Entry 139-4

Randy Dearman on Sponsors

Being a Creative Fisherman

Editor's Note: In 1983 Randy Dearman of Onalaska, Texas, started fishing the BASS circuit and also became a Strike King Pro. According to Dearman, "Strike King was my first sponsor, and I plan to stay with Strike King as long as I'm a professional fisherman. Strike King has always had great products, and over the years the company has allowed me to help develop products for them. They consistently come up with new products, and I feel fortunate to be able to work with a company like Strike King."

Question: Randy, in tournaments you have to look for different ways to find and catch bass, often on various lures. You have to make a lot of casts, and you have to be able to change and adapt to changing weather conditions, water conditions and fishing pressure. Does that adaptability also play a role in what you do for sponsors?

Dearman: Absolutely. As I said before, a pro fisherman not only has to find ways to catch bass, he has to find ways to sell product. Many times he has to find new and different ways to sell product, and he has to learn how to sell product on various levels. When most people think of selling fishing lures, they think about the many behind the counter who shows you a lure, tells you how to fish it, convinces you that you have to have it, gives you the lure and takes your money.

But that's only one way of selling fishing lures. And that's only one level of selling. I've also talked about doing seminars and in-store promotions. Those are other vehicles you can use. But just as important is going to bass clubs and teaching and showing them how you find and catch bass with the products you're sponsored by on their local lakes.

Another vehicle is to meet the outdoor writer who writes for your local newspaper. Give up a day, and take him fishing. Teach him how to catch bass on the products you use. Look at the magazines that serve your state and region. Look at who's writing those articles. Call and meet the writers who are writing those articles. Take them fishing, and teach them how to fish the products from the companies that sponsor you. Help them take photography. Become their new best friend. Watch the local outdoor TV shows. Meet their hosts. Take them fishing. Teach them how to fish and catch bass. Offer to get them a TV show. If you've got a pond, a lake or an area of a lake where you're catching good numbers of big fish, call up the outdoor communicators, and take them fishing.

The real secret here is showing them not only how you catch bass on your sponsors' products but teach them how to catch bass on your sponsor's product. I'd much rather have a writer or a TV person catch a really big bass on a Strike King spinner bait or one of the other Strike King products than for me to catch that bass on that product because that outdoor communicator is going to tell his readers or TV audience how he used that lure to catch that bass and how they can use that same lure to catch bass. The impact of that newspaper, magazine or TV show on selling product is going to be huge.

Most companies want professional fishermen to help outdoor communicators because those outdoor writers and TV hosts speak to thousands and millions of people, and they help sell product also. So if you want to be a sponsored tournament pro, learn how to work with the outdoor media. If you'll become their new best friend, they will write about you, have you on their TV show and enable you to promote and sell the products for the companies that sponsor you.

Question: Randy, as you begin to build a reputation as a professional fisherman, do you have bass clubs call you and want you to speak at their monthly meetings, and if so do you go?

Dearman: I sure do. Any time I get an opportunity to speak to a group anywhere at any time, I go. And when I go to that bass club meeting, I'll take my sponsors' new products, show them at the meeting, give some away at the meeting and tell the members of that bass club why they're the best new products on the market and what makes those products better than other similar products that they could use.

Most bass pros get new products a year before they're ever introduced to the public. But when I go to a bass club, I can show them those new lures I'm using, tell them when they'll probably be in their dealers' stores and explain why they need to be the first bass fisherman to get these products as soon as they get to the dealer's shelf.

You have to remember that bass wise-up to certain lures. Therefore, any time a new lure comes to the market that's unique or different, and the bass haven't seen that lure, then there's a much greater likelihood that the bass will bite those new lures quicker than they will the old ones. That's one of the reasons Strike King comes out with so many lures every year.

Randy Dearman on Sponsors

Being a Creative Fisherman

Next: Working with Outdoor Communicators

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