On The Podium – Promote Your Sponsor

Justify or Say Goodbye

Promises, Promises, Promises! You probably made a lot of them when you first signed up with your sponsor, and hopefully you've been keeping them. However, unless you signed a multi-year contract, as the sponsor approaches their annual budget planning time, they will be evaluating whether or not to continue sponsoring your race team for the upcoming season. Let's go over some ways to ensure that happens.

First and foremost, keep your promises. That's plain and simple. If you promise to do something in your sponsorship agreement, then make sure it gets done. This may require some extra initiative on your part sometimes. For example, if your sponsor has paid for three show car events, the season is half over, and they have yet to ask to bring your car out, you need to get with them and remind them of that benefit they have.

The same goes for any other program feature that requires the sponsor's involvement, and they have not made any mention of it. You need to make sure it gets done regardless. Otherwise, you may get to the end of the race season, and the sponsor asks why you never did any show car events for them when it was in the contract. Telling the sponsor that they never asked you to bring the car out for any events and that you forgot about it because it was never brought up is not going to go over very well.

The best way to avoid these kinds of scenarios is to maintain a constant stream of communication with the sponsor throughout the year. First, set up one or two meetings during the season with the specific intention of discussing the status of the sponsorship, what has been done, what the sponsor likes about it so far, any criticisms, etc... If you meet like this a couple of times in the year well before any end of the season meeting, then there shouldn't be any surprises for either side when you do sit down to discuss renewing for the next season.

If you've kept all your promises and maintained great communication with your sponsor throughout the year, here's a few more things that can help you lock in that sponsor for the next year. Make sure during the race season that you are taking pictures, saving press releases, print articles, interviews, Web page hits, radio spots, race attendance figures, merchandise programs, anything and everything where you provided your sponsor with some sort of exposure. This is the physical proof, your justification that you delivered on the promises you made in your sponsorship agreement.

Put together a scrapbook with all this info to give your sponsor at the end of the race season. Plan a Sponsor Appreciation Night or Day at the Track where you can say thanks for their support. Give them a sharp looking plaque that tells them this. Just make sure they see and feel your sincere appreciation - that will go a long way when it comes to their decision to renew for the upcoming season. And if you've done all these things, they will!

Next section: Hey, What About Next Year? - Go there now!