Shapiro book highlights importance of scripting

Author, lawyer and sports agent Ronald M. Shapiro spoke at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce in May 2008 about his book "Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin." Having represented baseball stars, including Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Kirby Puckett, as well as current Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, Shapiro shared stories about the art of preparation.

In his latest book, "Perfecting Your Pitch: How to Succeed in Business and in Life by Finding Words That Work," Shapiro outlines a three-step process, the three D's: draft, devil's advocate and deliver.

The book takes readers through this process, mixing in real-life scenarios and how they were handled. Much of the book includes specific scripts.

Shapiro also is the author of "The Power of Nice: How to Negotiate So Everyone Wins -- Especially You!"

Recently, Shapiro spoke in an interview with the Southeast Missourian about the new book. The book was released Nov. 29.

Q: When did scripting become a standard operating procedure for you?

A: It's an outgrowth of probably the early part of my professional career. When I, as a lawyer and a sports agent, had to negotiate contracts on behalf of high-income individuals, let's say Cal Ripkin back in the '80s. The goal for the contract would be $1 million. And I would know a good negotiation principle is not to go in with your final figure but aim reasonably high, and a $1.25 million would be the right figure to offer to the team.

But like any human being fearing rejection, fearing that they'll view me as overreaching, I would hedge my bets. So I would go in and say, "We can do that deal for a $1.25 million, somewhere between a $1.25 million and $1 million. So immediately what would register in the listener's mind is, "Well, he's only asking for a million, so I'll offer him $800,000." And I would say to myself, "Why did I say it that way?"

So early in my career I started to script out what I wanted to say and I would turn to an associate -- the devil's advocate -- and have them look at it and I'd practice it. And by the time I had the phone call or had the meeting with the general manager, I was so confident and comfortable with what I wanted to say that I'd deliver the magic message of a $1.25 million with confidence and they wouldn't see that nick in my armor and immediately have me below the number I want to be at.

Q: In today's market, with contracts increasing each year, how do you balance the current market with the expected market in one or two years? How does this change your approach, if at all, when drafting the script?

A: I've had years of experience in negotiating baseball contracts and contracts for other professionals. You factor in the achievements of the player and where the market is. You also factor in possibilities that may mitigate against that number -- potential of injury, potential of the market shifting for a particular position -- but you still come up with a hefty number, and to make that kind of a hefty ask in Minnesota, let's say, as contrasted with New York, is not easy. And that's where scripting becomes the great support element.

I chose Joe Mauer as an example in the book to teach the essential elements of perfecting your pitch, which is scripting, which is the three D's.

Parallel to Joe, I also chose a young lady who was fighting for her business life and much lower salary in a business trying to adjust her salary and trying to adjust her hours of work. It can be in the sports world on the one hand and it can be everyday life of someone trying to get a raise on the other.

Q: Do you often use multiple people to review your scripts?

A: I more often than not find one good devil's advocate. And again, the three D's are draft -- get someone to put down all their thoughts, their emotional thoughts, what they want without limit, so that they get it all down. And then find that devil's advocate. And I usually find one devil's advocate.

As I say in the book, my inspiration for devil's advocacy comes out of the relationship between John Adams, who had the hardest negotiation in American history because he had to negotiate the 13 diverse colonies into the United States of America to embrace the Declaration of Independence.

There were slave colonies, non-slave colonies, maritime colonies, all different kinds of economies and objectives, Royalists.

When he had to make that very important speech, which was a negotiation, in the second Continental Congress he turned to one person -- his wife, Abigail Adams -- and she redrew the script and she put in new ideas. And by the time Adams got up in Congress he was probably as persuasive a person as could be, and he got our Declaration of Independence.

I use that as my model of one good devil's advocate can take you a long way in helping you perfect your pitch in whatever the context may be.

Q: Particularly with industry, how often do you use someone outside of a certain industry to review a script?

A: I tend to try and find someone who has some expertise in the industry to be the devil's advocate. But even more importantly, I try to find someone who has had a similar challenge in the past or counseled people in similar challenges because their expertise in delivering the message can be as important as their understanding of the industry. Frequently people can learn enough about the particular industry to have that base of knowledge and the real expertise I'm looking for is someone who really has a sense of what to say and what not to say to other people.

Q: What phrases or buzzwords do you see in scripts that people should avoid?

A: Angry phrases should be avoided. Straight-out demands in terms of trying to provoke the other side should be avoided. Reactive words should be avoided. Words like "You don't understand me" or "You should do this" or "You should do that" get you nowhere with other people.

It's a process and not an event. So you should ask people some questions and open them up to a discussion. And then, hopefully, know enough about them that you speak words that have worked with them in the past.

I'm a real believer in precedence and looking at what's gone on with the people I'm dealing with and what has worked with the people in the past. Mainly, anger and words like "you should" or "you must" are not the kind of words you want to use in a script.

If you're dealing with family members or children. If you tell a child, "Don't text and drive," they'll be texting and driving 15 minutes later. But if you ask them what they know about the dangers of texting and driving, why they text and why they feel they have to text all the time, and engage them, and then you share with them the increasing body of information about the damage that is done as a result of texting and driving, you're much more likely to persuade them to protect their lives and do the right things than demanding that they stop doing something.

So, whether it be business, whether it be family or whether it be friends, those are key things to remember.

Q: How do you script without sounding scripted?

A: Why not wing it? Why not sound like you're just winging it? I always say to people, why wing it if you can learn it and express it confidently? Too often in life people say things that they think ... they know what they want and they think they know how to say it and they say and it comes out wrong. Then they say, "Why did I say that?"

I'm not advocating that people have a piece of paper in front of them and they walk in and in a stilted way they say, "I want you to know I need a raise" or something like that in a deliberate fashion. What I'm advocating is what Steven Mosko talks about in the chapter of the book called "Selling Seinfeld." He's the president of Sony Pictures Television, he's in an industry where there are scripts all over the place -- movie scripts. He's the first to tell you, "When I script it, I'm not making a movie script. I'm making a business script." I use it to think about and learn about the right way to say it, but I deliver it not by reading it. I deliver it by having practiced it after having someone devil's advocate it with me and feeling very confident about what I'm going to say.

The case and point in the book where he talked about it was dealing with Seinfeld to get him to deliver his new show to Sony rather than all the other competitors in the industry.

We're talking about scripting as a method of letting someone else give you input and a method for letting you practice, but we're not talking about writing scripts for movies. We're talking about learning how to feel comfortable with words you are going to use and delivering them in life. And that's quite different than a word-for-word movie script.

Q: I separated the devil's advocate into a person who's reviewing the actual script but also to the person who is hearing you deliver it.

A: The devil's advocate is the person who's going to review and revise, probably use their computer to help you rewrite. Make sure the dangerous words are out, the good words are in and that the right questions are asked. That's the devil's advocate. That same person can be your coach for when you practice it, or you can choose another person to be your coach for when you practice it, which is the third D -- deliver. You do want someone to hear you, because there you're practicing your delivery and getting it down so it is informal and comfortable. And you want them to throw questions at you. And throw you off your game because you never know what will happen when you go in the room with the other side and what they might say or not say. So they're part of helping you practice your delivery once the devil's advocate has finished rewriting and helping you rewrite what you're going to say.

Q: For that person who's coaching you, what things should he or she be looking for?

A: The person who's coaching you at the delivery or practice stage is just looking to see if you are now able to speak the words in a comfortable fashion. If you're able to cope with interruption. And they may throw a few interruptions at you. Or questions. They're focused on how you say it now as opposed to what you say, which the devil's advocate is focused on.

Q: Do you always do a full script or are there times that you just do bullet points?

A: I more often than not do bullet points. Now, if it's a very crucial conversation, I will write it out. I'm delivering a talk tonight on the book -- it's the book launch. It's a negotiation with the audience to get them to embrace the ideas. So I started with a pretty long script, maybe seven or eight pages. I distilled it into one page, and now I have it in just bullet points of key words. But I went through all three stages because I want to do it well.

Q: You talk about the Lincoln letters.

A: The Lincoln letters are so impressive because sometimes the mere act of scripting it out and going through the three D process, perfecting your pitch, is in and of itself beneficial because it gets rid of the excess baggage of emotion.

Lincoln had some terrible generals at the beginning of the Civil War. But he couldn't fire them because he didn't have replacement generals, but he'd write these letters to them about the horrible work they were doing. But he knew if he would deliver them it might not be the best strategic move. So he'd write the letters out; he'd download all his anger; and then he'd put them in his desk drawer. I call those Lincoln letters.

He deposited his emotion in the desk drawer. Then when he found people like Grant and other great leaders he was able to start replacing these generals. Then they weren't Lincoln letters; they were delivered letters. By the way, you could script to write a letter or write an email rather than deliver something orally. But they were well crafted arguments as to why someone wasn't doing his job and should leave his job.

lpresson@semissourian.com

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