By: Expansion Coordinator Alex Koehler, Mount Union ’07
The other day, I watched a short interview with KIND Healthy Snacks CEO Daniel Lubetzky. Throughout the video, I kept thinking that he wasn’t only talking about business. His thoughts are also a way for us to re-frame our mindset of fraternity recruitment.
I especially like the line “…it was just about pouring our resources into letting people try our product, and that was the moment that things just took off.”
Earlier in the video he says that initially people looked at the product and said “Oh, that’s weird…” but after they try it, nine out of 10 buyers return.
Looking at our expansion team’s results over the past three years, depending on what type of campus we are on, between one out of every three to one out of every five people we meet buy “our product.” Often these are people who would have initially looked at fraternity and said “Oh, that’s weird…” This is often true for chapter recruitment as well.
Recruitment is about letting people sample “our product.”
It is why you should host interest meetings with potential members to talk about the big picture of what fraternity can be.
It is why we should play pick-up sports with potential members just to have fun.
It is why we should host some sort of fun, safe mixer with another organization.
It is why we should ALWAYS invite potential members to community service and philanthropy events.
It is why we should ALWAYS invite potential members to Association Ceremonies, and other public rituals.
It is why we should stop spending as much money on recruitment events and start spending more on getting potential members to come to what makes us great.
It is why we should eat lunch with a potential member, instead of eating alone or worse, letting them eat alone.
Most of all, this is why it is ESSENTIAL to recruit outside of formal recruitment and/or rush (within the rules on your campus). There are at least dozens, likely hundreds, and maybe thousands, of men who would buy our product if they had a better sample.
Later in the video Lubetzky sums up recruitment pretty well.
“A lot of it is luck, a lot of it is team power, a lot of it is trying to learn from your mistakes and getting it right the next time. Once you’re certain that you’re on the right path and you’ve done that research you need to flip that switch and say ‘no one is going to stop me’. I’m just going to go for it and no doubter is going to make me stop until I get there.”
Tweetable Moment:
Recruitment is about letting people sample “our product.”
