Entry 280-5

Talking Sponsorship with Todd Witt

Part 5: Steps to Getting a Sponsorship

Question: Todd, you’ve hung around many bass clubs, tournaments and fishing contests like many other regional pros. Sooner or later you’ll always hear someone complaining about not having sponsors, even though they’ve won more tournaments than someone else with a sponsor. What is this guy doing wrong?

Witt: First of all, he must meet and get to know the people he wants to sponsor him. Fishing tackle companies don’t have enough money to sponsor every one who wants a sponsor. The first step is getting to know someone who works with the fishing-tackle company with whom you’d like to work. After you get to know him or her, they’ll introduce you to others in the company.

When you find the company’s contact person, offer to take that company rep fishing and take writers fishing for him. Visit your local tackle store to find out if they sell that particular company’s products. Then, contact the tackle industry professional to let them know which lures the store doesn’t carry. If the store doesn’t carry the company’s lures, tell the sales person and offer to call the company to get a representative to visit the store. Then, call the rep, tell him the store address, the fish and tackle buyer name and ask to have a sales rep visit the store.

Once, when I was fishing a bass tournament, a fisherman gave me a business card for a tackle store 300-miles away that wanted a Strike King rep to come in and see him because he had no Strike King lures. That fisherman who gave me the card and information made a quantum leap in getting sponsored by Strike King. He proved he could sell lures and work for the company without being paid. This guy would be one of the first fishermen Strike King would consider if they had an opening for a regional staff pro. As a matter of fact, when I told that story to Strike King, they told me to tell the fisherman to call them in 10 days.

To get a sponsorship:

* Realize a sponsorship is a two-way street. When you’re sponsored by a fishing and tackle company, it isn’t just about what the company will do for you, but what you’ll do for the company. If you’re not willing to help grow that company, they shouldn’t sponsor you. Become familiar with and knowledgeable about the company’s products. To learn a product line, get a copy of the company catalogue and learn all you can about each item they create. When you’re at a consumer show and someone asks how to catch bass on a particular product, you’ll be able to tell them how you’ve fished the lure, the type of retrieve you used and the number of fish you caught. If you’re promoting and selling a company’s products, you must know the products and how to fish the products as well or better than anyone in the company.

* Learn the name and contact information of the designated person in the company who works with the pro staff. You can find out this information from a dealer, a representative or another fishermen sponsored by that company. Then send this person your resume, explain how you can benefit them and their products, and list any activities in which you’re participating, including fishing tournaments, working with reps and the press, promoting products and working with dealers. Don’t give up. The person responsible for the pro staff at any company receives thousands of sponsorship requests each month. The fishermen continuously send the head of the pro staff information. The applicants they remember the most are the fishermen who demonstrate how they’ve helped the company the most. You have to be better than all the other fishermen trying to get sponsorships.

You need a professional resume, be able to demonstrate your speaking skills and have a clean-cut appearance. You must be a presentable, good-looking representative of the company because you represent that company and its mission. You can either be a positive or a negative force. You must have high ethics and be personable. Put yourself in that fishing tackle company’s position and decide whether or not you’d hire yourself.

* Don’t be bothersome to the person in charge of the pro staff, but don’t give up if you’re not immediately swept into the arms of the fishing-tackle company you want to sponsor you. Only seek sponsorship from companies in which you believe. You can’t promote a product in which you don’t believe or have confidence. I fished Strike King lures before I was ever sponsored by Strike King. I believed in their products, used their products and knew I’d have no problem teaching others to catch bass on the Strike King products I used. So, my last piece of advice if you want a sponsorship, talk to the companies whose products you believe in and will continue to fish whether or not they sponsor you.

Contents:

• Part 1: From a Fisherman to a Pro
• Part 2: The Unseen Pro
• Part 3: Me and the Media
• Part 4: From a Press Guy to Fishing Buddy
• Part 5: Steps to Getting a Sponsorship