Find a small sponsor - locally!
When we think of a sponsor we often forget the small sponsor. In our minds we have the multinationals like McDonalds, CocaCola, SonyEricsson, Vodafone, BMW, Nestlé and all the rest.
I've seen many a small sponsor get involved in tennis, especially at club level, but also for individual players. It could be sponsoring one tournament circuit, and paying €500 for a few weeks. The sponsor could support a player by just giving him a sum of say €2000, and letting him spend it how he wants!
Generally speaking, for workouttennis.com players, we need to make it clear that this article is about individual, private, tennis sponsorship. Very few players at our level have access to large group monies that they are able to spend freely on academy tennis.
In the picture below you'll see a sponsor's logo in the background. Don't underestimate the work that goes into putting up a banner. Most sponsorships of this type, technically a sponsorship of prize money at a pro tournament, involve a minimum of a five year contract, additional expenditure and expertise on back-up marketing, and linking up essentially with the company's strategic plan.
Stellar
Happily a small sponsor is not as complicated as this!
The best way to get started is to go through our checklist, and to look at an example. Here's one of the smallest private, individual, sponsorships I put together.
A potential sponsor for an individual tennis player has usually done sponsorship before. They have already done, at least, something small and undemanding, like provide shirts for a team. It'll cost a few hundred €, they'll have been able to get close to the players and club involved during that period. They will have generated some direct publicity from it, probably one article per week in the local press in the match season, and a few others off-season, more particularly referring to individual players, or general events for the group. In my experience, these sponsorships are very easy to achieve and justify. They are cheap, useful and simple. The players profit from the sponsor largely in the feelgood factor. It generates team spirit, continuity and support, all of these essential for a tennis group. If you haven't been part of a sponsored group your club is failing you!
Clubs need a small sponsor portfolio
A small sponsor I liked working with in Germany was a company which employed about thirty people, and they made metal components for the computer hardware industry. Absolutely nothing to do with tennis! The company however had international and regional customers, was by no means the biggest company in its little region, but they had huge premises that were visible from a very busy motorway! The company director was a hobby tennis player who enjoyed the social events down at the club. His real love was soccer, but he was sponsoring that already! He had two boys who played both soccer and tennis, but both boys were, like their father, not particularly serious players.
The turning point came after I had been two years at the club. The company boss was delighted about everything that my coaching and team organisation had delivered. Let me stress, I had no personal financial link to the sponsor whatsoever, nor a contract. The club had nothing in writing either. It was all on a handshake. The only way that I profited was that my team turned up in the same kit, and they played for each other. A great plus!
Deal
Over a beer, the boss said to me, "you have some fantastic juniors here. Let me know if any individual needs help with anything, and we'll have a look at it." I told you sponsorship was easy!
Of course I had several players who merited sponsorship. Choosing the right player is dealt with in another article.
Sponsorships fit well to tennis
A few days later I had chosen my player. I went back to the sponsor, and offered to buy him yet another beer. We sat down together and established a few details. These are those details : -
. The player must have a two year schedule. If the player stops, or pauses, for whatever reason, the sponsorship for him stops, or pauses.
. The sponsorship is transferable to another player.
A tennis player has responsibilities
. The schedule is outlined, but is quite fixed. It involves some local and regional competition.
. There is an objective. In this case it was to get this player onto the Regional ranking lists. This would have been the first time that any player from this club had been on any ranking list, at any age group. It is normally only the big clubs that achieve this.
. There is a budget. In this case the sponsor was to help with coach fees, transport and accommodation. The total package was for around €3000 per year. For this business this was the cost of his cheapest employee for just one month! It was nothing.
Everyone is on a goalset
. There was an option to increase the budget on the second year, if certain objectives were achieved in the first year.
. A bill would be delivered to the sponsor by the tennis academy, for direct coaching costs. This of course would be set off against tax.
. All other related bills would be kept, and also set off, by the sponsor, against tax. In the total budget there is almost no wastage! No loss of cash in fact!
Sponsors like tennis academies!
. The coach was to co-ordinate some basic feedback to the sponsor, and to issue some timely press reports and photos.
. No additional advertising programme would be put in place by the sponsor. He was banking on, through word of mouth, developing a reputation as a supporter of talented youth.
. The player was to remain under the auspices of the tennis academy. To change coach, he would have to lose this sponsorship.
Basic marketing ideas for tennis players
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