I'd offer several qualifications to the above statement:
Every recruiter knows he's working within a limited window of time and a limited number of young men with whom he can use that time to build a recruiting/coaching relationship. WHAT to target is about position needs, skillsets, and athletic ceiling.
But Skill #1 for being a good recruiter is the ability to quickly assess WHO to target, so that you don't waste precious time on great athletes who are very desirable but ultimately unobtainable (for any number of reasons). No matter how good a "salesman" you are, if a guy has his heart set on a pickup truck, you're not going to sell him a Lexus sedan--no matter how much "better" the Lexus may be in quality or status. You have no control over what the kid values, or imagines for his future.
Recruiting is not manipulating--not if you want to make a career of it. It's about building a trust relationship. Part of being in a trusting relationship is the freedom to say, "I like you, but I don't think your team/academic offerings/geographical location/etc. is the best fit for me"--and visa-versa: "I don't think you're exhibiting the kind of character, commitment, academic discipline, etc., that makes you the best fit for us."
We fans need to remind ourselves that we will never know from recruiters if or why a player ceased to be recruited. That betrayal of confidence would destroy the recruiter's reputation if he allowed it to be known that he discovered something (off the field) negative about the recruit that changed the estimation of his value to the program. And the same can be said if it's the family which becomes the reason for not pursuing a player. Everyone knows you have to recruit the entire family, and sometimes a key person in the family demands that you compromise your (or your program's) standards or character to recruit them, and you know that they would remain a source of poison in your program over the next 4-5 years.
For fans who have never recruited (for any capability--academic, artistic, or athletic) you can still appreciate the intangibles from your own life experiences. Romantically, why did you "fall in love" with certain people in your lifetime? You had certainly met better looking, smarter, funnier, warmer people, yet never developed the same feelings for them. No, something just "clicked" with that certain person, and even years later, it's hard to say why.
Same with friendships. Why did those special friends become so? Something just "clicked" between you two--likely beginning with a shared interest, value, communication style, or goal--and trust eventually developed as you continued to enjoy or value time spent with together.
Listen to how recruits talk. It's the same dynamic at work. A young, human brain is assimilating the widest variety of data, from multiple, competing sources simultaneously, while trying to reach the most important , appropriately self-interested decision of his lifetime. And after several suitors are objectively eliminated, somewhere in the process, with someone, something just clicks and the athlete just knows.
The best recruiters know themselves and quickly assess who they have the best chance of clicking with. If they think another coach on staff could click with this recruit, and it's a coach with whom he'd be relating at his expected playing position, the initial recruiter sees if he can coordinate that handoff. But all the recruiters are working with limited windows of time, which is why relationships are initiated at earlier and earlier ages--to maximize that time for building a trust relationship.
The ultimate goal is for when the newly admitted student-athlete arrives on campus, he feels like he's coming home instead of leaving home. That usually takes years.
The portal is now forcing recruiters to figure out how to recreate the same results in just a matter of weeks. It's also creating a new category of staying in touch recruiting relationships after the recruit has signed with someone else: "I hope you succeed there, but if it doesn't work out with ______... remember us."