Fall Recruitment Planning in 5 Easy Questions

dr-full-color-copy by Matt Mattson

Still not sure what your fall recruitment plan looks like?  Want to make sure you’ve thought of everything? There are a lot of considerations that go into a great plan, but you can simplify the whole process by answering (in as much detail as possible), these 5 questions.

  1. How will you build your Names List ?
  2. How will you build meaningful relationships between the people on your Names List and your organization’s members?
  3. How will you objectively evaluate prospective members’ qualification for membership using your values — how will you choose new members? (Related blogs: here , here , and here .)
  4. How will you "close " prospects (how will you gain their deep commitment to joining)?
  5. How will you represent your values throughout everything you do to try to attract a high quantity of high quality people to your cause?

Boy oh boy do I have a lot more detail to add under and around each one of those questions.  But if you focus on answering those five questions with as much creativity, detail, and effectiveness as possible, you’ll be on the right track. Hint: The right answers might not be the answers your group has come up with in the past.

Want to know the answers that GET RESULTS?  Learn more about Dynamic Recruitment . Phired Up has availability throughout the rest of this summer and fall to help you build your recruitment strategy. Contact us today.

Coffee with an Executive Coach – 3 Things Successful Groups Must Have

by Josh Orendi

mike-donahue I just met with Michael Donahue at a Panera Bread in Carmel, Indiana.  He’s a well respected Executive Coach for top businesses and entrepreneurs in the Indianapolis area (he’s also a Delta Upsilon from Northern Illinois).  Mike told me his job requires him to recruit top talent, coach for performance, and facilitate a small group of talented people to form a "fraternity-like bond" of trust and support.  He said, "there are a few choices I have made that have most certainly changed my life for the better … pledging DU was one of them.  The lessons I learned back in the DU house have served me all through life."

Mike has a few decades of wisdom that I was hungry to tap into.  I listened.  I learned.  I took notes.  One note in particular was too important for me to keep to myself.  He shared a lesson with me about his business that applies directly to building successful chapters/teams/groups.  He said, "There are three things that must be present to have a successful group.  Only three!  These three are critical, non-negotiable …"

1. Shared Purpose
2. Investment Back into the Group
3. Demand Performance with Accountability

"My CEO groups remind me of my fraternity experience … there is deep trust and respect.  We come together because we share a commitment to helping every member reach his/her goals and become a better person."  Mike went on to tell me, "The magic of what I do is in the group itself, not in me.  A great group is more powerful than any individual relationship … the group has wisdom and holds each other accountable.  It takes courage to tell someone that they’re full of BS or that they aren’t living up to their potential as a leader.  You have to be willing to experience a little stomach acid.  That’s what the members of high performing groups do.  They hold each other accountable to high standards."

Those three bullet points are perfect conversation nuggets when you talk to a potential member about the commitment of joining your organization.  As for me, I have a meeting on the calendar to meet his CEO group.  It’s a cool feeling to be back on this side of the experience being recruited as a potential member.  Wish me luck.

Multiply, Don’t Add

by Matt Mattson

“I really hope we get to total this year,” said way too many sorority women.

“Recruit at least one person to replace yourself,” said some alumnus when I was an undergraduate fraternity man.

“Let’s try to get at least the same size new member class as we got last year,” said far too many Greek members.

These quotes are all small-minded.  They’re based in a mentality of “addition” as opposed to the real potential that recruitment has — “multiplication.”

If you see recruitment as “adding enough people to make up for the ones we lost,” or “getting enough new members to keep us as good as we are,” then you’re destined for mediocrity.

If you see recruitment as an opportunity to multiply the impact you have on the world by strategically seeking out high quality people (new members who are even better than you) to dramatically advance your organization’s cause… then you have a chance for exponential results.

Multiply with your recruitment strategy this fall. Don’t simply add.