Recruiting Strategy

Perhaps the most fun part and the reason many become sports agents is the recruiting process. When the college football season roles around each year, agents swarm campuses to seal the deal on potential draft picks. This can be both a very expensive and very rewarding undertaking. Some agents use the spray-and-pray method where they reach out to as many potential draftees as possible and hope to sign them based on their reputations, promises, and sometimes-unscrupulous behavior. Others fine tune their recruiting lists and zero in on their most desirable recruits. They only approach a limited number of clients and have substantial face-to-face communications with these players. These agents also rely on their reputations but expect considerations will be based on their close interactions with the recruits.

My approach in recruiting will be very focused and very direct. I will likely select only five or six guys to recruit in hopes of landing two or three. This approach can be very risky if I don’t pursue players who are likely to sign with me. Selecting guys I think I might “click” with will prove successful. Many players choose to sign with agents they just have a gut feeling about.  This has become evident in MLB Trade Rumor’s series on “Why I Chose My Agency”. This is further evident in the interview with St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Adam Wainwright in which he states, "I just got a great feeling about him.”

Having a limited number of clients (and a short recruiting list) will let me better serve my them since I will not be negotiating contracts for players at the same position, on the same team, or even worse, both. This conflict of interest may deter some players from signing with larger agencies or agents with a long list of clients.

Since I have my recruiting strategy together, the selection of which clients to recruit is my only dilemma. My ideal client will have an outstanding reputation both on and off the field. Having great character is important for nearly all companies wishing to work with professional athletes. Having great clients will allow me to turn a profit despite having a short client list. With plans of beginning recruiting this upcoming football season, my list of potential recruits is beginning to take shape and the most exciting part of being an agent can begin.

NFLPA Agent Certification Process

With my current education coming to an end, my next focus will be on the NFL agent certification process. The process begins by applicants sending a lengthy application to the NFL Players’ Association in January to become a Contract Advisor in the NFL. An application fee of $2,500 must also accompany this application. After the application and fee have been received by the NFLPA, a background check is performed to verify the information on the application as well as determine if any applicants have criminal records or are in financial distress. Since agents represent clients with significant incomes and often offer financial consulting to their clients, having criminal records and financial troubles are important for the NFLPA to consider when allowing agents to represent its players.

Once the NFLPA determines an applicant may become an agent, it distributes exam materials to the applicants to sit for a mandatory certification exam at the annual New Agent Seminar held in Washington D.C. in July. If an applicant fails, they must wait an entire year to sit for the exam again causing them to miss an entire recruiting season. For agents who pass the exam, they must wait for notification from the NFLPA before recruiting players and obtain professional liability insurance from an approved carrier.

Once certified, all agents must register as an athlete agent in any state they wish to recruit players. This can become a tedious and expensive process as many states have differing applications and mandatory fees. However, states have progressively been making this process easier and cheaper for those who are already registered in other states. Finally, agents must (or at least should) reach out to each individual school’s athletic department they wish to recruit at. This process is much more manageable than registering in each state. Athletic departments often facilitate initial contact between agents and recruits. This phase of the process is ideal but many unscrupulous agents try to forgo this process and deal directly with the recruits and their parents. Once the certification process is complete, a new agent will join the 800 other certified agents and the fun can begin!

Expert Views: Influence on Business Plan

After researching how investors look at start-up businesses, I have decided to make numerous changes to my business plan. As I mentioned in my last post, investors Mark Cuban and Daymond John have similar views on what is important when it comes to deciding which business plans to invest in. Cuban believes a unique product, a motivated and educated team, knowledge of the market, and a demonstration that the big dream can work in practice are all necessary when presenting a plan to potential investors. John requires a road map for the business, which includes all of Cuban’s views.

After considering Cuban and John’s expert opinions, I have further developed my business plan to exemplify an even more unique product. With the major problem of current and former NFL players declaring bankruptcy, providing a product that helps prevent this can become a major competitive advantage when it comes to recruiting clients. Adding experienced and highly educated financial professionals to the consulting group and advisory board will help investors get a better sense of the quality of the agency’s overall services. By providing their names and a short list of credentials, the investors will be able to visualize the recruiting advantage as well as how the business will be run.

I have also realized the importance of providing a detailed business plan that includes a road map to success. This is very important to both potential investors and the managers of the agency. This road map will not only help them visualize where the company is headed, it also shows what the company will need to get there. A tangible road map will transition an idea from a dream into a detailed pathway to success.

The most important aspect of this plan in regards to investors is the management section. This section will demonstrate the agency’s experience and knowledge of the market despite the start-up nature of the agency. It will also demonstrate the agency’s uniqueness and its focus on the long-term financial health and post-career management aspect of the agency’s clients. By researching investors’ business plan requirements, I was able to further refine my own business plan and turn my dream into a pathway to success.

Business Plans: A Road to Success

As a sports agent leaning towards starting up my own agency, finding funds to do so is at the top of my list. There are numerous ways to do this but it is important to look at how many successful investors look at startup businesses to help lay out a business plan that will attract investors. Mark Cuban and Daymond John are two successful investors that are worth looking at. Although they are likely not going to invest in a sports agency, their insight into business plans will prove helpful.

Both Cuban and John are investors on ABC’s Shark Tank. Cuban is the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Landmark Theatres and chairman of AXS TV. He is heavily invested and knowledgeable on Internet related companies. John, on the other hand, is a fashion icon that is best known for the urban clothing brand FUBU.

Cuban says he has four criteria he looks at when deciding to invest in a startup company: a unique product, a motivated and educated team, knowledge of the market, and a demonstration that the big dream can work in practice. A unique product is considered key to help give a company a unique advantage over its competitors. A motivated and educated team will help raise awareness of a product and ensure that the company will be run in an efficient and effective manner. Knowledge of a market will help a company market its product to consumers in the correct markets and compete with competitors. Finally, demonstrating the big dream can work in practice will help investors put a reasonable dollar return on their investment which is what they are most concerned with.

John believes that a well-created business plan is the key to a successful business. He believes a key component to a plan that investors are looking for is a road map for the business. As an investor, he wants to be able to visualize where the business is going and how it will get there. A road map will show a firm visualization of where the company is going and what will be needed to get there. It will also show investors that a business is going to be successful and profitable. He mentions that an idea is only a dream until it is in writing with a detailed plan on a pathway to success.

After watching Shark Tank a few times on ABC, it's clear that both of these men demand these components of a business plan and will be unwilling to invest in a company until all of these are demonstrated. While their confidence levels in companies they invest in are important, a business’s written plan is ultimately the key to its success.

Digital Marketing Management for Athletes

Although digital marketing has been around for some time now, many athletes and their agents have failed to utilize all the available digital marketing tools. The numerous digital marketing tools that are available allow athletes and their agents to engage fans, decrease popularity of negative stories on search engines, create and grow a brand and reach out to potential sponsors. While many athletes use social media to engage fans, very few are using digital marketing’s many tools to do things such as decrease the digital footprint of negative stories.

While it’s hard for superstar athletes to hide from the media, they can still help control the damage in the long run from some scandals. Athletes like Tiger Woods may not be able to eliminate his scandalous affairs from the Internet but he can at least eliminate those stories from the first several results pages of a Google search. Athletes like John Terry will be able to accomplish something similar of his affair with a teammate’s girlfriend or stories of his racial comments towards a fellow player.

Image by James Perrin via Koozai

During a Google search of John Terry, many negative stories appear on the first page of results about him making potential racist comments. However, on the bottom of the page, an article clearing Terry of racism can be viewed. While this article’s placement on the first page is ideal, being at the bottom of a page with five articles insinuating that he is racist is not ideal. A better digital marketing strategy would likely help the desired articles to be featured on the front page while the less desirable articles are relegated to later pages.

Obviously, the best way to avoid bad press is to avoid scandals entirely but agents have no control over their clients or the media. However, once the damage is done, athletes and their agents now have the ability to lessen the negative affects of a scandal or bad press. A digital marketing strategy can also have the opposite effect by making positive stories more likely to appear on the first page of a Google search such as a player’s outstanding off-the-field undertakings. While most agents focus their time on negotiating contracts and seeking endorsement deals, it is becoming more and more advantageous for agents to manage athletes’ digital marketing. Digital marketing management is likely to become a key role of a sports agent in this continually growing digital age.