I want to share with you an excerpt of an email conversation one of my trusted advisors, Rick Roberge, had with a prospective client. Beware, it will make you cringe...
Rick was talking with a prospective client that didn't actually sign on as a new client. But as they continued to run in to each other, that same prospect kept praising Rick, calling him the best of everything since the invention of sliced bread. He also kept promising Rick to sign-on as soon as the timing was "right."
Now, if you are directly responsible for recruiting students, I'm sure you've had a few inquiries and applicants like this entrepreneur. Before reading on to see Rick's response, pause for a moment and think back to how you have responded, or how you would respond, to a prospect always promising to enroll, yet never following through?
Here's Rick's response sent to the prospect in an email:
You ever notice how laid back my clients are? You're not. You're in my face, enthusiastic, positive attitude. You don't have the quiet confidence that my people have and people like me feel like we need a shower after we deal with people like you... I don't want you to be nice to me. I don't need you to like me. Please just stop. I don't want anything from you. I know that I was very helpful. I know that the evaluations and reviews were helpful and on the money. I know that your sales guy was not right. I don't need you to tell me. So, please just ignore me.
Scary, huh? Can you imagine ever speaking to a prospect that way?
Here's why I want to share this with you: It is very rare that a prospect would get into a conversation with Rick without knowing exactly who he is. If you read this blog post, or any other of his posts for that matter, you will understand who he is, what he does and how he does it. Rick is authentic - in his words and in his actions. (And yes, his counsel is pin-point accurate.)
I'm not suggesting that you take on this approach, but I am suggesting you consider how you recruit, how you communicate and very seriously question just how authentic and genuine you are.
If I read your emails or speak with you on the phone as a prospective student would, would I find you to be genuine? Because I can tell if you are - and so can your prospects. They may feel about you the way Rick felt about his prospect.
If you aren't truly and completely genuine, you are losing prospects to competitors that are. Want help with that?
More articles to help improve recruitment:
4 Tactics to improve your recruitment team's performance
3 changes that improved my higher education recruitment efforts