Media Coverage
Agent Teaches Firms the Art of the Perfect Pitch
BY JOHN HENDREN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
For a guy who has built a career around "win-win" negotiations, baseball agent Ron Shapiro has a rare knack for making his opponents lose and like it.
Take the time the Minnesota Twins rejected Shaprio's offer of a $27.5 million deal to re-sign his client, outfielder, Kirby Puckett. Shapiro eventually talked the team up to $30 million, plus 30,000 free game tickets and an option for Puckett to leave in three years.
Even Shapiro's adversaries are inclined to tip their caps.
"He seems to be the type of person who wants to works with you to be successful. He's not confrontational," Twins president Jerry Bell said. "But having said all that, there are no bargains. He's tough."
Shapiro has negotiated seven- and eight-figure contracts for the Cleveland Indians' Eddie Murray and the Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken.
Now the Monty Hall of Major League Baseball has talked his way into a new line of work: teaching corporate managers how to make a deal.
Founded Institute
Shapiro founded the Shapiro Negotiations Institute with fellow lawyer Mark Jankowski in December. For fees ranging from $400 for a motivational speech to $10,000 for an all day seminar, Shapiro and Jankowski teach managers of banks, law firms and manufacturers how to bargain without burning their corporate bridges.
"There are owners who have fought and scratched and clawed to put a company together," Jankowski said. Those employers want their employees to learn what they learned, he said. "They want to say, 'Hey, when someone gives you a price, don't just start writing a check. That's negotiable!"
The training sessions put executives through mock negotiations and include a sampling of inside stories on high-profile deals by one of baseball's top bargainers.
Securities background
Shapiro's career as a baseball agent began after a two-year stint as Maryland's youngest securities commissioner ended in 1974. The Orioles called him to unravel a series of dubious investments that cost Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson most of his savings.
After cleaning up Robinson's finances, the third baseman asked Shapiro to negotiate his next contract. By the time the Orioles went to the World Series in 1979, Shapiro represented 21 players—81 percent of the team.
Shapiro, 53, says his experience in sports provides him not only with entertaining stories, but also pragmatic advice for his business clients.
"I'm not just preaching about something in a philosophical sense, I'm taking a great deal of practical experience to them," he said.
His experience negotiating on behalf of striking major league players in 1994 showed him how negotiations should not be conducted. Both sides ended up quibbling over minor points while a strike dragged on, with both sides losing income.
"They were fighting over a pie. It was a $2.5 billion pie, and they shrunk the pie to a piece of the pie," said Shapiro. By the time the 232-day strike ended, "They were moving rapidly toward a cookie and then a crumb. That's what bad negotiations lead to."
By contrast, both sides won when Shapiro mediated secret negotiations between striking musicians and trustees of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1980.
Musicians wanted more money and symphony trustees said they had none. The new Meyerhoff Symphony Hall was about to open without an orchestra. Federal negotiators had come and gone and Mayor Kurt Schmoke brought in Shapiro.
Shapiro talked television station WJZ-TV into donating air time for a telethon to make up the difference between the symphony board's offer and musician's demands.
All sides satisfied
The outcome satisfied all sides, including news anchor Jerry Turner, who fulfilled his dream of directing the orchestra during the telethon.
"Ron has the ability to engage in tough negotiations while keeping long-term relationships intact," Schmoke said.
Often, making the deal means taking more money into consideration. When Ripken received a lucrative offer to bare his briefs for an underwear endorsement, Shapiro cautioned the shortstop to consider his reputation. Ripken kept his uniform on and buttoned-down image intact.
"We were able to analyze what it would mean in terms of perception and image. In the end, though, I just couldn't get used to the idea, period, " Ripken said.
"It's good to have someone there to help you understand the big picture and I think Ron does a good job of that."
Ripken instead accepted a radio ad for milk that he said earned him "the equivalent of, roughly, a handshake and a pat on the back."
But patience became a lucrative virtue.
As Ripken neared Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games, endorsement offers—sometimes 50 a week—jammed Shapiro's phone lines from companies hoping to link their product with Ripken's squeaky-clean image. He has earned millions of dollars in endorsements ranging from Nike shoes to his own Nintendo baseball game.
Shapiro does suffer from a sense of failure in one recurring negotiation—bedtime for his 12-year-old son, William.
"I usually lose there," he said.
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