The Road to Sponsorship

By John McBride

Firstly, let me just say that I have no aspirations left for becoming a successful snooker player. I had my chance & partied instead, like a good’un. Besides, I wasn’t good enough anyway!

Now to my point. I’ve entered the World Seniors qualifying, because I like to party. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to also see if I could get sponsorship. Not that I was looking for money from a sponsor, but to see what charities were out there, that I respected, seeing if I could reach a win-win situation with them. I found one, at the first time of asking. They are http://www.prisonersabroad.org.uk/

I approached these good people, explaining what I was doing, when I was doing it & where I was doing it. I explained that I’d do the following for them…

1. Distribute their leaflets at the venue & anywhere else that I could.

2. Wear their logo on my waistcoat at the event while playing (World Snooker have to approve beforehand).

3. Do all I can to promote their profile in the best & most professional way that I can.

4. Take pictures of me playing with their logos on, including sending pictures of me to them while I’m distributing leaflets too.

5. Do an interview with them, that they will be publishing on their website, explaining why I chose Prisoners Abroad & why I have nothing but admiration for them & the work that they do.

And in return?

1. Send me a couple of T-Shirts that I will wear when I’m practising.

2. I promised to wear the T-Shirt when I arrive at the venue the day before, along with a T-Shirt for my son who’ll be accompanying me too, bless him.

3. To put a footnote on the aforementioned interview explaining that companies can contact John if they are interested in sponsoring me in future events.

I met with these good people & we have agreed to all of the above to be carried out in good faith, & both of us have agreed that this is a win-win situation for both of us.

Now, no money is changing hands. However, as you’ll have read above, I’ve got more opportunity to receive sponsorship in the future if I so wish than if I’d done nothing.

The bottom line is, that companies will not sponsor anyone these days unless it is clear & evident what they’ll receive in return. If there are players reading this who are looking for sponsorship & need help with how they approach companies, then please let me know & I will help you by putting business cases together for you, which we can present to prospective sponsors outlining our proposal(s) & I’ve also a couple of ideas on what measurements we can put in place with prospective clients which will reflect the benefits that they’ll receive once sponsorship has been received.

Now, if any players out there are interested, I ask you first of all to think about the above, which is the start, then, if interested, contact me. I can’t promise that I’ll put money in your pockets, however what I can promise you is my help. What do I want/get out of all this? Simply put, I want to help class Irish snooker players doing what they know how to do best, which is playing snooker in professional tournaments & get them climbing that ladder.

Give it some thought, what have you got to lose, apart from time?

To contact John follow him on Twitter @JohnMcBrideIRE