Pitched Unfairly

A read-ahead for everyone at SMI

The future of our business is fewer clients.

Read it before Monday. There will be no slides at the meeting, only the decision.

Sent, not presented

SMI Internal Draft 1

The Things We Think and Do Not Say

The Future of Our Business

A mission statement

Jerry Maguire

Written overnight, Miami

a copy for every desk

If you read one paragraph

Read this one. We should take fewer clients.

A read-ahead puts the decision in its first paragraph. Find the line that matters.

To
Everyone at SMI
From
Jerry Maguire
Re
The future of our business
Asks
A decision from the partners by Friday

This one. It's the ask.

Where we are

We grew the client list and stopped returning the calls.

The list
Longer every season
The calls
Returned a little later every season
Last week
A hurt client's son told me exactly what he thought of me. He was right.

too many cards
to turn

What we believe

The job is people, and the money follows them.

  1. Fewer clients, known well, beat a long list known by name.

    We can only care for as many people as we can call back the same day.

  2. The whole job is personal relationships.

    My first mentor built a career on it. We built a machine instead.

  3. We tell clients the truth, including the parts that cost us.

    A hurt player hears it from his agent first, never from the papers.

Dicky Fox said it first

The proposal

Fewer clients, more attention, starting with my own list.

Three changesOwner

  1. 1 Each agent keeps a list small enough to call back in a day. Every agent, with the partners
  2. 2 Every call is returned the same day, by the agent, not an assistant. Everyone
  3. 3 Every client hears the hard news from us first: injuries, contracts, all of it. The client's own agent

Pilot: my list goes first

What it costs

Fewer clients means less money, and this memo says so.

Slide from today's list to the proposal and watch the trade.

WorksheetClients per agent

Commission
A lot less
Attention per client
Whenever they need us
Calls returned
Same day, every time

Illustrative: the shape of the trade, not a forecast.

What changes on Monday

On Monday, every call gets returned.

The memo is only as good as the first week. Each line has an owner.

MondayWeek one
  1. 9:00 Return every call from last week Every agent
  2. 11:00 Sort the list: who can we truly look after? Agents and partners
  3. 2:00 Call each client with the honest version of their year Their own agent
  4. 5:00 No new signings until Friday Everyone

FridayThe partners decidePartners

Questions you were about to ask

You have four objections. Here are the answers.

  1. A partner asks

    Yes, at first. Section 5 shows how much less, on purpose, before you had to ask.

  2. An agent asks

    Some will. The ones who stay will know our names, and we will know theirs.

  3. A partner asks

    Each agent, with the partners, on Monday. Nobody gets dropped by voicemail.

  4. A client asks

    We will. A client we call back gets a better deal than a name on a long list.

Section 8: the decision

The partners decide by Friday: approve, pilot, or say no.

Who decides
The SMI partners
By when
Friday
Recommended
The pilot
DecisionReply by Friday
  • Approve the cap for every agent
  • Pilot it on my list for one season Recommended
  • Say no, in writing, with the reason
Partner
Partner
Jerry Maguire, author

Follow-up, a week later

Everyone applauded the memo. One person followed.

Count who acts on a memo, not who claps for it.

Followed him out 1
  • Dorothy Boyd
  • Rod Tidwell, client
  • The goldfish