The Wall Street Journal recently released a free Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook created by a company called Canaan Partners.  While the workbook was written to help entrepreneurs make an effective pitch to a potential investor, many of the workbook’s tips are applicable to all professions, including sports agents.

Canaan’s Director of Marketing, Gina Vakili, put together a list of top pitch mistakes (my own comments in green).  Every single one of the mistakes listed below can be made in a pitch to a potential athlete client.

1. Lack of clarity – Executives should be able to express what the company does in 30 seconds. A presentation should be 30 minutes long without interruptions.  Be clear about what your company does and how it can help out the athlete.

2. Arrogance and megalomania – Don’t bring a team to a presentation and not permit them to speak. “We invest in people and teams. If you brought your team, let them speak, show them off.”  Allow the athlete to speak to others who will handle his account, especially his primary agent.

3. Avoiding questions – Don’t dance around questions, especially if they’re asked multiple times in different ways. Be thoughtful and willing to explain your concerns with the business.  Answer all questions.  If there is no proper answer, let the athlete know of that.

4. No competition – Don’t insist you have no competition. “We have a unique IP that gives us a multi-year lead” is never true. If someone wants to chase you, they can be right on your heels.  Our business is more competitive than most.  Let the athlete know that there are others out there who would love to represent him.  Don’t diss the other companies, but let the athlete know why he should go with you instead.

5. Not understanding the market – Market-sizing should be top-down and bottoms up. Saying, “We just need 0.1% of the population of China to be a success” ignores the importance of identifying and describing the target customer.  Understand what is available for the athlete.  If it is a kid that just got drafted by an MLB team, don’t tell him that he will be in a movie in a year.

6. Not knowing the numbers – Be able to explain how your company plans to drive 500% revenue growth in its second year. But don’t suggest a valuation.   Be able to tell your athletes how many of those drafted will make it, how many get endorsement deals, etc.  Knowing the numbers is very important so that no false impressions are made.

The pitchbook, in its entirety, is below. Check out what else might be applicable to our profession.

Pitching Investors Is Like Pitching Potential Clients from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

PureSport was not only smart enough to snag Phelps as an endorser of its product prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, but additionally gave him and three of his swimming teammates a five-percent share in the company.  Want an athlete to truly care about the product?  Give him a stake in it!  Sports Authority now carries PureSport products, and a big reason for that is the exposure that the sports drink company gets by being aligned with Phelps.  Smart move by a smaller, new company looking to make a name for itself.  So which company is going to be the first to jump on an opportunity to have its large logo right in the middle of a guy like Norm Duke or Robert Smith as they bowl in championship after championship on ESPN?

PureSport Is Making Waves from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

The Wall Street Journal gathered a panel of five sports scientists and exercise physiologist to make a list and rank the worlds top male athletes on a plethora of categories (ladies, the article said they will rank the female athletes in the future, so stay tuned).  The panel graded the athletes based on their individual performances, the difficulty and competitiveness of the sport, along with the athlete’s speed, reflexes, stamina, coordination, as well as power, strength and size.

The article was extremely interesting, as it talked about the abilities and qualities needed to excel in each particular sport by the athletes and how each sport ranked along those qualities.  In order to be put on the list, the athletes had to be not only dominant at their particular sport, but they had to be athletic enough to have the qualities to dominate other sports as well.  A truly great athlete must be in good enough shape and have the ability to dominate in other areas as well.  This is why LeBron James was not only a sick basketball player, but also he was also an amazing wide receiver in high school as well, and with some of the dunks I’ve seen from him in the NBA I bet he could participate in the long jump or high jump and excel easily.

The sports scientists and physiologists seemed to have agreed with me when making some of the decisions on the list.  LeBron James was the number two pick on the list, followed by boxer Floyd Mayweather and Charger great LaDainian Tomlinson.  The surprising number one choice was Czech decathlete Roman Sebrle.  Those of you who know who Roman is might not think he was such a long shot as he can apparently throw a 16-pound ball the length of a 53-foot yacht and leap over a two-lane highway.  The five experts believe Roman has the speed and agility of an NFL player with the leaping ability of an NBA player matched with much much more.

Many of our favorite athletes did not even crack the top ten.  Some sports were too one dimensional like swimming and golf and those athletes would not excel at more physical sports, according to the panelists. To find out who cracked the top ten or to hear what these experts thought about particular sports check out (Who is the greatest Athlete?).

Ever Wonder Who the Greatest Athlete In the World Is? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules