Molly Cannon Cannon,1

Dr. McCafferty
HNR 304
2/21/2023
We negotiated the Fie’s Agent case over email tonight. I was the soccer player and Jozie was the

agent. I did not like the process of negotiating over email, I like negotiating in person much more. At the

beginning of the emails, they were very similar to in-person negotiations. We introduced ourselves and

asked each other how we had been doing lately. To start talking about the negotiation Jozie asked what

my goals were for the future of my soccer career which was also like a normal negotiation. Overall, the

introductory emails were short, simple, and did not deviate very much from a normal negotiation. The

different part was the meat of the negotiation. The first difference was response time. Instead of an almost

instantaneous response, it took both of us around 20 minutes to respond to one another. For me, it took so

long because I was trying to think of what to say, and in the previous 20 minutes, I had forgotten some of

the points Jozie made in the previous email so I had to go back and reread it. I also reread it to make sure I

was answering all of the questions she had and responding to her points accordingly. Another one of the

differences was having to put what you were thinking into typed-out words. Sometimes I would have

something planned out that I wanted to say, but didn’t know how to put it into the email either because I

didn’t want to come across as rude and/or because I wanted to use more formal words since it is an email

setting. This brings me to my next difference, I thought it was almost impossible to read the other

person’s nonverbal communication cues while we were emailing. For example when I asked Jozie, “If

you don't mind me asking, what compensation percent are you charging them?” she replied, “The other

players that I signed are on a private contract so I cannot disclose their amount but I can tell you that it is

more than what our previous contract was.”. This question was important to my negotiation because it

would tell me what Kofi was charging his other clients. Being over email, even though Jozie may have

said the same response in person, made it hard to judge how taken aback she was by this question or how

quickly she responded, which could’ve given me more information to estimate how much the other

players were being charged. One of the last things that I found different about email negotiation was that

it was difficult to include emotional appeal into your tactics. On my side, I had a big emotional appeal

advantage. I tried to communicate this to Jozie, but I felt like over email it did not come off as emotional
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as it would if we were in person talking about it. I compared this to the negotiation about the Bentley

convertible and Chesnut Village. In both of those negotiations, emotional appeal was easier to display in

person because of tone of voice, facial expressions, body posture, etc. For the Bentley, the other side

could see the sadness of the woman becoming a widow, and in Chestnut village, the construction

company could see the anger from the parents about protecting their homes and families. One thing that I

did like about the email negotiation was that you had more time to think things through after the other

side proposed something, and there was also a log of past things said already laid out, you didn’t have to

try to rush to write everything down.

Jozie and I negotiated 4 main things: the agent fee percentage, the advertising percentage, a

potential sign-on bonus, and the length of the contract. My goal for the agent fee and advertising

percentages was to get them lower than my BATNA which was going with McGuire that charged 8% and

15% respectively. In the beginning, Jozie wanted the agent percentage to be around 10-12%, but after

explaining to her my BATNA she dropped down to 7%. After this, we agreed on 6.5% to meet in the

middle of 6 and 7. For the advertising percentage we originally talked about a bonus for when Kofi would

make an advertising deal, but we decided that it would put too much stress on the relationship and add

confusion to the contract, so we decided on a flat 3%. We also discussed a sign-on bonus very briefly.

This was an intangible thing to talk about since Ama hadn’t even been signed to a team yet, so we decided

to have that conversation after she was signed. We also agreed on a 4-year contract. We agreed on this

because we did not want the contract to get out of date as the past 6-year one did. Specifically, we decided

on a 6.5% agent rate, 3% advertising commission, a tbd sign-on bonus, and a 4-year contract and

everything else in the contract would remain the same. I think what worked well was emphasizing Kofi

and I’s relationship. I think that by doing this I was able to get a lower offer than what my BATNA was

because my BATNA was only based on industry standards, not years of working together. I also think that

bringing up the point that Ama created Kofi’s successful career was helpful too. I considered not doing

this at first because I thought it would come across as rude or blunt. I phrased it as, “We have basically

risen to the big leagues together and to be blunt, I think that some of the publicity I have earned you
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should be reflected in your compensation percentage.”. By saying that I think it made Kofi realize that

there is a good possibility that he wouldn’t have fame today if it wasn’t for Ama and he should consider

that when negotiating a rate with her. For things I would do differently, I would try to stress the emotional

appeal more. I feel like I could’ve driven the point home that by Kofi taking more money, he was taking

money from his own community’s charities. I also did not bring up Eduardo Gulherme’s offer because I

thought that the offer was ridiculously low and would not be taken seriously, but if I did it again I may

have mentioned it sparingly to show Kofi that there are people that would manage Ama for a lower cost.

Overall, there were some similarities to negotiating over email rather than in person, but I definitely

prefer negotiating in person or on a video call because it’s more efficient and both sides can get their point

across more clearly.