Blackpool Football Club bosses pulled off a master stroke on transfer window deadline day for British football.
For many months, there’s been speculation surrounding Mr Adams and the keen interest being express by clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. OK, there’s been ‘speculation’ and that’s very different from a genuine offer being made to Blackpool FC to secure Mr Adams’ services. On a day when Fernando Torres left struggling Liverpool to join Chelsea FC (who are also struggling but still in the top 5 league positions) for an astounding £50 million fee, youngster Andy Carroll leaves Newcastle FC to join Liverpool for a staggering £30 million – remember that Mr Carroll has played less than 45 minutes for the England national side and his transfer fee is only £10 million less than that paid for master footballer Zinezine Zidane over a decade ago, don’t you just wonder where, in an environment of austerity and cutbacks, how much does one club have to pay for a player from a competitor?
The master stroke from Blackpool FC? It’s a wonderfully simple, if not perhaps unethical approach to retaining the services of a very influential player. What did they do? Well, Sky News reported that an offer for Adams had been received from high-flying Tottenham Hotspur (remember, it’s deadline day and more ‘last minute’ deals get done on this day than at any other time during the transfer window), but a deal was not able to be done due to the fact that several Blackpool FC shareholders weren’t available to sign documents which would have approved the deal before the 11pm transfer deadline.
Isn’t this a fantastic strategy? A well established negotiation tool is to ‘refer to a higher authority’ if you want to get something done more quickly and easily. But Blackpool FC turned this approach on its head. They appear to have ensured that the ‘higher authorities’ were unavailable, whether they be in different locations or just not contactable by phone. Well done Mr Holloway, you’ve kept the player you never wanted to sell and let other clubs know what challenges they’ll face in future when you don’t want to sell one of your players.
Can’t we all learn something from this that relates to the world of business?
A key tool when influencing another person or group is the element of scarcity. Whether it’s a scarcity of funds, resources or time, creating the illusion of something or someone not being available for long tends to create an element of urgency in the other party. Look at how Ian Holloway played out this drama. And he did it fantastically well! He started with the approach of ‘Don’t ask us to sell our player as he’s not for sale.’ In an interview a few weeks later he stated that in his opinion, his player could be worth up to £48 million. How crazy is that valuation? and that’s possibly what he wanted his intended audience (other Premiership managers) to think. And are you guessing what’s next? Even though £48 million is ridiculous as a transfer fee, if you do want to buy the player and you get him for £20 million – doesn’t it then look like more of a bargain?
Remember, in business, whether you’re a leader, manager, sales person or customer service agent, you are ALWAYS negotiating. And if you’re not using effective negotiation and influencing tools and techniques, you could lose out. And, with great respect for Mr Holloway, if you don’t want to sell out, make it amazingly difficult for the other party to access the relevant resources (in his case, the shareholders) to approve such a deal.
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