The Science of Recruiting Letters - Part II

What Every Coach Must Know
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Whether you like it or not, recruiting is a necessity. It is the only means to rebuild fallen programs and reload successful ones. More often than not, recruiting has become an endless saga filled with repetitive approaches that have changed little in the past four decades. Recruiting is something that everyone does, but does everyone do it well?

In last month’s issue, the staff of American Football Monthly pooled their ideas – and a few handy phone numbers – and talked recruiting with some of the top recruiting coordinators in the country from Division I-A to I-AA, Division II to III and NAIA to Juco. AFM talked with Georgia and Mississippi State (I-A), Alcorn State and Northeastern (I-AA), Carson Newman (II), East Texas Baptist University (III), Ottawa College in Kansas (NAIA) and Pasadena City College (Juco). The answers were basically the same – the science of recruiting letters had remained basically unchanged. NCAA compliance laws do restrict content and creativity to a degree, however, there are still things that can be done to more efficiently utilize both your school and coaches’ resources.

In Part I, AFM discussed the purpose and function of the recruiting letter and the importance of research. The main objective of the recruiting letter is to make contact, establish a relationship and sell your school to a recruit who is probably being courted by as many as 25 other programs – if not more. AFM explained the procedure of coding and decoding through methods of transmission, remember (See diagram, right):

Also, AFM hit home the importance of surveying your own team. After all they once faced the same decision-making process and chose your school. By using a survey, you should have gained a firmer grasp on why they chose your school, what factors led to that decision, what influences effected their decision, and why they chose not to attend the other schools, but also what they liked about the schools they decided not to attend. Now it’s time to implement what you’ve learned.

Study the feedback ...
After getting the answers to your survey, you should be able to draw a summary of their responses with three, five or even up to 10 reasons why your players made the decision to sign their letter of intent.

Once you have these key points singled out, you should then take the opportunity to poll your coaching staff. Understand the mindset of your fellow coaches in order to see if your approach to recruiting as been on the right track or totally off base. If you see that both your players and coaches are on the same page, then you may need only to fine-tune your efforts. However, if you are off target, it is time to overhaul your approach and play to your strengths – which is what attracts most of your recruits in the first place.

Writing the letter ...
After painlessly gathering essential feedback from your very own players – you find yourself asking, what’s next?

The first step after finding out why a player chooses your school is to find a way to use this information to your best advantage.

AFM reviewed literally hundreds of recruiting letters from major universities across the nation and everything was the same. There was little (if any) difference from one school’s letter to the next while vying for the same recruit. If it looks the same, walks the same, and talks the same, how does anyone choose?

The solution? A strategy must be developed. Script a plan that will not only place a guideline for contact, but it will also chart topics discussed and information shared in order to develop a solid, long-lasting, truthful relationship between the recruiter and the recruit. Don’t just send for the sake of sending. Don’t write a letter on Tuesday just because it’s Tuesday and it is your day to write something. Have something to say, otherwise, the letter will end up like the 25 others received that day, either unopened and unread, or worse underneath the empty milk carton and Saturday night leftovers, in other words – trashed.

Map out the phases of the recruiting letter assignments. Understand the exact purpose of each letter and write accordingly to that purpose. Use elements that you found in your survey groups to utilize the “buzz” words in order to showcase your school’s strongest selling point. Although each recruiting assignment is individual specific, the survey group gives you a clearer picture and a concrete base to begin.

If most Division I-A recruits are being courted by at least 25 other schools, you must capture the recruit’s attention with the first line of the letter, otherwise, you lose them. The excitement of being recruited wears off after the first couple of weeks and then it becomes redundant. You have to grasp their attention. For every letter he is reading of yours, he is reading 25 others just like it. So, make it different.

The body can efficiently sell your school by utilizing your survey information. Focus on education, tradition, or location in the main body, while taking an opportunity to mention events surrounding either the recruit or the recruit’s family.

“I may not be the best salesperson in the world, but I believe in being honest,” said Rockey Felker, former head coach and current recruiting coordinator at Mississippi State University. “That has always been an approach that is popular. Recruiting has not changed in that it is still about building a relationship between a coaching staff and a recruit, which includes the recruit’s family.”

At the letter’s conclusion, you will call the recruit into action. Give the recruit a task or a question to think about. Tell them about setting a goal and living by a goal sheet. Ask them to review your school’s media guide or Web site and ask their opinion. Even remind them of a televised game and ask them to watch it. These tasks will open a line of communication that can forge a strong relationship and promote enthusiasm.

Here are the most important things to remember while compiling, composing and distributing your recruiting letter:

Do differentiate yourself from other schools, both visually and intellectually. After all, your recruit probably received recruiting letters from 25 other schools that same day.

Don’t put too much in the letter, make your point concisely and effectively. Less is often more.

Do spell chek, get the picture? Nothing says turnoff more so than grammatical errors, so get it right. Mom and Dad will also take notice.

Don’t tell them what they already know. Try not to spend too much time on the obvious; each contact is precious so make the most of it.

Do personalize the letter. Even a form letter can have a sense of familiarity and intimacy.

Don’t overkill. Sending letter after letter after letter will get old quickly ... remember this, less is often more.

Do include family information, such as upcoming birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. Ask about other family members and do feel free to share honest compliments.

Don’t be afraid to emphasize statements or words in the recruiting letter by using the bold, italics or underscore keys. However, don’t overuse it.

Do have something to say. Actually, take that one step further ... always have something to say.

Don’t try and be funny. Save the “Top 10” lists for Letterman. Humor may be cute, but how do mom and dad feel about a poor attempt at humor, while your competition focuses on the importance of education in the workplace?

Do make visuals important. Take time to select attractive letterhead, stationary and envelopes. Again, you are competing for a recruit in an age of super technology, so be creative, but not too creative.

Don’t forget the details about campus life. Talk about campus life, organizations, traditions, festivals and anything else that your current student body enjoys. After all, it is these things that will make the recruit’s college experience.

Do use the “buzz” words learned from your survey feedback. If your current players disclose that your school’s “history” or “tradition” influenced their decisions, then strategically place these “buzz” words in your letters.

Don’t forget about the little things, like a recruit’s big game or good report card. These things go a long way with both the recruit and the people helping to make the decisions – mom and dad.

Do utilize your feedback information to reevaluate your media kits and Web site.

Don’t just stop with the recruiting letters; examine everything.

Look at the letter ...
Ask any coach and they will tell you, a handwritten letter is king.

“In my experience in coaching, nothing beats a good, thoughtful, intelligent handwritten note,” said Felker. “That is always a big plus.”

But other factors such as letterhead, stationary and envelopes can make an immediate impact. It doesn’t matter what is said in the letter if no one is enticed to read it. Place emphasis on cosmetics, but avoid making it look cheap.

“If a recruiting coordinator sends a recruiting letter that is not personalized, he is a knucklehead,” said Terry Tilghman, East Carolina University recruiting coordinator. “You if you don’t send anything that is addressed in any fashion other than personally, you are behind the times and your program will suffer.”

If your school is rich in history – feed off it. Illustrate championship tradition with paper quality, not new age graphics. Schools with little “tradition” or “history” need to find graphics that emphasize the strengths they do possess.

Personalize the letterhead for each coach. It may be a bit more expensive, but well worth the extra touch. Remember, differentiate. Also, if you are not handwriting the letter, choose the font carefully. Times New Roman is traditional and looks good cosmetically, but feel free to find one that suits your school best.

Finally – if time permits – don’t just write one letter; write multiple versions of the same letter stuffed in the same exact envelopes that you’ll mail to your recruits. Have your survey group decide which letter style is more appealing and which content is more inviting. Ask them these two questions:

1) What point do you believe this letter was trying to make? (Compare their response to your original intent. If their answers are similar – good job. If not, ask questions and rewrite the letter.)

2) Which letter do you like best and why? (Find out which letter works best to motivate a player to possibly sign with your program.)

In conclusion, there are no magic formulas for absolute success in the science of recruiting, just a few tips and suggestions that may help you take out the guesswork. AFM strongly urges all recruiting coordinators and coaching staffs to understand and comply with all NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA rules and regulations involved in the recruiting process.

Recruiting Technology Advancements Save Time & Energy

Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork is the usually the best way to describe the reality of recruiting. For coaches, recruiting has often been considered an unyielding task when it comes to tracking, logging and complying for every recruit involved.

But fret no more ... the 21st century has arrived and it has brought with it some pretty nifty tools to lessen the workload and increase productivity.

Technology now exists that can help give coaches a competitive advantage, while still remaining cost effective, efficient and user friendly. Recruiting software can reduce the amount of time spent analyzing data on recruits and provide immediate organization and access throughout the recruiting cycle and decreases the amount of dreaded paperwork that coincides with recruit management. Recruiting software can even mimic your very own handwriting style. So, even your form letters can have that personal touch.

Recruiting software can now compile a team’s recruiting information in one place utilizing an easy-to-use format that saves coaches time and stretches their resources to improve the management of the recruiting process. These programs can be customized to meet your specific needs and recruiting techniques.

Coaches can even enter recruiting and compliance information while on the road recruiting through the use of a laptop or handheld computer device.

New technology also allows data synching capability. This feature allows coaches to share information once the information has been entered and synched with a central data source. No longer will coaches be forced to dial into any server or web site when on the road.

Some software even has an academic page that can automatically calculate the core average and the qualification status of the athletes being recruited. It will even automatically update all calculations for new entries.

Coaches and teams simply will not be able to keep up without this new technology,” said Candice Hobin, National Sales and Marketing Director of CyberSports, Inc. “The software makes the entire recruiting process three times faster. Why would they spend three hours logging everything by hand when they could use the latest recruiting software technology and spend more time coaching and recruiting more effectively?”

CyberSports, Inc. has been assisting compliance and recruiting offices since 1996 and has developed an impressive clientele list that includes the majority of Top 25 teams. Programs such as The Recruiter, The Recruiter 2000 and CyberPalm have been helping teams meet their needs to better communicate between both the compliance and recruiting offices. These recruiting programs were the first recruiting and compliance software products to meet all the needs of a recruiting staff and the compliance office in one easy to use program that provides them the ability to monitor the recruiting and compliance activities, right from his or her desk.

“This software technology is absolutely the best,” said Terry Tilghman, East Carolina University recruiting coordinator. “We use The Recruiter from CyberSports and it is absolutely the best thing for us. Without this program I would have to single handedly update all 1,500 recruits in my database by hand. It basically takes a six-man job and converts it to a one-man show.”

Complete compliance ...
Recruiting software, such as CyberSports’ The Recruiter, completely manages the details of the compliance process. This new software eliminates the tedious paperwork coaches hate to fill out while also providing a better source of recruiting information than previously possible.

“This does make things a lot more efficient and productive,” said ECU compliance officer, Rosie Thompson. “The best thing is the elimination of lengthy paper trails. Coach Tilghman can instantly reproduce our compliance forms on demand with this software. It is makes things run much, much smoother.”

Coaches can easily enter their contacts, evaluations, phone calls, prospect official visit information and unofficial visit information directly into the latest software technology. This information can then be thoroughly viewed by not only other coaches, but also compliance personnel. A customized compliance form can be produced that are exact replicas of the forms that coaches are filling out by hand. This method allows the coaches to better communicate with each other while, at the same time, providing all the compliance forms

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