Building Your Slowpitch Dynasty!

This is part one in an extended series of articles detailing the steps of forming your own slowpitch softball team.

As a sports marketing specialist, who managed sponsorship opportunities as the National Promotions Manager for  DeMarini Sports, is currently a consultant for tournament and league directors, owner of a  sports business, and who enjoyed many years of my own successful teams, I have acquired specific knowledge that I would like to share with you, the loyal Yo! OTC Raps reader.

The off season has arrived for much of the country, time to hang up the cleats, oil up the glove and put the sticks away for the winter. It’s also a good time to reflect on the year just completed. You had a good individual season, the best you’ve had as a matter of fact. The work you put into your game is really paying off. You played a lot of ball for a few different teams, none which proved to have all the pieces to dominate. You’ve been thinking about putting together your own squad. Hey, how hard is it? Cherry-pick all the best guys from the teams you played for this season, get them on one team and sit back and watch as this steamroller flattens the opposition.(Insert evil laugh) Whoa, hold up there big guy, great teams just don’t happen, you need to put in the work long before the squad ever sees the field. The good news is that with some prudent decisions, effort and planning your goals are within reach.

So you are ready to get this ball rolling, where to start? Before you can begin forming a team you need to make some decisions. What is your goal in having a team? Do you want to play with your friends and family in a league? Do you want to play tournaments, locally or make a run at one of the World championships? Deciding what your goals are is going to affect how you build your team. If you want to play with your friends and family, that’s cool, if they are talented enough to go where you want to go. If not, it’s better to save yourself the grief and not have to cut all your friends and family. I’ll cover player selection in more detail later in the series.

First let’s talk finances. Is your team going to be self-funded or are you going to seek sponsorship? You will likely find that your ability to recruit quality players will be enhanced if you have some sponsor money to work with as some players are going to gravitate towards the most advantageous situation for them. Having the team fund their own team can work, but it generally works better with a tight group of players that have played together a while and not so much with a newly formed team. I would suggest instituting a player fee no matter what your team’s financial status is, even if it is a relatively token amount of let’s say $40.00 per player. I like a player fee for the reason that it signifies a level of individual commitment and an investment in the team.

Finding a sponsor

I will admit this is not the best time to be looking for a sponsor. Businesses are being forced to tighten the strings where ever they can. This just means that you have to better prepared than the others that are asking. It can help to get your foot in the door by having some sort of connection to the potential sponsor. Think about the people that you know and deal with everyday. Brainstorm and make a list. If you have any team members have them help too. Start with the shotgun approach and narrow it down and don’t be discouraged by rejections.

Every few months, I see posted on the softball message boards someone asking for a sponsor letter that they can use. This is great if you are looking for ideas. But if you are just planning to change the name and send it off, you should probably just save yourself the stamp. If this is indicative of the degree of effort that you are willing to put out, it is probably reflective of the effort that you are going to put out to help the sponsor. A form letter is not the answer, put some work in brother! Using someone else’s letter is no way to stand out. Even if writing is not your forte’ you probably know someone that can help organize your ideas on paper.

Your best chance of success is going to be by talking with a decision maker face to face. This should be your goal. Second best is speaking to someone on the phone, followed up with either a letter or e-mail. Be prepared, make an outline and practice what you are going to say.  You have one chance to make a first impression. It is likely that the person that you are speaking with is busy and may have a multitude of sponsorship requests to consider. They want the facts to make a decision quickly.  You would be surprised, that when I was with DeMarini, how many sponsorship requests that I received that utilized the first paragraph of the letter to explain to me how DeMarini could benefit there team. This was an immediate signal to me that the writer did not get it, and any return on our investment with this team would be an uphill battle. These hit the circular file within seconds. I had no shortage of opportunities to spend my promotional budget, I needed to be confident that I could justify that any money spent would result in an increase in business.

Every team is going to offer putting the business name on the shirt or naming your team after the sponsor. These elements should be included, they should be assumed by the sponsor too. You need to be more creative. Think of what differentiates your team from the dozens of others asking for something.  Put yourself in the shoes of the potential sponsor by asking yourself, if you were the owner of the business how would sponsoring this team benefit my business? What do I have to potentially gain by sponsoring? The answers are going to be different depending on the business. It is your task to determine what is going to be most important to a specific sponsor and how are you and your team going to fulfill that need.

Here are some common sponsor goals:

•    Enhancing Image/Shaping Consumer Attitudes
•    Driving Sales
•    Creating positive publicity/heightening visibility
•    Differentiating from competitors
•    Helping with good “Corporate Citizen” role

While this is not the easiest time to secure a team sponsorship, there are still opportunities out there for those that put in the time and effort. Keep in mind that a business has many choices on how to spend their marketing dollars, it is up to you to convince someone that you and your team is worth the investment. The single most important thing that you need to do when trying to get a business to sponsor you is to keep in mind, that you need to emphasize above all else what you and your team can do to help increase the potential sponsor’s business.

Next post I will offer an example or two of mutually beneficial sponsorships that should assist you with coming up with ideas on how to best present your case.

Until then, keep crushing the ball with bad intentions!