We've been talking about changing things up when it comes to your mailings to your prospects.  Small changes can yield big results when it comes to getting a better response from the athletes you're trying to contact.

One way to effectively change up the way you approach recruiting - mailings, phone calls, whatever - is to apply a seven step process we lay out in our new book for recruiters, "What They Didn't Teach You About Recruiting".  It's a way to look at your old methods for recruiting in a whole new light, and turn roadblocks into new opportunities.

Here's an excerpt from the book.  It's two of the seven steps that any coach can use to be a better recruiter by making small, strategic changes to elements of their recruiting game plan:

Adapt - Can your message be better adapted to fit some new media outlets that are out there? Is there a way to reach new prospects through Instant Message or e-mail or other electronic communication? Through a custom produced DVD?  How about posting videos of your team and your program on YouTube.com?  How about having a MySpace.com page for your program?  One of the things I helped one of our SFC Premium Members develop was a series of “home movies” that were shot by the athletes on a road trip and then edited onto a DVD.  It was a hit, and they’ve made it a big part of their recruiting campaign for their school.  Could you put your message to new prospects on a Blog? (Do you have a Blog? Do you know what a Blog is?). Be creative...adapt your traditional message to new media that will get the response from today's teen.

Modify, Maximize or Minimize - What can you enlarge, shrink or alter about your mailing? What if you made your business card post card sized? What if it were extra small? What if your brochure resembled a CD cover and booklet? What if your entire new prospect mailing came in a CD or DVD case with a disk and everything - right down to the annoying shrink-wrapping that's impossible to get in to? Be creative...think of ways to modify, maximize or minimize your mailings.

Most coaches are 80% there when it comes to an effective recruiting strategy.  But that other 20% can kill you sometimes, and it's usually the part of the equation that needs constant re-tooling.  If you don't, your message gets stale, and your recruiting lags behind the competition.  Take a good look at your current recruiting and see if there are any changes that you can make to the way you go after the prospects you really want.