by Matt Mattson

When you look around your campus, do you see success stories?  Or do you see the same-old, same-old Greek organizations doing what they’ve seemingly always done?  Look around closely at other organizations on your campus?  Are they inspiring?  Do they challenge your concept of excellence?  Or are they just fighting to survive?

When it comes to recruitment (among other things) it is easy to get caught in a rut.  You look around and you see that you’re just as good as or slightly better than other chapters on campus, and that seems pretty good… yet you vaguely FEEL the problems that come with mediocre recruitment (cashflow, behavior issues, lack of recognition on campus, apathy, etc.).  While you know you can and should do better, there isn’t a lot of external motivation to change your behavior.

You need a TURBO BOOST!  Here are 5 ideas to turbo boost your motivation to recruit differently (and better):

1. Read these success stories.  Seriously.  Read how these chapters and inter/national organizations have dramatically changed for the better because of a change in recruitment processes (from static to Dynamic).

2. Call your inter/national headquarters and ask them to tell you about the biggest and best chapters in the country. Better yet, take a road trip to the biggest chapter in your fraternity/sorority at another college or university.


3. Attend a national or regional fraternity/sorority event (or a bigger interfraternal event like AFLV/NBGLC, SEIFC, SEPC, NGLA, etc.)

4. Find a chapter’s composite picture that has at least 50% more members than your chapter has and post a copy of it in your house or meeting area.

5. Calculate what your chapter’s budget could be if it had three times the members it has today.  Calculate the service hours and philanthropic dollars that a chapter twice your current size could accumulate.

BONUS IDEA:  Imagine you aren’t a Greek organization.  Imagine you’re just a group of dozens (maybe even hundreds) of the best of the best students from your campus all working toward a powerful, clear, emotional goal (caring for local foster children, traveling to Haiti to aid in relief, funding the education of underpriveleged youth in a nearby city, networking with the top business and political leaders in the world, etc.)  The only thing that holds you together is a set of shared values that you all commit to living up to every day.  What could you accomplish? If that doesn’t motivate you to want to recruit more people to help you, then I don’t know what will.

Go get ‘em.

by Matt Mattson

I got an E-mail recently from a member of Delta Chi Fraternity’s expansion staff (professional fraternity recruiter).  There are two great lessons in his E-mail, so I’ll start this blog post by just sharing what he wrote.

From: Justin Sherman {Delta Chi HQ}
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 11:18 AM
To: Matt@PhiredUp.com
Subject: Greetings!

Matt,

Hope all is well with you! Just thought I’d share some information with you. Danny and I have been using your cold calling script on our current expansion. So far 100% of the men we have made contact with have set up a meeting with us. This has resulted in 30 meetings in two days. So if people need proof that the script works, here it is!

Thank you for the help at Florida State. It has made a tremendous difference at this expansion. My days are less stressful and far more productive.

Fraternally,

Justin Sherman

There are two excellent, practical, replicable recruitment lessons from that E-mail that stick out to me…

First of all, doing follow-up calls as Phired Up has taught them (here and here) can work incredibly well.  I’m not sure I’ve ever even gotten 100% success when using those scripts, so I’m thrilled that it worked so well for these guys.  The big lesson here is simple, call!  Phired Up teaches a series of lessons about how the best recruiters in the world behave, called Behaviors of the Best.  One of these behaviors is FOLLOW UP OR FAIL! 

Once you’ve met someone and gotten their contact information, within 24-72 hours they need a phone call.  Not a mass E-mail, not a Facebook poke, not a text message because you’re too chicken to call…  Call them!  In fact, now is a great time for you to call 5 people off of your chapter’s names list.  Now…

The other big lesson I take from this E-mail is the level of intensity a high performing recruiter should be at.  Thirty meetings in two days is what these 2 guys are doing. How many should your entire chapter (of 25, 50, 100 members?) be doing?  A lot more than 30. 

I talked with a chapter yesterday that said they were going to be satisfied with having 5 meetings with potential members next week.  5? 5?!  Chapters that want quantity to drive quality (if you want to be able to choose better members because you are choosing from among more potential members), chapters that are high performing recruiting chapters… these chapters understand that they should be meeting individually with 5-25 potential members a day at a minimum — especially during peak recruitment periods.  See this example.

This really speaks to recruitment intensity.  See this recent blog post for more on that, and see Phired Up’s new E-book on 365 Days of Dynamic Recruitment for Fraternities that was written by a college fraternity man for college fraternity men for even more.

Thanks to the staff at Delta Chi for letting us post this E-mail.

by Matt Mattson

Your level of recruitment intensity is the difference between an average chapter and a championship chapter.

Do you approach recruitment with the Eye of the Tiger?

There are chapters that are “survivors,” and there are chapters that are “champs.”  Which will you be?  Will you be the one who chooses a level of intensity, a level of work ethic, a level of effort that will get the results of a true champ, or will you settle for surviving?

A lot of chapters we work with a) understand the system that we teach, b) have talented members, and c) have a great organization to share with the world… but they lack one simple thing.  They lack the level of intense focus and effort it takes to be great. 

Here are three ways to bring The Eye of the Tiger to your chapter this Spring.

1. Secret Meetings:  Don’t ask for help with recruitment over E-mail, at your chapter meetings, or in passing.  Quietly whisper about a secret meeting at midnight tonight about something crazy you’re going to do.  At the meeting, in a hushed voice, inspire your members with an intense vision of revolution on campus.  Your chapter is going to flip everything on its head.  You’re going to shake up campus.  And you’re going to do it by finding the best people on campus to help you.  Everything changes tonight.  Play this song in the background.

2.   Make everything in recruitment a competition.

3.   Raise your membership selection standards to an absurd, crazy, elite level.  What if your chapter decided to only accept members with a 3.8 gpa or better?  What if you only gave an invitation of membership to students who were already President of another student organization on campus.  What if members had to have been in the top 5% of their graduating class in high school to even be considered?  What if members had to have 5 letters of recommendation from professors in order to get voted upon?  What if  members had to commit to $10,000 worth of philanthropic fundraising, and a month of international service in order to get a bid?  And what if you made all that information public, and shouted from the rooftops that you were committing to be an organization that changes the world?  That would be intense.

by Matt Mattson

There it is.  That’s my super double secret, world changing, record setting, mind blowing recruitment strategy for 2010.

Be Nice to People.  At least for a week.

Now, we think you should be nice to people all the time.  In fact, that’s a major part of being socially excellent.  But I wanted to write a practical blog with a specific recommendation that I think will drive dramatic recruitment results for your organization.  I wanted to provide a clear, actionable, cost-effective recruitment strategy for your organization to execute right now.  And that’s it.  Be Nice to People.  At least for a week.

In a few of our recent Dynamic Recruitment Workshops we’ve been teaching that “You have to give to get.”  That statement has a double meaning in our workshops, and one of those meanings is that if you want to gain access to new non-members of your organization, the best way to do it is to approach them with something of value to them.  So, in other words, instead of approaching non-members this semester with something of value to you (like “come to our recruitment event” - that’s something you would gain from), approach them with something of value to them (like “would you like a ride to the away basketball game this weekend, we’re putting together a carpool.”)

What if during your “recruitment week” this semester you kept it really simple.  No recruitment events.  No recruitment brochures.  No recruitment fliers or advertising.  You just found a way for your organization and its members to be nice to people each day of the week.  Here’s what it might look like (fraternity example).  I’M DEFINITELY GUESSING YOU CAN COME UP WITH BETTER IDEAS FOR YOUR CAMPUS… DO SO.

MONDAY:  The chapter takes the leaders of the top 10 organizations on campus out to lunch, asks them how your organization can support their efforts this semester (be authentic and willing to help).  During the conversation mention you’re trying to meet the best of the best on campus, and ask for their referrals.  Help them.  That afternoon and evening the chapter goes on a high-five campaign around campus… making as many people’s days as possible through the power of a high five.  Meet those people and talk to them. All day the chapter has been adding new names to the list and bringing their potential members with them.

TUESDAY:  The chapter is helping a campus service organization with their major project today.  Just to help and be nice.  If you happen to meet some people along the process, good for you (if you’re socially excellent, you’ll meet everyone).  That evening the chapter brings gifts to all the sorority houses, and invites them all to dinner at their place the next night.  The chapter invites everyone they see to join them at a local restaurant to watch the big game that night.  All day the chapter has been adding new names to the list and bringing their potential members with them.

WEDNESDAY:  Free hot cocoa day.  The chapter is standing out on the quad all day long (starting at 7 a.m.) handing out hot cocoa to people who pass by and meeting them.  Perhaps they also do the Greek Life Survey while they’re there.  That afternoon, a select group of members take small gifts to faculty and staff members that have helped them over the semester, just to say thanks.  At 4 p.m. the chapter starts up 5 spontaneous touch football games by going into the dorms/food courts and telling everyone that “in 10 minutes there is a massive football tournament happening in the quad, everybody change your shoes and get out there.” Wednesday evening the chapter is cooking dinner for sorority women.  While the ladies are there the guys ask for referrals.  All day the chapter has been adding new names to the list and bringing their potential members with them.

THURSDAY:  The chapter does a variation of the Free Compliments idea on the quad all day long.  Thursday’s campus newspaper runs a full page advertisement in which the fraternity recognizes, by name, the men on campus who have been referred to them over the course of the previous semester as being “the best examples of high performing gentlemen on campus.”  Just to be nice.  That evening the chapter is co-hosting (along with the residence life office, to help them fulfill their programming requirements) a communications professor who is teaching a fun, interactive seminar for freshmen guys to teach them how to improve their interpersonal communication skills and better communicate with potential love interests.  Or this. This is a free seminar and is NOT a rush event.  In fact, the fraternity’s letters aren’t anywhere on the promotional materials. This is just a cool program for freshmen. All day the chapter has been adding new names to the list and bringing their potential members with them.

FRIDAY:  The chapter spends the entire day with clipboards on campus getting people to sign up for free study tables before mid-term exams.  The study tables are free, held at co-sponsoring sorority houses, and there will be free coffee provided.  They are open to everyone.  They also hand out small sheets of paper that list the cool places to hang out this weekend to listen to local bands (especially “Friday Fun Bash”).  The chapter calls everyone on its list that afternoon to invite them to the big Pancake Breakfast planned for Sunday morning, which is raising money for charity.  That evening, the chapter goes to support a large non-alcoholic social being put on by the student government called, “Friday Fun Bash.”  They bring 25 additional people and free party hats for everyone (that they bought at the dollar store).  All day the chapter has been adding new names to the list and bringing their potential members with them.

SATURDAY:  Lunch interview day.  The chapter has been setting up 2-on-1 interviews all week that take place all day Saturday.  The entire chapter spends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in small 2-on-1 meetings with potential members… These meetings are meant to give the potential members an opportunity to interview the members about lifelong membership in the organization.  That evening is the big home basketball game starting at 7 p.m.  Starting at 5:30 p.m., the chapter goes to the dorms and hands out noisemakers and signs that were co-created by the athletics department to get more school spirit (they bring a ton of potential members with them).  The chapter leads a train of a thousand fans from the dorms over to the arena.  That night after the game, the chapter hosts a special invite-only cigar night at a secret location.

SUNDAY: Bid day.  The chapter wakes up early and co-hosts the Pancake Breakfast with the Office of Multicultural Affairs.  During the morning, a handful of members have, by 9 a.m., made a phone call to everyone who has shown interest in the fraternity this week to thank them.  The chapter spends the middle part of the day visiting sororities that gave them referrals, and thanking them (and inviting them to join them for dinner that evening with their new members).  Early afternoon, the chapter quietly offers bids to their chosen new members.  Later in the afternoon the chapter brothers pair up with new members and go around campus exemplifying their values and doing good deeds for strangers to set a positive example for their new members.  That evening the chapter serves as excellent hosts to the sorority women they’ve invited to dinner, and they make their new members feel like kings.

Repeat something similar next week.

Repeat the next week too.

As of right now (1/13/10, 1 p.m. EST) there are estimates of hundreds of thousands of people who have died due to an earthquake in Haiti.  People are in great need while many of us (fraternity/sorority members) sit in comfort.

There are about 750,000 collegiate fraternity and sorority members who have pledged to being active servants to others. There are millions of alumni.

What if 20% of the collegians texted “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10* to Red Cross relief efforts, or texted “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5* to Wyclef Jean’s foundation, Yele, which will support Haiti relief efforts as well?

$1,500,000 could be raised by collegiate Greeks today if only our “workhorses” responded.

It seems pretty easy.  In fact it took 10 seconds.

[We're already having people E-mail/message us to let us know they've organized Greeks around them to do this - send us your story Matt@PhiredUp.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ].

*charge will show up on your phone bill.

I know there are others out there inspired by the level of impact Greeks can have on our world.  Here are some examples.