How To Do Better At Obtaining Sponsors (Part 1)

While some may like to argue about the subject, tournament paintball is a relatively expensive sport to play when financing expenses by oneself. There are literally thousands of dollars to be spent on team gear, entry fees, plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, food and drink, paint, backup gear, visas, etc., etc., etc. Too many times have I seen individuals get together to form a national team, and fail shortly after due to lack of support and planning.

Sponsorship alleviates a great deal of the funding worries that plagues most teams, and allows teams to compete in events that were once un-obtainable due to lack of funds.  However, it seems today people have some misconception about the in and outs of sponsorships and the responsibility that comes along with it. Kids today have a superstar complex and somehow think that sponsors are the ones who should feel lucky to be supporting such an awesome baller. I find this appalling.

Sponsors generally want two things.

1. Visibility to a large number of people relative to their business and location
2. Successful investments

Giving them those things is the key to keeping them happy and signing off checks to your team. But we are putting the cart before the horse here. We first need to discuss some pre-requirements of your team before you even think about sponsorship.

1. Have a well thought out plan for the direction of the team

You have absolutely no idea how many teams fail due to lack of leadership and direction as a whole. Even before you begin recruiting players, your team needs to have a solid foundation for what tournaments it will play (this includes dates), practices, fund raising, number of players, etc. Everything needs to be thought out by the team leaders so that when the players are recruited, everyone knows the goals and direction the team will be taking. If you plan on playing local tournaments and recruit members looking to play national events, your are potentially setting yourself up to be in a jam if those people decide later that the team isn’t for them.

Having a well thought out and planned team mission will look better on your proposals also. This gives the sponsor and idea of which events you will be playing, where you will be playing, and how many people will see their brand.

2. Become visible

Sadly enough, and this tends to turn new team players off, you will most likely have no luck obtaining sponsorship from companies as a new team with no wins, no experience, and no events played. Sponsors aren’t going to care much if you have players on your roster who have played D2 PSP, or D1 NPPL. They look at the bottom line potential:

• How many events you’ve played
• How many events you’ve won

Those two items are one of the largest factors in a sponsors decision to support a team. Without them, I would say that you are wasting your time and should be investing it into getting better as a team. As said previously, sponsors want their brand on a successful product that garners them high noticeability based upon location and business type. Based upon this, I would advise sacking it up and playing as a team for a minimum of one full season before you even start to think about applying for sponsorship.

Now, let’s say your team has been together for a while. You’ve been relatively successful in the tournaments you have played, and you want to think about picking up some sponsors to help alleviate the financial brick load that you’ve been carrying around. Where do you go from here?

The first thing to realize is that there are a lot of companies who are not in the paintball industry who would provide more help with sponsorship than the paintball companies themselves. One of the first mistakes I see teams, looking for sponsorship, do is run off to NXe, Planet Eclipse, Dye, Smart Parts, JT, etc. They usually get denied, the team gives up hope and dissolves. Despite what people may allude you to believe, these companies usually don’t need more advertising.

This is where you need to be smart in regards to the sponsors you make proposals to. Location and business type are one of the biggest factors that determine whether or not you land the deal. Taking these into consideration, you should apply the following strategies:

1. Search for sponsors that apply to the area you will be playing tournaments in

Joe’s Pizza Palace, a family owned business in Vermont, will most likely NOT sponsor you if you are playing CFOA. There are simply no perks whatsoever in sponsoring a team that will be competing in an area outside of his effective business range. Advertising about Joe’s great pepperoni pies to a group in North Carolina does absolutely nothing. However if your schedule included multiple local tournaments in Vermont, within an effective operating business area for Joe, he would certainly be more interested in your proposition.

The key here is to look for businesses that are large enough to sponsor you, and are receptable to the business awareness that you will spread in the locations you will compete in. If you plan on playing in a wider coverage area, then you need to look for sponsors that can apply to the package that you are proposing. Nobody said this was easy.

2. Be professional in your proposal. Make yourself stand out

Emails, or simple letters requesting sponsorship are usually a fast way to get your team brushed aside. The key is to make yourself stand out and easily remembered. Take time and assemble a professional portfolio which contains information on the team, the roster, the tournament schedule, locations, practice schedule, and event photographs. List and highlight the teams accomplishments and what locations they were in, in order to show the potential sponsor what his reward for sponsoring you would be.

In regard to the package itself, I would advise against just printing up something in Word. Choose a nice, and easy to read font for the layout. Think of the proposal as an application to a place of employment. Try to keep things short and sweet, while highlighting the positives of your teams career. Make sure to have enough detail to explain to the sponsor the teams information, and what he will be getting out of the experience, without rambling on.

In the form of appearence, print the proposal on good solid card stock and enclose all of your information in a binder that is well organized. Despite the cost, this will impress the sponsor a great deal more than a simple sheet of paper.

With that said, make sure to bookmark us and check back for Part 2.