How to find sponsors

[RangerTrace]

So, I was one of the early Rudy Project Competition Squad members.  I didn't reload at the time, so all I ended up with was a nice set of shooting glasses and a couple jerseys that I had to pay for.  Probably the biggest benefit was advice from Pro Team Shooters at matches.

 

Somewhere during this time, I fell in love with Infinity pistols.  I bought one, loved them even more and posted about it everywhere.  Got a call one day from Brandon Strayer saying I was on Team Infinity.  At the time, it felt like I had won the lottery.  Free jerseys, a free pistol for every 10 pistols sold and factory support.  It was a good deal for me at the time and got me to "A" class Limited and top of the heap for DFW Limited shooters at that time.  

 

But life happens.  8 years later, I had a kid and the blue koolaide lost it's flavor. 

 

My current sponsors continue to give me huge discounts on guns and more importantly to me....ongoing support.  Free shirts too.  They understand my parenting/financial constraints and simply expect me to shoot when I can and represent them well when I do.  I'm well aware than my good fortune has a lot to do with the Cinco Peso I wear on my shirt during the week and I'm grateful for their support.   

 

  

[Smithcity]

Anyone want to turn this into a uspsa jersey for all of us that sponsor ourselves? Sorry...to easy.

 

In all seriousness, It has to come down to ROI, need to be willing to work otherwise why would anyone bother sponsoring?

[Sarge]

9 hours ago, RangerTrace said:

This is pretty close.  We qualify twice a year with all our guns.  Some agencies do it quarterly and most SWAT/SRT teams shoot monthly.

I’m sure. There are always exceptions. My experience is with a local PD when I worked for a city. Those guys drew straws to see had to go shoot a struck deer or a rabid raccoon. They literally hated to shoot, clean and do the paperwork so bad. They complained about qualifying every time they went. I was shocked.

  I shoot with another local LEO these days who is a great shooter and loves putting rounds down range but he is an anomaly.

[xdf3]

On 5/4/2019 at 9:10 AM, Frankly said:

There’s always the argument that you should invest the energy spent chasing deals and BSing online towards making more money with your day job. 

 

Buy factory ammo and have other people tune your guns so you spend more of your shooting time shooting rather than doing ancillary tasks.

 

I bet you can earn more in an extra hour at work than you would save dicking around with less than critical gun talk.

Paying 3-4 times as much would be the most stupid idea I could have, as I explained before. Reloading is a must at the moment. And I've heard of probably 0 out of 1000 shooters using factory ammo here in Italy, in IPSC. 

 

Even if I had a lot of money, there would still be few options for factory ammo here.

[tacomandood]

Anyone want to turn this into a uspsa jersey for all of us that sponsor ourselves? Sorry...to easy.

Lmao I’m gonna send this to Techwear right now and see what they can do about one of these.

[Maximis228]

Just now, tacomandood said:

 

Lmao I’m gonna send this to Techwear right now and see what they can do about one of these.

 

 

Thats already been done by a few.

[tacomandood]

Even better! Then you don’t have to pay draft and sketchup fees since they already have it designed lol.

[fishhunter3]

I enjoy the shooting sports to much to think about sponsors, I spent years fishing tournaments with several  sponsors, Never bought a rod or a reel or line got trolling motors for next to nothing and had a very good relationship with a boat and a motor  Mfg,  but spent more time and effort doing other things besides fishing for them, sure I was paid, but not much to do sport shows but had to stock shelfs and set up displays, for dealers, and getting loaned out to there disturbers. In the end it just gets to be another job. Sponsors don't care what or how well you do in your sport they do care about how you can make them money,  so unless you are Rob, Max or Jerry add the few others, you're better of to just wear match shirts or ones with sponsored by ME or Mom and Dad 

[Dutchman195]

Rowdy said it best, like 5 times on here. So this is more of a food for thought post.

 

There is no money in competitive shooting. A company makes probably the same selling to the weekend warrior as selling to a competitive shooter. I get a cases of bullet, but the guy who buys a box of 250 at a higher price (no qty discount) and then gets murdered on shipping, net profit is the same. 

How many USPSA shooters are there? 35k? How many people take their gun to the range once a month and pay 30 dollars for 100 rounds + range time? 

 

As said, you have to be good at selling. being a sponsored person is being a sales person. You need to somehow prove to a company via business proposal how your going to make them more money. How do you do that? brand awareness on Social media? Organize range days with their products at ranges? Travel to events to solely promote product? Whens the last time you made a sales call to a potential buyer, and then did you submit your call notes?

Is your Facebook worth annoying the piss out of your friends to continually post adds about this or that? I heard a study one time that ever 3000 clicks on a website nets in a sale. So can you somehow direct 30k people to a website to selling 10 more items a year?

 

All the above absolutely turns shooting into a job. Just did your 40hrs M-F, well now you gotta go make sales calls, and then dry fire, then gym, then go practice. Because they aren't going to sponsor someone who doesnt win. 

 

On top of all that, what are you requesting as a sponsorship? Where in the below are they going to help you?

Heres a rough budget

4 matches a month @ 25 bucks = 100 

Gas (2 tanks) = 150
2k rounds a month = 300

1 Major a month = 250

Hotel for major 120

Food for major = 50

Ammo load time (clean + load) 1.5hrs per k = $30/hr = 60 a month

 

Thats 1000 a month. x 12 = $12,000 a year. 

 

 

For a full ride sponsor I would imagine you need to now tell them your going to earn them 60k in new business annually for them to even consider it.  

[Mikeski]

 

As someone who has been sponsored before, in a different arena, I'd like to throw my experience in the ring. 

 

Back when I was a golf professional, one of the reasons I was sponsored was due to the fact that my shop did a ton of equipment and merchandise sales with this particular company. They made up close to 80% of my sales. On an average year we would do close to 200k a year in total sales. So any company who is looking to sponsor someone is looking at this as a way to spend advertising dollars, to maximize their return. If you look at Rudy Project, they are not making their money on the shooting sports. They are focusing on Cyclists and Triathletes, cause that's where their audience is. 

 

Now I will admit I wear the tech wear shirts cause I like the way they feel, especially down here in Florida. I wear the logo of our local gun club to help promote them, but I also wear two other ones on my shirts. Atlas Gunworks and Precision Delta. Now I do use an Atlas open gun and use Precision Delta's in my reloads, but I don't get anything extra from either one of them, but I think they both are great examples of customer service and have been very helpful to me. So I like to help support businesses like this. 

 

I think that the way most of these companies in the shooting world do the contingency is the best way they get the most out of their dollars. If you were to compare USPSA to golf, both are equipment and accessory heavy. There are just more people golfing than shooting in USPSA. 

 

Ok so I will stop my rant now, but if the OP would like some help with getting sponsorship let me know. I have helped a few players get sponsorship for mini tours and can work with you on letters. Just keep in mind that you will need to show value for what you can do to help the company sell product, cause at the end of the day thats what it's all about. 

[Dustbuster1]

Best way to find sponsors is to buy a set of boobs, and look hot at big events!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sarge]

7 hours ago, Dustbuster1 said:

Best way to find sponsors is to buy a set of boobs, and look hot at big events!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And shoot to about a C level.

[wixthedog]

On 5/4/2019 at 9:29 AM, Frankly said:

 

I figure a lot of the people in 3G are self-employed small business owners, six-figure incomes... so that hour would be finding new clients, sales, designing, something significant. But if they're not making that kind of money then they're single. Ain't nobody doing this working lousy jobs with a family (and doing it right on any aspect). 

 

 

 

On 5/4/2019 at 5:20 PM, elguapo said:

 

I'm glad you know everyone's finances so well.  I should hire you.

 

That's actually quite accurate.  3 Gun Show did a poll a while back and the biggest employment was self employed and engineering.  It was not a very scientific pole but there was a good amount of participation.

 

Best way to get a sponsor?  Be someone who others want to squad with.

[shred]

A little late, but as someone that's been on both sides of this coin, the truth is up there. ^^^

 

For a 'real' sponsorship deal (it's pretty common for people in the industry to flip an enthusiastic shooter some stuff to get them going, but that's a different thing)

 

Sponsors are in it for advertising.  Unless they are your buddy and need a tax writeoff, they need a return on that nvestment.  That is hard to generate, and even harder to document.

 

Margins suck ass in this industry, especially on hard-goods, so if a sponsor gives you $100, if you don't generate another $1000 more value to them than they would have otherwise, it's a loser (btw, the same is true of match sponsorships, MDs take note).  It's no surprise a lot of sponsorship comes in the form of discounts and promo codes.  They can be tracked and aren't as bad a hit to the bottom line.

 

But... on the plus side, if you are a good brand ambassador and you can move product, you don't have to be the best shooter in 500 miles, or have the nicest body.  You do have to be friendly and helpful and go out of your way to help other shooters, especially the newbies that might not yet know about every single competition shooting product already.

 

[Chuck Anderson]

Sounds like you are in Italy.  Which might change the dynamic a bit.  There are a lot less companies in Europe involved in the shooting sports than in the US.  Your pool is significantly smaller.  My first sponsorships came from products I was already using.  I didn't go out and seek the sponsors, they came to me.  Early on it was in the form of free product and the occasional match entry.  I've had a few that paid cash, but it's rare.  Usually those sponsors are either new to sponsoring shooters and don't realize we area  crappy investment, or there was a significant return for them in some other way.  Crimson Trace was my biggest for awhile, but I also ran their match for three years and they were pretty happy with it.  I doubt they would have given me the time of day if not for that.  

 

Shoot matches, be a good person.  Help your squad, help the new guys, be the shooter people want to squad with.  If you use something a lot, and like it, ask the owner if they can help you out a bit.  Be prepared to answer the question of how it will benefit them.  If the answer is that it won't, don't be surprised if they say no.  Don't waste your time looking for sponsorship from companies you don't use.  You'll find yourself not liking the product, that shows through and you'll get a rep as the guy who just shoots whatever he gets paid for.  Then nobody wants you.