5 Ways to Build Persistence in Your Recruiting
I'm not one for making New Years resolutions. I've tried them before, but for whatever reason they don't work out.
Actually, I'll take that back. I know why they resolutions seldom work out: There's no plan behind them. There might be good intentions, hopes and aspirations behind them, but seldom will you find a rock-solid plan behind most New Years resolutions.
Its the same thing with building persistence in your recruiting. By "persistent" I mean regular,
consistent, planned recruiting for each and every prospect on your list. Just like a New Years resolution, you probably have every intention of being a persistent recruiter. But just like all those barely-used treadmills that show up in your local classified ads every February, maintaining persistent recruiting habits are easy to push to the back of your "to do" list as a college coach.
Unless, that is, there's a plan behind it.
That's what I want to give you today: A real plan to develop consistent, winning recruiting habits this year.
But before we get to my five-step plan for building persistence in your recruiting, lets get one thing straight: Persistence is a state of mind; therefore, it can be cultivated and coached.
You should also realize that persistence is the result of some concrete causes that you have complete control over as a recruiter and a college coach. They include:
Having a definite purpose. Write down a recruiting goal that you want to achieve. Write down a monthly goal, and post it where you can see it. Write down a yearly goal, and post it where you can see it. You must write them down. It helps you focus and keep that goal in mind.
Desire. That's an emotion that you can control. So, what is your level of desire when it comes to recruiting? On a scale of 1 to 10, where are you? Be honest with yourself, and find ways to ramp-up your passion for this crucial aspect of your profession.
Be self-reliant. That means you know how to do your job as a recruiter, and you're good at it. Moreover, you should take the steps to make yourself better at the art of recruiting. Our whole mission here at Selling for Coaches is to give coaches the tools they can use to become self-reliant recruiting pros. Don't wait for someone else to teach you...take control of your career and get the training you need.
Having definite plans. They don't even have to be good plans or practical plans, but as long as they are organized they will prompt you to be persistent. And that's what we're talking about here...developing persistence.
Accurate knowledge. Want to make sure your plans are good and practical? Acquire accurate knowledge from a proven source. If you know that a plan is sound and is proven, recruiting gets a lot easier. Continually "guessing" versus actually "knowing" cripples your ability to be persistent. That's why we developed the Total Recruiting Solution plan for coaches...it's proven, it works, and it gives the coaches who use it a sense of "knowing" what to do next. Knowledge put into action is powerful stuff.
Cooperation. Getting on the same page with your staff, and working together with common recruiting goals, does incredible things for fostering an attitude of persistence.
Habit. This is the secret weapon that many coaches still haven't mastered. Don't like recruiting? Have a fear of making that first phone call of the night? Those fears can be cured by forced repetition of simple acts of scheduled, habitual recruiting. Take your #1 least favorite recruiting task and try to do it at the start of every day, or at least at the same time every day. Persistence is the direct result of habit, which you have the ability to control in your daily schedule.
So with those things in mind, Coach, here they are...the five ways to build persistence in your 
recruiting:
- Have a definite recruiting goal fueled by a passion for making it happen. Does this describe you?
- A definite recruiting plan that is expressed in ongoing, tangile actions. Is that the way you recruit?
- A mind that blocks out all the negative thoughts that accompany most recruiting cycles. Stuff like, "We could never sign a kid that good" or "We'll probably lose her to that other school in our conference". Get rid of that kind of thinking. It will eat away at your confidence, and destroy your ability to be persistent. Are you guilty of negative thinking from time to time?
- A strong alliance with a fellow coach. There is strength in numbers, especially when it comes to recruiting. Do you have that?
- The ability to look past the work and see the victory. Yes, persistent recruiting takes work. A lot of it. But you need to find a way to focus on the prize at the end, and not the step-by-step process its going to take to get there. Can you do that?
Some coaches are going to get done reading this and label it as "hokey" or just a bunch of psycho-babble. They'll do that because there isn't some one-size-fits-all answer to it that "fixes" their persistence problem in one easy reading.
If you are of those coaches, take notice that persistence isn't about finding some secret formula...it's about coming to the realization that developing persistence is a step-by-step process that, over time, will pay big dividends to you as a college coach.
And, if you're one of those coaches who still doesn't get it, you'll eventually get beat in the recruiting game by a coach who does.
We don't know if they will help you build persistence, but the Selling for Coaches Recruiting Workshops will help you develop superior recruiting skills, and show you innovative techniques for everything from overcoming objections to coming-up with amazing recruiting letters. Check to see when we'll hosting one in your region of the country by clicking here. You can also bring us to your campus to work with you and your staff one-on-one for more personalized training.