A few years ago while I was doing an On-Campus Workshop for an athletic department, a coach confided to me that they kept losing out to a rival college down the road when it came to all their good recruits.

"It's like we go to the bar and get beat-up by the same guy night after night, Dan."

My advice?

"It's time to to a different bar."

And that's the lesson I think it's important to pass along today.  It's part of a recruiting strategy that we're recommending in detail to our clients who use us on an ongoing basis to help behind the scenes with their prospect plans, and it's something that you need to consider as you wrap-up this class and set your sights on your next one.

Here's the general rule that I believe is true when it comes to today's recruit: The farther away your college is from them, the easier it will be to get their attention and sell your story.

I believe it to be true because your athletes tell us it is.  When we sit down with them an conduct closed-door focus groups with them while we are on campus, we are hearing how the program that was far away and a little bit of an "unknown" was immediately one of their top considerations. 

And, it was for no other reason than the fact that they were in far away:  California kids are intrigued by the school in Virginia that recruits them, and the kid in Pennsylvania is smitten with the school in California that comes calling.

Here are a couple of basic things that I think every coach should remember as you map-out your next recruiting plan:

• This generation is up for adventure.  It amazes me how often athletes will tell me that they picked their current school because it was the farthest one away from home.  Not all of them, but many of them.  
• It's easier to tell your story to a prospect when they aren't familiar with you.  The prospects that live nearby have probably already assigned a story to you and your program...sometimes positive, sometimes negative.  But to the kid who is a few states away, you're a blank slate.  Which situation do you think is easier to build a recruiting message around?
• Being farther away will get you in the door, but you're going to have to overcome some objections along the way from both the prospect and their parents.  But the fact that they're willing to listen puts you a few steps closer to a positive ending right from the start.
• Another interesting thing that our studies reveal: As a program begins to recruit more out-of-area athletes, the image of the program is enhanced back in their local community.  When outsiders come in, a program is viewed as more "in demand" nationally, which can actually then make it easier to recruit local athletes who now have a different view of your program that's now in demand from athletes from other areas.

Does it present some additional challenges?  Sure it does...unofficial visits are harder to get agreement on, and we find that parents often worry about now being able to hover over their son or daughter in their accustomed helicopter fashion. 

However, if you are looking for easier recruiting conversations and an increased pool of athletes, you need to seriously consider this recruiting strategy.  We're seeing it work, and our coaches are happier.

(Probably because that mean guy from the old bar isn't hanging around anymore).

This is the time of year when coaches are looking for new recruiting strategies to incorporate into their next campaign.  We have two popular workbooks for advanced college recruiters, "Selling for Coaches" and "What They Didn't Teach You About Recruiting."  They're packed with original approaches to getting better recruiting results.

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

Have you ever "Googled yourself"?

I have. And, if you haven't, do it right now.

Why? Because your recruits will.

Just as you search for your recruits on Google, or look them up on Facebook (to see what they are posting), or ask your peers their opinions -- your recruits are doing the same for you.  So, of course you want to make certain there are no proverbial "skeletons on the web", but equally as important you should know in advance what recruits know about you. There is definitely a Sun Tzu "Art of War" reference that I could probably insert here. Once you have that knowledge then you can apply your recruiting skills to it.

So how do you Google yourself? Well the obvious is your name. But let's dig a little deeper...

We want to think from a recruit's perspective. They might Google you, your assistants, your school, your team, your players, your team's history, your financial packages, your scholarship offers, and quite a bit more. To think like a recruit, ask your current players what they would Google.

Let's not stop at Google. Yes, Google will pick up a lot of it but make certain not to leave out Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other groups that you are associated with.

The web is has made the world transparent, and trust me you were not left out. So Google yourself...you may be surprised with the results.

Front Rush has established themselves as the trusted technology leaders for some of the biggest programs in the country.  Why do so many trust them with their technology needs?  Find out...click here!

by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches

Recently I was asked by a few coaches to give them my top 10 coaching management books.  Number one on my list was a book called “Winning” by Clive Woodward. 

I had the privilege to be a part of an amazing lecture about team management around four years ago.  In this lecture, the speaker told us about the book "Winning!" The book is about the process coach Clive Woodward went through in turning a struggling England’s National Rugby team into an international Rugby powerhouse.

In an effort to take his team from good to great, Woodward set out to create a unique and incredibly special experience for the players coming into his program.  His ultimate aim was to make the environment so good that once the players had experienced it they never wanted to be left out of it.  

Woodward created this experience and environment by focusing on the little things he called Critical Non-Essentials (CNE’s).  CNE’s are all of the little things or details that make your program what it is.  Not just any kind of detail, but the development of things that would and could set your program apart from everybody else. 

These CNE’s that he focused on include: the locker room (seating, equipment, lockers, extras, decorations, laundry); dress code (home games, away games); sports information (web, game, media guides, TV, radio, other); practice (before, warm-up, training, cool-down); equipment (practice gear, game gear, logo’s, colors, misc); game day environment; medical/rehab/recovery; nutrition; fitness/strength and conditioning.

So, how does this apply to recruiting?

What do you do to set yourself apart in the eyes of your recruits if your main competitors have the same quality of players, the same resources, and the same standard of coaching?  To be even better and set yourself apart from your rivals you have to do everything in your power to improve the Critical Non-Essentials of your program.

In my usual weekly readings, I learned that Pete Carroll, formally the coach of the USC football program, sat down with his staff and captains at the end of every season and analyzed EVERY aspect of the program from their practice tee-shirts to their game day routines.  They would sit down and he would ask “How can we make this better?”  He did all of this in an effort to create the most productive and special experience for his players.  His players knew that Coach Carroll was willing to go the extra mile for them and it not only showed in how hard they played for him, but it the quality of recruits he kept signing year after year. 

In my experience as a coach and since joining the staff at Selling for Coaches, I would say that if you were to take the time to sit down and find ways to make all of these little details of your program even better you would be one of very few coaches and it would show in your current and future players.  With all of the other things that need to get done in a day, I find that with most coaches that these little details are what get put on the back burner and never fixed.  The time spent doing this will not only create a more loyal team, it can and will be something you can use as a selling point that will separate you from the rest of the pack. 

Next, take the time to examine every aspect of the players’ experience within your program (critical non essentials) and discuss it thoroughly with your team.  Don’t just do this exercise with your coaching staff! 

This is a great exercise to get your team involved with.  Empower your team to give you feedback on how they would like things to be.  You have the ultimate veto power, but let them come up with ideas on what could make each aspect of what they experience within the program everyday a little better. 

If you want more from the players, you first have to give them good reasons why they would want to put in the extra effort.  You do that by making the critical non essentials better.  If you make your program attractive, prestigious and exclusive enough, not only will the players give everything they have within them and more, it could be something that sets your program apart from the rest in the eyes of your recruits. 

The soccer team I was coaching before I read the book was 9-6-3 that fall season.  I was then introduced to Clive Woodward’s ways that next winter.  I applied every piece of information I read in that book in the off-season with the team and went from 9-6-3 to 17-3-1 the next season.  It took A LOT of time and effort to implement these ideas, but the results we got were amazing.   Not only was the team excited and committed to the direction the program was headed and with the experience they were having, the recruits we brought in during that time were pretty impressed as well.  I signed my top 6 recruits that fall!  

Take the time to do this coach with your staff and team.  It will take some work and patience, but you will reap the benefits from this simple exercise for years to come. 

Want more information on developing a great approach to building your team?  Come hear Mandy Green teach the steps that you need to know as you head into a new year at our 3rd annual National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago this July 16-18.  She's one of our featured speakers, and you need to be a part of it live!  Or, reserve your copy of the complete conference on DVD along with all the notes from the event! 

Better yet, do you know what that commercial can teach you about relating to your recruits better?

Here's the scoop...

Sands Research, a marketing firm that uses a combination of EEG, eye-tracking, biometrics, and surveys to calculate a “neuro-engagement factor” for each ad, recently ranked each of the Super Bowl ads to calculate the viewer interaction and "connection" with the ad messate being shown. Does that mean the advertisements will sell more for that particular company? Not necessarily.

And honestly, do you really care.  Me neither.  Here's what I'm interested in:  The lessons it can give you to communicate more effectively with your prospects.

First things first, here is the top ranked Super Bowl commercial.  It was the Volkswagen "Slug Bug" spot...here it is.

It registered much higher than the other commercials, and the reasons behind it provide some good tips for you as you formulate your recruiting message for your recruits:

• Make sure it touches their heart.  I'm not being sentimental or touchy-feely here (not too much, anyway) but it's important: The reason the "slug bug" theme worked so well is that we all remember when we played slug bug as kids.  So, what does your message do to connect with the heart of your prospect?
• Make sure you keep it simple.  It was a simple idea, and a simple production.  Keep each one of your recruiting messages simple.  And, make sure you underscore one main point in your message, like they did in the commercial.
• Make sure you use a little humor.  I've talked about how to use humor to get your point across.  There were several funny moments in the commercial, and there's the lesson: A little humor doesn't have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to be all that clever.  You just have to show your recruit that you don't take yourself that seriously all the time...show them your lighter side.
• Make sure you keep your text short and to the point.  Re-watch the commercial again.  Do you see how quickly the edits happened?  It was a series of rapid-fire images that made it impossible to look away.  That's because we are wired in our society to be attracted to that kind of presentation.  The same holds true for your recruiting messages.  Keep them coming in short bursts.  Your prospects will respond.

There are actually a lot of lessons you can learn from today's advertising.  Keep an eye out for how the multi-million dollar ad agencies put together their messages, and then try to translate it into your own recruiting message.

Creating winning messages is our specialty!  Find out our top five "secret weapons" that we pack into every Total Recruiting Solution plan for our clients...click here.

by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches 

So it is now March.  How are those goals you set in December coming along? 

Did you sign the recruits that you wanted?  Set up your leadership development program?  Lose that 10 pounds?  Spend more time with the family?  Read that book?  

If so, GREAT! Good for you.  You really are one in a million. 

If you are like most coaches out there, you probably gave up on accomplishing your 2010 goals sometime at the end of January because life got crazy once school started up again after winter break. If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone. So many coaches get demoralized when, year after year, they set personal and program goals for the New Year that they keep for only a few weeks or maybe even just a few days.
 
For today, I wanted to give you a few tips that will help you “push the reset button” on your goal setting for the year. 

First think about this, I have found with myself and in working with other coaches on their goals that a big reason so many goals set for the New Year fail to make it to March is that the focus is on the "what" instead of the "why" and the "how."
 
As you sit down and re-evaluate why you already gave up on your goals for this year I want you to ask yourself a few questions.  First question to ask would be "why" did I make this goal in the first place?  The second question to ask is "how" am I really going to make this goal a reality?  For example, if your goal is to "mange my time better in the office so I can spend more time with my family," I want you map out what may be the root cause of the problem:

• I get into the office late
• I spend too much time emailing
• I get distracted easily
• I spend too much time gossiping with fellow coaches
• I'm not organized
• I have too many things to get done
• I get interrupted a lot during the day

Once you have identified the "why" for each goal you have, create specific personal resolves for behavior change from there.

Here are a few specific resolves:

• I will get into the office 1 hour before the rest of the staff arrives
• I will only check my email twice a day
• I will create a personal, team, and recruiting plan (contact us at Selling For Coaches if you want help with this!)
• I will make to-do lists to make sure the important things are getting done

If you really are serious about accomplishing all you set out to do in 2010 do this:

1. For each goal you created for 2010, make a list of the "why's."  What is the real reason you want to achieve this goal?  Do this for each and every goal that you set. 
2. Come up with specific behavioral changes you are willing to make in order to make each goal a reality.
3.  Prioritize and plan.  At the end of each day or at the beginning of the next, look at your schedule and block out specific times during the day that you will ONLY SPEND ON YOUR GOALS!  Lock your door, turn your phone off, and shut down your email.  You do nothing else during that time but the things that will help you take that next step in accomplishing your goal!

I got this quote from a Brian Tracy email recently and thought that it was very applicable to goal setting.

"You must do the things today that others will not do so that you can have the things tomorrow that others will not have."
-- Anonymous

Setting goals is the easy part.  Doing something every day that will bring you closer to accomplishing your goals is where it gets tough and where most coaches give up after a few weeks because they don’t understand why and how they are going to do it.  It is going to take a lot of discipline, planning, and no doubt it will be hard work, but it will all be well worth it in the end.

Please, if you want help in being accountable for your goals or need help tweaking them, feel free to contact me at mandy@sellingforcoaches.com. 

Mandy Green, our Team Development Specialist here at Selling for Coaches, will be one of the featured presenters at the 2010 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago this July.  Have you registered yet?  There's a special discount available for a few more weeks...click here for all the details.

After the panel gave their individual speeches, we broke-up into different parts of the hall we were gathered in so these college-age kids could come and ask individual questions.

What followed was a lesson in talking to individuals who haven't grown-up withly some of the same communication skills that you and I did.  And finding that "sweet spot" in connecting with a prospect you're recruiting could make all the difference in whether or not they serious consider you and your program.

Here are my six observations from my interactions, and lessons for you as a college recruiter needing to "connect" with these kids in order to put together your next great recruiting class:

• They don't want to start the conversation.  Several of the students hovered around me like shy puppy dogs, to the point where I actually had to make eye contact and ask them a question to get the conversation started.  As a recruiter, you should expect to have to do the same thing.
• Ask them about themselves.  What I find works the best is when you ask a very specific question about one segment of their lives.  Your initial questions can't be too broad...they need to be easy enough for them to answer to get them comfortable talking to you.
• Try to make them laugh (or at least smile).  If you can use humor to break the ice, great...do it.  But even if you don't feel like you're a natural born comedian, at least smile.  Smile big, and right at them.  If you can get them to smile back, you're on your way to connecting with them.
• Get their opinion about specific issues.  In a recruiting situation, if you ask them, "So, what did you think of our campus when you visited?" you're going to get a wishy-washy, vague answer.  For most kids of this generation, that is too big of a question...one that they may not have had time to form an opinion about.  However, if you ask them, "So, when you were inside the dorm room, did it seem like a place where you could see yourself enjoying?"  That's a much better question because it gives your prospect a chance to zero in on a specific opinion.  In my conversations with the students I had just talked to, I quickly found that the smaller, more "specific" questions, got the best and most detailed responses.
• Don't linger when it seem like the conversation should end.  There were several times when I had more advice to give them, but could tell from their body language that it was time to end the conversation.  So I did.  For the kids in this generation, when they are done talking they are not shy about wanting to call it quits.  You know how you sometimes drag out a recruiting phone call to half and hour or more, and you are doing all the talking?  My advice is to stop.  You've lost your prospect's interest in that call, and it's time to stop talking.
• Follow-up quickly.  After the event, I went back to my hotel room and emailed those attendees that gave me their email address.  I told them that I enjoyed their conversations, appreciated their interest in what they had to say, and told them to get back to me with any questions they had.  Lo and behold, they found their voices!  I was bombarded with contact from them, which was a good reminder about another aspect of this generation that you should keep in mind: They want to know that you are interested in hearing from them.  The best way to do that is to immediately reach out after you talk to them, and open the door for more communication.

On the surface, these are all pretty simple lessons.  However, what I find is that coaches develop a communication system with their prospects that is far more complicated than it needs to be.  When you reach the point of one-on-one communications, keep these simple rules handy.  They work, and will let you enjoy much more productive conversations with your prospects.

Communicating with this generation of prospects is the theme for this year's 2010 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference, a one-of-a-kind gathering of coaches and athletic directors with one goal: Make every attendee a DOMINANT recruiter!  Want to be a part of it?  Find out all the details - and inside information on a great early registration discount - by clicking here.

by Sean Devlin, Front Rush

Think last year was a big year in recruiting technology development?  You haven't seen anything yet! 

2010 promises to be one of the biggest and best years in terms of technology that college coaches can use to recruit prospects.  Our team of recruiting technology experts at Front Rush wanted to give you a sneak-peek at what to look for later this year, and how to put all of these new tools to work for you and your program:

The New Blackberry Browser
For anyone who owns a Blackberry and has surfed the web, you are fully aware of how poor this experience is. Well, fear not! In the coming months, Blackberry is releasing a powerful new browser and, from what we've seen, it will be awesome - maybe better than its iPhone counterpart!

Facebook Email
That's right...the rumors are that Facebook is building its own fully functional email client system. How will the college recruiting world react? What does this mean for compliance? Will your recruits be leaving their Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail accounts to switch to a Facebook email client?  We'll keep you up-to-date with the latest developments as they unfold.  Stay tuned...

Apple's iPad
Apple is releasing their iPad device which essentially looks like a giant iPhone. For coaches who are willing to shell out the $499 (plus quite a bit more if you need cellular connection), this could be a game changer for their recruiting efforts. It has all of the benefits of accessing the web and your recruiting software like an iPhone (but in a much larger format) but none of the negatives of having to carry around a laptop.

Skype for Mobile Devices
If you use Skype for making phone calls (for about three dollars a month, you get unlimited phone calls outgoing and incoming), you will be able to make them over your mobile phone in 2010. Why does this matter? Well if you are paying your own cellular bill, than this will guarantee no overage charges because it will essentially give you unlimited minutes.

"Usability"
This is a little bit different, but the big focus for web companies is finally shifting to usability. Your overall internet experience should improve in 2010 as more companies pay more attention to their customers and the way they use their products.

Front Rush is our recommended technology resource, and a leader in the recruiting database management market.  For more insights on technology and recruiting, make plans to come to the 2010 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago this July 16-18.  Front Rush will be one of the presenters, outlining the most effective ways to incorporate technology into your recruiting plan.

by Mandy Green, Selling for Coaches

We know that trying to get through something challenging - whether it's losing weight or having a baby - is a lot easier when you do it with a buddy. 

I am going to be a new mom in about a month (ahhh!) and am finding it much easier to enter this life-changing world of parenthood because I have met a lot of woman who have been very helpful and comforting as they share  their experiences, their worries and anxieties, what worked and didn’t work, and what I need and don’t need. 

Coach, the same is true with recruiting.  Recruiting is tough and can be lonely, especially if you are in a situation where you have nobody to run ideas by.  Over my 11-year college coaching career, I have found the being a successful recruiter is much easier when you’re accountable to a team that’s truly rooting for your success rather than trying to go it entirely alone. 

If you don’t currently have a recruiting support group, don’t worry, you are not alone.  I have been to a lot of college campuses over the last year doing SFC On-Campus Workshops, and I always ask the group I am working with how often they get together as a group to share recruiting ideas and techniques.   Nine times out of ten, the answer I get is: “Mandy, this is the first time all year that we have sat down as a group to discuss recruiting. “ What??? 

It always surprises me how little coaches use each other for support and as a resource to help them with the recruiting process.  Think about it…just within your athletic department, you have an unlimited resource in the form of your associates to ask for ideas, help, and support as you are working to achieve your recruiting goals. 

If you are going at it alone and are looking for more support there are two things you can do.  One option is to call us here at Selling for Coaches and we will help you.  Or second, set up a recruiting club within your athletic department or among your coaching friends.   

A recruiting club is a support group where you can share about your experiences, brainstorm for new ideas, and offer much needed camaraderie to keep everyone’s spirits up.  Think about it like a book club, but instead of talking chapters, you’re focused on recruiting. 

Those that become a part of this group are there to help one another stay positive during the recruiting year.  The club is a safe haven where everyone can practice skills in leaving voice messages, find a second set of eyes to look over a letter or email you want to send out to a top recruit, get feedback about their on-campus visits, share frustrations about not getting responses to questionnaires, and work on your closing techniques.  You can invite expert guests or people from other departments on campus to speak to your club to offer advice on any number of subjects. 

To get a recruiting club going, all you need is a commitment of time and a genuine desire to share ideas and experience among a core group of coaches. If you do want to get one started up at your school, here are three tips for making your recruiting club successful.

1. Get started by recruiting a small group of members.  When I first did this at a Division II school I was working at, I sent out an invitation to every coach in the athletic department and only about 8-10 showed up.  That turned out to be a great number because we ended up having a diverse group and the group was small enough were we could all share our ideas. 

2. Use Time Wisely.  Time for a coach is a precious resource, and no one wants theirs wasted. With the amount of time we all spend doing the thousand things we do in a day, you owe it to yourself and your colleagues to streamline the meeting as much as possible. An important aspect of running effective meetings is insisting that everyone respect the time allotted. Start the meeting on time, do not spend time recapping for latecomers, and, when you can, finish on time.

3. Pick a topic and stick to it.  I know that there are a thousand different aspects of recruiting that could be discussed.  In an effort to have a timely and productive meeting, decide before the meeting what the topic will be and focus on nothing else but that topic.  With an idea of what will be discussed beforehand, all coaches who can attend can prepare all relevant information and handouts to share with the group. 

The ultimate goal for us at Selling for Coaches after we have conducted an On-Campus Workshop is to have the coaches leaving energized and with the feeling that they've really learned something.  If having us come to your campus is not an option right now, coach, you can create the next best thing by organizing a recruiting club on your campus. 

Just a few hours a month can make all the difference in your recruiting life, attitude, and energy as you continue with the daily recruiting grind.  Plus, you can make great contributions to your athletic department –a perfect way to give back to peers in need. 

Mandy Green is part of the team of experts at Selling for Coaches dedicated to helping college recruiters fine-tune their message and get GREAT at recruiting.  She also heads-up our Team Development program, which helps you make sure you're making the most of the players you've got competing for you.  For information on what we can do for your program, visit us at www.sellingforcoaches.com

1. Better written recruiting messages.  Our team of creative writers, lead by author and speaker Dan Tudor, create recruiting text for a coach's letters and emails that not only gets better replies from more "next level" athletes, but does it in a way that makes prospects feel like they are being talked to in a way that connects with a coach.
2. In-depth research about you, your program and your school.  As a TRS client, you'll have Dan Tudor and his team of pros conducting fascinating research on your campus, and conducting focus groups with your team, to determine the right (and wrong) recruiting messages.  That research is used to create a winning recruiting game plan.
3. A year-long recruiting blue print.  No more month-to-month "fly by the seat of your pants" recruiting.  Our TRS clients will have a year long attack plan developed and in place immediately when our work begins with their program.
4. Expert advice along the way.  When your top prospects have narrowed their final choice down to you and a competitor, that's when we really shine.  We can develop a specific strategy for getting the commitment from that athlete, and advise you along the way as to what to say and do to ensure the best chance for landing your recruit. 
5. Matching your natural recruiting style to your prospect.  We can even do a detailed sales communication test that will determine what kind of a recruiter you are, and teach you to match your natural selling style to the personality of your recruit.  It's just one of the ways that the experts at Selling for Coaches boil recruiting down to a science for their clients.

Want to have Dan Tudor lead you through a one-on-one discussion about how the TRS plan would work for you and your program?  The next step is easy...just email Dan directly at dan@sellingforcoaches.com and request a time to schedule a conference call webinar.  We'll show you examples of the work, the 12-month plan, and even the psychological profile we can do to determine the best way for you to recruit and communicate with your prospects.

Becoming a TRS client, and working with Dan Tudor one-on-one, will make your next recruiting class the best in your program's history.  Let us show you how.

Bill Schneider, one of the co-founders of this technology, says that the response to their entry into the college golf market has been tremendous (due in large part to the free trial they are offering college golf coaches through this June).  And as coaches begin to use MySmartGolf's interactive website with their players, they're noticing something that they weren't expecting: How easy it is to use.

"It only takes 10 to 15 minutes to set up your team's account," explains Schneider.  "If you have not tracked stats before it might take a round to understand what exact information you need to record.  After a coach and his or her players get used to the system, it should only take them about ten minutes to enter in their information."

The end results that the players and coach get, however, are well worth the investment of a few minutes after a round.  (Click here to view a sample of the type of report that a college golf coach can give his or her players by using the MySmartGolf.com technology).

"The MySmartGolf system is designed for round entry at the computer by the player," says Schneider.  "The round entry card is for the player to use to make notes during the round which can be referred to when entering rounds on the computer.  But different teams and individuals do what works best for them." 

He adds that some players, particularly college players, remember all their shots and do not use the round entry card.  One Pac-10 college team that has been using MySmartGolf for some time now has players fill out the round entry cards and then an assistant enters the rounds on the computer.

Curious about what makes MySmartGolf.com so popular with a growing number of college coaches?  There's still time to sign-up for their free trial, which will make it easy to evaluate during your Spring season.

"And", says Schneider, "we're really confident that a coach who tries it now is going to keep it as a part of their training arsenal once their 2010-2011 golf season starts."

Ever thought about how you package your program?

As a serious college recruiter, you should…

The reason is simple:  We all want to know what's inside the package...we all want to know just who the heck that other person, or that new product, is.

Everything else in this world that you buy as a consumer is packaged very carefully, after a lot of research and study and focus-grouping.  Advertisers tweak the font size, change pictures on the cover, worry about what to say on the sides and back of a package.  From a DVD to a box of cereal, the packaging is everything.

Why?

• Because much of the time, what you decide to buy depends upon how it is packaged.
• Because much of the time, whether you buy it again depends upon how it was packaged.
• Because much of the time, whether you talk about it with others depends upon how it was packaged.

But as a college coach, you often ask your prospects to suspend their desire to see great “packaging” as you recruit them to your program.  Not deliberatively, but by default. 

You see, psychological studies of how we decide to buy show that most American teens – having grown up in a culture of branding and over-marketing – need to assign a “story” to whatever the decide to have an emotional connection with. 

For example, when deciding what music to listen to, the number one factor in their mind is answering the all-important question, “What does it stand for?”  Is it what a tough guy would listen to?  Does the singers fashion style match their own?  Does the singer’s world-view, politics or religion line-up with what they believe in?  In this example, it’s not just about the music: It’s about what the music stands for, and how it’s packaged.

However, like I said a moment ago, I see college coaches all over the country not paying attention to their “packaging” and what the “brand” of their program says to the prospect they are desperate to come and play for them.  And then, they get frustrated when the prospect doesn’t seem to be interested and isn’t “connecting” with what they’re saying during the recruiting process.

While your message and “story” are going to be different than your competitions, and every situation is completely unique when it comes to developing a good brand strategy for your individual program at your college, there are a few key ingredients to putting together a winning brand that defines who you are, and why a prospect should be interested in taking a serious look at you.  I’ll tell you about them by asking you some questions I’d like you to answer in your mind as you read them:

• How does your prospect define you?  In the end, it actually doesn’t matter much what you think of your program.  If it’s not being received in a positive way by your prospect, they won’t connect with you.  And if they don’t connect, they won’t come.  That’s why when I am asked to come and conduct our on-campus workshop at a college campus, one of the priorities for me is to do research with groups of student-athletes on how they define the school, and why they connected with the coach’s message.  It’s the first question that needs to be answered to build out the rest of your message and define what the program’ “package” looks like in the mind of your prospect.

• Does your story match their expectations?  Generic brands on supermarket shelves are huge money-makers for the store.  Their profit margin is much higher than other name brand products.  However, it’s hard for the store to sell those brands.  Even though they put them at eye level and give you discounts compared to the other name brands, we resist buying them despite the fact that many of them are manufactured by the same people who produce the name brand items.  Why is this?  Because the packaging often misses our expectations.  Not enough color, not the familiar iconic image on the front (where’s my Toucan Sam?!?) or just plain unfamiliarity with how it looks.  Inside, it’s a great product (or at least as good as the name brand).  Outside, it doesn’t meet our expectations.  So, Coach…does your story and your “packaging” connect with what today’s student-athletes are looking for in a coach and a program?

• Do your testimonials tell the story?  Do you have athlete testimonials and stories on file?  On your website?  Are your prospects reading them?  If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, you are missing out on an incredible marketing opportunity for your program.  On the front of almost every DVD you buy, there’s some critical acclaim quoted by a movie reviewer right at the top for you to see.  Look on the back cover of almost every book, and you’ll find praises for the work from other authors or experts in that particular field.  Why is so much prominent space reserved for testimonials?  Because they work.  We trust a third-party verifier’s glowing words of praise more than we’d trust the author saying it themselves.  For those of you that have read our two advanced recruiting workbooks for college coaches, you know how to construct believable, recruiting-enhancing arguments on behalf of your program as told by your past and current athletes.

• Do you know what they’re saying behind your back?  At the car rental counter a few weeks ago, I was unexpectedly “upgraded” to a brand new Toyota Camry.  I jokingly asked what I did to deserve that, and she replied that a lot of people didn’t want to drive their Toyotas because of the recent braking and acceleration problems that forced the recall of thousands of cars around the country (I’m guessing she gave me the once-over and figured I was expendable as she assigned my waiting-to-be-recalled Toyota)  For my organization, even though we hold our client list in strict confidence and make a point not to publish testimonials, our biggest source of new clients for our Total Recruiting Solution program are other coaches.  They are “talking behind my back”, but in a positive way.  In Toyota’s case, the public is “talking behind their back” in a very bad way.  But either way, they’re talking.  What are they saying about your packaging and your brand behind your back?

Your program’s packaging is so important because it precedes everything else in the recruiting process in your prospect's eyes.  Your first impression when they give you that first look is crucial.

Pay attention to your packaging.  Your prospect is.

Perfecting your brand image in the mind of recruits is just one of the session topics we'll be exploring in greater detail at the upcoming 2010 National Collegiate Recruiting Conference in Chicago, this July 16-18.  Register now to take advantage of our early registration discount and save $50.  And, if you can't be there, order our conference DVD and notes and see every presentation at this year's conference.  Click here to reserve your copy. 

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.

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!

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.

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.