By Paul Manly
Last Fall I had the pleasure of hosting individual recruitment consultations with a handful of recruitment chairmen at a large university. I’ve gotten to do hundreds of these – but this one I’ll never forget. Let’s call him Jimmy.
I asked, “Jimmy, why are you here? Why did you come on campus on a Saturday morning to talk recruitment with us?”
Jimmy replied, “Paul, I was lied to. I was recruited to join my fraternity last semester, and everything they told me about my fraternity was a lie. Now I’m stuck in it, and I’m committed to making it better.”
We need to stop lying about our organizations.
So often men and women join fraternal organizations and the experience they’re promised is not the reality. We tell potential new members exactly what they want to hear to get them to join.
You’ll hear come Sororities claim:
You’ll hear some Fraternities claim:
We’re the best, greatest, closest… with the highest, sharpest, smartest… But we can’t show quantifiable reasoning.
It’s no wonder we experience awful retention rates.
Recently, I moved to a new city and joined a new gym. I wanted to make sure I had the ability to bring guests to my new gym, and I would have access to the other locations in the gym’s network. When given a tour, the manager told me I’d have virtually unlimited guest passes and I could use any gym in their network with membership.
Last week, I tried to use a different location in my gym’s network. It turns out you have to pay extra for that. This morning, I tried to bring a friend to the gym. It turns out guest passes ate $5 per day. WHAT?!
These misrepresentations have caused me to not enjoy my gym as much as I thought. If those facts were shared with me during the joining process, I may have still joined. This gym is the closest in proximity to where I live, so I probably would have joined anyway. But now I’m having second thoughts about maintaining my membership… and that’s a problem.
As many as 1 in 5 students quit a Fraternity or Sorority each year. Dynamic Recruitment teaches us that people join people. Well, people also leave people. The core of this message is that authentic relationships are the best way to recruit and retain our members.
As a guideline for better engagement, pay attention to these 6 powerful lessons:
1. Expectations – Many former members report leaving because of unmet or misunderstood expectations of membership.
2. People – Almost all membership attrition is due to a lack in emotionally solid relationships.
3. Purpose – Connecting an individual’s values to the true purpose of the organization is paramount for member retention and engagement.
4. You Matter – Chapters just made of new member classes, officers, and sub-groups — they’re made of individuals who require love and care.
5. Learning & Growing – Members must constantly have ways to learn and grow from the fraternal experience.
6. Repeat – A repeatable, optimized system for retention and engagement should be a top priority for fraternities and sororities.
Learn more about retention in Fraternity and Sorority here. And most importantly, don’t lie to prospects. People join (and stay with) people — especially people they know they can trust.
100% of recruitment happens during conversations. Yet most of our members couldn’t hold a conversation if it came with a handle. Practice these five conversations and be prepared with the core skills necessary for recruitment excellence.
1. The Meeting: “Hi, I’m Matt. Nice to meet you!” You can’t recruit who you don’t know. Meeting new people and making a positive, warm, engaging first impression is the first of the five recruitment conversations. To be successful at this conversation, you must achieve three objectives: 1) a welcoming first impression (use your Social Excellence training), 2) exchanging names and contact information, and 3) identifying a reason to meet up again soon.
2. The Invite: {RING RING} “Carlos! This is Matt. We met yesterday at the hot dog stand. Hey I have a quick question for you, do you have 2 minutes right now? Cool. Me and some guys play pick-up football on the IM fields every Tuesday and Thursday, and we’re trying to get a big game together this week. We play around 4 p.m. Which of those days might work best for you? Awesome! We’d love to have you out on Thursday then. I’ll text you to remind you, but we’ll be planning on you playing. See you then.”
3. The Friending: This conversation happens in myriad places and multiple times. It happens at small activities, events, over coffee or lunch, at parties, in hallways and on sidewalks, at one-on-one meetings, etc. There are three phases.
Phase 1) Getting to know each other — this is the phase where we’re just talking about regular stuff. Learning about one another. Being curious, generous, authentic, and vulnerable. Connecting. Caring.
Phase 2) You ask, “So, what do you know about Alpha Beta Gamma?” Listen closely. Affirm his perspective.
Phase 3) Only engage in phase 3 when he’s asked about the fraternity… “Thanks for asking. Our fraternity is something I’m really proud to be a part of. Can I tell you a story?” Complete phase three with a personal story that illustrates the benefits of membership (see here for more info). Another approach to Phase 3 is called, “Inception” (here’s a secret video to help you out).
Repeat “The Friending” conversation until you know enough about him to determine his qualification for membership (this might require a formal interview), and until he knows enough about the fraternity that he’s showing genuine interest in joining.
4. The Pre-Close: We’ve written and taught about this conversation extensively. Here’s the related Free Resource for fraternities. This conversation happens AFTER the chapter has determined the candidate’s qualifications for membership using a Values-Based Selection Criteria. The key question is, “If we were to ask you to join, what would you say?” Validate any concerns that arise. Isolate each concern to deal with independently. Then address all concerns with “Quality Responses” in a time frame that you’ve agreed upon.
5. The Close: This is the final recruitment conversation. A strong close most importantly requires a clear ask. “Will you join us?” Most of the best chapters close the deal with a formal “bid card” that must be signed to demonstrate commitment. Some go so far as to make a bold presentation (see “The Two Handshakes“). This conversation should be serious, uplifting, and representative of what it is — a life changing moment for the prospect and the chapter.
These are the five conversations that every great recruiter has practiced, prepared for, and mastered. This is what recruitment looks like. 100% of recruitment happens during these conversations.