SMoney
Dodd-Like
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2004
- Messages
- 3,053
Ok, this is going to sound somewhat stupid, but for those of you that were in fraternities, do you not see lots of similarities between recruiting strategies and rush strategies? I'll lay out a few:
Recruiting in state - It seems like we are focusing much more on instate recruits. The hopes are that if you lay the groundwork instate, you then set up a pipeline for future recruits. In fraternities, this was also the case. If you could get guys from a local high school, the thought was that they would then know the next class coming in, and you would then have the inside track on getting them to pledge as well.
Having current recruits recruit others - Currently, several of our commits are working extremely hard to get others to jump on ship with them. In fraternities, we used this as a great selling technique - "commit early, and you can help pick your own pledge class". It was one of the most effective ways of fraternity recruiting. Get a few guys to fall early, and let them carry a lot of the work in getting people from their dorm, high schools, etc to come by.
The "snowball" effect - We have been in the news quite a bit recently. Each time there is a story on one of our commits, people, and other recruits most importantly, start to wonder what is going on at GT. Everyone wants to be part of something exciting. Everyone wants to be a part of that high ranking class. Fraternity world was no different. You start hearing the cheers from a house, the bells, the cannons, etc, and you're like, "damn, XYZ house got another one. Wonder what's going on over there". All of a sudden, guys that you had who had already pledged, are starting to wonder the same thing. Much more attention is focused on that house, therefore the numbers continue to climb. Gt is currently going through this same thing.
There are plenty of others, but these are the few that come to mind very quickly. Every story I see about our recruiting I can draw some kind of parallel line to the fraternity world. It's all about making your place (be it GT or a fraternity) seem like the best place in the world to be. The can't miss place. Seems to me that GT has finally adopted the model that I tried to instill in the fraternity I was in, and GT seems to have become quite successful : "Always Be Closing -- Telling's Not Selling". (and yes, I did steal that from Boiler Room)
Recruiting in state - It seems like we are focusing much more on instate recruits. The hopes are that if you lay the groundwork instate, you then set up a pipeline for future recruits. In fraternities, this was also the case. If you could get guys from a local high school, the thought was that they would then know the next class coming in, and you would then have the inside track on getting them to pledge as well.
Having current recruits recruit others - Currently, several of our commits are working extremely hard to get others to jump on ship with them. In fraternities, we used this as a great selling technique - "commit early, and you can help pick your own pledge class". It was one of the most effective ways of fraternity recruiting. Get a few guys to fall early, and let them carry a lot of the work in getting people from their dorm, high schools, etc to come by.
The "snowball" effect - We have been in the news quite a bit recently. Each time there is a story on one of our commits, people, and other recruits most importantly, start to wonder what is going on at GT. Everyone wants to be part of something exciting. Everyone wants to be a part of that high ranking class. Fraternity world was no different. You start hearing the cheers from a house, the bells, the cannons, etc, and you're like, "damn, XYZ house got another one. Wonder what's going on over there". All of a sudden, guys that you had who had already pledged, are starting to wonder the same thing. Much more attention is focused on that house, therefore the numbers continue to climb. Gt is currently going through this same thing.
There are plenty of others, but these are the few that come to mind very quickly. Every story I see about our recruiting I can draw some kind of parallel line to the fraternity world. It's all about making your place (be it GT or a fraternity) seem like the best place in the world to be. The can't miss place. Seems to me that GT has finally adopted the model that I tried to instill in the fraternity I was in, and GT seems to have become quite successful : "Always Be Closing -- Telling's Not Selling". (and yes, I did steal that from Boiler Room)
