This post was written by Dan Tudor. He is the founder of Selling for Coaches, a training program that teaches advanced recruiting and communication skills to college coaches and athletic departments around the country. He will be blogging about recruiting training for Double-A Zone. Click here for more information about the company.

Replay after replay, the outcome was the same: Pittsburgh Steelers' wide receiver Santonio Holmes caught the game-winning touchdown, and got both feet down in the end zone.

It sure was a close play.

The officials reviewed it and we all watched the replay over and over again. Was the right foot down or was it an inch away from touching the turf?

That one inch was the difference between a catch or an incomplete pass.

Winning or losing the game.

I often tell college coaches, recruiting is a game of inches. It doesn't matter the sport or Division. An inch can be the difference between signing a prospect or losing them to another school.

What recruiting "inches" can make or break a program's recruiting efforts?

1. The prospect's parents. How successfully a college coach connects with the parents is one of those "inches" that can make or break a recruit's final decision. Study after study we have conducted shows the same thing: Parents of a prospect have a big impact on the final decision, even if the parents insist the prospect make up their own mind.

I often ask coaches a very simple question: What are you doing to specifically recruit the parents of your prospect? If coaches don't have a good answer to that question, it shouldn't come as a surprise when the prospect chooses another school.

2. Current student-athletes. Specifically, how do they treat prospects during official campus visits. National Signing Day is just around the corner for college football prospects. Coaches should keep track of how many prospects mention "feeling comfortable" with their future teammates when announcing their decision. Often, a prospect will trust their feelings more than they trust a coach's sales pitch.

Coaches need to ask themselves: What are we doing to make sure that our team knows how to relate to a prospect who visits campus? Coaches who fail to recognize that part of the recruiting process risk not getting that other foot down in the end zone for the big catch.

3. The campus visit. I've already talked about the important role current student-athletes play during campus visits. There are also other little things that happen during a campus visit that can make a big impact in the mind of a prospect.

4. The one thing I tell coaches around the country is a prospect is visiting your campus to figure out what's wrong with your program or college. They are looking for the little things - the "inches" - that will help them make a decision. Was the visit too hurried? Did the head coach pay enough attention to me? These questions are all real reasons prospects cross schools off their lists.

These suggestions might seem like small things, but they can be the difference makers in the recruiting process.

The lesson for coaches is to always sweat the small stuff. There's no doubt Pittsburgh's Holmes practiced making that sideline catch over and over again.

It's those "inches" that will make you or break you when the pressure is on in the big game of college recruiting.