The Intricacies of Signing a New Client

Good morning everyone,

I hope you’ve all had a great week, and to our American readers we hope you enjoyed the 4th of July holiday!

Last week I gave a quick update on what has been going on at AceBoy Sports Group, what we’ve got planned, and anything that might be coming up. I mentioned that we were working on onboarding a couple new athletes, and I’m very happy to announce that we have now signed one of those two targets, with another coming shortly.

Given that this signing (and the other one) has been in the works for some time now, I think this would be a good opportunity to take you behind the scenes and give some insight into what goes on within these conversations. I’ll do a deep dive into our newest additions next week once the second signing is confirmed, so make sure you’ve subscribed so you don’t miss out!

I’ve broken down the onboarding process into three distinct steps which I think are crucial to the way we approach and then sign players. I like to think this method has been perfected over the years with the athletes with worked with in the past, and is by no means a perfect solution. Every agent is going to have their own way of doing things and it is important to come up with your own methods that not only make sense, but make you feel comfortable enough to carry out your strategy/plan.

Now, let’s get stuck in!

Initial Approach

This one might seem fairly obvious since every agent needs to approach the player, but I think it is about how you do it that could potentially make or break your inevitable pitch. As an agent, you need to be careful when approaching players as there are rules and regulations in place that need you need to abide by. For example, any player under an exclusive representation agreement cannot enter into another representation agreement with an agent, as this goes against the rules and regulations set out by FIFA and member associations. Therefore, I always like to approach players with some form of hesitancy and simply ask if they already have representation. There are plenty of agents out there who simply don’t care and will approach players who have already told them they have an agent (I know from experience).

During this approach, I also think it is crucial to be completely open and honest with the athlete on just how experienced you actually are. The sports industry is incredibly small, particularly the talent representation sector, so starting the relationship like this sets a good precedent and could help your name and reputation in the long run, even if you were not to sign the athlete. More importantly, opening up to the athlete in this way leads into a much easier and smoother transition to your pitch…