5 Keys to Successfully Managing a Young Professional Athlete’s Career
Managing professional athletes successfully requires a bit of science and a bit of art. The stars of today’s sport world are highly visible characters, some of whom rise to “brand” status, some of whom toil in virtual anonymity game after game, known only to the most avid fan. As manager, the advice we give early in our clients’ careers can have an immense impact on the rest of the athlete’s life. To set a strong foundation, I adhere to the following five keys:
- Know the Athlete as a Person. This sounds obvious, but many managers take on athletes who look like a good payday. Period. This is short sighted and hurts you and the athlete. Unfortunately, athletes aren’t like other products or business assets. They are human beings, with all the unpredictability that comes with being human. Athletes who are beginning their professional careers are usually in their early 20s, and many of them are just experiencing financial success and notoriety for the first time. The one’s who are not well-grounded will find this an unsettling time, and a potentially dangerous transition period where bad habits can emerge. Or it can be a great time to lock in great habits that will serve as the basis for a lifetime of success and fulfillment in and out of the sports arena. Before signing on to manage an athlete, I recommend spending some quality time to assess WHO you will actually be managing. Try to find out what makes them tick, why they play their sport, what short and long term goals they have in their sport after they’re done competing, what other interests they have beyond their sport, what other talents they have aside from their sport, what they would do if they didn’t play their sport, and what they want to do with their notoriety to give back to a world about to give them a big payday. Also, spend time with their family and friends to find out how they were raised and what other influences might come into play throughout their careers. The more you know before starting the job, the more effective you will be (and you might decide to walk away to avoid a waste of your time and giant headache).
- Think Long Term, Then Think Short Term. I think a twenty year planning horizon is not too long. Consider this. Most young athletes will have 3-10 years of productive playing time, depending on their sport and injuries. A rare few, and mostly the superstars, will last as long as 15-18 years. As a manager, you need to help your client maximize their relatively short career cycle, while advising them on how to best transition to a non-playing career at retirement. Start with the long view. Ask them what they want their life to be like in 20 years. Family, kids, houses, day-to-day schedule. Try to get them to create a detailed picture of their future when their playing days are over. Once they have imagined their life in 20 years, let them know what resources they will need to have that life and begin to work backwards to today, planning the activities that will be necessary to make their vision a reality. 20 years seems long, but it goes by fast. Suppose your client plays a sport with a 5-year average playing life. Only 5 years of their 20-year vision will be spent on the field creating maximum income and celebrity status. What they do during those 5 years is critical to determining the opportunities that will open up to them for the future, but its only 25% of the 20-year period. You need to help them plan for the variety of best-case, worse-case scenarios that may play out during the course of their lifetime.
- Never Sacrifice Sport Performance for a Non-Sport Commitment. This can be a tough one for managers and athletes who are constantly being barraged with offers to promote a product or make an appearance for a quick fee, especially knowing the finite earning time period of the athlete. This is why long-term planning is an important first step when beginning a management relationship with an athlete. It will help reduce the temptation you both might have to accept what looks like easy money, when the deal might actually compromise the performance of the athlete. And performance is what unlocks the door to all the spoils of an athlete’s career. Losers don’t usually end up on the Wheaties box. Winners do. So my rule is to advise clients to make the training schedule for optimal performance (i.e. winning) first (practice, workouts, recovery, sleep, diet, film, etc) the priority. Then see what windows of time are left for sponsor activities, appearances, charity work and other non-sport related activities, and then maximize those open time windows with activities that support the long-term career plan. As the manager, you need to stay disciplined and help keep your client on track toward a successful present and future.
- Foster Relationships to Help Clients Achieve Long Term Goals. If your client has a goal to own a restaurant chain after they retire, chances are they will not have the expertise to manage that kind of business immediately upon retirement (and maybe never). They will need help. They will need partners. When an athlete is in the prime of their career, access to people is easy. The time to meet people who can help after retirement is during the playing career. If you wait, it can be too late. So, as a manger, one of the most important jobs is to make sure your client meets all the people he or she will need to know when they start winding down their playing career and start looking toward the next phase of their life. If you have taken the time to understand their personality and goals, it should be very easy to identify who the best people are to meet in any field of endeavor, and call them up to say, “my client (star athlete) would like to meet you.” If you are managing an athlete who is well known and has a good reputation, almost everyone will take the meeting. If you do this throughout your client’s playing career, they will have hundreds of contacts that can help them transition to whatever post-playing career they may be interested in pursuing.
- Use Short-Term Deals to Get Long-Term Deals. Earnings from sponsorships are a critical part of many professional athlete’s income, especially individual sport athletes. Yet, unless you are managing a superstar, sponsorship deals can be difficult to secure, and securing the right kinds of deals can be even trickier. What do I mean? Brands sponsor athletes based on several factors: visibility, likability, reputation, fan base size, media exposure, personality fit and the ability to utilize the athlete in a variety of ways to drive brand exposure and incremental sales. Sponsors have many options of athletes to choose from (along with sponsoring teams and events), so getting your client the right deals takes some planning. Start by listing the appropriate categories and brands that fit your client’s brand persona (every athlete is different has a unique “Brand Essence”). For example, is your client a better fit for coffee or soft drinks? Nespresso or Sprite? You should have a sponsorship wish list of about 10 product categories and 3-5 brands per category. Then you need to determine why your client could be valuable to each brand (what does your athlete offer from the list above?). Chances are, unless you are managing the next Michael Jordan or Roger Federer, you will have to build toward the ultimate deals you want. For example, in what I call Phase 1, you may have to make smaller, short-term deals with a second or third choice company in a particular category to put your client “in play” in the category. Once competing brands in that category see your client, and the benefits created by the sponsorship, then you will have a better chance of making a bigger deal with the brand you really want in Phase 2. Phase 2 is characterized by a solid multi-year sponsorship deal with the brand of choice in a category. Finally, if all goes well in Phases 1 and 2, and your client keeps performing and winning, Phase 3 is the holy grail – brands bidding to sponsor your client. Not all athletes will get here, but if you get them into the sponsorship arena early and sensibly, create visibility and exposure that can be combined with successful results in their sport (and all the exposure that the success will bring), than Phase 3 becomes a possibility. You and your client should make Phase 3 the goal!
Make these 5 keys part of your management process and enjoy a long, successful relationship with your young athletes, and you will feel rewarded by knowing you have helped them focus on their important Job #1 – being the best that they can be at their sport!
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