For me, contract negotiations are the most exciting part of being
an agent. Agents often have to sit down with the same 30 or so general managers
so it is important to maintain relationships while also representing their
clients better than other agents. This seems like an uphill battle but three
agents (Leigh Steinberg, Scott Boras, Ron Shapiro) have really stood out to me
for both their performance and reputations. I managed to find videos of all
three talking about negotiations.
In the Steinberg video, Leigh stressed the first step before going
into a negotiation is to take an internal inventory and make sure your goals
are clear. By having a hierarchy of values to fall back on during a negotiation,
he is able to quickly make sensible decisions. One of his most interesting
points was to leave your ego at the door. He goes on to tell a story about NFL quarterbacks
Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers. He admitted that because he was able to
leave his ego at the door, he was able to accept a less desirable deal for
Roethlisberger, which eventually turned out well. On the other hand, River’s
ego wouldn’t allow him to take a less than desirable deal. During this time,
the situation became even less desirable and the ensuing deal was far less
lucrative.
In the Boras video, Scott talks about how a negotiation is not
about a search for an amount but a search about a truth. He talks about using
analytics as objective criteria so both sides can determine a sensible amount
to pay an athlete. His focus in a negotiation is using substance over opinions.
He also talks about how he restrains from using league standards during
negotiations because his clients are typically not needed by most of the
league. His clients are typically only needed by a handful of teams so they
should be evaluated on more individualistic values.
In the Shapiro video, Ron began by playing the “ten dollar bills”
game between two people who had to negotiate how to split ten one-dollar bills.
This game was to demonstrate how a win-lose situation could immediately turn in
to a lose-lose situation. His point was that both parties needed to have an
alternative plan to avoid both parties losing in a negotiation. The most
interesting point he made was that this process was called “negotiation” not
“EGOtiation”. He stressed taking the egos out of the process so it is no longer
a win-lose situation but a win-win outcome. This often times results in the
desired mutually beneficial outcome.
All of these agents had similar advice such as leaving your ego at
the door, seeking objective criteria over opinions and having some sort of goal
or alternative in mind before entering in a negotiation. While I have always
looked at agents having huge egos, it seems like the best agents choose to not
bring them into a negotiation. This is probably the biggest reason for their
successes relative to others in the sports industry.
Steinberg
Boras
Shapiro
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