Greetings!
“To be a success in the world of sales, a person must be
knowledgeable about their product, their industry, their competition and their
marketplace. To make the sale, you have to first build an emotional connection
and trust with the customer. You must be prepared. Be genuine because
likeability matters. Put your best foot forward. You never get a second
chance to make a good first impression” – Jim Loria
This is all so true whether this speaks of my own daily
job, whether a professional scout or college recruiter is sizing you up and or
you are in negotiations with a Big League sports organization trying to
capitalize on your recent accomplishments on the field. In this day and age,
talent is necessary but if a club is going to walk up the aisle with you and
put a ring on your finger for the next 3-5-7 years, they are now seeking more
reasons to sign off on you as an investment.
For the last month, I was following very closely the Zack
Greinke free agent negotiations. Back on Dec. 11th,
he signed the richest contract in MLB history for a pitcher that can
throw a baseball from the right hand side (6 years, $147-million). The
organization that made this enormous investment: the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Why? That is the purpose of this week’s story. It all
started with what was expected to be a casual meeting between the player, his
representatives and the club’s management & baseball operations team. A
typical feel out meeting and to exchange pleasantries was what the Dodgers
figured. So much so that the club actually scheduled this gathering for just an
hour.
So in comes Zack Greinke, who at age 29, is still
in the prime of his athletic career. He arrived at Dodgers Stadium with his
wife, Emily, but did not bring her into the meeting. He also did
not bring anyone else for that matter…. Not a friend. No agent. No entourage.
No lawyer. Just himself. He sat across from the Dodgers’ general manager Ned
Colletti, their team president Stan Kasten and field manager Don
Mattingly. This maneuver by Greinke STUNNED the Dodgers’ brass!
"We've all been doing this for a long, long
time," Colletti said. "I don't know how many free agents I've talked
to that have come to visit or we went to visit. I can't remember one that
didn't bring an agent with them, or friends and a representative with them, so
if the questioning got a little tough they'd have a fallback for him.
"To have the candor like Zack did and to have
somebody who had enough confidence in himself to stand on his own - it was
impressive,” continued Colletti. “There's so much more than pitching this kid
is about and he was able to express it and express it without a filter or a
crutch to hold him up.”
What also blew the Dodgers away from this first meeting
with Greinke – which eventually lasted three hours – was
that they found Greinke to be so highly analytical and completely refreshing.
He described in detail how he would approach their hitters. He discussed the players in their farm system and compared their
strengths. He even talked about basketball and the
Orlando Magic (his favorite team) – which impressed Kasten, a former long-time
NBA executive with the Atlanta Hawks.
After this lengthy first meeting came to an end, Colletti
recalls: "When Zack left that day, we all said: 'We've got to figure out a
way to get this kid here.' Because he's sharp, because he's about so much more
than just the pitching. It was just pure." Added Kasten: "From my notes, I
wrote back a memo to Dodgers’ chairman Mark Walter after the meeting
with my two-word conclusion: `Beyond Impressive.'"
Fellas,
as we’ve stated many times in previous stories, it is your “humanizing skills”
that are going to separate you from the pack when it comes to contract
negotiations, being drafted or recruited. Learn how to speak professionally,
smile, properly sit (in an office meeting or at dinner), dress (wearing clothes
that are crispy and wrinkle free), handshake (firmly and like you are in
control of the meeting at hand) and maintain a Big League image of You on your
social networking sites. Combine those elements with an ability to show off
your “boyhood enthusiasm for the game” and there’s no doubt that any
organization will want to INVEST in YOU and do so significantly!
All the best & Happy Holidays next week! Enjoy this
special time of year with your family and THANK YOU for allowing me into your
everyday world!
Jim Loria
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“The
secret to changing your life is in your intentions. Wishing, hoping and goal
setting cannot accomplish change without intention. What is needed is a shift
from the inert energy of wanting to the active energy of doing and intention” –
stated by Wayne Dyer,
Self Help Author and Motivational Speaker
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Every day when Houston Texans all-everything defensive lineman J.J. Watt would walk out his front door at home to go to elementary school, his father John Watt would always say: “Act like Somebody today!” Said J.J.: “As I got older I knew what my Dad meant - he didn’t want us to float through life. He wanted us to make a difference and have an impact. To be like no one else.”
When he left home to
play college football, Watt’s parents used to always remind him of the
importance of first impressions: “Every
day up there, every practice, every workout has to be your Super Bowl,” they
would say.
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“Some opportunities only come once. Seize them. Go out and
start creating. Live your Dream and Wear your Passion” – stated by an Unknown
Author
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“I never wanted to be one of those people, who looks back and
says, ‘I wonder if?’ If I have a goal, I’ll go out and set forth to
achieve it. When something is your passion, it becomes everything. You put
everything into it without hesitation. No questions. No doubts. Nothing to stop
you” – stated by Kim Fitchen, Cross Country Runner and member of three
U.S. World Cup Relay Teams
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Houston
Texans’ Rookie DE Whitney Mercilus speaking
on his experience preparing for the NFL Combine last year when he was playing
with the U/Illinois: “I spent a lot of time working on my interview skills with the
help of my agent. I learned how to communicate effectively with coaches during
the combine. They had me in media training so I could learn to create a brand
and sell myself as a football player.”
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E-Mail: loria@sfstampede.com
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