AREA COORDINATOR TRAINING MANUAL PHASE 1 -­‐ SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS BRANDING OWNERSHIP TAXES THREE SOURCES OF LEAD GENERATION BUILDING YOUR DATABASE AND SETTING APPOINTMENTS MAKING IT PERSONAL ADVERTISING IN PERSON NETWORKING CROSS PROMOTION STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS HOME OFFICE MARKETING PHASE 2 -­‐ SELLING HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE ATHLETIC RECRUITING INDUSTRY SELLING THE 5 PART PROCESS FRONTRUSH INTEGRATION PROBLEM SOLVING EXPLAINING LEVELS OF PLAY SELLING TO YOUNGER ATHLETES HOME VISITS THE CLOSE CONTRACTS THE SCOUTING EVALUATION PHASE 3 – PROCESSING PROCESSING NEW CLIENTS PAYMENT PROCESSING PHASE 4 -­‐ POST SALE LIASON GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND FOR YOUR CLIENTS TURNING 1 INTO 10 HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS POST COLLEGE COMMITMENT STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 1 PHASE 1-­‐ SETTING UP THE BUSINESS BRANDING Always use STUDENTathleteWorld in everything you write or speak. Never write Student Athlete World or StudentAthleteWorld or student-­‐athlete. The capitalization is on purpose to emphasize the fact we are looking for well-­‐rounded STUDENTS who also play sports. Don’t forget to use the .com is for website promotion when necessary as well. OWNERSHIP This is your business! Most people in your local area won’t know us, our competitors, or much about college recruiting. Sell yourself. Come up with new ideas, try new things, grow your business one day at a time. Just remember to be qualitative about everything you do. Did it work? Was it worth it? Share those ideas with us as well. Always remember it is about setting appointments. The rest is just fluff. You need to get into prospective clients living rooms….anyway you do that is fine with us as long as it is ethical and professional. TAXES At the end of the year, STUDENTathleteWorld will send you a 1099 showing the commission we paid to you (If you collected all payments yourself and only sent in processing fees your commission will show $0). You are responsible for reporting your income as a 1099 franchise owner. THREE SOURCES OF LEAD GENERATION Random Prospects Referrals Personal Connecaons Leads are going to come from 3 sources… (1) Random Prospecting-­‐ This is the least personal and least fun part of the job. The details of this process will be outlined in this training manual. Basically is involves getting names and contact information of potential clients and contacting them and putting them through our sales funnel. (2) Personal Connections-­‐ This is probably one of the main reasons you were interested in this business. This involved establishing personal connections with people that have influence over our potential clients (high school coaches, club coaches, athletic directors, sports training center owners, sports media, etc.) and developing mutually beneficial relationship with them in order to have them endorse your business and connect you with potential leads. (3) Referrals-­‐ This is simply when potential clients contact you because they heard about you from someone else. It’s important to realize the importance of these three sources and their positive and negative relevance. (1) Random Prospecting (Good and Bad)-­‐ The bad news is that this is tedious hard work. It requires lots of time, effort, rejection, and boring computer and phone correspondence. Your success rate will be low. The good news is that it is the best way to grow your business from scratch and get yourself in front of clients a large number of clients who are interested in our services. (2) Personal Connections (Good and Bad)-­‐ The good news is this is fun and makes you feel important and enjoy your daily activities. It is also very important for the long term success of your business. The bad news is that the connections you make in your first 6 months probably won’t directly relate to much in terms of instant sales. It may take months or years to reap the benefits of your work in this area. (3) Referrals (Good and Bad)-­‐ The good news is that this will become the cornerstone of your business. Also, it’s really easy! Clients basically lay down in front of you. The bad news is that this is non-­‐existent in the first 3-­‐6 months of your business. This will not happen overnight and requires a lot of time and effort from the other areas. The breakdown of your allocated time for each source should look like this First 6 months Random Prospecting 75% Personal Connections 25% Referrals 0% STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 3 6-­‐24 Months Random Prospecting 40% Personal Connections 40% Referrals 20% 24+ Months Random Prospecting 10% Personal Connections 40% Referrals 50% As you see, early on it’s all about contacting as many people as possible. This is less personal, less fun, and more tedious work. The good news is, as you grow your base your approach will change. In months 6-­‐24 you can focus more on personal connections and referrals. After two years or so, you may get to a point where you can almost completely stop random prospecting all together and work completely off personal connections and referrals. This is the snowball effect. You will, at some point, reach a point in your business where people will already know about you, your prices, your services, and are ready to buy actually just call you up to set an appointment and enroll into the program. But, it takes hard work and time to get to that point. This will not happen in your first few months. The major mistake you cannot afford to make is to try to run your business in months 1-­‐4 like you would in month 24. You simply can’t afford to do that….even if you have a serious financial cushion to hold you over. The reason is that you have to find and enroll lots of local kids before people will actually tack you seriously. Once you enroll kids and over-­‐serve them your name will spread positively and you can progress to the more rewarding parts of the job. To put it simply, the people that are not successful at this are not willing to do the hard part that the first 6 month include. They want to reap the rewards without putting in the labor. The labor has to come first! BUILDING YOUR DATABASE AND SETTING APPOINTMENTS STEP 1-­‐ Finding Leads Use the Internet to find large lists of potential clients in your area. Participation on a club team or with a personal trainer or outside coach is a good indicator that the athlete desires to play in college. Additionally, if they are paying to play on a club team or for extra coaching they are used to the idea of investing into their athletic future. Look for freshman-­‐juniors. Keep in mind that the ideal client is typically an upper middle class male athlete in a mainstream sport from a rural school that plays on an unknown club team. Kids from private schools are used to paying for educational expenses and typically can afford our fees and are sometimes a good fit. Super rich families can afford our fees but sometimes are not interested in us as they have the money for college and will be more picky where they will look to attend, and have unrealistic athletic expectations. Kids from high profile club teams can be a good fit as they probably have the desire and money, but sometimes see us as unnecessary as their coaches are more accustomed to handling college recruiting. Kids from high profile large public schools can sometimes be the toughest sell as they may be more used to exposure and their coaches like to control the recruiting process themselves. The best fit is a kid that needs us. Maybe they are the only player on their team wanting to play in college? Maybe their coaches don’t know much about recruiting or they live in a rural area or attend a small school? Maybe they feel overlooked? Whatever the reason, the important thing to understand is this-­‐ It’s a numbers game, most kids won’t be interested. Do not try to find kids that you think SHOULD use us, instead find kids that WANT to use us. Requesting the entire football team from a low income urban public school is not a good idea. There are so many kids out there, it’s not just about finding more leads, it’s about finding more of the RIGHT leads. Here are some of the places to look for leads… •
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Newspapers (pre-­‐season previews, all-­‐conference lists, stats, stories, etc.) Club Team Websites (just web search for “baseball club teams in STATE”, or find a tournament schedule and search for all the teams websites) Sports Training Facility Websites (sometimes they have results and lists posted) State Athletic Organization Websites (championship results, stats, etc.) MaxPreps.com (high school stats) Free College Recruiting Websites Sport Specific Recruiting Websites Social Media pages of all of the above. If kids are friends with or like their pages, they are probably potential leads NOTE: If you have friends who are high school coaches of ask them for names. However, you will never get enough leads this way. In addition to the personal connections, make sure to find enough cold call prospects! Save these websites on your computer to check back often. Keep large lists handy to be ready for Step 2. STEP 2-­‐ Facebook / Other Social Media Create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. You will find many kids use Twitter often and many parents have Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Get on board early and develop a strategy to make them useful in your business. STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 5 Create a new Facebook (or other Social Media) account to use for work only. Take the lists from Step 1 and request as many kids as possible per day. Just search for them and request to add them as a friend. Do not send them a letter (you will get flagged for spamming if you do). Be careful or spam warnings and when you get one, stop. You may even want to have 2-­‐3 different Facebook accounts once you get blocked. When they accept your request, keep it casual and reach out to them to introduce yourself. Remember, Facebook is a casual place and kids get over run with form letters. Post on their wall, send them an instant message, or just say hello and introduce yourself and what you do. Say something like, “Are you looking to play (Sport) in College?”, or “How is your college recruiting going?” Once you get a conversation started, send them this… (Name), Thanks for accepting my friend request. I am (Name) with STUDENTathleteWorld.com. We work with STUDENTathletes that want to compete at the college level. Our goals for you would be to get you as much exposure and save you as much money as possible. To get started just create a FREE recruiting profile and we can talk further about how we can assist you. 1.) Create a FREE recruiting profile at studentathleteworld.com 2.) Browse our website and talk about your college athletic recruiting and our program with your parents The goal here is simple. 1.) Request as many good leads as Facebook allows. 2.) Get them to create a profile. Kids will sometimes try to talk to you are say, “who are you?” or “do you know me?” or “how did you find out my name?” or “does this cost money?” Quickly answer them, but don’t spend all day having a conversation with a 15 year-­‐old kid. Most kids just won’t understand what exactly we are. Some kids will think you are drafting them into the NBA and others will be convinced that this is a scam. You don’t want to mislead anyone to thinking we are something we are not, but you also don’t want to have a long conversation. Just tell them we help kids who want to play in college and to check out the website. Some will, some won’t, but if you request enough kids it won’t matter. It is important that they create a profile for a few reasons. 1.) It lets us know if they are good fit (grades, age, school, club team, honors, etc.) and 2.) It gets us the parent’s e-­‐mail addresses (they cannot submit the form unless they include the parents e-­‐mail address). Parent’s e-­‐mail addresses are essential. You may also come across Facebook groups and pages for club teams, businesses, or anything sports related. This is a good place for free marketing. Once the kid accepts your friend request you can also look to see what groups they are in. Join or request to join and post this on the group wall… Are you planning on playing your sport in college? If so, we can help you connect with college coaches. Add me, join our group, and check out http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com to find out how we can help. Once you are in the group you may get invited to events. Post the same message on the event wall. We will make you an administrator of our STUDENTathleteWorld.com group where you can invite friends to events and so on. Post status updates on your page as often as possible. Some good ideas are daily tips, motivational quotes, promos of our services, announcements when clients enroll and sign with colleges, polls, funny questions, congrats on wins, etc. Basically post anything that lets people know you are involved with high school and college sports. “Like” clients posts when they are sports related and comment on sports related pictures. Be involved on Facebook as often as possible, without being annoying or spamming. Sometimes people will delete what you write, but it will also lead to people requesting you. A lead that comes to you is always better than one you chase down! As Facebook continues to be over-­‐run with businesses, the effectiveness of push marketing should continue to decline. As an effort to focus more on pull marketing, it is a good idea to set up Facebook events and groups and keep them advertisement free. You can do this by creating an event called “Who Wants to Get Recruited by Colleges” or a group called “East Central Conference Sports Talk”. Set up these events and groups with the purpose of encouraging dialogue about sports. Keep all marketing out of it for a few weeks or until you have a large client base. Ask members to invite others and use it as a place to share info and talk about local high school sports. After you’ve established the event or groups reputation then you can throw in a blurb about STUDENTathleteWorld.com and what we do. FACEBOOK ADDENDUM-­‐ A few of our reps are reporting a different strategy that appears to be working better for them with Facebook. Instead of requesting every kid they are starting short casual conversation via messages with kids and trying to entice dialogue. Once a casual conversation is started they will send the link. This allows them to send lots of messages (with no html links) without getting dinged for spamming and also appears more human-­‐like and casual. STEP 3-­‐ E-­‐mail Once the athlete fills out the profile, we now have their information. In cases where you have the phone number, CALL THEM! They will get plenty of e-­‐mails through our e-­‐mail workflows STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 7 (explained later). However, there may be times when all you have is the e-­‐mail address and no phone number, so you will have to JUST e-­‐mail them. When you do have the phone number you may also want to e-­‐mail them a day in advance to warm them for your call. Here is a sample letter for the parents via e-­‐mail… (Names), Your son or daughter created a profile on our website and expressed interest in pursuing college athletics. If you are interested, we'd love to talk with you all about how we can help. Take a look at our website http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com for more information. If you are interested after researching, we’d would love to sit down with you and your family and provide some insight on the college recruiting process. We can show you what our program can do for you both athletically and financially! We don't take just anyone, we are looking for five important traits in STUDENTathletes we work with... 1. Above average athlete (you don't need to be a superstar, but success in high school is a must) 2. Strong student (many of our clients are near 4.0 and we require at least a 3.0 GPA or 1350 SAT) 3. Supportive and intelligent family (understand the financial commitment of college, realistic views on the competitiveness of college athletics) 4. Mature student-­‐athlete (can look adults in the eye and communicate via e-­‐mail and phone with adults) 5. Strong desire to compete in college Additionally, the families we help fit one (or more) of these categories... 1. A desire to save money on college tuition. 2. An average or above average athlete who is overlooked and desires to be recruited. 3. A high level athlete who wants to maximize exposure in order to play at the highest level possible. If an athlete and family meets ALL of these, they are a PERFECT candidate for our program. If they meet some or most, we can help them with their recruiting and help them find the best college and help connect them with the available scholarships! We deal with a wide variety of athletes. We have had high level D1 athletes in our program. We also have many non-­‐athletic scholarship athletes who receive near full scholarships from academic aid, family need, and leverage. Please check out http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com, especially the testimonials from past clients and college coaches. Give us a call or e-­‐mail anytime to talk further. We look forward to meeting you. Send this letter via e-­‐mail and also copy the coaches as well (their e-­‐mail may have been in the profile. Also put the parents e-­‐mail address into Facebook search and friend request the parents and send the same letter to them via Facebook (even some parents use Facebook more than e-­‐mail). Put the coaches e-­‐mail address into Facebook search and friend request them as well. Send this letter in E-­‐mail (and Facebook) to the student-­‐athlete… (Name), Thanks for creating a profile on our website. We have sent your parents e-­‐mails. Make sure you share our website and e-­‐mails with your family and discuss everything. Please encourage them to respond to us if you all are interested in finding out how we can help you. We won't call your house until you message me back and let me know that you have talked about your college athletic recruitment and the STUDENTathleteWorld.com program with your family. When you have done that let me know and I will be in touch. The goal here again is simple, get the parents and kids talking about us, get them to our website, and get the parents to call you or e-­‐mail you back to set up a visit without you having to make a phone call. These are the clients that enroll! When you come across coaches e-­‐mail addresses either from web searches or from completed profiles, send them this letter both as an e-­‐mail and through Facebook… Coach (Name), My name is NAME, from STUDENTathleteWorld.com (http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com). As a former college coach for 8 years and a high school coach for 3, I understand your possible apprehension about recruiting services, for a number of reasons. However, I'd ask you to spend some time at least looking into our program, as we are the gold standard in the industry. I'd love to talk to you about some of the possible apprehensions you might have about us or the industry in general. After a few minutes, I think you may understand in more details what we really do and how it can help you! If after looking into our program, you want to recommend some athletes, please do! I deal with all sports and take freshman-­‐seniors. If they have the desire to play at the STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 9 next level, I can help them achieve their dreams! We don't take just anyone, we are looking for five important traits in STUDENTathletes we work with... 1. Above average athlete (you don't need to be a superstar, but success in high school is a must) 2. Strong student (many of our clients are near 4.0 and we require at least a 3.0 GPA or 1350 SAT) 3. Supportive and intelligent family (understand the financial commitment of college, realistic views on the competitiveness of college athletics) 4. Mature student-­‐athlete (can look adults in the eye and communicate via e-­‐mail and phone with adults) 5. Strong desire to compete in college Additionally, the families we help fit one (or more) of these categories... 1. A desire to save money on college tuition. 2. An average or above average athlete who is overlooked and desires to be recruited. 3. A high level athlete who wants to maximize exposure in order to play at the highest level possible. If an athlete and family meets ALL of these, they are a PERFECT candidate for our program. If they meet some or most, we can help them with their recruiting and help them find the best college and help connect them with the available scholarships! We deal with a wide variety of athletes. We have had high level D1 athletes in our program. We also have many non-­‐athletic scholarship athletes who receive near full scholarships from academic aid, family need, and leverage. Can you do me a huge favor and get me in touch with these athletes? Please recommend athletes from your team or program or others you may know from your area. Feel free to give out my information, or if you are comfortable let me know their names. Give me a call or e-­‐mail anytime to talk further. Sometime parents or kids will ask you about cost. You can use this message… (Name), Thanks for your interest. For more information on exactly what we can do for you please check out our website http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com. Our packages start at a few hundred dollars. We have packages to meet your goals, needs, and budget. Check out http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com/services/ for a detailed description of our four-­‐part comprehensive program that covers Marketing, Video, Scouting, and Consultation. Our costs, while substantial, are actually the best in the industry! Competitors charge as high as $7,000 for the same services without the reputation that we have. We are the gold standard in the athletic recruiting industry. Think of this cost as an investment. If we can help you save just $3,000 a year extra on your college financial aid package just by using leverage from multiple offers ($12,000 total savings), we would have saved you 10 TIMES YOUR INVESTMENT. This is a very minimum savings result. Many of our clients save as much as that in just one year! If you are interested, let’s set up a home visit where I can get to know you and your family and explain the program in more detail. The visit would be a no pressure and no commitment visit. Afterward, if you would like to sign up you can. If not, that's ok too. At the very least you be more educated on how recruiting really works. If you have any questions, please let me know. Feel free to call or e-­‐mail me anytime. Other times, parents or kids will ask about it being a scam. Use this as an opportunity to start a discussion. Use this message… How do I know it's not a scam? I sometimes come across this phrase. Sometimes, I even hear from interested student-­‐athletes that their coach has told them, "If they ask you for any money, then it's a scam". What a disservice that coach is doing to THEIR athletes! As in almost any industry, there are people that will take advantage of people. This may be true to some extent in the sports marketing industry. However, I know there are people that take advantage of athletes and families when running 'businesses' like showcase events, showcase camps, and AAU tournaments. Why no one even questions that these people are simply trying to make money blows my mind! Sports marketing companies like STUDENTathleteWorld.com work closely with families to SAVE THEM MONEY. Of course we are a business, but we offer a product that is very beneficial to our clients, a true win-­‐win! If your coach thinks it's a scam, ask them to sit down with me and let me explain how the program works. If they don't have the time to do that, then how much time to they have to help you get recruited? Do they know what we do? Did they use STUDENTathleteWorld.com themselves? Have they had athletes in the past use us? Well, how then do they know? Sure, they may have had some athletes they coached move on to play in college. But do they even know what their financial aid package was? Could it have been better? If it was a few hundred dollars a year better using us then we would've made them money. They may be telling you with a good STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 11 heart that they think it's a scam. They may think they are helping you. Are they? This is YOUR college decision! If you think it's a scam, browse through our websites and read up on the sports marketing businesses. Feel free to contact me and let's set up a free no-­‐pressure and no-­‐commitment meeting where I will walk you through the process and how it REALLY works. If you still think it's a scam after that, then keep your money! BOTTOM LINE-­‐ We don't make false promises or guarantee you a scholarship. We don't ask you for money up front. We don't use tricks or push you to sign up and then not deliver. We don't target uneducated families or withhold information. We simply show you how we can assist and let you decide what's best for you. For more information or to set up a visit, call or e-­‐mail anytime. STEP 3A-­‐ Alternative ‘Short and Sweet’ E-­‐mail Campaign Introductory E-­‐mail NAME, This is NAME from STUDENTathleteWorld.com. We might be able to help you find the best possible match financially and athletically, to play in college. STUDENTathleteWorld.com's founders and myself are experienced college coaches, and offer expert insight from a college coach’s perspective. There are plenty of great schools looking for dedicated STUDENTathletes, and if you meet the criteria we can get them interested in you. Our personal service is based on integrity and honesty. We know there are a lot of bogus companies out there, but we lead by far in credibility and service. I can meet with you and your family in person, and show you how we can help and answer any questions. Choosing a college is an important decision, and we are experts that can help you be successful, stress free. To parents' email addresses from Free Profile leads: NAME, I received the info you or your son/daughter, NAME, filled out on our website, www.studentathleteworld.com! We've helped thousands of athletes get to hundreds of Colleges in nearly 50 States! Our success rate is nearly 100%. I’d certainly like to talk to you by phone…is there a good time to call? To any lead that has downloaded or viewed anything on our website: Thank you for checking out our website! If you (DEPENDING ON WHO IT IS) have a son/daughter or know someone who is interested in competing in college, let me know We've helped thousands of athletes get to hundreds of Colleges in nearly 50 States! Our success rate is nearly 100%. We market our athletes very well by sending out a highlight video to college coaches along with a Scouting Evaluation (evaluation by a college coach). As the process unfolds, we guide you through each step in the process as you go along. In addition, our College Match Program has proven to be useful in finding the right fit for many of our athletes. Here are some links from our website that you may be interested in: http://www.studentathleteworld.com/testimonials/ Let me know your thoughts. This is what I send to anyone who asks what we do or I want to share more information with: We've helped thousands of athletes get to hundreds of Colleges in nearly 50 States! Our success rate is nearly 100%. We market our athletes very well by sending out a highlight video to college coaches along with a Scouting Evaluation (evaluation by a college coach). As the process unfolds, we guide you through each step in the process as you go along. In addition, our College Match Program has proven to be useful in finding the right fit for many of our athletes. Here are some links from our website that you may be interested in: http://www.studentathleteworld.com/testimonials/ Let me know your thoughts. This is what I send to leads when they haven't responded to me after about 3 tries (seems to get their attention): I haven't heard back from you in quite some time. I'm not sure you're still interested in our recruiting services or not. But, unless I hear back, I'm going to take you off of my personal contact list. Best of luck with the college recruiting process! Hope to hear back soon. STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 13 Of course, tinker with it if and make it fit your personality. In addition, do a lot of personal written email correspondence too. Make the emails look like you wrote them yourself and don't make them look too formal. STEP 4-­‐ Phone Sometimes you can set up appointments without having to make phone calls, especially when they are referrals. However, early on phone calls will be where appointments are booked. Once an athlete has filled out the profile you now have a potential lead. At first, call every kid that you get information for. Only after you have too many leads to handle, then rate potential prospects based on the information they submitted and only call kids who are a good fit. It’s all about being efficient with this process. If you love talking on the phone, then you may not mind this part. Either way, don’t waste time! Let them know who you are and what you do, be polite, and ask them if you they have gotten your e-­‐mails. If they haven’t got them or have not looked at them yet ask them if you can send it to them again and confirm their e-­‐mail address. You are not selling vacuum cleaners here, you are not going to go from them not knowing anything about us to sold in a few minutes. This is something they (parents and kids) have to discuss without you to see if they are even interested. Send them information again via e-­‐mail and tell them you will call back in a few days. Set a time to call back and do so. Always leave a message. Leave our website address and your number and ask them to call or e-­‐
mail you back. If the first time you leave a message with the dad and he doesn’t respond, try the mom the next time. Call a kids cell phone if you feel comfortable doing so and have success using that strategy. Call the home phone after you’ve been unsuccessful with parent’s cell phones. If you do get the on the phone, and they have read your e-­‐mail, keep it short. Ask them if it sounds interesting. Be excited about our program and tell them their son or daughter looks like a good fit. They will want to talk at length about their kid. Listen politely, but don’t let them waste your time. Ask them if they want to set up a home visit. DO NOT LET THEM TELL YOU TO WAIT AND SEE. If the kid is a Freshman and they are adamant about waiting, then make a note to call him when he’s a sophomore. However, if they are a Sophomore or Junior and they want to wait, convince them that recruiting starts early and tell them about the 8th and 9th graders in our program. Most parents won’t tell you they are not interested. What you need to find out is if they are worth convincing. They may likely be telling you to check back with them or wait and see because they are too cowardly to admit they aren’t going to spend any money on this. Try your best to find this out before you waste too much time with any parent. Ask the closing question, “Would you like to set up a visit where I will explain how everything works?” Do not offer up that the visit is free and they don’t have to decide until after we meet. If you do, you will get people that set up visits that have no interest in paying for anything. If they ask if the visit costs anything tell them it does not but that you want to make sure they are serious about at least considering enrolling as your time and knowledge is valuable. Again, the goal on the phone is not to convince people to meet with you. It is to get on the phone with people that already were interested in meeting with you, just got busy and forgot to call you. It’s just a nudge. It does no good to convince somebody to let you pay your own money to come to their house and spend two hours teaching them everything you know about college recruiting. After the phone conversation, send this e-­‐mail (and Facebook message)… (Name), Sorry I missed you (or good talking to you) on the phone today. Please take a look at our website http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com and if you have interest in what we do we can set up a time to meet in person and discuss in detail the college athletic recruiting process and how our program works. The dates I currently have available for a home visit are (three available dates). You can let me know over e-­‐mail or feel free to give me a call anytime to discuss further. Looking forward to meeting you all soon. After you leave a message or talk with a parent, always send the kid a note on Facebook. What you want to accomplish is to get the parents and kid talking about you. Send this message… (Name), I chatted with your (mom/dad) or I left your parents an (e-­‐mail/voicemail) today. Have them respond to me if they are interested in a home visit and looking into my program. Use the 3 strikes philosophy. If you have called a family three times (messages included) and they have not set up a visit, move on. After the 3rd strike, send this note to the parents e-­‐
mails… (Names), Were you still interested in our program? I haven't heard from you, so I am going to take your name off my contact list. If you are interested, but just have not gotten around to it, let me know and we can set up a time to meet to discuss how I can help. If they set up a visit on the phone, send this e-­‐mail to the kid, parents, and copy the coaches. Also send it as a Facebook message to the kid. STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 15 (Names), I look forward to meeting with you all on (date). Please take a good look at our website http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com for information on college athletic recruiting and our program. The better informed you are going in the more beneficial my visit will be to you all. The meeting will consist of 3 parts... 1. Getting to know each other (your athletic and academic background and goals, my experiences, etc.) 2. How college coaches recruit athletes 3. How our program works The meeting will be informal, fun, and no-­‐pressure. However, my time is valuable, as is my experience and the information that I will provide to you. Therefore, prior to my visit, please do me a personal favor and have a good long talk as a family about your desire and commitment to play college sports as well as your goals and aspirations concerning academics, your sport, and your future. Also, realize that cancelling on me close to our visit date may directly cost me time and money personally. Meetings have taken anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the amount of questions you may have. After the meeting you will have the opportunity to enroll with us if you so choose. Please shoot me an e-­‐mail back to confirm everything is on schedule a few days prior to my visit. If anything should change please let me know ASAP. I look forward to meeting you all soon. What you are trying to accomplish here is to get the family to talk BEFORE you get there. They know what it’s about. It will cost money. You want to close 75% or more of your appointments and you want 75% of those that enroll to do so that night. You don’t want to do your presentation and then have them say that they need to talk about whether the kid is committed to playing in college. You want them ready to enroll BEFORE you show up. You want them awaiting your arrival and anxious to see how you can help them, not what you will try to sell them. This is a huge difference in approaches, and essential for our success. We are not pitching a product, we are forming a working relationship. MAKING IT PERSONAL Whether on Facebook, E-­‐mail, Phone, or other avenues to connect with student-­‐athletes, you should always find ways to “make it personal”. So far in this manual, we’ve discussed how to cast a wide new and reach a large audience in order to find as many good leads as possible, and focus on the clients who are interested in what we have to offer. That is an important concept to your successful business. After you’ve grasped that concept and put it into your business plan, it’s also important to next focus on ways to make the contact as personal as possible. Today’s consumer can be numb to form letter e-­‐mails and links sent via Facebook, etc. While they look “professional”, today’s consumer is taught to think “scam” or block out any “advertisement” looking correspondence. To combat this, it may be beneficial to make sure the consumer knows you are a real person and not a robot (computer generated auto response). Here are a few great ways to appear more personal in your correspondence that you may want to try out. 1. When you send social network messages or e-­‐mails, type them in all lowercase and maybe purposely misspell a word? You don’t want to appear unprofessional, but this may let the potential client know that you are a real person. 2. Send short messages with only one questions. Let’s face it, today’s student-­‐athletes grew up in the instant messaging world where information is readily available and they speak and communicate in partial sentences and one word responses. Does this make them dumber? Absolutely, but they are still our target market. Learning how to communicate with them is crucial to your success. 3. On Facebook you can see who is on-­‐line and send them a one sentence instant message with something like, “hey Jacob, how is your season going?” The goal is to get them to respond and start a conversation. Once they respond and you develop a back and forth, then send them the link to create a profile. Try the same thing via e-­‐mail or other social media. 4. Look through their Facebook pictures and make complimentary or funny responses to their pictures. Probably don’t cross the line into creepy or unprofessional, but don’t be afraid to comment on pictures as a way to start a conversation. For example, you may see a game picture that was just posted and say something like, “cool pic. how did the game go?”, as a way to start the conversation. 5. Just simply post short funny or conversational things on potential clients Facebook walls or Twitter feeds. Anything you can think of to get a conversation started. Maybe they are a fan of a pro sports team (as you can see from their wall), so mention something about that team. 6. Do some research before reaching out to the athlete. See what their schedule is coming up, or the games they’ve just played. Ask them if they are ready for the playoffs next week, or how the game with South High went yesterday. The more you know about them the more likely they will be to respond to you. 7. Once you have a connection or client at one school or with one club team, find other kids from that school or team and post on their wall something specific about the connection or client. For example, once we have made a video for one kid, you can find STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 17 other kids from his team and say something like, “check out Michael’s video we just shot. do you have one? if not, let me know.” 8. Always get recommendations/referrals and use those names when reaching to the prospective client. ALWAYS ask people to recommend athletes they know that want to play in college. For example even if a kid or family tells you they are not interested in our program, ask them to recommend someone. Ask coaches, parents, people you meet at coffee shops. EVERYBODY! Once you get the recommendation, then make it personal. You can post on their wall, send an e-­‐mail, text them something like, “hey joe, coach jones said you wanted to play in college. Is that true?” Keep it short and simple to start! ADVERTISING If you have money available to advertise you may want to take advantage of some grassroots opportunities to reach out to potential clients. Below is an example of a newspaper advertisement… IN PERSON NETWORKING There will be options for in person marketing and networking. Remember, just like in the in-­‐
home visit, it’s all about building the personal relationship. Make a relationship first, and then partnership later! It’s important the person you are meeting with sees you as someone they like and trust and feel comfortable with. Don’t be too quick to get down to business that you forget about selling yourself! One important thing to remember is to not waste time. Shaking hands and showing your face is important, but having two hour conversations with high school and college coaches just so you feel like a “scout” may make you feel important, but it may not help you grow your business. In the end you will have respect in your community if you enroll a lot of kids and help them reach their dreams. Nothing you say before you do that will make anyone think much more of you. You will run into high school coaches with huge egos who will try to treat you poorly. Try not to let them bother you. Although they can help you, you don’t need them to run a great business and be successful in doing your job. What you do need is the trust, respect, and recommendations from kids and families. Some ideas include… • Asking permission to attend club events to set up a booth to market your services. When asking always first ask to give a short 10 minute recruiting talk, this will really help your credibility. Set up a booth and use creative ideas to interact with customers. I’ve seen competitors bring a radar gun or clipboard and pretend to be “scouting”. I prefer the honest approach. • Walk in the training centers, speed schools, etc. and drop off our promo flyer and business cards. Check back often and restock and talk with staff and customers. Try to work out mutually benefitting relationships with these clubs. • Ask a training facility if you can have an office in their facility and hang a sign. Offer to pay a few bucks each month. Hang out there and do some work (e-­‐mails, calls, etc.) instead of doing them at home. This will give you clout among the patrons that you are “staff” and not some guy working out of home. You could even have this arrangement with a few different facilities. You may even offer to work the front desk or something? Anything to be around the parents and kids may help. • You can try walking into high schools and meeting and greeting coaches and AD’s. This may get the least results initially, but it could be a good foundation for future success. Maybe a year later the AD calls you to do a recruiting seminar? Don’t waste too much time here and remember it’s all about EFFICIENCY! • Don’t forget about non-­‐sports related places. Coffee shops and bars make for good networking sometimes. Wear STUDENTathleteWorld.com gear and be ready to give a 20 second overview about how great your program is. ALWAYS ask for names! Being able to drop a name about who recommended the kid is huge. STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 19 CROSS PROMOTION You should not have to spend much, or any, money on marketing. Ours is such a niche market, that buying print or media ads may be wasteful. Of course all marketing is good marketing, but there are plenty of free ways to market… • Ask clubs and high schools if you can host a free recruiting seminar. IMPORTANT-­‐ don’t do seminars in front of 20 kids and no parents, you are wasting your time. If you do agree to a seminar, ask the host to get as many parents in attendance as possible. Tell them this is your #1 priority. You will give advice for free if they get parents to attend. • Tell the club or business (sports training facility, strength school, etc.) that you have a monthly newsletter and would be willing to promote their business to your following of local athletes and families if they are willing to recommend some athletes to you and promote your business. • Arrange a deal with area clubs or businesses where you give the club or business a kickback or finder’s fee for each kid they send your way. You can pass the discount on to the family, or as a give back to the club. • Ask local radio stations if they will have you on their sports talk shows to talk college recruiting. • Ask local print media if you can write a story on recruiting. Or better yet, write it and submit it! Keep it advertisement free and more focused on education. • Contact local newspapers and let them know what you are doing and see if they have interest in writing a story. Better yet, if you have clients that are “story worthy” pass on the lead to the papers and ask if they will plug your business. • Ask booster clubs if you can get a free add in their programs. Tell them you will give a free recruiting seminar in exchange for the advertisement. Two things you want leveraged against each other! • If you have a playing or coaching background offer up and promote a free Saturday camp or clinic in your sport for those wishing to play in college. Say it is sponsored by STUDENTathleteWorld.com but it’s your camp. Please reference our form called “WHY PARTNER WITH STUDENTathleteWorld” on our Staff Page for more information on these partnerships. STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS Louis Birch, from San Diego, enrolled 10 kids in his first month and 115 kids in his first year! Here are a few tips he shared about his best practices… 1. Facebook Strategy (90% of communication with kids) -­‐ Try to identify some of the top athletes in the market (All-­‐Conference/All-­‐State) and go after them hard initially. If you can’t find a kid on Facebook, find one of his/her friends or teammates and work your way to him/her. Once they friend you, start a conversation by posting on their wall so that you’re visible and advertise our brand out to all their friends (VERY EFFECTIVE!). Create a BUZZ and get the word out! Instead of private messaging in the beginning, simply post on their wall: “If you want to play at next level and haven’t committed yet, I want to talk to you.” and then add your phone number. When they say they’re interested, post the ‘Free Profile’ link on their wall so EVERYONE sees it! Anytime you write private messages, always put your phone number and encourage their parents to call you. You must go after marquee players because they are prime influencers and other kids will follow. To get the top kids, you may have to pay some processing fees on your own dime, but this will help you gain credibility with college coaches and other kids to want to join our service. 2. Events-­‐ Get out to events (showcases, tournaments, etc.) and be visible! Go around and meet as many coaches as possible. Networking is HUGE! 3. Contacting College Coaches-­‐ Go above and beyond by contacting college coaches, especially after they become clients. Bridge the gap between coaches and players. Communicate to coaches when clients will be at showcases, have an upcoming workout, etc. so that they can go watch them. When contacting them, email and call them in the same day to ensure they’ve heard from you. Communicate with college coaches via email and then forward any positive feedback to potential clients to gain their interest. Be sure to forward emails with positive feedback from other families to potential clients as well! 4. Newspaper Marketing-­‐ Periodically, purchase and run a small advertisement in the Sports Section of area newspapers. This will promote STUDENTathleteWorld and your licensed area. Be sure to add a little information about what we do with your phone number to call. When you sign a new client, announce it with a newspaper advertisement (run it by parents first). Again, be sure to add a little blurb about what we do with your phone number to call if anyone is interested. Before you visit a particular area, announce in the newspaper that you’re going to be in the community with a time and place for any family member interested in meeting you and asking you any questions about the recruiting process. “Gotta invest to get something back!” STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 21 5. Referrals-­‐ Get referrals from anyone (kids, clients, families, coaches, etc.)! If a non-­‐
client gives you a referral that signs with STUDENTathleteWorld, give them $50 for their help. 6. BE A NETWORKER!-­‐ Have an outgoing, positive personality and be willing to educate families on what we do on a daily basis. HOME OFFICE MARKETING When the any form on our website is filled out the home office will add all e-­‐mails the STUDENTathlete submits (STUDENTathlete, parents, coaches) to our e-­‐mail marketing campaign. They will then receive periodic e-­‐mail newsletter and updates about our program. The home office will send a “workflow” of e-­‐mails to each contact. Below is a sample of the e-­‐
mails your leads will receive 1 minute, 1 week, and 1 month after filling out a form on our website and then a second workflow of 3 more e-­‐mails they receive after creating a FREE profile. These come in really cool format with pictures and link and calls to action. Because of this awesome feature from the home office, you may decide to skip altogether the e-­‐mail portion of your lead generation process and simply Facebook, text, or call each lead directly after receiving the information from the home office. 1 Minute after filling out any form STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 23 1 week after filling out any form 1 month after filling out any form STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 25 1 minute after creating a free profile 1 week after creating a free profile STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 27 1 month after creating a free profile 100 days after creating a free profile STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 29 PHASE 2-­‐ SELLING THE HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE ATHLETIC RECRUITING INDUSTRY Before we jump into the 5 parts, let’s take a look at the history of this industry. 1984-­‐2000> The pre e-­‐mail days. Companies started basically as post office extensions. Before the internet and e-­‐mail if a potential college athlete wanted to reach out to colleges on a large scale they would have to go to the local library and rent a book that had all the colleges mailing address. Then they would have to type a letter (they at least could print this in bulk) and send it to each school by hand writing the address on each envelope and stuffing the letters and profiles. A few of the early companies like NSR and CPOA had a good business plan to simply do this process in bulk. They’d send a rep to the client’s house and convince them that they could do this process easier and cheaper. They found out that they could send 50 profiles together in one big envelop (or whatever the magic number was that kept the envelope under a certain weight). Coaches liked this as they could easily view lots of potential client’s right from their desks. Only companies with a large enough start up bank were really able to compete because the infrastructure to mail and postage was not cheap. A multi-­‐million dollar industry was born as these companies grew. 2000-­‐2010> The in between years. Some companies jumped onto the Internet earlier than others. Some refused to change and died when athletes and families had cheaper and easier options to get themselves recruited. Others changed too quickly and became nothing more than automated e-­‐mail spamming with no personal touch. Some coaches were old school and still preferred hard copy profiles in the mail. But by 2010 this became a problem because most all coaches were using an electronic database and a hard copy mailer added an extra step of transcribing hand written copy instead of at least an easy copy and paste. With the internet it became possible for lots of small regional companies to set up shop and start helping families. In this ‘information age’ word quickly spread if a company ‘took the money and ran’, which many companies did. Skepticism for recruiting companies grew. 2010-­‐Today> The present. By 2010, e-­‐mail marketing was becoming less fruitful. Every company was on-­‐line, every company was on social networks. What was missing was the personal touch. In 1985, people were amazed that a company could send a letter in the mail to 1000 colleges, and then sort of over it by 2000. In 2000, people were amazed that a company could e-­‐mail a website profile to 1000 colleges, and then sort of over it by 2010. Sure there is still value in a website and an e-­‐mail, but the market is flooded with cheap and free options for everything. Today’s consumer is flooded with information and access to college athletic recruiting and has the tools to research the industry which has a sometimes rocky reputation. Coincidentally, college coaches began to be overwhelmed with potential prospects. Through the years many companies just marketed their clients using a cheap cookie-­‐cutter approach so the coaches now had to weed through the ones that were a good fit. Because of this many coaches now take the approach of just ignoring all ‘e-­‐mail blasts’ that are not personal to their program. What works TODAY!> Today the landscape is different than is was from 1984-­‐2010. Companies like ours who are good need to approach recruiting from a holistic approach, not just as a cookie-­‐cutter postage mailer like they did from 1984-­‐2000, and not just as a website and e-­‐mail blaster like they did from 2000-­‐2010. Families are more educated and understand the cheap and free options available to them. Additionally, College Coaches now want our industry to be able to sift through the hundreds of thousands of potential prospects for them and hand deliver the prospects that are a personal good fit for them. This takes more time and more work than it did in years past. SELLING THE 5 PART PROCESS Because of the history of the industry and where we are now, it’s EXTREMELY important that you sell us helping them get recruited as a 5 part process and NOT just as a ‘e-­‐mail blasting service’. Our recruiting philosophy includes hitting recruiting from 3 angles… 1. Us teaching the STUDENTathlete what to do and then giving them the tools to do it (College Match, Templates, etc.) 2. The role of the Licensee (personal phone calls and e-­‐mails to specific target schools) 3. The role of the Home Office (e-­‐mail blasting) Some companies focus on just 1 or 2 of these. We feel there is value in all 3 working together. Large national companies like NCSA or Captain U or BeRecruited basically just offer #1 and/or #3. Some small mom and pop shops do a good job of #2 but don’t have the resources for #1 and #3. Our philosophy is that each have small value individually, and great value collectively. Let’s look at the breakdown of what the clients $1,490 All-­‐State Package goes to before we jump into the 5 part process. $1100-­‐ To the Representative • $100-­‐ Time and effort for marketing, phone, and in-­‐person visit pre-­‐sale • $1000-­‐ Time and effort post sale with your client $390-­‐ To the Home Office STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 31 •
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$100-­‐ SaW College Match Subscription (Average of 12-­‐18 months) $90-­‐ Time and effort in marketing pre-­‐sale $50-­‐ Time and effort in educating clients post sale $50-­‐ Time and effort in customer service post sale $50-­‐ Time and effort in establishing personal relationships with Colleges (FrontRush integration) $50-­‐ E-­‐mail Distribution to College Coaches (Buying College Coach lists, E-­‐mail marketing Software, etc) If you look at this breakdown, roughly $50 of the $1,490 is spent on ‘distributing’ the athletes profile to college coaches. So if you are promoting our service as an ‘e-­‐mail blasting service’ you are promoting 3% of what we do! Let’s say you are selling a new BMW and 97% of your sales pitch is on the tires. Sure, the car comes with the industries BEST tires…but selling a $60k car on tires alone is not going to work. The customer needs to know that the entire car is what makes it worth the price tag. If you are to take our rough breakdown above you should align the actual value of what you are selling with where the money is distributed. In actual percentages you should be selling our product based on these numbers. • 80%-­‐ Selling yourself. Your effort. Your time. Your accessibility. Your care for them. • 5%-­‐ Access to the SaW College Match Program. • 5%-­‐ Our educational program and time to teach our clients the recruiting process. • 5%-­‐ Our connections with colleges and the value of being on our website. • 5%-­‐ Our e-­‐mail blasting to colleges. The last one is probably where many people spend the majority of their time talking about when someone asks them “what do you do”. However, it’s simply a small part of ‘what we do’. It’s also a very small part of what we are collecting money for. You DO NOT want to only focus your effort here during the sales process! By focusing on ALL FIVE PARTS WORKING TOGETHER you are creating VALUE. Could somebody replicate one aspect of our program themselves? Yes. Could somebody replicate everything we do for one very competitive price? No way! FRONTRUSH INTEGRATION Sell the benefit of our FrontRush integration. Everytime we do a mailing I hear from coaches about how much they love the integration and how easy it makes it for them (which is why we did it!) I realize some of you may not know how that works or really the point of it, so I will try to explain. Most coaches use a database manager to track recruits. FrontRush is the most widely used. I think like 80-­‐90% or more of the market is theirs (Scoutware is another with a small share). These database managers allow coaches to send e-­‐mails or text messages in bulk to all their recruits. It also allows them to track opens and clicks and keep a record of phone calls, and e-­‐mails, etc. It's the lifeblood of recruiting. The companies that use FrontRush will have "Recruiting Questionnaires" on their websites. Once an athlete fills out the questionnaire their info gets dumped into their database. So, if a coach gets an e-­‐mail from an athlete with their athletic resume they have two choices. 1. Manually enter all that info into FR 2. Send the kid the link to the questionnare to have them fill it out As you can imagine, both of these choices have flaws. The first is a lot of work. The second relies on a 16 year old to actually follow through. So, our integration solves this problem. Our databases are synced so that if a coach likes an athlete on the SaW website they can simply click the "Add to FrontRush" button and all of the athlete’s info automatically gets dumped into their database. Actually, the coach doesn't even need to go to our website. They can click a link in the e-­‐mail we send them and grab the info of a kid they like. It's a sweet integration that only a very few companies have. In fact we may be the only all sports recruiting service that offers this. so, make sure you are selling this benefit to your potential clients! PROBLEM SOLVING One of the biggest factors of your success will be your ability to deal with the issues, objections, and problems that come up. After 3 months you will have likely heard every issue, objection, or problem that will ever come up. You will get better at dealing with them. Your personal style will determine how you answer many of these questions as well. Continue to evaluate and adjust your approach, and make sure to be prepared for these problems. From Parents STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 33 •
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Why should I pay for something I can do myself?-­‐ Have a good answer that you can go to quickly. Reference efficiency, our reputation, the fact that it would cost you more to do what we do, making sure it’s done right. I sometime reference using a lawyer or getting your oil changed professionally-­‐ both things you could technically do without but might cost you more. What is your success rate?-­‐ Have a good answer that you can go to quickly with stats and numbers and action words. I heard these things were scams-­‐ Have a good answer that you can go to quickly Can I pay you after you get us a scholarship or can I get my money back?-­‐ On our contract we put the NCAA bylaw that makes this illegal. Memorize it. Tell clients that you would love to do this but it is illegal. Offer them your word that if they get in our program and do what we ask of them and are not happy we will give a full refund. No client that does all we ask of them will be unsuccessful. Just make sure you are not promising them a certain amount of scholarship money or unrealistic claims. We want to wait until after his/her season-­‐ You will get this a lot. You need to find a way to be persistent but not pushy. Some clients can be pushed here, others have their mind made up. Find out the reasoning behind their thinking. If you are going to lose the potential client by pushing, then be careful. However, if they are just going to waste your time in 6 months better to push and find out now. Not following up on the day they said they would-­‐ You need to set a date post visit for the “wait and see” appointment. Set the date and follow up. If you have to set a second date you can, but each day that passes, the chance of them enrolling decreases. Following up with 10 clients for 6 months may lead to 1-­‐2 clients finally pulling the trigger. But would that time had been better spent looking for new ideal clients? Not following up on payment plans-­‐ Be careful of payment plans during their Senior year, or dragging on months after they have enrolled. Once they have selected a college their motivation to pay declines. Try to set finance plans that are less than 3 months out. Realize risk. Think about saving something. If you provide everything up front you can be taken advantage of. Either accept that and provide anyway (probably what you will do your first year or so) or be more strict about who you allow to finance. At some point you will get screwed here. Try to be smart to limit this occurrence to 1-­‐3 times a year. From High School and Club Coaches •
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Telling parents to avoid all services-­‐ Fairly common. Check out the info in our “need to think about it” form. Telling you not to contact their kids-­‐ This one is pretty rare. Just realize you don’t need a coaches permission to sell a product to the family. No need to get in a pissing war with someone who probably has ego issues already. EXPLAINING LEVELS OF PLAY One of the most common problems you will encounter is a family that only wants to consider NCAA D1 schools. This is not a problem if the athlete is a top tier athlete good enough to play high level D1. However, if the athlete is meeting with us and willing to pay someone to help them get recruited, they likely are not that level of an athlete (despite what their mom and dad may think J). So, one of the things you want to be pro-­‐active about is selling the benefit of lower tier schools like D3, NAIA, JUCO, D2 and even some other levels like USCAA and non-­‐
affiliated schools. Here’s a great way to explain the levels of play. Use what is call a VENN DIAGRAM The levels of play overlap each other. While the top tier D1’s (Notre Dame, Stanford, etc) are certainly better in most definitions of the word better (head to head athletically, facilities, coaches, academic reputation, etc.) than the bottom of the barrel D3 school (Illinois Bible College for the Blind and Deaf, etc). BUT…the top tier NCAA D3 schools like Williams, Amherst, Mount Union, Emory) may be better than many D2’s and even a decent amount of the D1’s. Of course when you throw in all the other definitions of better (playing time, financial aid packaging, relationship with coaches and teammates, opportunity to be a more well rounded student-­‐athlete, opportunity to be a big fish in small pond, porfessional potential, academic success potential at a smaller school etc.) then maybe the D3/NAIA/JUCO/OTHER levels of play start to look much more favorable. D1 D3 D2/NAIA STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 35 The point is not to convince a family to focus on one level…but to get them to NOT focus on the level of play as much and focus on the individual FIT for the athlete. Get them to understand that level of play is just one small factor in the decision, and certainly not the most important. SELLING TO YOUNGER ATHLETES Obviously stress the part in the presentation about how early the process starts. Try always try to be honest with them and say something like this... "I'd be lying if I told you that you HAVE to start in 8th grade to get recruited. However, the great thing about starting early is the ability for the student-­‐athlete to learn the process slowly and adjust to being a recruited athlete. You will have a year to understand how our process works, to be comfortable communicating with adults, and to explore different colleges. Then when the more serious parts of the recruiting process start in Freshman and Sophomore year you are ready for them. I can tell you that the athletes that start our process late feel rushed and feel like everything hits them at once and are overwhelmed. Those who start early have such a more enjoyable time with the process, and much more success. The bottom line is, 'are you sure you want to play in college', if you end up getting into cars or girls or something and give up on sports then you'd be wasting your time and money to get started now. However, if you are sure that sports will play a role in your college decision, then it's in your best interest to get started now and be pro-­‐active and pre-­‐pared." Of course when you explain how our pricing works it's also in their best interest to start early. Explain to them that we set up our pricing like that to encourage people to start early because it's so important for them to do so. Explain the catch-­‐22 that most people don't start until they are mentally and physically ready to play in college, but by the time that happens they are too late to get recruited. So, it's normal and necessary to begin this process BEFORE the athlete is mentally and physically ready to think about or be a college athlete. Also, explain how most D1 recruits will hear from colleges by FR/SO year at the latest...so if D1 is an option, the time to get on the radar is now. Again, stress reality and that it's really not a NECESSITY to start in 8th grade. I think we all agree it is not. If you try to oversell, they will see through you. Be real with them and explain how it works and get them on board. The great thing about getting an 8th grader on board is 5 YEARS OF REFERRALS! Plus when they start getting camp invites personally from college coaches they are stoked! It's a win-­‐win. Our program is perfectly designed to take a 7-­‐9th grader and help them throughout high school. HOME VISITS Remember it’s all about setting appointments. Appointments lead to more appointments. Everything else in minor compared to getting appointments. Be on-­‐time. Be yourself. Dress casually, like a coach would. Try to avoid appearing as a salesman. You are there to meet them, to get to know them and their goals, and show them what we do. Check out the house and the garage and comment on some mutual interests and small talk. Remember this phrase, “make a relationship first, and a sale later.” Even though our product is worth the money, they are partly purchasing their trust in you. They need to feel comfortable with you and trust you. Try to avoid meeting at restaurants, work places, schools, or other neutral sites. Sometimes you may have to, but each setting has challenges. At restaurants, you may get a free meal out of it, but just when you get ready to drive home a point the waitress is filling their water up. You want the meeting to be personal and not a sales pitch. Get to a table! It will be more difficult to connect when sitting on couches or far apart. Just let them know you have some information to share and a table usually works best. I think of the visit in three parts… 1. Getting to know each other. Asking them questions and introducing yourself and our company. Finding out what drives them and what topics to touch on the most. Developing trust and communication lines. 2. Educating them about college recruiting. Demonstrate your knowledge and passion for helping others. 3. Explaining how our program works and making the sale. Spend the beginning time asking them questions and getting to know them. Ask these questions… • Tell me about yourself. • On a scale of 1-­‐10, what would you rate your passion to play your sport in college? • Where are you in the recruiting process? • What are your goals in the recruiting process? • People would use us for one of two reasons (exposure and save money), what are your thoughts on each? STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 37 Follow the Powerpoint presentation and stay on task. Try to engage the STUDENTathlete as much as possible and get them talking, especially if one or both parents like to answer for them. Start laying the seeds now that it’s about the STUDENTathlete and his or her goals. Listen to the parents and find out what makes them tick, but don’t let them control the conversation. Listen to them, but don’t allow them to take over. The more they have to say about recruiting the less they probably know. Don’t fight with them, but move on. They are not hiring you as an agent to do recruiting the way they want to do it. Keep hitting hard on your main points and how our process works. Be realistic with them. You don’t want to lie about what we will do. Being realistic adds to your credibility. We are not selling the dream. We are offering a valuable service that will help them save money if they do it right. THE CLOSE The most important part is the end. Clarify all their questions and then get ready to ask the closing question. Ask the kid if they would be committed to this program and to working hard athletically and academically. Then ask the parents if they are interested. Then shut up. Listen to their answer. Silence is golden. It will be awkward and uncomfortable. Do not talk. Wait. If they ask about money, then tell them, “I think you will be surprised at how affordable our options are”, and then get out the contract. The point is to get the commitment that they are going to do something and then show them our different options. The lower end options are priced low to make sure they feel comfortable about at least doing something. This will ease their fears, but the most value is in the middle packages and most will choose them. After they see the prices and options, ask another closing question. Then shut up and wait again! Again, try to avoid the wait and see philosophy at all costs. Even is the visit goes great, most people who wait and see do not enroll. Walk the line between confident and pushy. Offer them a discount for enrolling on the spot if you want. Ask them what apprehensions they have. Some people just want to wait a day or two just as a personal preference to make sure they don’t get taken. Don’t annoy this person by being too pushy. Tell them you respect that and simply ask them when they hope to have a decision? You may even offer up that discount that is valid only for a few days just in case. Get a date and follow through on that date. Send this e-­‐mail immediately after a wait and see visit… (Names), Thanks so much for welcoming me into your home. It was great to meet you all and it really was one of my most enjoyable visits! Please check out http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com, especially the lists of schools we have sent kids to and testimonials from past clients and college coaches. You have taken the first important step in meeting with us. Don't miss out on this great opportunity as your college recruitment and eventual decision are too important to put up to chance. Please contact me early and often with any questions on the different packages or anything else. I look forward to your decision to be a part of http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com and helping you realize your dreams. PS-­‐ Please forward my info to any interested athletes and families that you know. When decision date comes in, make sure to follow up. Call them and use this e-­‐mail… (Names), Just wanted to check in with you all. I know you were in the process of deciding whether or not to go forward with the STUDENTathleteWorld.com program, and we set (date) as a decision date. Please check out http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com, especially the lists of schools we have sent kids to and testimonials from past clients and college coaches. You have taken the first important step in meeting with us. Don't miss out on this great opportunity as your college recruitment and eventual decision are too important to put up to chance. Please contact me early and often with any questions on the different packages or anything else. I look forward to your decision to be a part of http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com and helping you realize your dreams. I understand the financial commitment is one that considers some serious thought, and by no means do I wish to pressure you into something that isn't in your best interest. While I do enjoy helping people, I have to structure my time, efforts, and resources efficiently. In return for me coming to your house and (in a no pressure situation) giving you all lots of useful information and knowledge, please do me a huge personal favor and make a decision on whether you are interested in joining us and let me know as soon as you can. I appreciate your help with this and look forward to helping you should you decide to move forward. Whether or not they enroll on the spot, before you leave the house, get as many recommendations as possible. These are your gold leads! It’s always easier when you can tell the new lead where you got their name. Make sure when you friend request, e-­‐mail, or call these new leads you drop the name of who recommended them. CONTRACTS As you are doing the presentation you should have an idea of what package you want to recommend for the family at the end. Make sure you are asking questions about video and what they prefer. Also make sure you are finding out what you think they value. Are they most concerned with price? Or, do they just want to make sure you are taking care of them with a STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 39 personal touch? Do they want all the bells and whistles? Many clients will tell us that price is not a factor at all. They are more concerned with trust, or making sure the kid wants to do it and will follow through. All of these are factors in what you will “recommend” for them. Even though the Silver Video package doesn’t make you much extra commission (because those are fixed costs for us) it is VERY beneficial for you to sell it when needed. The reason is that is adds value to the clients packages. When they receive the tangible product (the film) they tell their friends that STUDENTathleteWorld.com made this video. This is essential to your marketing! Use the videos to promote to other potential clients. Try this template to introduce our prices and contracts… Any idea what you think the price will be? Are you interested? Do you see the value in our services? Great. $1,490. First off this is just a one-­‐time fee. Once you enroll there are never any additional costs. You are our client for life. You are getting 2 or 3 years of marketing and consultation for this price. I think you will be very surprised at our packages (show them the contract now). Where the prices go up depends on the different video options. If you have a video already at no extra cost we will link that video to your profile and distribute it to 2,000 coaches by the end of the week! For $390 extra we will edit a highlight film for you. For $790 extra we will have the film crew shoot a video. Now, remember part of that cost for video includes distributing it to thousands of college coaches! Now, the only thing I talked about today that is not included in this package is the Scouting Evaluation. The reason that it’s not included is that some sports don’t really need it. However, as I mentioned today, it’s so important for you to know where you stand realistically. I want you evaluated as well as it helps me help you. Now we do have an All-­‐American package that includes some extra attention in a package deal. THE SCOUTING EVALUATION If you prepare it correctly, you should sell the Scouting Evaluation almost EVERY time. Not only is it extra commission for you (for doing nothing), but it will add value to the overall package and make your clients happier. Sell it EVERY time! WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE EVALUATION?-­‐ The evaluation is important for two reasons. It helps the family understand honestly where coaches will see their athlete. It also helps us do our job. The third thing some families might think it does is help or hurt the kid get recruited because other coaches would read this evaluation and decide to recruit or recruit the athlete based on the evaluation. If you've ever coached in college before, I am sure you would agree that this is a silly proposition. College coaches simply won't care what someone else that they don't know said about some kid they don't know. There are thousands of unqualified people all over the place evaluating and ranking athletes. College coaches simply don't care about them unless they already know and trust that person’s evaluation ability. Hammer this point home to the families. SELLING AND PREPPING FOR THE EVALUATION-­‐ Before selling the evaluation say something to the parents along the lines of, "If you don't want an honest assessment of your son's abilities as an athlete and where coaches will see him right now in the recruiting process, don't get this evaluation done. Instead, I can just tell you what you want to hear and then we can market him to schools where they won't recruit him and we can all waste a lot of time with the fluff of the recruiting process that doesn't really matter." You might also reference our competitors and say that you can join them and they will tell you that you are D1 all the way and then 2% of their clients will play high level D1. We believe in a honest and personal recruiting strategy and if you join SaW, that's what you will get. Prepare them for the fact that the evaluation is meant to be honest and not a sugar-­‐coated camp evaluation like everything they have gotten until this point in their son's athletic career. Talk about how camp evaluation and coach evaluations are meant to inspire and encourage repeat business. The bottom line is college sports are the real thing and this is the first time in their athletic careers where ability will take a front seat over politics, money, and even character to some degree. PARENT OBJECTIONS TO EVALUATION-­‐ Regardless of how good of a job you do 'prepping' the family for an honest evaluation, there will always be a few parents who will be wearing the 'parental blinders'. When they bring up their displeasure with the honest review... 1. Remind them of what you told them before you sold it. Remind them how pointless it would be if we told every client they could play at any school in the country that they wanted to. 2. Remind them that this is just one coaches evaluation and that recruiting is not an exact science. They can outwork the evaluation and improve. In fact that is one of the reasons we do an evaluation, so the athlete knows what improvements need to be made. 3. Offer to talk to a few other college coaches and get some feedback to supplement the evaluation. You might also say that we can redo this evaluation in 6 months after he make the improvements and captures them on film. 4. Think about your approach and how the family sees your role. Are you the expert they hired to help them do something they are not qualified to do, or do they not value your opinion? Do they see SaW as a service they paid as a way to get a scholarship? If it's the latter then you have a large problem. For example, with building a new house this STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 41 past year, we've had lots of builders and contractors coming through to fix things. Some of them walk in, explain confidently what they are going to do and how they are going to do it. Once they have made that relationship with me and I am impressed with their personality, confidence, and knowledge I would typically let them do their work and trust it. However, some contractors came to the house, were unsure of themselves, mumbled over what they might do, and asked questions that made me wonder if they knew what they were doing. What did I do with those people? I closely watch their work, second guessed it, made sure to double check with their bosses to make sure it was done right. If a problem came up, I was more likely to accept it with the first type of contractor because of how I saw them and their role. The second type of contractor was not viewed by me as an expert. This is a huge difference and ESSENTIAL in our business if you are to be successful. They need to see you as their expert personal guide, not someone they are paying for a product to be delivered to them. 5. Of course, if the family still doesn't budge we can always take the evaluation off the website. When we do this make sure the family understands the ramifications of not listening to our advice. We don't want to fight with clients and we do want them to like us and be happy with us. Politely say something like, "Sure, of course we can take the evaluation down and we can continue to market to only D1 schools. However, I just want you to know how difficult that might be, especially based on this non-­‐biased evaluation we had done. I think your son's great, but he might be a little short or slow to get the attention at this level of play. I'm going to continue to work hard for you...but I can't promise you will get the results you want. I strongly encourage you to cast a wide net and my advice would be to get some good backup options first and then we can always keep the window open for higher levels down the road." Be careful not to shut the door on the higher level. The evaluation could be crap. More likely, the parents have blinders on. However, they could be right. The point is not to argue with them. Just get them to understand why and how we do our evaluation process. It's a tool for us and them to help them get recruited. That's is. Nothing more and nothing less. PHASE 3 – PROCESSING PROCESSING NEW CLIENTS BEFORE processing a new client, the athlete must have a working profile on our website and a username and password and understand how to use the website. IF THE CLIENT DOES NOT HAVE A PROFILE ON THE WEBSITE AND THE HOME OFFICE NEEDS TO CREATE A PROFILE FOR THE CLIENT, A $50 PROCESSING FEE WILL BE LEVIED AGAINST THE LICENSEE. REPEATED FAILURE TO COMPLY COULD MEAN TERMINATION OF THE LICENSEE AGREEMENT. The easiest and preferred way to do this is to make sure the client has one BEFORE THE HOME VISIT. This is beneficial to you because then this assures that the potential client has been on our website and took the time to talk about the recruiting process BEFORE having you come to the house. This makes for better home visit and more sales. What you don’t want is to drive all the way to someone’s house and have them say, “so what is this all about?” You want them prepared with questions, and ready to hear how you can help them. In rare cases where the client doesn’t listen to you and doesn’t make a FREE PROFILE before the visit, it is required that you help the client get a working profile BEFORE PROCESSING. However, keep in mind you have a 24 Hour Rule (more on that to follow). So, if you wait until after you collect the money to get the profile, you are asking for trouble! It is very important that you ask your client if they have a profile and if they can log in and make changes. However, don’t just take their word for it. Ask them for their username and check their profile. Any athlete with a free profile will have an active URL. What you can do is put the username after the web address below and you can check the profile. If a profile does not come up it is because they don’t have one. http://studentathleteworld.com/athletes/ [insert username here] so if a kids username was ‘mikesmith1996’ the url would be... http://studentathleteworld.com/athletes/mikesmith1996/ NOTE – If you use our website and create a dummy profile you will see the process of creating a profile is a couple steps. The first step is filling out just a few pieces of information; name, grad year, e-­‐mail, etc. This is what triggers the “Free Profile” notification that you get via e-­‐mail. THIS IS NOT A PROFILE! This just means they did they first part. STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 43 Most kids have short attention spans and use our website from a phone and once they do they do this first part they get bored and stop. However, when you create a dummy profile you will clearly see that the next page tells them that their profile HAS NOT YET BEEN CREATED. In order for them to create their profile they need to then create a username and password and then they need to log in and build their profile and then they need to hit SAVE CHANGES. Only after they have completed all the steps will they have a Free Profile. So, again to be clear, the profile creation is a few steps long. Just filling out the first part does NOT mean that the athlete has a profile. NOTE – Yes, this business is about people and relationships, but it is also about technology and our website is a key component of our business. If you are not a ‘computer person’ or struggle learning new technology then it’s time to broaden your horizons and get on board. Take a local computer class, ask your children for help. Learn, adapt, and grow. The bottom line is that this is a sales business and in sales you need to know your product, and part of your product is technology. If you go out into the sales world without understand what you are selling you will not be successful. You need to know our website inside and out. It is straight forward and simple. Take the time to understand how the website works so you can teach it to your clients. There are many reasons why having a profile before processing is necessary. These are the reasons we impose a fine. It is imperative we have a profile BEFORE processing! 1. When processing the home office needs to “activate” the profile to set up for distribution and make the profile visible to college coaches. If your athlete doesn’t have a profile then we can’t activate. If we don’t process athletes in a systematic way, mistakes get made and your clients will pay for those mistakes. Therefore, the Home Office needs to create a profile for your client and send the username and password to you and your client. Among other negatives, this is extra work for the home office. 2. In addition to the extra work this is confusing for the new client. Often times the client, since they never created a profile themselves, will go back in and start from scratch and create a free profile AFTER they have been processed. What this does is kicks them into the sales funnel workflows again. So, they get ‘salesy’ e-­‐mails telling them why they should become a client. Imagine if you just bought our consulting help and then you continued to get e-­‐mails saying why you should buy our consulting help. This is BAD for business. 3. If we create a profile for them it won’t be with their standard username and password. So they will forget what username and password we tell them and not remember how to log in in the future. This creates more work for both the Home Office and you and does nothing to improve the customer experience. 4. If we create a profile for them this means we are creating and activating a very BARE BONES profile. This profile doesn’t have the details like quotes from coaches, in depth stats and video, as well as a biography. Having bare profiles is bad for business. This means when college coaches are on our site they see bares profile. This makes them not want to come back. Additionally, if you make a sale near the end of the month then this profile is at risk of being distributed to coaches as a bare profile. This doesn’t help your client and it really hurts SaW’s reputation among coaches. 5. The first few days as a SaW client set the tone for their time with us. If they don’t have a profile, nothing happens. Then a week passes, then more, and still nothing happens. Now we have created a bad first impression that we can never change. 6. Probably the most important reason is that if they don’t have a profile then they certainly don’t know how to use our website. They don’t know where to find the COLLEGE MATCH. They don’t know how to log in COLLEGE CONTACTS and they don’t know where to find all the resources on the SAW FORMS tab. You took money from them explaining how our program will help them. If they don’t know how to use our resources they will be of no benefit to them. 7. This makes your life easier! Teach a man to fish and feed him for life. Once they pay you the client wants YOU to help them. You need to give them the tools to help themselves so that your help can be specific and personal to them. By asking for the profile BEFORE processing, better yet, before the Home Visit, you are setting the tone that the client needs to do their part to make the recruiting process successful. If they aren’t going to follow our program and your advice, maybe that’s client you would rather not work with? So, for all of the reasons listed above it is imperative to have a working profile BEFORE processing. This is part of your job and part of what you are getting paid to do! PAYMENT PROCESSING You should bring 2 contracts to each appointment. One you will sign and leave with the family so they have a record of what they purchased. The other you fill out with all the information to record for yourself. Please DO NOT contact the home office and give information about a client until after you have completed these 3 steps. 1. Make sure the athlete has created their FREE profile on the website. Make sure they can log in and edit and remember their username and password. 2. E-­‐mailing a WORD Version of the Contract TYPED with COMPLETED information to info@studentathleteworld.com. 3. Paying Your Processing Fee IMPORTANT NOTES 1. The Home Office will not accept ANY hand written contracts or contracts sent in the mail STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 45 2. FILLING OUT THE CONTRACT-­‐ Make sure you fill everything out on the contract you will turn in. This includes the exact final price the family paid, ALL email addresses, ALL credit card info, and ALL payment plan information (if applicable). PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE ADDRESS ON THE CONTRACT MATCHES THE ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CREDIT CARD, IF NOT PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THE CREDIT CARD ADDRESS. COLLECTING MONEY FROM FAMILES During your first months on the job, only two forms of payment from families will be accepted, (1) credit card numbers written on the contract, and (2) checks written to STUDENTathleteWorld that will be mailed to the Home Office. You should not collect cash, checks written to you or anything other than STUDENTathleteWorld, or process credit cards anywhere but through the Home Office. After you have enrolled a number of athletes and established trust with the Home Office in processing the clients correctly, you may be eligible to set up a DBA account at your local bank which will allow you to cash checks written to STUDENTathleteWorld. You may also be able to set up credit card processing systems if you so choose. SETTING UP A DBA Account The Home Office must give you written permission to set up this DBA and failure to follow our rules and procedures on DBA accounts will prohibit your ability to use a DBA. This is not a business account and will not use STUDENTathleteWorld’s federal tax ID number (EIN). This is your personal business account connected to your social security number or your personal LLC, not SaW Official LLC or S-­‐Corp. You are a 1099 employee. Some banks will be pickier than others and require different documents to allow you to set this up. Some banks will not allow you to set up a DBA. This is not necessary, it just helps you get paid quicker. NOTE-­‐ our advising you of the option of setting up a DBA does not give you the right to fraudulently cash checks without the knowledge of the STUDENTathleteWorld home office staff. The only checks you should cash written to STUDENTathleteWorld are those in which you intend to enroll them into our official program. THE 24 HOUR RULE Within 24 hours of collecting ANY money from a family you must do 2 things: (1) e-­‐mail a WORD Version of the Contract TYPED with COMPLETED information to info@studentathleteworld.com, and (2) Pay your processing fee. If paying your processing fee involves mailing a check to the Home Office, then the check must go in the mail within the 24 hour period. For Licensee’s using a DBA, the processing fee must be paid online within 24 hours of accepting ANY money from the family. If the family is paying you via check you should NOT wait until the check clears into your bank account. If you don’t have enough money in your bank account to front the processing fee then you should NOT use the DBA option and instead send the check from the family directly to the Home Office. In the event that the check from the family would bounce and you were unable to collect the money from the family, the Home Office will refund your processing fee. The reason we have the 24 hour rule is twofold… 1. It is unproductive of our Home Office to chase down money from Licensee’s. If you can’t be on the ball and efficient in your bookkeeping then entrepreneurship is not for you. 2. It is imperative that we process a new client ASAP after they enroll. No matter how good of a job you do in selling our service, the family will have a certain amount of skepticism about what they bought seeing as most of our service is non-­‐tangible. By processing right away and sending the family numerous e-­‐mails and mailing them their welcome packet we are creating a positive first impression. They will think, “wow, SaW is on the ball and getting after it.” If 2, 3, 4 days go by and they have not heard from us, the thought of getting swindled will enter their head. This negative first impression will be very difficult to overcome. The penalties for breaking the 24 hour rule are… •
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1st Offense= $100 fine 2nd Offense= $100 fine and loss of DBA privileges 3rd Offense= $100 fine and termination of License Agreement There are 5 options for accepting payment from a family… Option #1-­‐ Collecting 100% of the Money Yourself In this option you will be responsible for ALL of the payment collection. None of these payments will be run through the Home Office. This can be done by checks written to you, your business name, or using a SaW DBA Account (if eligible). This can also be done by you obtaining your own credit card payment processing program (if eligible) This option helps you get paid quicker. However, negatives include the costs associated with credit card processing programs and the time and effort or collecting on payment plans (especially if you don’t have an auto-­‐billing feature) IMMEDIATELY after collecting payment from a family you must send an e-­‐mail to info@studentathleteworld.com and ask to be invoiced for your processing fee amount. Please include the athletes name and the amount for the invoice in this e-­‐mail. This invoice will be payable by eCheck only. Option #2-­‐ Processing a Full Payment through the Home Office Via Check STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 47 In this option you simply mail the Check written to SaW to the Home Office. When processed the Home Office will take out the processing fee and credit your account for your commission. Commission checks will be cut on the LAST DAY OF EACH MONTH. When you use this Option, please do not send a contract in the mail. E-­‐mail the Contract in WORD format, immediately after the sale. NOTE – We do not accept checks on a payment plan. If the client wants to pay by check we accept ONE check. We do not do payment plans via Check. Option #3-­‐ Processing a Full Payment through the Home Office Via Credit Card In this option you simply E-­‐mail the TYPED Word Version of the Contract to the Home Office with all the credit card information filled out completely. Again, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE ADDRESS ON THE CONTRACT MATCHES THE ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CREDIT CARD, IF NOT PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THE CREDIT CARD ADDRESS. When processed the Home Office will take out the processing fee and a 3% finance charge and credit your account for your commission. Commission checks will be cut on the LAST DAY OF EACH MONTH. Option #4-­‐ Processing a CREDIT CARD PAYMENT PLAN through the Home Office (Processing Fee Met) In this option the client is going to pay on a recurring automatic payment on their credit card. These payments MUST be EQUAL payments and must be on a weekly or monthly basis. The first payment, and all EQUAL remaining payments, are greater than the processing fee. The Home Office will take care of scheduling and collecting all payments and credit your account as the payments come in. For example, let’s say you sell an All-­‐State package for $1500 ($390 Processing Fee). The client will break this payment up into 3 EQUAL payments of $500 on auto-­‐recurring credit card payments. They will pay $500 down and $500 in EXACTLY 1 month from the date of enrolling, and the third $500 in exactly 2 months. You will be credited $95 from the down payment ($500 minus $390 processing minus 3%). When the one month payment of $500 comes in you will be credited $485 ($500 minus 3%). And $485 again when the last payment comes in. NOTE -­‐ You cannot charge $500 down and $100 a month for the remaining payments. The payments must be EQUAL. Simply e-­‐mail the TYPED Word Version of the Contract to the Home Office with all the credit card information filled out completely. Again, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE ADDRESS ON THE CONTRACT MATCHES THE ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CREDIT CARD, IF NOT PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THE CREDIT CARD ADDRESS. When processed the Home Office will take out the processing fee and a 3% finance charge and credit your account for your commission. Commission checks will be cut on the LAST DAY OF EACH MONTH Option #5-­‐ Processing a CREDIT CARD PAYMENT PLAN through the Home Office (Processing Fee NOT Met) In this option the client is going to pay on a recurring automatic payment on their credit card. These payments must be EQUAL payments and must be on a weekly or monthly basis. In this case, the first payment, and all EQUAL remaining payments, are less than the processing fee would have been. For example, the client can afford to pay only $100 down and $100 a month, but the processing fee is $590. Since the processing fee will not be met with the initial payment, this option will be a 50/50 split between the Home Office and Rep for the entirety of the contract. The minimum allowed payment is $100, but you can make the payments higher at your discretion. The Home Office will take care of scheduling and collecting all payments and credit your account 50% of the payment as the payments come in. Simply e-­‐mail the TYPED Word Version of the Contract to the Home Office with all the credit card information filled out completely. Again, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT THE ADDRESS ON THE CONTRACT MATCHES THE ADDRESS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CREDIT CARD, IF NOT PLEASE ALSO INCLUDE THE CREDIT CARD ADDRESS. In this option, the Home Office will NOT take out a processing or a 3% finance charge. Commission checks will be cut on the LAST DAY OF EACH MONTH. PRO’s and CON’s of using OPTION 5 Obviously in Option 5 with a 50/50 split the Rep will make a little less if the client pays in full. In many cases it will be financially beneficial for the Rep to use Option’s 1-­‐4. However, there are many cases where Option 5 may be beneficial. Let’s say for example a client is willing to put down the $390 processing fee to use one of the Options 1-­‐4 and then defaults on all remaining payments. In this case, the home office is paid up front and the Rep makes $0. Using option 5, both the Home Office and Rep would make $195. Or let’s say you want to sell an All-­‐State for $1,000. You could use Option’s 1-­‐4 to collect a $390 minimum upfront payment and hope to collect the remaining $610 yourself (your commission would actually be $580 if processed through credit card payment through Home Office). Or, you could use Option 5 and allow the client to pay $100 a month for 10 months and collect $500. Of course, you could make an extra $80 or $110 by paying the processing up front….but you are also taking the risk of not getting anything. Additionally, the time and effort spent trying to collect the remaining payments may not be worth the extra $80/$110 you could make in this case. So, if you feel 100% confident the client will pay you in full you may want to try to avoid Option 5. If you wanted to ‘front’ the money for the client out of your pocket to avoid Option 5, you could do that as well (although STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 49 not recommended). If you are not as sure of eventual payment, or simply cannot get enough up front to cover the processing fee then Option 5 may be a good fit for you. Here is another way to use Option 5. Let’s say you have a family considering the All-­‐State for $1,290. With Options 1-­‐4 you would make $900 (or $861.30 with Credit Card payment through Home Office). You could ask the client for $1290 down or $100 a month for 16 months (adding $310 to the total for a financing charge). This way using Option 5 you would make $850 total (basically the same as you would in Options 1-­‐4). This might be a way to close a deal on a customer a little uncertain about putting down such a large amount. Potential misuse of OPTION 5 Using Option 5, 100% of the payments needs to paid via credit card auto-­‐recurring payments through the Home Office. It would be possible for a Rep to process an athlete using Option 5 for as little as $100 ($50 to Rep and $50 to Home Office) and then collect the remaining money directly from the client. This would be considered intentional fraudulent action and a direct violation of “Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practice” pursuant to North Carolina law. Any Licensee who processes a client through Option 5 and then collects payments outside of the Home Office will be considered in breach of contract and we be subject to legal action. Notes on Payment Plans Realize up front that a fair number of people who chose a payment plan option will screw you. I wouldn’t advise offering up a payment plan option unless the client asks for one. If they do ask for one try for half down and half in a month. At worst, try for 3-­‐4 total payments. I also would encourage you to consider adding a financing charge to the account. This will encourage those that can pay in full to do so. Use caution on payment plans on Seniors. Once they’ve committed to a college there is less incentive to continue paying us. People’s morals tend to change when their own money is involved. Be VERY weary of people who want a payment plan but will not use the auto-­‐recurring credit card option. Collecting a check each month can be VERY difficult. If you are running into too many people who want payment plan options, then you are not targeting the right people and you are not doing a good enough job of creating value and demonstrating need for our product. Or maybe, you subconsciously don’t believe in the value of our product and are under-­‐selling it. Regardless, if you are running into this problem too much, you need to re-­‐evaluate your strategy. Shoot for less than 20% of your sales to be payment plans, and shoot for less than 20% of your payment plans to default on you. Anything more than that is cause for concern. Also, realize that people will take advantage of you if you let them. Try to stay away from payment plans. Think of it this way….all that time you are going to spend chasing down the money, wouldn’t it be better spent focusing on signing new clients? STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 51 PHASE 4-­‐ POST SALE LIASON Your involvement with clients after the sale will be a huge factor in your success in this field. If you do nothing for your client the home office will still handle the aspects of e-­‐mail communication and customer service of the client. However, the deeper your personal relationship with your clients the better it will be for your business as they will be more satisfied with the program and refer others to you! The most important thing you can do for your clients to act as a liason between the home office and the family. Make sure they are getting our e-­‐mails. Make sure they are logging in, turning in the forms, and completing what needs to be completed. Make sure they understand what to expect and how to best take advantage of our services. Since the client met you in person and trusted you and handed you a check, they may likely call you with questions or complaints. When this happens you can always answer them or direct them to the home office. Solve any issues you wish, but always feel free to refer any problems to the home office. Some clients will pay and then you will rarely hear from then again. Others will call or e-­‐mail you every day. The rest are somewhere in between. The ‘high-­‐maintenance’ clients are a little more work, but the good news is they are potentially the ones who will be singing your praises to others and helping you get referrals. Over-­‐serving them will be beneficial to you as you grow your business. Calling or texting your clients to make sure they are doing well is essential to keeping good communication. E-­‐mail will not be enough for most clients. Anything you do to reach out to them may help you down the line. Remember, we are a full-­‐service personal and strategic-­‐focused business! GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND FOR YOUR CLIENTS One way you can really make a difference is to send personal e-­‐mails, make phone calls to, or meet in person some of the college coaches in your area. Let them know personally about the kids you represent. Some coaches will not respond to mass e-­‐mails that we send as a matter of their recruiting philosophy. In those cases, your personal touch may be the difference in finding a great fit for our client. We instruct our clients to fill out the COLLEGE CONTACT tab on their profile. Many do not. Stay on them to do so. When they do then you can reach out to the coaches that contacted your athletes on a personal level. Our system should get them letters and interest and teach them the process, but your effort on the back end might seal the deal for them. This is the fun part for you, so don’t forget about it. Being really involved with them should help them recommend other kids to you, which is the most important aspect of your growth. Here is an e-­‐mail you can use to send to your clients (Thanks to Louis Birch for this approach) Greeting All,
Before the kids get too deep in the school year, I offer a challenge to each
family!
1) Enter: STUDENTathleteWorld.com and Login
2) Click VIEW PROFILE and use the College Match Tab
3) Identify 5 schools that really interest you that you have never heard of.
4) Please send me the list and I will call each coach and send your profile to that
program!
TURNING 1 INTO 10 Basically, what you want to accomplish after you have 1 client is to use the one client as a way to network into the team and school and turn that one sale into 2-­‐3, or 10, or 50! Get to know your clients coaches, travel team organizations, personal trainers and show them how you are helping them. Develop trust and then convince them to have you speak with their athletes and families, refer others, and do your marketing for you! Have them hang up signs, give them referral fees, etc. There is no marketing you can do that will be better than a current client speaking well about you to others! HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS This is an overview of what happens from the Home Office after a client enrolls with us. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Intro E-­‐mail Sent Intro Packet Mailed Profile sent to Coaches Receipt of “Profile sent to Coaches” sent to Clients Updates sent to Coaches Commitment Letter Sent to Athlete Commitment Letter Sent College Coaches Intro E-­‐mail Sent-­‐ Clients receive this e-­‐mail…. Name,
STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 53 Welcome to STUDENTathleteWorld!
Please go to www.STUDENTathleteWorld.com and login in the upper right hand
corner. Once you are logged in you will be able to edit and view your
profile. You will now have access to three new tabs on your profile (COLLEGE
CONTACTS, SAW COLLEGE MATCH, and SAW FORMS). Make sure to read
through the SAW FORMS tab, especially the Checklist and Welcome Letter
as they outline how our program will work.
You should soon be receiving a package in the mail that will include, among
other things, a hard copy version of or our book. Please read that ASAP as it will
help you get a better understanding of what to expect in the coming
months/years. It's a quick read and will be worth it!
Of course, you can contact any of us anytime, but here is what works
best...Please call your Personal Recruiting Coach directly with personal
questions or advice specific to your recruiting process. This is the person
you met with and enrolled with. Their job is to work personally with you and help
you every step of the way. If you have misplaced their contact information, find it
here> http://www.studentathleteworld.com/contact-us
We look forward to helping you realize your dreams! As always, let us know how
we can help you in any way,
The STUDENTathleteWorld.com Team
Intro Packet Mailed-­‐ Clients receive a package in the mail which includes a copy of our book, the welcome letter, and a few flyers to give to their coaches. Profile sent to Coaches-­‐ On the first 1st or 15th of the month after the client enrolls with us, their on-­‐line profile being created, the client will get their first mass mailing to coaches. Below is an example of what that looks like… SUBJECT: Kayla Mundell [2013 MF/DF, 3.8 GPA]
Michael Smith,
We'd like to introduce to you KAYLA MUNDELL. Kayla is 2013 MF/DF who plays
on a strong 4A high school team and a quality club team. She carries a 3.8 GPA
and has interest in PT/PA fields. Please contact her if you are interested. You
can find all of her contact information by clicking on her name below. Also,
check out our other athletes as we have some unsigned Seniors and some nice
underclassmen as well.
Terry
Kayla
DF/MF Sanford 3.8 VIDEO
Mundell
(NC)
EVALUATION
caryandkayla@aol.com
Receipt of “Profile sent to Coaches” sent to Clients-­‐ After the initial mailing this letter is sent to clients to give them a receipt of their mailing and help get them on the right path to success in our program. We also send clients a receipt when their scouting evaluation and/or video is complete. Below is the letter they get after their initial profile is mailed out… [[FIRSTNAME]],
Today we sent your profile to the list of schools that you have been matched up
with.
NOTE: at the bottom of this e-mail is the name of ALL the schools, but your
personal e-mail was sent to schools that match your geographic, academic,
and athletic desires and abilities. Additionally, your name may have been
included as an addition to other e-mails sent to other regions and
levels. But your PERSONAL e-mails are sent to the schools in your target
list.
Make sure you are logging into your profile on our website and taking advantage
of all our program has to offer.
Here are a few things to remember..
1. If your profile is missing information, video, evaluations etc. then college coaches
won't have enough information to decide to recruit you. They won't wait for you,
they will recruit other athletes that have this information sent to them.
2. Make sure you are filling out your COLLEGE CONTACT RECORD. This helps
you keep track of the contacts, but it also is extremely important for your personal
recruiting coach. They will log in and see who has contacted you and then reach
out personally to those schools and help get your name moved to the top of the
list. Their job is to help you find that perfect fit, so make sure you are getting
them what they need to be able to help you.
3. Make sure you are using the SAW COLLEGE MATCH tab. This program is
designed to help you research and connect with schools you may not have heard
of that might be a perfect fit.
4. The SAW FORMS tab has all the documents and resources you need to
navigate our program. It also has an important checklist to make sure you are
following.
STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 55 As always, let us know how we can help you in any way,
The STUDENTathleteWorld.com Team
PROFILE DISTRIBUTION LIST
Abraham Baldwin College Adelphi University Adirondack Community College Adrian College Agnes Scott College AIB Business College Aiken Technical College Alabama A&M University
Alabama Southern Community College Alabama State University Albany State University (Georgia) Albany Technical College Albertus Magnus College Albion College Albright College Alcorn
State University Alderson-Broaddus College Alfred State College Alfred University Alice Lloyd College Allegany College of Maryland Allegheny College Allen County Community College Allen
University Alma College Alpena Community College Alvernia University Alverno College American International College American University Amherst College Ancilla College Anderson University
Anderson University (South Carolina) Andrew College Anna Maria College Anne Arundel Community College Anoka-Ramsey Community College Appalachian State University Aquinas College
Arcadia University Arkansas State University Armstrong Atlantic State University ASA Asbury College Ashford University Ashland University Assumption College Athens State University Atlanta
Christian College Atlanta Metropolitan College Atlantic Cape Community College Auburn University Auburn University, Montgomery Augsburg College Augusta State University Augustana College
Augustana College (South Dakota) Aurora University Austin Peay State University Ave Maria University Averett University Avila University Babson College Baker University Baldwin-Wallace
College Ball State University Baltimore City Community College Baptist Bible College Bard College Barry University Barton College Barton County Community College Bates College Baton Rouge
Community College Bay Path College Becker College Belhaven College Bellarmine University Bellevue University Belmont Abbey College Belmont University Beloit College Bemidji State
University Benedict College Benedictine College (Kansas) Benedictine University (Illinois) Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology Bennett College Bentley University Berea College Bergen
Community College Bernard M. Baruch College Berry College Bethany College (Kansas) Bethany College (West Virginia) Bethel College (Indiana) Bethel College (Kansas) Bethel College
(Tennessee) Bethel University (Minnesota) Bethune-Cookman University Bevill State Community College-Fayette Bevill State Community College-Sumiton Birmingham-Southern College Bishop
State Community College Bismarck State College Black Hawk College-East Black Hawk College-Moline Black Hills State University Blackburn College Bloomfield College Bloomsburg University
of Pennsylvania Blue Mountain College Blue Ridge Community College Blue River Community College Bluefield College Bluefield State College Bluffton College Borough of Manhattan
Community College Bossier Parish Community College Boston College Boston University Bowdoin College Bowie State University Bowling Green State University Bradley University Brandeis
University Brenau University Brescia University Brevard College Brevard Community College Brewton-Parker College Briar Cliff University Bridgewater College (Virginia) Bridgewater State
University Bristol Community College Bronx Community College Brookdale Community College Brooklyn College Broome Community College Broward Community College Brown Mackie College
Brown University Brunswick Community College Bryan College Bryant & Stratton Business Institute Bryant University Bryn Mawr College Bucknell University Bucks County Community College
Buena Vista University Buffalo State College Bunker Hill Community College Burlington County College Butler Community College (Kansas) Butler County Community College (Pennsylvania)
Butler University C.W. Post Campus/Long Island University Cabrini College Caldwell College Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute Calhoun Community College California
University of Pennsylvania Calumet College of St. Joseph Calvin College Camden County College Campbell University Campbellsville University Canisius College Cape Fear Community College
Capital University Cardinal Stritch University Carl Sandburg College Carleton College Carlow College Carnegie Mellon University Carroll College Carson-Newman College Carthage College Case
Western Reserve University Castleton State College Catawba College Catawba Valley Community College Catholic University Cayuga Community College Cazenovia College CC of Alleghany
County-Allegheny CC of Allegheny County-Boyce CC of Allegheny County-North CC of Allegheny County-South Cecil Community College Cedar Crest College Cedarville University Centenary
College (Louisiana) Centenary College (New Jersey) Central Alabama Community College Central Carolina Community College Central Christian College Central College Central Community
College - Columbus Campus Central Connecticut State University Central Florida Community College Central Lakes College - Brainerd Central Methodist College Central Michigan University
Central State University Centre College Century Community and Tecnical College Chadron State College Chancellor University Charleston Southern University Chatham College Chattahoochee
Technical College Chattahoochee Valley Community College Chattanooga State Technical Community College Chesapeake College Chestnut Hill College Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Chicago State University Chipola College Chowan College Christian Brothers University Christopher Newport University Cincinnati State Technical and Community College City College of New
York Claflin University Clarion University of Pennsylvania Clark Atlanta University Clark State Community College Clark University (Massachusetts) Clarke College Clarkson University Clayton
College & State University Clemson University Cleveland State Community College Cleveland State University Clinton Community College Clinton Junior College Cloud County Community
College Coahoma Community College Coastal Carolina University Coe College Coffeyville Community College Coker College Colby College Colby Community College Colby-Sawyer College
Colgate University College of Charleston (South Carolina) College of Coastal Georgia College of DuPage College of Lake County College of Mount St. Joseph College of Mount St. Vincent
College of New Rochelle College of Notre Dame (Maryland) College of Saint Elizabeth College of Saint Joseph College of Saint Mary College of Saint Rose College of Southern Maryland College
of St. Benedict College of St. Catherine College of St. Scholastica College of Staten Island College of the Holy Cross College of the Ozarks College of William and Mary College of Wooster
Columbia College (Missouri) Columbia College (South Carolina) Columbia Greene Community College Columbia State Community College Columbia University Columbus State Community
College Columbus State University Community College of Baltimore County (Catonsville) Community College of Baltimore County (Dundalk) Community College of Baltimore County (Essex)
Community College of Beaver County Community College Rhode Island Concord University Concordia College (New York) Concordia College, Moorhead Concordia University (Michigan)
Concordia University (Nebraska) Concordia University (Wisconsin) Concordia University Chicago Concordia University, St. Paul Connecticut College Converse College Copiah-Lincoln Community
College Coppin State University Cornell College Cornell University Cornerstone University Corning Community College Cottey College County College of Morris Covenant College Cowley County
Community College Creighton University Crowder College CrowleyÕs Ridge College Crown College Culver-Stockton College Cumberland County College Cumberland University Curry College
Cuyahoga Community College Daemen College Dakota College at Bottineau Dakota County Technical College Dakota State University Dakota Wesleyan University Dana College Daniel Webster
College Danville Area Community College Dartmouth College Darton College Davenport University Davidson College Davidson County Community College Davis and Elkins College Daytona
State College Dean College Defiance College Delaware State University Delaware Technical & CC - Stanton-Wilmington Delaware Technical and Community College Delaware Valley College
Delgado Community College Delta College Delta State University Denison University Denmark Technical College DePaul University DePauw University Des Moines Area Community College
DeSales University Dickinson College Dickinson State University Dillard University Doane College Dodge City Community College Dominican College (New York) Dominican University (Illinois)
Dordt College Dowling College DÕYouville College Drake University Drew University Drexel University Drury University Duke University Duquesne University Dutchess Community College
Dyersburg State Community College Earlham College East Carolina University East Central College East Central Community College East Mississippi Community College East Stroudsburg
University of Pennsylvania East Tennessee State University Eastern Connecticut State University Eastern Illinois University Eastern Kentucky University Eastern Mennonite University Eastern
Michigan University Eastern Nazarene College Eastern University Eckerd College Edgewood College Edinboro University of Pennsylvania Edison Community College Edward Waters College
Elgin Community College Elizabeth City State University Elizabethtown College Ellsworth Community College Elmhurst College Elmira College Elms College Elon University Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University Emerson College Emmanuel College (Georgia) Emmanuel College (Massachusetts) Emory and Henry College Emory University Emporia State University Endicott College
Enterprise-Ozark Community College Erie Community College Erskine College Essex County College Eureka College Evangel University Fairfield University Fairleigh Dickinson University,
Madison Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck Fairmont State University Farmingdale State College Fashion Institute of Technology Faulkner State Community College Faulkner University
Fayetteville State University Felician College Ferris State University Ferrum College Finger Lakes Community College Finlandia University Fisher College Fisk University Fitchburg State College
Flagler College Florence-Darlington Technical College Florida A&M University Florida Atlantic University Florida Gateway College Florida Gulf Coast University Florida Institute of Technology
Florida International University Florida Memorial University Florida Southern College Florida State College Florida State University Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College Fontbonne University
Fordham University Fort Hays State University Fort Scott Community College Fort Valley State University Framingham State College Francis Marion University Franciscan University of
Steubenville Franklin & Marshall College Franklin College Franklin Pierce College Frederick Community College Freed-Hardeman University Friends University Frostburg State University FultonMontgomery Community College Furman University Gadsen State Community College Gallaudet University Gannon University Garden City Community College Gardner-Webb University Garrett
College Gateway Community College (CT) Genesee Community College Geneva College George Mason University George Washington University Georgetown College Georgetown University
Georgia College & State University Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Military College Georgia Perimeter College Georgia Southern University Georgia Southwestern State University
Georgia State University Georgian Court University Gettysburg College Glen Oaks Community College Glenville State College Globe Institute of Technology Gloucester County College Gogebic
Community College Goldey-Beacom College Gordon College Goshen College Goucher College Grace College Graceland University Grambling State University Grand Rapids Community College
Grand Valley State University Grand View College Green Mountain College Greensboro College Greenville College Grinnell College Grove City College Guilford College Guilford Technical
Community College Gulf Coast Community College Gustavus Adolphus College Gwynedd-Mercy College Hagerstown Community College Hamilton College Hamline University Hampden-Sydney
College Hampton University Hannibal-LaGrange College Hanover College Harcum College Harford Community College Harper College Harris-Stowe State University Hartwick College Harvard
University Haskell Indian Nations University Hastings College Haverford College Heartland Community College Heidelberg College Henry Ford Community College Herkimer County Community
College Hesston College Hibbing Community College High Point University Highland Community College-Illinois Highland Community College-Kansas Hilbert College Hillsborough Community
College Hillsdale College Hinds Community College Hiram College Hiwassee College Hobart College Hobart College Hofstra University Hollins University Holmes Community College Holy Cross
College Holy Family University Holyoke Community College Hood College Hope College Hostos Community College Houghton College Howard Community College Howard University Hudson
Valley Community College Hunter College Huntingdon College Huntington College (Indiana) Husson College Hutchinson Community College Illinois Central College Illinois College Illinois Institute
of Technology Illinois State University Illinois Valley Community College Illinois Wesleyan University Immaculata University Independence Community College Indian Hills Community CollegeCenterville Indian Hills Community College-Ottumwa Indian River State College Indiana Institute of Technology Indiana State University Indiana University Indiana University East Indiana
University Northwest Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University Southeast Indiana University, South Bend Indiana University-Purdue at Indianapolis Indiana University-Purdue, Fort
Wayne Indiana Wesleyan University Iona College Iowa Central Community College Iowa Lakes Community College Iowa State University Iowa Wesleyan College Iowa Western Community
College Itasca Community College Itawamba Community College Ithaca College Jackson Community College Jackson State Community College Jackson State University Jacksonville State
University Jacksonville University James Madison University Jamestown College Jamestown Community College Jamestown Community College-Cattaraugus Jefferson College Jefferson
Community College Jefferson Davis Community College Jefferson State Community College John A. Logan College John Carroll University John Jay College John Wood Community College
Johns Hopkins University Johnson & Wales University (Florida) Johnson and Wales University Johnson C. Smith University Johnson County Community College Johnson State College Johnston
Community College Joliet Junior College Jones County Junior College Judson University (Illinois) Juniata College Kalamazoo College Kalamazoo Valley Community College Kankakee
Community College Kansas City Kansas Community College Kansas State University Kansas Wesleyan University Kaskaskia College Kean University Keene State College Kellogg Community
College Kennedy-King College Kennesaw State University Kent State University Kentucky State University Kentucky Wesleyan College Kenyon College Keuka College Keystone College King
College KingÕs College (Pennsylvania) Kingsborough Community College Kirkwood Community College Kirtland Community College Kishwaukee College Knox College Kutztown University of
Pennsylvania L. B. Wallace Community College La Roche College La Salle University Labette Community College Lackawanna College Lafayette College LaGrange College Lake Erie College
Lake Forest College Lake Land College Lake Michigan College Lake Region State College Lake Sumter Community College Lake Superior State University Lakeland College Lakeland
Community College (Ohio) Lambuth University Lander University Lane College Lansing Community College Lasell College Lawrence University Lawson State Community College Le Moyne
College Lebanon Valley College Lee University Lees-McRae College LeHigh Carbon Community College Lehigh University Lehman College, CUNY LeMoyne-Owen College Lenoir Community
College Lenoir-Rhyne College Lesley University Lewis & Clark Community College Lewis College of Business Lewis University Liberty University Limestone College Lincoln College Lincoln
College of New England Lincoln Land Community College Lincoln Memorial University Lincoln Trail College Lincoln University Lincoln University (Missouri) Lindenwood University Lindsey Wilson
College Lipscomb University Livingstone College Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania Lon Morris College Long Island University, Southampton Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus
Longview Community College Longwood University Lorain County Community College Loras College Louisburg College Louisiana College Louisiana State University Louisiana State University,
Alexandria Louisiana State University, Shreveport Louisiana State University-Eunice Louisiana Tech University Loyola College (Maryland) Loyola University (Illinois) Loyola University (Louisiana)
Luther College Lycoming College Lynchburg College Lyndon State College Lynn University Macalester College MacMurray College Macomb Community College Madison Area Technical College
Madonna University Maine Maritime Academy Malcolm X College Malone University Manatee Community College Manchester College Manchester Community College Manhattan College
Manhattanville College Manor College Mansfield University of Pennsylvania Maple Woods Community College Maranatha Baptist Bible College Marian College Marian University (Wisconsin)
Marietta College Marion Military Institute Marist College Marquette University Mars Hill College Marshall University Marshalltown Community College Martin Luther College Martin Methodist
College Mary Baldwin College Marygrove College Marymount University (Virginia) Maryville College (Tennessee) Maryville University of Saint Louis Marywood University Massachusetts Bay
Community College Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Maritime Academy Massasoit Community College Mayland Community College
Mayville State University McCook Community College McDaniel College McHenry County College McKendree College McNeese State University McPherson College Medaille College Medgar
Evers College Mercer County Community College Mercer University Mercy College Mercyhurst College Mercyhurst North East Meredith College Meridian Community College Merrimack College
Mesabi Range CTC Messiah College Methodist University Miami University (Ohio) Miami-Dade College Michigan State University Michigan Technological University MidAmerica Nazarene
University Mid-Continent University Middle Georgia College Middle Tennessee State University Middlebury College Middlesex County College Midland Lutheran College Midway College Mike
HIgdon Miles College Millersville University of Pennsylvania Milligan College Millikin University Millsaps College Milwaukee Area Technical College Milwaukee School of Engineering Mineral Area
College Minnesota State Community & Technical College Minnesota State University Moorhead Minnesota State University-Mankato Minnesota West Community & Technical College Minot State
University Misericordia University Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Mississippi College Mississippi Delta Community College Mississippi State University Mississippi Valley State
University Missouri Baptist University Missouri Southern State College Missouri State University Missouri State University- West Plains Missouri University of Science and Technology Missouri
University of Science and Technology Missouri Valley College Missouri Western State University Mitchell College Moberly Area Community College Mohawk Valley Community College Molloy
College Monmouth College (Illinois) Monmouth University Monroe College Monroe Community College Montclair State University Montgomery College Takoma Park-Silver Spring Montgomery
College-Germantown Montgomery College-Rockville Montreat College Moraine Valley Community College Moravian College Morehead State University Morehouse College Morgan State
University Morningside College Morris Brown College Morris College Morton College Motlow State Community College Mott Community College Mount Aloysius College Mount Holyoke College
Mount Ida College Mount Marty College Mount Mary College Mount Mercy College Mount Olive College Mount St. Mary College (New York) Mount St. MaryÕs College Mount Union College
Mount Vernon Nazarene University Mountain State University Muhlenberg College Murray State University Muscatine Community College Muskegon Community College Muskingum College
Nassau Community College National American University Nazareth College Nebraska Wesleyan University Neosho County Community College Neumann College New England College New
Jersey City University New Jersey Institute of Technology New York City College of Technology New York Institute of Technology New York University Newberry College Newbury College
Newman University Niagara County Community College Niagara University Nicholls State University Nichols College Norfolk State University North Carolina A&T State University North Carolina
Central University North Carolina State University North Carolina Wesleyan College North Central College North Central Missouri College North Country Community College North Dakota State
College of Science North Dakota State University North Georgia College & State University North Greenville University North Iowa Area Community College North Park University North Platte
Community College Northeast Community College Northeast Mississippi Community College Northeastern University Northern Essex Community College Northern Illinois University Northern
Kentucky University Northern Michigan University Northern State University Northland College Northland Community & Technical College Northwest Florida State College Northwest Mississippi
Community College Northwest Missouri State University Northwestern College (Iowa) Northwestern College (Minnesota) Northwestern Oklahoma State University Northwestern State University
Northwestern University Northwest-Shoals Community College Northwood University Northwood University (Florida) Norwich University Notre Dame College Nova Southeastern University Nyack
College Oakland City University Oakland Community College Oakland University Oakton Community College Oberlin College Ocean County College Oglethorpe University Ohio Dominican
University Ohio Northern University Ohio State University Ohio University Ohio Valley University Ohio Wesleyan University Oklahoma Wesleyan University Old Dominion University Olive-Harvey
College Olivet College Olivet Nazarene University Olney Central College Onondaga Community College Orange County Community College Ottawa University Otterbein College Owens
Community College Oxford College of Emory University Pace University Paine College Palm Beach Atlantic University Palm Beach State College Park University Parkland College PascoHernando Community College Passaic County Community College Patrick Henry Community College Paul SmithÕs College Peace College Pearl River Community College Penn State Abington
Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College Penn Valley Community College Pennsylvania State University Pennsylvania State University, Altoona Pennsylvania State University, Erie, the Behrend
Pensacola State College Peru State College Pfeiffer University Philadelphia Biblical University Philadelphia University Piedmont College Pikeville College Pine Manor College Pitt Community
College Pittsburg State University Plattsburgh State University of New York Plymouth State University Point Park College Polk Community College Polytechnic University (New York) Post
University Potomac State College of WVU Prairie State College Pratt Community College Presbyterian College Presentation College Prince GeorgeÕs Community College Princeton University
Principia College Providence College Purdue University Purdue University, Calumet Purdue University, North Central Queens College (New York) Queens University of Charlotte Queensborough
Community College Quincy University Quinnipiac University Quinsigamond Community College Radford University Rainy River Community College Ramapo College Randolph College RandolphMacon College Raritan Valley Community College Regis College Reinhardt University Rend Lake College Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rhode Island College Rhodes College Richard Stockton
College of New Jersey Rider University Ridgewater College Ripon College Riverland Community College Rivier College Roane State Community College Roanoke College Roanoke-Chowan
Community College Robert Morris University Robert Morris University (Illinois) Roberts Wesleyan College Rochester Community & Technical College Rochester Institute of Technology Rock
Valley College Rockford College Rockhurst University Rockingham Community College Rockland Community College Roger Williams University Rollins College Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology Rosemont College Rowan University Roxbury Community College Russell Sage College Rust College Rutgers University Rutgers, State University(NJ), Camden Rutgers, State
University(NJ), Newark Sacred Heart University Saginaw Valley State University Saint Ambrose University Saint Anselm College Saint Francis University (Pennsylvania) Saint JosephÕs College
(Indiana) Saint JosephÕs College (Maine) Saint Leo University Saint Louis College of Pharmacy Saint Louis University Saint MaryÕs College (Indiana) Saint MaryÕs University of Minnesota Saint
MichaelÕs College Saint Paul College Saint Thomas University Saint Vincent College Saint Xavier University Salem College Salem Community College Salem International University Salem State
College Salisbury University Salve Regina University Samford University Sampson Community College Santa Fe Community College Sauk Valley Community College Savannah College of Art &
Design Savannah State University Schenectady County Community College Schoolcraft College Scott Community College Seminole State College Seton Hall University Seton Hill
University Sewanee: University of the South Seward County Community College Shaw University Shawnee Community College Shawnee State University Shelton State Community College
Shenandoah University Shepherd College Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Shorter University Siena College Siena Heights University Silver Lake College Simmons College Simmons
College of Kentucky Simpson College Sinclair Community College Skidmore College Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania Smith College Snead State Community College South Carolina
State University South Dakota School of Mines & Technology South Dakota State University South Florida Community College South Georgia College South Georgia Technical College South
Suburban College Southeast Community College Southeast Missouri State University Southeastern Community College Southeastern Community College-Whiteville Southeastern Illinois College
Southeastern Louisiana University Southern Connecticut State University Southern Illinois University at Carbondale Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Southern New Hampshire University
Southern Polytechnic State University Southern Union State Community College Southern University at New Orleans Southern University, Baton Rouge Southern University-Shreveport Southern
Vermont College Southern Virginia University Southern Wesleyan University Southwest Baptist University Southwest Minnesota State University Southwest Mississippi Community College
Southwest Tennessee Community College Southwestern College Southwestern Community College Southwestern Illinois College Spalding University Spartanburg Methodist College Spelman
College Spoon River College Spring Arbor University Spring Hill College Springfield College Springfield College in Illimois Springfield Technical Community College St. Andrews Presbyterian
College St. AugustineÕs College St. Bonaventure University St. Catharine College St. Charles Community College St. Clair County Community College St. Cloud State University St. Cloud
Technical College St. Francis College (New York) St. JohnÕs Fisher College St. JohnÕs University (Minnesota) St. JohnÕs University (New York) St. Johns River Community College St. Joseph
College (Connecticut) St. JosephÕs College (New York) St. JosephÕs University St. Lawrence University St. Louis Community College-Florissant Valley St. Louis Community College-Forest Park
St. Louis Community College-Meramec St. MaryÕs College of Maryland St. Norbert College St. Olaf College St. PaulÕs College St. PeterÕs College St. Petersburg College St. Thomas Aquinas
College Stanly Community College State College of Florida State Fair Community College State University College at Brockport State University College at Cortland State University College at
Fredonia State University College at Geneseo State University College at New Paltz State University College at Old Westbury State University College at Oneonta State University College at
Oswego State University College at Potsdam State University of New York at Binghamton State University of New York at Buffalo State University of New York at Delhi State University of New
York at Stony Brook State University of New York Maritime State University of New York, Institute Technology Stephens College Sterling College Stetson University Stevens Institute of
Technology Stevenson University Stillman College Stonehill College Suffolk County Community College-Michael J. Grant Suffolk County Community College-Selden Suffolk University Sullivan
County Community College SUNY - Canton SUNY - Cobleskill Surry Community College Susquehanna University Sussex County Community College Swarthmore College Sweet Briar College
Syracuse University Tabor College Tallahassee Community College Taylor University Technical Career Institutes Temple University Tennessee State University Tennessee Technological
STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 57 University Tennessee Temple University Tennessee Wesleyan College Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology The Citadel The College of New Jersey Thiel College Thomas College Thomas
More College Thomas University Three Rivers Community College Tiffin University Tompkins Cortland Community College Tougaloo College Towson University Transylvania University Trevecca
Nazarene University Tri-County Technical College Trine University Trinity Christian College Trinity College (Connecticut) Trinity International University Trinity University (District of Columbia)
Triton College Troy University Truett-McConnell College Truman State University Tufts University Tulane University Tusculum College Tuskegee University U.S. Coast Guard Academy U.S.
Merchant Marine Academy U.S. Military Academy U.S. Naval Academy Ulster County Community College Union College Union College (Kentucky) Union County College Union University United
Tribes Technical College University at Albany University of Akron University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Alabama, Huntsville University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa University of
Arkansas, Little Rock University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff University of Bridgeport University of Central Florida University of Central Missouri University of Charleston (West Virginia) University of
Chicago University of Cincinnati University of Connecticut University of Connecticut at Avery Point University of Dayton University of Delaware University of Detroit Mercy University of District of
Columbia University of Dubuque University of Evansville University of Findlay University of Florida University of Georgia University of Hartford University of Illinois University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois, Springfield University of Indianapolis University of Iowa University of Kansas University of Kentucky University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of Louisville University of Maine University of Maine, Farmington University of Maine, Fort Kent University of Maine, Machias University of Maine, Presque Isle University of Mary
University of Mary Washington University of Maryland University of Maryland, Baltimore County University of Maryland, Eastern Shore University of Massachusetts University of Massachusetts at
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of Minnesota University of Minnesota, Crookston University of Minnesota, Duluth University of Minnesota, Morris University of Minnesota, Morris
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University of Nebraska at Kearney University of Nebraska, Omaha University of New England University of New Hampshire University of New Haven University of New Orleans University of North
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Greensboro University of North Carolina, Wilmington University of North Dakota University of North Florida University of Northern Iowa University of Northwestern Ohio University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh, Bradford University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown University of Pittsburgh, Titusville
University of Puerto Rico, Bayamon University of Puerto Rico, Humacao University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras University of Rhode Island University of
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University of Southern Maine University of Southern Mississippi University of St. Thomas University of Tampa University of Tennessee University of Tennessee at Chattanooga University of
Tennessee at Martin University of the Cumberlands University of the Sciences in Philadelphia University of Toledo University of Vermont University of Virginia University of VirginiaÕs College at
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University of Wisconsin, River Falls University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point University of Wisconsin, Stout University of Wisconsin, Superior University of Wisconsin, Whitewater Upper Iowa
University Urbana University Ursinus College Ursuline College Utica College Valdosta State University Valley City State University Valparaiso University Vanderbilt University Vassar College
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University Washington and Jefferson College Washington and Lee University Washington College (Maryland) Washington University (Missouri) Waubonsee Community College Wayne County
Community College Wayne State College (Nebraska) Wayne State University (Michigan) Waynesburg College Webber International University Webster University Wellesley College Wells College
Wentworth College Wentworth Institute of Technology Wesley College Wesleyan College (Georgia) Wesleyan University (Connecticut) West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Liberty
University West Virginia State University West Virginia University West Virginia University Institute of Technology West Virginia Wesleyan College Westchester Community College Western
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Westmoreland County Community College Wheaton College Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Wheeling Jesuit University Wheelock College Wichita State University Widener University
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(Delaware) Wilson College Wingate University Winona State University Winston-Salem State University Winthrop University Wisconsin Lutheran College Wittenberg University Wofford College
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(New York) York College (Pennsylvania) Young Harris College Youngstown State University
Corresponding with Coaches-­‐ When coaches reply to our e-­‐mails we forward those on to the client. Below is an example. We also ask the coach to take a look at our other clients and to spread the word about our program to the other coaches at their school. This is how we grow our network and increase the value of our program. SUBJECT: COLLEGE CONTACT: Mid-­‐Continent University See below and respond to the COLLEGE COACH using the e-­‐mail provided or by calling them (do not hit reply to this e-­‐mail). 1. Respond to ALL college contacts until you have multiple offers in writing. Keep an open mind! 2. Respond personally. Do some research on their school and make it about THEM, not just about you. 3. Respond in depth. Use complete sentences. Give them DETAILS about you. Include your SaW profile page URL. 4. Record this contact on your COLLEGE CONTACT tab on your on-­‐line profile. 5. If the e-­‐mail doesn't pertain to you specifically (class or position, etc.) use it as a way to start a recruiting relationship with the coach. Thanks for the email. I looked at Jordan’s video footage and was impressed. I have emailed Jordan so he can take a look at our university online. If he is interested I would love to schedule a time for him to visit our institution. David Oesch Head Coach, Men's Soccer Mid-­‐Continent University 99 Powell Road East Mayfield, KY 42066 Office: 270-­‐247-­‐8521 ext 353 www.midcontinentcougars.com Updates sent to Coaches-­‐ After the initial mailing the client will get continuous updates sent out to coaches. Of course as each additional athlete in that sport is sent out, it includes a link to the other athletes in that sport. When requested by clients, we can send the profile out again. Every two months we send this out to all coaches… SUBJECT: Men’s Soccer Recruits- Good Students! (STUDENTathleteWorld.com)
Michael Jones,
These potential college athletes have expressed interest in schools that match
your level of play, size, and location. Please take a look at their profiles by
clicking on their names (some have video as well). Please contact them
directly and ask them to fill out your questionnaire, attend your camp,
or whatever you would like them to do to be considered as a potential
recruit for your program. The vast majority of these athletes are great
students and come from good families. Please bookmark our website and check
back often for more potential recruits. Below are our STUDENTathletes...
2012
Name
Position
School
(State)
Academics
E-mail
Tyler
Held
GK
The Epiphany
School (NC)
3.5
heldtyler@yahoo.com
Michael
Byrum
FW
Ridgecroft (NC)
3.41070mv-22
buffetfan64@gmail.com
STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 59 Alex
Amicy
DF
Coastal
Christian (NC)
2.6
aaalexboy@gmail.com
Michael
Perry
GK
West Carteret
(NC)
4.0-194030
mperry1994@yahoo.com
Tim
Floyd
MF
Wake Forest
Rolesville (NC)
4.0
floydt33@yahoo.com
Toren
O’Leary
RM/ST
Int’l School of
Luxembourg
3.2-118023
toren94@yahoo.com
Cory
Sloan
MF/ST/DF
Statesville (NC)
3.9-22
sloand@bellsouth.net
Evan
Vogel
CM/MB
Statesville (NC)
4.0-29
mvogelacuity@aol.com
Phillip
Packard
DF
Fike (NC)
3.3-1600
capsm@aol.com
Jack Britt (NC)
3.6-1390
lpaul@nc.rr.com
Rend Lake
College (OK)
3.3-1040
info@kbrbuses.com
Josh
Paul
Robert
Rock
ST
NOTES-­‐ We tell clients in the contract that their profile is sent out 6 times per year. In reality it is probably sent out at least 12 or more times per year. We don’t get in to exact dates of when these mailing take place because they fluctuate based on the number of other athletes in that sport and our monthly bandwidth limits for e-­‐mail. We also don’t want 100 parents calling us on the last day of the month analyzing every aspect of the future or past mailing. What they need to know is that their profile goes out just a few DAYS after we receive the info and it will continue to go out 6 times per year after that. POST COLLEGE COMMITMENT After a client enrolls with a college program, simply let the home office know of the commitment. Upon processing the commitment the home office will… 1. Mark the athlete as committed and publicize 2. Send the athlete and family the commitment letter which includes the commitment form which asks them for financial data of their package and a testimonial of our program 3. E-­‐mail the college coaches of the program they committed to and thank them and let them know about our other athletes Commitment Letter Sent to Athlete-­‐ The home office will send via e-­‐mail this congratulations letter to the athlete and family enticing a testimonial. [[NAME]],
Congratulations on your recent college commitment! We are very proud of you
and excited for you. So we can learn from our clients, we'd love some feedback
(positive and negative) about your thoughts on our program. A "testimonial"
about our program is greatly appreciated. Better yet, please tell your friends
about STUDENTathleteWorld!
Should you ever need anything in the future, please contact us. Best of luck in
your college career, and make sure to keep us posted on your successes!
Commitment Letter Sent to College Coach-­‐ The home office will send via e-­‐mail this letter to the college coaches enticing them to look at our other athletes as well and maintain good communication. Coach,
Congrats on your recent commitment from [ATHLETE]. We are excited about
the future for you both. Our athletes are typically a great fit for schools like
yours, so please check out the rest of our CLIENTS and maybe you will find
others that are a good fit for you. Also, please share our WEBSITE with your
colleagues as well (we work in all sports). Congrats again and let us know what
we can do to help.
In addition to these effort, you may wish to contact the clients local newspaper and maybe get some free press or take out a reasonably priced ad including an action shot of the kid and a big logo of the school he/she signed with (and maybe a logo of the club team or workout facility). Then something along the lines of "STUDENTathleteWorld is proud to announce the signing of PLAYERS NAME from PLAYERS HIGH SCHOOL, to COLLEGE PLAYER SIGNED AT. Then a quote from you (I couldn't be more excited for Joe and his family on their commitment to playing at X University this upcoming season. After seeing how hard Joe worked in and out of the classroom he will be a tremoundous assest to the baseball team at X University. I am so proud STUDENTathleteWorld.com Training Manual 61 that he is part of the STUDENTathleteWorld family). Then a quote from the family thanking us (REP NAME did an incredible job with us and Joe each and every step of the recruiting process, we would have never been here without STUDENTathleteWorld and REP NAME). At the bottom of the page in big BOLD letters write WHO'S NEXT? WE GET ATHLETES RECRIUTED!