Contents
Tom Cruise plays Jerry Maguire, Cuba Gooding Jr. the football player Rod Tidwell, and Renée Zellweger Dorothy Boyd, the only one who leaves with Jerry. The movie is a love story and a sports story. But it is also a study of negotiating power and of the Best Alternative. Almost every important scene revolves around the question: what happens if no agreement is reached?
An agent without an agency
Situation
Jerry works at the big sports agency SMI. After an encounter with the son of an injured player, he writes a mission statement one night: fewer clients, more personal attention, more honesty. Shortly afterward, he is fired by his protégé Bob Sugar, of all people. The two race each other on the phone to keep the clients. Jerry keeps only one: Rod Tidwell, a disgruntled wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals.
Link to the principle
At a stroke, Jerry’s alternative is gone. Without Tidwell, he has nothing. If you have only one partner, you negotiate with that partner from the weakest position. Tidwell knows it, and he makes Jerry feel it.
A handshake instead of a contract
Situation
Jerry is pinning his hopes on a second client: Frank Cushman, a quarterback expected to be the first player picked in the draft. Cushman promises to stay with Jerry. His father wants no written contract; a handshake is enough. The night before the draft, father and son secretly sign with Bob Sugar.
Link to the principle
An alternative that rests only on a promise is no alternative. Jerry is counting on an option he has not secured. When it falls away, he is in a weaker position than before. If you overestimate your alternative, you negotiate with false confidence.
A player with a risky alternative
Situation
Tidwell feels underpaid. The Cardinals offer him a contract extension worth $1.4 million, which he and his wife consider too low. They turn it down. Tidwell wants to play out the last year of his contract and then go on the market as a free agent. Jerry warns him: if he gets injured, he gets nothing.
Link to the principle
Tidwell’s alternative is the free market, and it is risky. He is betting that it will improve over the course of the season. A no is wise only if you have a realistic way to improve your alternative, and if you can bear the risk should things go wrong.
Improving the alternative
Situation
Jerry and Tidwell clash again and again. Jerry demands that Tidwell think about more than money and play with everything he has. Tidwell starts giving more on the field. In the decisive game against the Dallas Cowboys, he catches the touchdown that takes the Cardinals to the playoffs. He lies unconscious on the field and seems badly injured. After a few minutes, he comes to and celebrates in front of the crowd.
Link to the principle
Here the value of Tidwell’s alternative rises visibly. A player who decides a game in front of millions of viewers suddenly has many interested parties. The best way to win a negotiation is often to become stronger away from the negotiating table.
The new contract
Situation
In the end, Tidwell learns on a TV show that Jerry has secured him a contract with the Cardinals worth $11.2 million. He can finish his career in Arizona. Jerry and Dorothy find their way back to each other, too.
Link to the principle
The new contract is the result of a changed situation. It was not better arguments that raised the offer but Tidwell’s stronger alternative. Roger Fisher and William Ury would say: your negotiating power depends on what you can do if the other side says no.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Don’t make yourself dependent on a single partner.
- Don’t rely on alternatives that have only been promised.
- Say no only if you have a plan to improve your alternative.
- Become stronger outside the negotiation, and you will become stronger in it.
- Don’t underestimate the risk that lies in a weak alternative.
Summary
“Jerry Maguire” shows two people with weak alternatives: an agent with only one client and a player whose plan B is risky. A promised second client falls away because he was never secured. In the end, it is not skill at the negotiating table that decides but Tidwell’s performance on the field, which improves his alternative and with it his contract.
Sources
- Roger Fisher and William Ury: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1981.
