Fall Down Seven. Stand Up Eight.

by Matt Mattson

There’s an old saying that goes, “Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.”  We’ve all probably heard that, but when it comes to recruitment, that saying has two very important messages this time of year.

1. Feeling frustrated or disappointed because your recruitment results to this point have been lackluster?  I understand. Maybe you tried hard at the beginning of the semester, but everything has just sort of fizzled out since them.  You didn’t get the quantity of members you wanted/needed, so instead of working harder to drive more members into your group, you just go about the business of ignoring recruitment and working on the other organizational stuff.

So, you fell down.  Get up. 

There is still a great opportunity left this semester to get back on the recruitment horse.  My advice: simplify and go.

Take out all the planning, events, marketing, and hoopla.  Set all that aside.  Find 20-30 friends of the organization.  Work with those potential members for the next two weeks EVERY DAY to see what you might be able to accomplish.  Interview them, take them to coffee, tell them point blank that you’re trying to get a second wave of new members and they’ve made the short list.  Get up and make that push.  Find five other members in your chapter that share your desire for a higher quantity of higher quality members, and just get up, get out, and go.

It’s the perfect time to get your Second Wind.

I am working with two different chapters right now that are in this situation.  The beginning of the semester had some challenges, and while that hurt a little bit, both of these groups have a renewed commitment to pushing forward and making the rest of this semester the stuff of legends.

2. Did you try some of Phired Up’s Dynamic Recruitment techniques, and they didn’t quite work the first time?�
Remember, one of the lessons we teach at the beginning of our Dynamic Recruitment Workshops is… Our style of recruitment is probably different than what you’re used to.  You’ll probably “swing and miss” when you try this stuff the first time. You’re actually supposed to screw it up the first time around.  What matters is that you practice, try again, and watch yourself improve.  Watch your confidence level slowly rise and then soar.  Watch your results first trickle in, the explode.  Fall down seven, stand up eight.

Get up and go.