Entry 79-5

Meet Mark Rose

What You Do For Your Sponsors

Editor's Note: Mark Rose was an Executive Director for the Boy Scouts when the tournament-fishing bug bit him. Armed with the courage required to be a tournament fisherman, Rose left a safe and secure job to enter the uncertain world of professional fishing. Rose jumped out on the tournament circuit and has never looked back. This week, we’ll meet a young man with a vision and learn what his life is like, living his dream.

Question: What are you doing for your sponsors that all the other fishermen who don’t have sponsors are not doing?

Rose: First of all, I make sure that I stay clean-cut, morally grounded, dress appropriately be a friend to everyone and show a lot of smiles. If you’re going to attract sponsors in this industry you have to be the kind of person that people want to be around. If you have a bad attitude, if you don’t keep a neat appearance, and if you’ve always got a frown on your face, nobody feels comfortable coming up to talk with you. So, I first of all try to look the part and act the part of a professional.

I’m also trying to bring new customers into our industry for my sponsors. For instance, since Mossy Oak is one of my sponsors, I’m trying to bring hunters into the fishing industry for all my fishing sponsors. Since fishermen also hunt, I’m trying to bring fishermen into the hunting market for Mossy Oak and trying to help develop crossover business in a crossover consumer for both types of sponsors. My goal is to bring fishermen into hunting and hunters into fishing, and this is a different market for a different consumer than most pros who are simply trying to sell products to fishermen. I have created a neat little niche that many other fishermen are not conscious of. I really believe the conjunction between hunting and fishing is what the industry is looking for. They are looking for a fisherman who can go after new consumers their products aren’t touching.

One of the biggest aspects of being a professional fisherman is that you have to learn how to help your sponsors speak to people that they are not already talking to, and that’s what I believe I offer my sponsors. My advice to young fishermen, or to anglers who want to become professional fishermen, is to look for ways to bring consumers into fishing that the company’s normal marketing system is not reaching. Look outside the fishing industry, and find sponsors who want to be inside the fishing industry, and help them get their products into the fishing industry while also trying to help your sponsors who have fishing products reach new markets.




 

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