staff valuable time.

The technology they chose was Dartfish.

Does the football program need scouting videos? Does the men’s and women’s basketball program need pre‐season workout sessions prepared using Dartfish Mediabooks? Does women’s tennis need a two camera set‐up for on court stroke analysis? Is immediate feedback with Live Capture and Instant Replay needed for an athlete learning a new dive? Will Mediabooks be needed to illustrate key skill positions for a baseball or softball coaching session on pitching, catching, or fielding?

When the need is defined, Katherine and her tech team work together with the coaching staff to develop a plan that best fits a specific athletic program’s needs and then incorporates Dartfish technology as seamlessly as possible.

Aiken’s goal at UB is to assist coaches in getting their athletes to the place where they can self-coach, self-adjust, and self-evaluate their performance to:

• Generate sports performance using the proper technique specific to their sport
• Improve understanding of sport specific biomechanics
• Empower the athlete’s self‐analysis of his/her performance
• Improve communication between the coach and athlete

“Dartfish saves us time and money while providing a coaching toolbox packed with video analysis feedback tools,” says Aiken.

Having coached at the collegiate level, Aiken knows that technology is an indispensable tool in a coach’s toolbox, but she also understands that it has to be integrated into the workflow of the sport in a way that becomes a valuable asset rather than an ongoing obstacle. And, it should save both the coach and athlete valuable time while improving performance. This means knowing the flow of the sport and the system of the coaching staff. This understanding assists in every aspect of equipment set-up from cable placement to camera angle, leading to the specific goals for video capture and feedback desired by the coach.

“We streamline and help make the workflow more efficient. At the front end of the process, I work extensively with each sport analyzing their workflow,” says Aiken. “As the process developed, the coaching staff could see that they were spending less time breaking down and making videos and DVDs which gave them more time to actually coach.”

To streamline the process and make it the most efficient for everyone from the video coordinator to the head coach, the staff and coaches determined that Dartfish was the best solution. Aiken explained that the video coordinator or assistant coach uploads the video and then the head coach and/or other assistant coaches watch the video adding comments to highlight particular points. “That is the most attractive feature we found,” says Aiken.  “They can watch the video and comment in real time. No more taking notes or making videos for later when meeting with the team. The team sees the comments the minute the coach puts it up there.”

Next week: Read how Katherine Aiken has tailored the Dartfish Total Solution package to meet the needs of sixteen different UB athletic programs.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches 

Since beginning my work with Selling For Coaches, I have spent most of my time working with coaches on team and personal development.  For many of these coaches, with so many things to get done every day, there is just not enough time in the office to accomplish the goal or goals that they set for their recruiting, team, staff, or for themselves.
 
We all have the same 24 hours in a day, yet successful coaches manage to accomplish more in their days and weeks.  How? Because successful coaches have prioritized their goals and have set aside blocks of time in their day where they do nothing else but focus on accomplishing one task. 
 
Coach, you will get more done, be more effective, and still have time left over when you "time-block" your day. You need to schedule time daily to send emails, to plan practice, to do administrative work, to return phone calls, to recruit, to manage your team, to meet with staff, etc. These activities should be clearly blocked in your schedule at specific half hour, hour-long, or however much time you need to accomplish the task time slots.
 
To get started, put all of your important activities into categories.  Let's say for example that the 4 categories you come up with are administrative, recruiting, team, and personal: 
 
Administration time is when you need to troubleshoot, get your paperwork done, schedule games, do your game reports, go to meetings, etc. 
 
Recruiting time is when you focus on nothing but recruiting your future team.  Use this time to set up your recruiting plan for next month, analyze how your recruiting is going this month,  write hand written letters, send emails, mail letters, plan what interesting questions you will ask on your phone calls that night, schedule on-campus visits, etc. 
 
Team time is when you work on your team.  This is when you're reading, planning, strategizing, thinking.  This is when you're implementing and executing.   How can you improve your productivity, their commitment, what is your training session going to be.  Scheduling time in your day to develop you team enables your program to grow and will help bring value. 
 
Personal time is when you set all of your work aside.  This is time for you to focus on you.  Personal time may fall in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, at your gym time, or at lunch.  It can also be when you have some spare time on the weekend to spend with your family.  This is your time to get recharged.  Allow yourself some time to relax and decompress mixed into your schedule. Giving yourself 15 minutes of relaxation time will enable you to stay focused and sharp during the course of your day.

Once you have categorized your important tasks, it is time to "time block" these tasks into your day.  Make sure these tasks get scheduled and done at the times you are least likely to get interrupted, such as early morning.

For example, from 7-7:30am you do administrative work, 7:30-8:30 is only for recruiting, 8:30-9:30 is when you focus on your team development, 9:30-9:45 is your personal time when you get up and stretch, get water, go to the bathroom, etc.  

Again, during these blocks of time that you have set up, you focus on doing only that task.  It is important that you don't allow yourself to check your email and you don't answer your phone during this time.  Checking your email frequently during the day is a major contributing factor to why most coaches don't get done what they need to.  Change your voice mail and e-mail message so you can let all would-be interrupters know when you'll be returning calls and getting back to them. 
 
Every day you must block out time for all of your high priority activities.  

Time blocking will allow you to experience consistent growth with more balance and less chaos in your day coach.  Trust me, I have been time blocking for a few months now and I love it!  I am getting so much more work done and now have a ton of more time at the end of the day to work on things that in the past I never had time for.  

Get into the habit of blocking out time for your most important activities on a consistent basis and you'll be unstoppable!

Successful team development is the key to taking your program from "good" to GREAT!  Selling for Coaches and Mandy Green specialize in working one-on-one with coaches who want to eliminate the waste in their day, and maximize their organizational lives as college coaches.  For more information, email Mandy directly at mandy@sellingforcoaches.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

College football has given coaches everywhere a valuable example of the primary way today's recruits make their final decisions.

No, it's not about the stadiums, the conference, or even the academic accolades at the school most of the time. 

First, a quick review of the well-publicized ups and downs of college football these past two weeks: Florida's Urban Meyer resigns, then un-resigns...Texas Tech's Mike Leach is dismissed...USC's Pete Carroll uncovers 35 million reasons he'd be a better coach in the NFL...and Tennessee's Lane Kiffin decides the beaches of Southern California beat sweet tea in the south and leaves the Vols after just one year.  And, you can add dozens of other smaller profile schools' coaching changes to that list.

The result of all this shuffling around?  Prospects are de-committing in droves.  They are re-thinking their decisions, and changing their minds.

And, it doesn't just happen in college football...other sports have the same occurance and the same results: When coaches leave, recruits change their mind.

It illustrates a hard, cold fact of life for coaches that they need to understand about this generation of teenage prospects: Our reasearch shows that one of the two major factors in how they decide if a college is right for them is their view - and their relationship - with the coach at that school.  Take the coach out of the equation, and suddenly the college isn't viewed in the same light as it once was.

Agree with me so far?  Good.  Now that I've established this nearly universal truth about today's college prospect, here's the bad news for a lot of you that are reading this:

The letters, emails and other printed material you send a prospect barely reference you.

What percentage of your mailings talk about you as a coach?  What you are like as a person?  What your coaching philosophy is?  What your plan for them is?  What you'd like them to do next in the process?

When we begin working with a college coach and their program as one of our Total Recruiting Solution clients, one of the first things we do is to establish the coach as the person that is going to be the main attraction to the program.  Sometimes, college coaches are uncomfortable with the idea of not being modest.  I try to make the best case I can for them to get past that feeling.

If it were all about the school, logic would dictate that a coach could leave and the recruits wouldn't care one bit.  But that doesn't happen: When a college coach leaves, it causes the recruit to reconsider.

So, how should you put yourself in the spotlight more effectively?  Here are some ideas that we've found to work well for our clients:

• Make all of your messages centered around you.  As you lay out all of the nice facts about your school, make sure the conversation comes back to you.  Never assume that the school or your program is going to sell the recruit on coming to your campus.
• Talk about the personal side of you along with the professional side of you.  Yes, your impressive win totals count, as do your Coach of the Year awards.  But your prospect is looking for more than that...they want to know the person behind the whistle.  Learn ways to reveal the real you to your recruits.
• Unveil your screw-ups.  Your prospects know you're not perfect.  Don't be afraid to talk about the mistakes you've made, and what you learned from them.  In our workbooks for college recruiters, we make the point that this is one of the best techniques for breaking down walls that might exist between you and your recruit. 
• Get on Twitter.  It's an incredible social networking tool that is paying off for the coaches that are using it to build a following.  Twitter is free, it's easy and it's a great way to reveal the real you to your recruits (and your fans, and your boosters, and other coaches and Athletic Directors that might be looking to hire you).
• Create a fan page on Facebook.  Update your recruits on what's going on with you and your program using the most popular communication tool in the world.  This can be one way communication out to a group that broadcasts the daily pulse of you and your program.
• Write a blog.  The benefits are too many to count.  If you want more ideas on what makes a great blog, and how to get started, click here for a popular article on the topic we did in September 2009.
• Make it all about the conversation.  All of your communication should focus on building the relationship between you and the prospect.  Not the school and the prospect, you and your prospect.  Everything you send out should prompt them to feel more connected with you.

Here's the bottom line, Coach:

Whether you're a Division III softball coach that only won three games last season, or a Division I coach that we see interviewed regularly on ESPN, the facts remain the same: Your prospects are going to pick the program who has the coach they feel most connected to.

Still don't believe me?  Just ask one of the dozens of recently de-committed football prospects who are searching for a new coach they feel connected to...they'll back me up on what I'm saying.

Looking for more winning techniques for connecting with recruits?  Bring the Selling for Coaches team to your campus.  We work with entire athletic departments, or individual sports staffs.  And best of all, it's custom designed especially for your campus. 

For more information or to schedule your session, email Dan Tudor at dan@sellingforcoaches.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches 

"If it's to be, it's up to me."

This seems to be the favorite saying of a lot of the coaches that I am working with these days. To me, it says a great deal about their willingness to delegate. These coaches work non-stop morning to night, and still do (although they are getting better), because they somehow can't embrace the notion that it's possible to get things done any other way.

Beneath the many excuses for not delegating lays the reason why many of us coaches avoid delegating things:   

True delegation means giving up a little of what we would like to hold onto (some measure of control) while keeping what we might prefer to give up (accountability).

Delegation is an area of personal and professional management that many coaches struggle with. The difficulty stems from our need to control outcomes and a strongly rooted belief that we know how to do things best (sound like you at all coach?).

It's often a scary prospect even to think about letting someone else take over a task or duty we've been doing for a while:

What if they don't do it correctly?
What if the outcome is not up to my standards?
What if they don't do it the way I've been doing it?
What if I become less essential to my program?
What if, (gasp), they do it better than me?

Think about it, Coach. By nature we love to keep control. We also fear the repercussions when our support staff fails to complete something correctly or in a timely manner. The failure might reflect badly on us so we take the path of least resistance. Rather than working on improving our delegation skills to the other coaches we work with, sometimes we simply keep hold of more tasks. That way we can make sure things are done completely the way we want them done. Being overworked somehow seems less risky than having things done that might not meet our exact requirements.

Delegation means taking true responsibility and inevitably means giving up some control. If that sounds a bit scary, how can you overcome your mindset and become a better delegator? Here are some tips:

Realize that you just can't do it all. Everyone has limits. If you fail to acknowledge yours, you will burn out. Maybe not tomorrow and maybe not even next year, but the stress and pressure of trying to do it all will get you eventually.

Start small. Delegation is a skill and learning it needs patience, persistence, and practice. Start by giving away small, uncomplicated tasks. As your confidence grows so will your willingness to delegate more.

Realize that "Your Way" is not always the "Only Way." A big part of letting go is the fear that the task will not be done "right." Consider that there are other ways to achieve the same result.

Work on giving others the tools to do what you do. Delegation will only work if you help your support staff succeed. So make sure he or she has the right resources and then keep communicating, participating and supporting your staff. Remember, delegation means NOT abdicating your responsibility, so you need to make sure you have done everything you can to influence a successful outcome.

Appreciate others' accomplishments. You might be bored with organizing on-campus visits, but if one of your coaches has never done it, the challenge can be exciting, invigorating, and motivating. The successful outcome is not just a well-organized visit. It's the opportunity for someone else to shine and get recognized for their achievements.

Seize the opportunity to work on more stimulating projects. The less time you spend on lower level tasks, the more time you have to concentrate on your main objectives. (You know the ones, the really important issues that keep getting shoved to the bottom of the pile because you're so overloaded...)

Use the leverage. Delegation can put the right people on the right tasks. And the better allocated your coaches and staff are, the greater the productivity, effectiveness and the opportunity for organizational growth.

Delegation, when done well, benefits everyone on your staff. You have more time to concentrate on the main responsibilities of your position. Your support staff will have more opportunities to expand and enrich their jobs. An added bonus is the fact that because delegation relieves your own time pressures, the job gets done better in the long run.

So, cast off your preconceptions about delegation! You were doing a good job before: You can do even better when you delegate more. With a fresh perspective and little courage to "let go", you'll be amazed by what you can achieve!

Mandy Green helps focus coaches on creating an organized, systematic approach to managing their workload and building great team dynamics.  For more information on how she can help you and your program reach new heights, contact Mandy by email at mandy@sellingforcoaches.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 06:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush 

We are often asked what tech stuff we use internally here at Front Rush. Its a very fair question as our goals are very similar to coaches we serve to the extent that we are both trying to recruit individuals to be a part of our program. We decided to share a short list of our favorite technology tools to start the new year.  Hopefully, some of these can be beneficial to you in your behind-the-scenes life as a college coach.

Contact Management

Front Rush: That's right, we use our own product to track our conversations with our clients, as well as our prospective clients.  This is obviously a biased decision but sales and recruiting are one in the same, so we actually use our own product to manage:

1) “Recruits” or coaches we are trying to recruit to use our program.
2) “Roster” or coaches who are currently using our program
3) “Alumni” or coaches who have moved on to new position
4) “Messages” to communicate with our coaches product updates, changes, or marketing material.

Communication

Gmail: We have switched entirely to gmail. This is actually a trend we are seeing a lot of universities do. Gmail has a very intuitive interface with tons of space and accessible from anywhere. It certainly doesn't have the bells and whistles of an Outlook but because of its limited features, its so easy to use.

Campfire (http://campfirenow.com/): There are dozens of instant messenger programs out there to communicate with the staff but one we have found works great is Campfire. The difference between Campfire and most other IM programs is that you are basically given your own room so you can sign in and sign out at any point and all of the conversations are still there. This way, you can share documents, write messages or respond to posts at any point in time. The other benefits are that it is web-based (no downloads) and free for the initial users.

Browser

Firefox: We actually use all of the web browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, any everything else) but our browser of choice is Firefox. Its quick, easy to use and has a ton of useful extensions.

Image Editors and Screen Recorders

Photoshop: Our design team uses Photoshop. Its the most advanced image editor out there. This is what we use for creating email templates, web-pages, and more.

Snag-it (http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp): Snag-it is a cheap (like $40 bucks) application that lets you quickly grab images from the web. Its incredibly easy to use and has some nice features for editing pictures to send out as emails.

Snipping Tool: This comes standard with Windows and is another tool to quickly grab pictures off the web. We use this to very quickly grab an image off the web and send it out as an email. You can find it in the start menu.

Screen Toaster (http://www.screentoaster.com): This is a neat tool that let's us record video directly from our screen. So whatever we are doing on our computer, Screen Toaster records and let's us share it.

Computers/Operating Systems

Windows 7: So Microsoft has finally taken a major step to building a good operating system. We still have Windows XP in house (because many of our end users are on it) but primarily we are on Windows 7. Windows 7 is a much more usable, stable version of Vista and rarely requires a restart.

Snow Leopard: The Mac users here are on Snow Leopard. This is an obvious choice for mac users. The standard Leopard was great, and Snow Leopard is just a bit quicker.

Hopefully some of these items can be helpful to fulfill your technology needs within your program.  Don't be afraid to try new things when it comes to technology...you may just find some incredible new tools to help you to be a much better coach and recruiter.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

True story:

A few years ago, my wife tells me (as I'm driving home from work) that a young man who had just sold a set of "really great" steak knives to her sister was coming over to our house to show us the set.

After speeding through those stages of grief that you always read about at the thought of having to sit through a sales presentation, I arrived home.  They were waiting for me.

To make a long story short, the young man does a nice job with his presentation.  At the end, he has us on the verge of buying a set of knives that we probably wouldn't use that often, he says this: "You know, if you want to take a week or so to think about it, I can just call back."

Do I even need to tell you what I did?  You got it.  I took him up on his offer and took the "out".  Suffice it to say that we're still using the same worn-out set of steak knives that we have for years.

The thing that was his downfall?  The same thing as many coaches: He couldn't overcome the "no".  He couldn't identify the fact that I had some objections that he needed to address, but didn't.  Ultimately, he left without ever having dealt with - and overcome - my objections.

Here's where you, as a college coach, can learn a few valuable recruiting lessons as you begin to have to face the "no's" from some of the prospects you really, really want.

Here's an important truth that I want you to remember when you hear that "no": Their first instinct is to say no, but what they really want is for you to convince them to say yes.

Maybe they think they're rushing into their decision.  Perhaps your team didn't treat them right on their visit to campus.  Or, maybe they still think a better offer from a "better" program is right around the corner.

There are a hundred different reasons why recruits might initially say no to you. Your job is not to shrug and walk away, but to get to the truth behind the no and find out how to re-direct their attention back to you and your program. 

When it comes to your recruiting messages and the plan behind it, it’s your copy that must do the job of getting past "no" by overcoming each objection.  Here are some ideas that we've seen work for our clients: 

• Before you ask for the big commitment, test out their willingness to engage with you by doing some "trial close" offers.  Are they willing to tell you that they are sending in their application?  That they plan on sending in a housing deposit?  That they want to come and bring their other parent on a campus visit?  Those are all good signs that things are heading down the right track.  However, you have to be the one to offer them those small "tests" and then see how they answer.
• How are you crafting the message behind your offer?  Sometimes, re-wording the way you approach the idea of committing to your school works wonders.
• In your letters and emails to your prospectse, go ahead and confront the most prevalent objections head on. Don’t be afraid to mention them . . . your prospect has been thinking about them from the moment they started paying attention to you and what you're offering them.
• In addition to your recruiting message, try to get your athletes to tell their story.  Do interviews with them and write articles on why they chose your program and what they like about playing for you.  What they say will trump your sales pitch every single time.
• Make the offer too good to refuse. If you were selling knives, you might do it by offering a guarantee for the life of the product...return it anytime for a full refund.  As a college, what are some things that you can do to give your prospect a feeling of confidence in choosing you?  They're looking for safety and comfort in choosing your program...find ways to give it to them.
• One last suggestion: Before you ask them to commit, what have you done to help them be better at where they're at right now as a high school athlete.  If you want to give yourself an edge over your lazy competition, find ways to give them help right now and they'll be more apt to want to stick with you moving forward.

The simple reality is that we all have different buttons that need to be pushed before we buy. When I listen to knife salesmen and have deep-seeded hatred towards anything that will cut meat, and it isn’t because I don’t want the product. I wouldn’t be there if I didn’t.

Instead, I’m secretly trying to find a reason to help me feel good about pulling the trigger. Buying releases endorphins . . . it feels good.  So does picking a college where you know you're going to fit in. 

Still, we’ve all learned from bad buying experiences that have left us feeling empty after the initial high wears off. This is where the job of the sales person becomes increasingly important.

You need to not only help your prospects understand and appreciate the need for your school and your individual coaching, but you need to make them feel good about committing to it. This starts from the initial pitch and should continue even after they tell you that you are their top choice.

Like we teach in our two best-selling workbooks for college coaches, don’t be pushy, but don’t be afraid to explore what reasons stand in the way of a final commitment. Have the confidence to stand behind your program when you know that a recruit could benefit from it as a student-athlete. Even if they ultimately still say no, at least you’ve been given the insight of another objection to tackle down the road. Marketing - and recruiting - is a learning process, but you can’t sell yourself short.

And giving up at the first sign of no is doing just that.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're a fan of college football, you spend your New Year's weekend of 2010 following the drama around two high-level college coaches, Florida's Urban Meyer and Texas Tech's Mike Leach.

And in the midst of heart palpitations, storage sheds and round-the-clock ESPN coverage, there were recruiting lessons that every coach should learn.

The main lesson is this: Today's generation of recruits are focused on the personality, resume and persona far more than past generations.  Twenty years ago, recruits were picking the college brand.  Today, more often than not, they are signing-on with the coach that they see as the "face" of that college brand. 

It's been a fascinating transition, one made easier thanks to ESPN and the proliferation of Internet bloggers who focus on personalities in college sports just as much as they focus on the results of the teams they are coaching.

Meyer and Leach each had equal parts drama, sadness and intrigue swirling around their respective stories.  The subtext of the story was being played-out in the trenches of the recruiting war: Prospects were rumored to be de-committing to schools, then re-committing...and coaches from competing programs were scrambling to spin each situation to their favor with recruits still on the fence.

Why?  Because who the coach was going to be affected their opinion of the program and the school, and they were willing to pass-up whatever the school's benefits were in favor of the next coach on their list who had forged a good relationship during the recruiting process.

So, where does all of this leave you?

First, here are three big truths about how today's prospects - the kid you're recruiting right now, Coach - arrive at their final decision during the recruiting process:

1. Our national studies show that the two most influencial determining factors in choosing a school that they deem to be the "right fit" for them are 1) what a coach tells them over the phone, and 2) what a coach tells them in person.  In other words, they will be drawn or repelled from your program largely due to how you interact with them during the first phases of the recruiting process.
2. The same study shows that top national prospects are drawn to a coach far more than they are drawn to a university.  In other words, the "logic" behind a school offering a top ranked business program or outstanding internship opportunities take a back seat to how those same highly regarded recruits feel about the relationship with the coach.
3. Prospects are constantly on the look-out for ways to get to know the real person behind the coaching mask.  When we conduct focus groups with student-athletes at colleges around the country as a part of the On-Campus Workshops that we offer athletic departments, they recount their visits to colleges that were recruiting them and reveal to us that one of the first priorities when talking with the team at those schools was to find out "what the coach really was like at practice" and "what those players wish they knew about him or her before they signed with the school." 

There are always exceptions to these recruiting rules, of course, but the three facts I outlined above should be taken seriously by today's college recruiter.

With that in mind, here are some practical ways to make sure your next recruiting campaign embraces these facts of life on the recruiting trail:

• If you're a coach at a "big brand" school and you've demonstrated a history of success, you need to emphasize yourself in your recruiting materials.  That doesn't mean you don't talk about the school's benefits, but the main message needs to be about how you are going to help them have a better career with you than with your competition.
• If you're a coach that regularly competes in a "big brand" conference, but consider yourself a lower-tier program that won't generate the same buzz that your competitor does, you will need to prove to them that the opportunity with you and your program is to their advantage vs. opting for a traditional power.  The two important elements of this strategy are coming up with a compelling story, but even more importantly telling the story in a way that gets them to sign-on with you.  Wonder how coaches from mediocre colleges in your sport somehow get amazing talent to come and play for them?  It's all about their story, how they tell it, and making sure it includes a compelling reason for that recruit to commit.
• Take a few existing recruiting letters or emails that you've recently sent to your recruits.  How many of them talk about you and your vision along with selling the school and your program?  I like to have coaches take a colored marker and highlight phrases or main ideas that center around you.  Do that test with your messages...were you able to mark anything?  If not, you're bypassing one of the main motivators for today's recruit and how they make their decision.
• Does the head coach matter?  Yes, but the relationship between prospect and assistant coach is vital, too.  Depending on the sport, the head coach's involvement in the recruiting process should be consistent and personalized as much as possible.  Recruits are looking for reasons to sweat allegiance to a particular coach and program...so give them one with your attention to them as a head coach. 

More and more, you read comments from recruits that sign with a school that center around their relationship with the coach at that school.  Coaches who can create great relationships early on and keep building on it throughout the recruiting process stand an excellent chance to swaying really good recruits away from programs that might appear to be better on paper.

Be one of those coaches.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush 

The recruiting process is about engaging recruits and getting across the university's and coach's message, goals, and - ultimately - the brand. This engagement comes in a variety of flavors including email, phone calls, face-to-face, and more recently Facebook and Twitter. One major facet of this engagement that needs to be treated very seriously is the athletic website. Often times this is one of the first and most powerful medium's that can get across your school's message.

Perusing the web and doing random Google searches for various universities, you can come across many different athletic websites. Some of these websites are great, some of these are not so great. Some of these are clearly from high budget universities that can afford to bring in a professional firm and make the site very 'flashy', others are from universities that may not have the budget but have clearly invested thought into the site, and others resemble a basic web page created too many years ago.

So let's first talk about the importance of the site and we can worry about the logistics later. In this web savvy world, your recruits are used to seeing and interacting daily with professionally built tools and websites – think Facebook, Hotmail, Google, Gmail, etc. If they come to your site, the first thing they want and expect is a site that is professional looking in design. Having a poor quality design, will immediately undercut your recruiting message. It gives them that 'huh?' message right off the bat.

The second thing that your recruits will look for is the content. They want to come to your site and find the things that they are looking for – so the goal is to make it easy for them to find it. We often times see an athletic site that is difficult to find a specific sport, or find out who the coach is, or find out how to get in contact with the university. As a user, this instantly gives frustration and negative feelings -- the exact opposite emotion that you want your recruits feeling. Think about what parts of the site that your recruits want to see and put them right up front and easy to find.

The next thing is to give a reason for your recruits to come back. A very effective medium for this is a team blog. In this blog, you can give updates about your team, insight into your program, information about your University. This gives a recruit a reason to come to your site, and keep coming back if you keep the information fresh and new. Every time they come back, your brand gets drilled deeper into their decision making process.

So the issue is then a couple of things.

• There are budget limitations.
• You may not feel that you have direct access to have these changes made.

Well with budget limitations, that just means that you can't invest in a professional firm to re-build the site but that doesn't mean that most of the above can't be done. Get the coaches together and make the case to your IT group or SID. By investing time into the site and thinking about the goals of it, the return will be obvious. In addition, for the blog, this can be done totally free of charge. A couple of killer applications for creating a blog are tumblr.com, blogger.com and wordpress.com

If you do have a budget than take a look at a professional firm, there are a couple that we feel actually are dedicated to building athletic websites. Some examples of companies we would recommend to our clients are ICS/Sidearm (internetconsult.com), Presto Sports (prestosports.com), and Jump TV (jumptv.com).

The importance of putting time into the site and thinking about it from a marketing perspective cannot be stressed enough. This is a major location that your recruits are going to land. Get your department together and get moving in the right direction if you feel your online presence needs some work.

Step one in the process of evaluating your website?  Email the experts at Front Rush.  They'll assess your needs at no charge, and give you recommendations on what the next steps need to be.  Visit them at www.frontrush.com or email the nation's leading technical guru for college athletics, Sean Devlin, at sdevlin@frontrush.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We say it when we pick up the phone.  

We say it when we start a new email.

When we say it, the recruiting process slows down.  Or, it stops altogether...never to be re-started again.  It gets us WAY off target.

And you know what?  We actually say it because we think it's polite, non-pressuring and even a bit clever.

It's just three little words:

"I was just..."

Those three words, when combined together, do more to grind the gears of recruiting to a stop than just about any other phrase I've heard when helping coaches over the past few years.

"I was just calling back to see if..."  Or, "I was just writing to check in..."

Have you ever done that?  I have many times over my professional career.  And every time I let it slip out, the results are less than desireable.

Why is that?  What is it about "I was just" that makes it so bad in a recruiting situation?

When you use that phrase, we all know what you want: You want information.  You want an update.  You need to find out if the prospect you really, really, REALLY want is close to making a decision.  

And, since you are a professional who doesn't want to pressure your young recruit, you play it cool and slide into the conversation by saying, "I was just..."

However, what you are doing in most cases is giving your prospect the unintended message that they don't need to take action right now.  Or, depending on the topic of the discussion, you might be telling them that they aren't all that important to you.  Here's why starting a sentence with "I was just" can be so crippling:

• It conveys weakness.  There isn't much drive or energy behind the phrase, and that communicates all the wrong things to your prospect.
• It's a lie.  You weren't "just checking in" when you called that last prospect, Coach.  Right?  Of course not.  You were wanting concrete information.  You wanted a progress report so you could know what to do next.  You weren't "just checking in", and your prospect knows it.
• It gives your prospect permission to put you off for a while longer.  You say you were calling to just "check in" and see if I was close to making a decision?  No, sorry coach...I'm going to need a little more time.  And since it sounds like there's no urgency on your part, I'm going to take as much as I can get.

So what should you say as your new opening line?  Here are a few ideas:

• "I wanted to get in touch with you because..."
• "There's a decision we need to make here in the next week to ten days..."
• "I need your feedback on something..."
• "We were talking about you in the office yesterday, and wanted to ask you..."
• "I had something happen with another prospect that I needed to let you know about..."
• "We've got a deadline coming up and I wanted to talk to you about it..."

Each of those phrases can set your next conversation in the right direction.  They are strong.  They are going to prompt action.  They are going to demand attention, and - most importantly - they are going to demand a reply. 

I encourage you to really focus on how you start out your sentences when you start conversations.  I know it sounds like such a small thing, but it makes a big difference when it comes to how your recruit responds to you, and what information you get from them.

Try replacing the wishy-washy "I was just" intro when you call or write, and lead-off with something stronger that will stand a better chance of getting the response you're really looking for from your prospect.

Want even more tips and strategies to use in your everyday recruiting at your college?  Bring Dan to your athletic department for the Selling for Coaches On-Campus Workshop!  We're rounding out our travel schedule for the upcoming months and would love to add you to the tour schedule.  Email us at dan@sellingforcoaches.com for all the details and to check on dates, or click here for more information on what this two day event is all about. 

Posted by Dan Tudor at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Any good movie that you've ever seen has had one key element.  And, its something that you need to add in to all of your recruiting messages.

I'm going to teach you how to do it today.

I'm talking about inciting your prospects when they're reading one of your letters or emails.  If you've ever seen a really good movie, one that keeps your attention from start to finish, you'll know what I'm talking about. 

The Indiana Jones movie series is a great example of "inciting" moviegoers.  If you've seen the start to any of them, you know it's action and an important event that kicks off the story.  Whether he's being chased by a giant ball down a cave, stealing an ancient artifact, or hiding in a refrigerator to survive a nuclear explosion, you've been hooked to watch the rest of the movie.

Some of the best movie writers use this technique to write blockbuster stories that we just can't resist: The ask the question, "What is the big event, or the big moment, that really gets this story rolling?" 

That usually comes at the beginning of a film (a good one, anyway), and it keeps you glued to the screen from that point forward.

So, how does all this apply to your recruiting message?  What techniques can you use from this tried-and-true screenwriting trick to construct better recruiting letters and emails?

Glad you asked...

First things first: Take a look at the text of one of your recruiting letters.  

Now, divide it into thirds.  

Next, eliminate your first third of the letter.  Why?  Because if the typical recruiting letter were a movie script, you would unnessarily delay the main plot line - and the event that would "incite" your viewer - with needless text.  It's extra fluff that doesn't hook your reader, and that's bad.

Coaches write wonderfully worded messages most of the time, but it's mostly dull background stuff that our research shows isn't important to this generation of recruits.  By chopping off that first third of your initial draft, you'll be cutting straight to the point and giving yourself a better chance of capturing your reader's attention. 

How else can you make sure you incite your prospects from the start?  Here are my suggestions:

1. Make each message about one big idea.  Stick with one main theme in each of your messages, and you'll have a much better chance of keeping the attention of your recruit.  For more ideas on what themes work best, and more detail on how to construct those messages, consult our two best-selling advanced recruiting guides for college coaches.  It's better to split up one letter into six separate letters if you look at it and see too many themes or ideas that you're trying to get across to your prospect.
2. Paint a picture for your prospect.  Once you have that message down, its time to do more than just tell your recruit the facts and figures.  Your challenge:  To paint and emotionally compelling picture of what awaits your recruit if he or she chooses your program.  You have to do that through words, and the more you focus on the feeling of your school and your program, the better your message will connect with your prospect.  
3. Who's got your back?  Will you use one of your athlete's stories about why they chose your program?  Will you tell them about an event in your coaching career that drives how your message?  It's helpful if you can punctuate your recruiting points with real-life examples that will help your prospect feel connected to your program.  Plus, its one of the best ways to "incite" your recruit to keep moving forward with you as you continue to recruit them.
4. Insert some danger.  Or trials, or trouble.  It's O.K. to bring up some of the things you've had to overcome as a coach, or things that your program has had to deal with during a season.  In fact, danger attracts attention.  Danger or suspense in a movie almost guarantees that you won't run out to get more popcorn during those scenes, and that's the kind of attention you want to maintain with your recruits.
5. After you're all done, trim it some more.  Take your final work and cross out at least three more sentences.  You can never edit too much, and you can never make it shorter than it needs to be.  Why make it shorter?  Because time after time, as a part of our process of researching data with current college athletes when we're doing our On-Campus Workshops around the country, your athletes tell us that they want more "to-the-point" messages that cut through the fluff and get straight to the good stuff. 

When you do each of those five things, and throw in creative email subject lines and catchy headlines in the body of your recruiting letters, and you'll see an increased liklihood that you'll keep your recruit around for the whole entire recruiting cycle.

So, Coach...what can you do today to incite your prospects?

The strategies we've outlined above are just a few of the components we use to build winning recruiting plans and messages for our Total Recruiting Solution clients.  If you like what you've read, but want a team of experts to come alongside you and help your program create more effective recruiting campaigns, email Dan at dan@sellingforcoaches.com.  Or, visit www.sellingforcoaches.com for all the details about the TRS plan.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Parents are increasingly becoming a major force in college recruiting.

It's true at the biggest of the big-time Division I programs, and it's true in the small private school tucked away in a small town in middle-America.

Because parents play such a pivitol role in the process, I wanted to pass along some of the latest information we've gathered from our research and focus groups at college campuses around the country.  Here's what we're finding:

• Kids want their parents involved in the process.  More and more, we hear examples of athletes who tell us point blank that they want their parents involved in the recruiting process, and that they look for college coaches who engage their parents when they have the opportunity to talk to them.  Do you do that?
• Parents are split when it comes to how you're doing at engaging them during the recruiting process.  54% of the parents of actively recruited athletes we surveyed nationally said that they felt coaches did a good job of including them in the recruiting process.  That's the good news.  The bad news?  46% are feeling like there could be more done to include them as a part of the process.  So, Coach, here's what you should do: Take half of your recruiting list, chop it in half, and that's how many parents are feeling like you're not doing that great a job at making them feel like they're important to you.  The scary part should be that you probably don't know which of your parents are on what side of the line. 
• Parents want straight talk about why you, your program and your school are different than everyone else.  Too often, coaches try to level the playing field and make their program just like the other one down the street.  The brochures look the same, the websites look the same, and the message is largely the same.  What's missing?  How you are different from your competition.  Really different.  The coaches who can communicate those real differences to parents will earn their trust, and when you have prospects who look to their parents' views of a program 91% of the time as an important determiner in their final decision, that's a big "win" for you in the recruiting game.

During our On-Campus Workshops, the thing we try to stress to coaches and athletic directors in attendance is the importance of having a plan to "recruit the parents".  Even with just a basic understanding of what drives parents and their influence over their athletes, you can begin to create an effective game plan for recruiting them (and their son or daugther) to your program.

By the way, another huge key in being successful with the parents of your recruits is understanding the seven things they want out of interactions with you as a coach.  Its been one of our most popular articles over the years, and I want to recommend it again to you as a good reminder of what else you need to do to effective recruit the parents.  Click here for the article.

Need help developing your plan for parents?  Email Dan Tudor directly at dan@sellingforcoaches.com and ask for an outline of what the team at SFC does to help coaches around the country with their plan-of-attack. 

Posted by Dan Tudor at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

With the holidays right around the corner, we thought we would put together some things that wouldn't be a bad idea for your technology wish list (they are definitely on ours!).  Whether you are a Front Rush client or not, we want to tell you what other programs we are working with have done to improve their productivity when it comes to technology: 

Windows 7
For a long time, you have probably been running Windows XP or even maybe Windows Vista. In the past month, Microsoft released their newest operating system, Windows 7. We have been using this internally and it is a huge improvement over Microsoft's past platforms. It is stable, fast and focused on usability.  If you use Windows, we highly recommend making the switch to Windows 7. 

Mac
If you are tired of Windows and want an operating system that is easy to use, quick and reliable, then we recommend paying a little bit more and getting a Macintosh. The current MacBook is another example of great innovation at Apple. It may take you a week or so to get used to this type of computer but once you switch, you may question how you ever used a computer before.

A Second Monitor
This is hands down the best investment that you can make for the lowest cost. If you purchase a second monitor (maybe a hundred bucks or so), you instantly improve your computing experience. Imagine doubling your screen size so that you can have your recruiting software in one monitor and your email in the other. You can drag your mouse back and fourth from one screen to the next.  It's a great (and inexpensive) technology upgrade that will save you time and help keep you more organized.

Smart Phone
If you haven't done this already, then now may be a good time to jump into the iPhone, Droid, or Blackberry worlds. This will give you instant access to all of your emails, the mobile web and your web-based recruiting software.

Recruiting Software
We are certainly biased on this one but if you have been using Excel and Outlook alone, now could be a good time to invest in an online recruiting management software. This will allow for you access your recruiting stuff from anywhere, whether in the office or on the road.  And, according to our clients, we seem to be the most cost effective option that still gives you all of the cool functionality that more expensive options boast. 

Want to see what our recruiting software can do to help you present a cleaner, more organized message to your recruits?  We can do it.  Just give us a few minutes, and we'll take you through a short webinar live on your computer in your office.  To set up a time, or to ask any technology question that's got you stumped, email Sean Devlin at sdevlin@frontrush.com.

Posted by Dan Tudor at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)