The recruiting service sales call is designed to end with your signature. The representative builds rapport, validates your athlete's potential, introduces urgency about the recruiting timeline, and presents the service as the solution — all in under an hour. By the time the price appears, saying no feels like giving up on your kid.
The best defense isn't skepticism. It's preparation. Walking into any recruiting service conversation — whether it's NCSA, an independent consultant, or a platform you've never heard of — with specific questions changes the dynamic. Instead of evaluating the sales pitch, you're evaluating the service. These are the questions that surface the information the pitch is designed to obscure.
Questions about pricing and contracts
The financial structure of a recruiting service contract is where most families get surprised. The questions below will surface the terms that matter before you sign.
"What is the total contract value — not the monthly payment, the full amount I'm committing to?"
Many services present pricing as a monthly figure that sounds manageable — $150/month, $275/month. What they don't always emphasize is that you're committing to the full term. A $275/month plan over 18 months is a $4,950 obligation, not a month-to-month subscription. Ask for the total number, in writing, before the call ends.
"Is this a subscription I can cancel anytime, or a fixed-term contract?"
This is the single most important financial question. Some services — including the largest in the industry — structure their pricing as retail installment contracts. You owe the total contract value regardless of whether you continue using the service. If you stop paying, the remaining balance doesn't disappear — it gets sent to collections. A legitimate service will clearly explain whether you're entering a cancellable subscription or a binding financial commitment.
"What is the cancellation window, and what happens after it closes?"
Cancellation windows can be as short as three business days. After that window, you owe the full balance. Parents on the BBB and Trustpilot consistently report being told during the sales call that they could cancel anytime — only to discover the contract says otherwise. Get the cancellation terms in writing. If the representative gives you a verbal assurance that contradicts the contract language, the contract wins.
"Are there any early termination fees or buy-out costs?"
If you want to leave after the cancellation window, some services offer a buy-out — typically 50% of the remaining balance. That means canceling a $4,000 contract halfway through could cost you $1,000 just to walk away. Others offer no exit at all outside of career-ending injury. Know the exit terms before you enter.
Questions about what you'll actually receive
The gap between what's promised on the sales call and what's delivered after signing is the most common source of family frustration. These questions close that gap before you pay.
"What specific deliverables are included — can you list them in writing?"
Get a concrete list: how many highlight videos, how many coaching sessions, what tools you'll have access to, what educational content is included. Vague promises like "personalized guidance" or "direct coach access" need to be translated into specific, countable deliverables. If the representative can't list exactly what you're buying, you're not buying anything defined.
"How is 'personalized coaching' delivered — one-on-one calls, group webinars, or email?"
At many services, the lower premium tiers deliver "coaching" through group webinars and self-service content — not individual sessions. One-on-one coaching is typically reserved for the highest-priced tiers. Parents across Trustpilot and sport-specific forums describe paying for personalized service and receiving occasional calls and workshops they could find for free on YouTube. Ask exactly what format the coaching takes at your specific tier.
"How often will I hear from my assigned coach or advisor?"
The sales call creates an impression of an attentive, dedicated coach. The reality at large services is that individual coaches manage enormous caseloads — sometimes hundreds of families simultaneously. That volume makes weekly check-ins structurally impossible. Ask for a specific commitment: how many calls per month, how quickly they respond to questions, and what happens if you go weeks without hearing from anyone.
"What happens if my assigned coach leaves the company?"
Coach turnover is a documented problem at large recruiting services. Families report being assigned a coach who leaves within months, forcing them to restart the relationship with someone new — and losing whatever strategic context had been built. Ask whether the service guarantees continuity, what the transition process looks like, and how often coach reassignments happen.
Questions about the coaches and staff
The quality and capacity of the people working on your athlete's behalf determines whether the service adds value or just adds cost.
"How many athletes does my assigned recruiting coach work with?"
This is the question that reveals the most about the service's actual model. If the answer is 20 athletes, your coach has time for real strategy. If the answer is vague, deflected, or significantly higher, what you're getting is template-based guidance — the same advice every family receives, delivered on a rotating schedule. Employee reviews at major services describe caseloads that make individualized attention structurally impossible.
"Does my coach have experience in my athlete's specific sport?"
A general "recruiting coach" covering baseball, volleyball, and lacrosse doesn't understand the nuances of any one sport's recruiting ecosystem — which events coaches attend, which platforms they search, when the recruiting calendar peaks, what metrics they evaluate. Sport-specific knowledge is the difference between useful guidance and generic advice. Ask what sports the coach has direct experience with and whether they've worked in college athletics.
"Will my coach personally contact college coaches on my athlete's behalf?"
This is where the distinction between a platform and a service gets real. Most services send your athlete's profile to a database — they don't pick up the phone and call a college coach to advocate for your kid. If personal advocacy is what you're paying for, verify that it's actually what you'll receive. Ask for a specific example of how the coach has helped a previous athlete through direct outreach to a college program.
Questions about results and success metrics
Recruiting services market impressive numbers. The questions below test whether those numbers mean what you think they mean.
"How do you define a 'successful placement' in your statistics?"
Some services count every athlete who commits to a college program as a service-driven success — even if the family did the outreach themselves and the service contributed nothing beyond profile hosting. A service claiming thousands of annual commitments may be counting athletes who would have committed regardless. Ask whether their numbers include athletes on free profiles, athletes whose club coaches drove the process, or athletes who simply had an account on the platform.
"What percentage of paying clients at my athlete's sport and division level end up on a college roster?"
Aggregate success statistics obscure enormous variation by sport. A platform that works well for lacrosse (where coaches actively use it) may be irrelevant for swimming (where verified times drive recruiting) or football (where Hudl and showcase events dominate). Ask for sport-specific data, not cross-sport averages.
"Do your scholarship statistics include need-based or merit aid from D3 schools?"
Division III schools don't offer athletic scholarships — every dollar of financial aid at D3 is academic, merit, or need-based. Some services fold D3 financial aid into their scholarship totals, making their placement numbers look more impressive. If your athlete is targeting D3, scholarship claims are irrelevant — the question is whether the service helps your athlete find the right academic and athletic fit.
"Can you connect me with three families in my athlete's sport who used your service and committed in the last two years?"
Marketing testimonials are curated. Ask for families you can contact directly — ideally in your athlete's sport, at the division level you're targeting. If the service can't produce specific references, that tells you something about either their track record or their confidence in their results. And when you talk to those families, ask one question: would you have gotten the same outcome without the service?
The one question most families forget to ask
Every question above evaluates what the service provides. The question families most consistently wish they'd asked evaluates what the service doesn't provide — and it's the one that would have changed the most decisions.
"After I sign up, what will I still need to do myself?"
The answer, across virtually every recruiting service and platform, is: most of the work.
You'll still need to research schools and build a target list. You'll still need to write personalized emails to coaches — because platform-generated messages get filtered or ignored by many coaching staffs. You'll still need to attend showcases and camps where coaches evaluate athletes in person. You'll still need to follow up on interest, schedule visits, and manage conversations with multiple programs simultaneously. You'll still need to maintain your athlete's grades and register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.
The service provides tools — a profile, a database, maybe some video editing, maybe periodic check-in calls. The actual recruiting process — the emails, the relationships, the follow-through — remains with your family. Parents across every sport-specific forum describe the same realization: even after paying thousands, they did the outreach, the research, and the relationship-building themselves.
This isn't necessarily a reason to avoid paying for help. But it's the reason to understand what you're buying. If you're paying for organizational tools and process education, and you know that going in, the experience can be positive. If you're paying because you believe someone else will handle the recruiting process for you, you will be disappointed.
Ask the question before you sign. The answer will tell you whether you're buying a tool — or buying a promise the service can't keep.
The bottom line
A recruiting service sales call is optimized to close. These questions are optimized to evaluate. Asking them won't make you popular with the sales representative, but it will give you the information you need to make a decision you won't regret.
The best time to ask these questions is before the sales call — in writing, via email, before you've invested an hour of emotional energy in a conversation designed to end with your credit card number. If a service won't answer these questions in writing before the call, that's your answer.
For a detailed breakdown of what the largest service's sales call actually looks like, our guide to the NCSA sales call walks through the structure and pressure tactics. If you've already identified warning signs, our guide to recruiting service red flags covers the patterns that separate legitimate services from predatory ones. And for a full assessment of whether paying makes sense at all, our guide to whether recruiting services are worth it covers the honest calculation.