Hi Guys,

If your business is anything like mine then barely a day goes by where you don't get the "I'm really good and you need to sponsor me" email sitting in your inbox.

I do sponsor a small team of anglers who compete regularly in competitions up and down the east coast but the competing side is not the most important thing to me when selecting who is going to rep my business the most impotant aspects are 1/they present and speak very well 2/ they have a respected profile online 3/ thier knowledge in a particular aspect of angling fills any gaps in my knowledge.

I found this artical from Bradley Sissens at Diawa who gives his criteria here [lureandfly.com] .

I really believe that getting a solid pro-staff together can really drive your business, but do it wrong and your in a boat load of trouble.

Any thaughts on criteria that may be missed here?

Cheers

Mark Newcombe
Old Bar NSW
Australia
markscustomfishing.com
American Tackle Pro-Staff

I have two pro staff and everything you said is pretty much key! I have seen other companies prostaff say and do things that are not what I would want. One thing that must be watched is Pros taking product that you gave them to try or use and sell it out of their car trunk. This does two things makes your company look cheap, shady what ever, as well as undercut any dealer you have. Protecting your dealer is as important as him selling your product. Any dealer who finds out a rep for your company is taking money out of his pocket i would I have to guess you will hear about it as will other dealers!!

most pro staffers don't under stand that "pro" stands for "promotional" not professional.

I staff for some folks and the bottom line is you don't need guys who are really good at fishing, you need respected guys that will do their best to promote your business and do it for "sponsorship benefits" rather than pay. Too many people just want the discount, the freebies, the stickers on the boat, the patches on the jersey etc. They don't do you any good.

Good Prostaffers are like good employees - only harder to find.

Regards,
-Justin

Too much promotional and not enough professional effort can be a bad thing. A few years ago one of the fishing clubs I belong to hired a very well known Lake Michigan based Tournament team to give a day long seminar on advanced trolling techniques. What we ended up with was a day long sales add for each and every company that sponsored them. The consensus among the members afterwards was it was a very bad event. Years later, people still talk about negatively and that negativity translates over somewhat to the sponsoring companies.

The goal may be to promotionally represent a company, but first and foremost it should be done in a professional way.