Found at: http://www.rallystar.co.za/article/articleprint/756/-1/68/

It's that dreaded time again!

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Author: Leon Botha

Publishing date: 05.02.2003 05:21

Leon Botha
Going all the way to get a sponsor!

Roll up ladies and gentleman, companies, corporations, bring your wallets, chequebooks, budget cards and whatever valid method of payment you prefer “Its sponsorship time”

That time of the year you told us all to get back to you, as August last year was too early, or too late, depending on the mode you were in.

Well here we are as you requested, back in February, the ideal time for you to take a positive decision.

“Hello, can I help you?” “Yes thank you, I would like to speak to the marketing manager or person who handles your advertising and sponsorships?” trrrrrrrrrr…….. “Hello,hello, ……..”

“Hello Dunster, Wunster and Munster, how may I help you?” Shit this is a nice one? Sounds better than the previous one. “Hi there, may I speak to your Marketing manager?” (This time determined not to reveal the fact that you are looking for a sponsor) “May I ask what is it in connection with?” “Ag no, its sommer nothing. I would just like to talk to him about it” silence for about ten seconds “Is this in connection with sponsorship?” “Ag no man, not really, its sort of but not really! Please put me through, you won’t be sorry?” trrrrrrrrrrrr………

Leon Botha
Even the biggest and the best can loose sponsors suddenly! Ford running the RS design only in Monte Carlo

Ok, new approach. “Hi there, I am from the “Tata ma chance loose ma money” place and would like to speak to your marketing manager” “Huh? I this Leon Schuster?” “No its Leon Botha” trrrrrrrrrrrrrrr………

“Hello, may I help you” Yes, this is your local hero. Rally ace Botha. I would like to offer my services, my Subaru, my life, and that of my dear navigator who you might have heard of……..” “Ok, so you are the guys who forks left, and forks right?” “Yes, that’s us!” (So glad you eventually got through to someone who knows the game) “That right? So why don’t you fork off?” trrrrrrrrrrrrrr……….

Does this sound familiar?

Don’t worry we do have sympathy with you. We sure as hell have tried almost everything in the past, every gimmick in the book, every trick to get into the office of the guy who is supposed to help, every trick just to get past the person on the switchboard, let alone the big man's secretary.

One of the funniest stories was when my wife, went to see the CEO of a well-known engineering company after we spoke to him over the phone about a 100 times.

When she entered his office, he felt so familiar after all the phone calls, he jumped up eagerly and before she could say a word he kissed her saying “goeie middag mevrou” and sat down blushing for about two minutes, realising his mistake. Needless to say, she walked out of his office with a cheque that could at least keep us going in the Toyota Corolla for the Castrol rally (1983).

Through the years it was not strange to see us cutting out names of sponsors by hand, while other teams slept already the night before an event. We collected cheques on our way to rallies from people who made promises over the phone and interesting enough, in most cases kept them.

When trying to obtain sponsors, if you are white, they have invested in affirmative action programs, if you are black they gave their whole budget to some other worthy cause. If you participate in rallying, they sponsor only racing, and when you say you will race, they meant horseracing. If you are a man, it is a woman they want, if you are a woman, they are into gay movements. If you are a single competitor, they only sponsor teams, and if you are a team, they have burnt their fingers before or it’s too expensive. If you say, don’t worry, you do not have to give us the whole amount, they say that they are a funny company, it’s either all, or nothing. They don’t share.

Leon Botha
It should read: Amateur rally driver - you should see the professionals

Who is the most heard of person you will never meet?

You don’t know? Easy – its the bad person from a partnership deal who got away with all the money. It's the guy who left leaving his poor partner with all the debt.
The person you will meet (usually when you do not have the time to listen to his sad story) is the poor chap who was left stranded, and in debt.

The same goes for “perfect timing” – the only perfect timing that exists is when you drive through your gate, and unwanted guests, or the sheriff stops on the other side blocking your way, to hand you a summons from the receiver or the traffic department.

You will never hear the words, “Thank you for asking us for a sponsorship, your timing is perfect. We are at the moment drawing up the budget and did not know what to do with R500 000. Please sit down sir, would you like some coffee, tea, or shall we celebrate with a bit of champagne, while they make out the cheque?”

You must always remember to phone the previous month, or previous week and in delicate cases the day before.

Ok, so how do you work this out? Say you decide on the 3rd of February 2003 to phone some company to try and get an appointment to discuss the merit of a sponsorship. Now, did that sound important, or not?

Then you must remember to be able to get the sponsorship, you will have to reset the clock to the 3rd of January to combat the “if only you phoned last month” story, then take away another week, this is of course to counter the “oh my, you are just a week late” which will bring you to the 27th of December and then you take away one more day to also beat them on the “only yesterday” issue.

If you do manage to get back in time, you will discover that they are closed on the 26th of December, either for Boxing Day, or for the December holidays.

The second problem is that the person, or actually the only person you can speak to will only be back from Australia, Mauritius, Spain, the Swiss Alps or some other exotic place where he or she is attending a business conference, next week.

“Great, so can we set up a meeting?” “Oh no, impossible. He (or she) will be too busy catching up, so I can only set up a meeting for the 10th of March.” “Yes, but you see the Rally Season starts on the 8th of March already” “Ag shame man, we would have liked to help you, but seeing that we will be too late – ag I am soooooo sorry!” Ok, bye….” Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…….

Worse scenario’s is when they say:
“We need something on paper” This actually means they do need some scrap paper, or they are on a restricted toilet paper budget, or it is the easiest way to get rid of you.

The least expensive way not to be read is to e-mail the goodies. Make sure to use a catchy line, as this will be the closest you get to be read. “Re:The claim for the damage on my car” or "Re:your dog that bit me", or something that will at least have an adverse effect on the person forcing them to open the mail. Problem is that they will either be so relieved, or de moer in, that they will delete your e-mail immediately.

After having said all this, what do you do to get some money from sponsors? We all know that there are definitely some huge sponsors walking around out there; there must be some company that would like to get their name onto a rally, off-road or racing car?

There are no fixed or really proven general methods, although there are some persons who really manage to get serious sponsorship money. Some of the saddest things to hear is the prize money involved in sport such as Golf, Tennis, Rugby, cricket and so many other compared to what we do not get, for in many cases much better entertainment, and to much bigger crowds.

There are a few names in South Africa who did make some money from motorsport, but if I say they are few, really far and in between, I am not lying. Fact is that 99% of the time it cost the competitor money to participate.

Have you ever been asked: “What do you get out of it” or “Gee, that’s nice, how much did you get for the win?” only to look down at you slightly worn shoes, admitting that, that tiny cup made of pure plastic cost you R20 000?

What must you then do, to obtain some assistance? We at RallyStar® will do our best to tell you more in the next few articles of this short series.

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