21+ SAMPLE Racing Sponsorship Proposal in PDF | MS Word | Google Docs | Apple Pages

What Is a Racing Sponsorship Proposal?

Before we get to the racing sponsorship proposal, we need to define what is a sponsorship proposal first. A sponsorship proposal refers to a document that serves as an offer or a pitch that an individual or an organization sends to a potential sponsor (such as another individual or another organization, usually a medium or large-scale business) with the sole purpose of securing a sponsorship deal.

A racing sponsorship proposal refers to a business document that is used when a race team seeks out big companies which can be potential sponsors (such as large-scale oil and fuel companies) in order to secure a sponsorship deal for their team so they can get their operations underway (or keep the team in running order). When a racing sponsorship deal is struck, we see their logos usually displayed on the cars or motorbikes, and sometimes the sponsor’s name can be added to the team name as well, making them the team’s title sponsor (such as Ducati Lenovo Team, with Ducati being the racing team and Lenovo being the title sponsor).

What Are The Elements Of a Sponsorship Proposal?

Here are some of the common elements that can be found in a sponsorship proposal document. Take note that more elements may exist that are exclusive to that type of sponsorship.

Do’s and Don’ts for Seeking A Race Sponsorship

Since racing costs a lot of money, sponsorships are ideal for supporting a racing team’s program. Here are the things that a team must and must not do if they are to look for sponsors:

Do’s:

• Do treat your race team as a business. Contacting a sponsor for your race team is comparable to contacting a potential employer. The true request is to be part of the sponsor’s sales team. You need to keep this in mind with everything you do with regard to sponsorship.
• Do create a sponsorship proposal. Before approaching a sponsor, draft a proposal first. The proposal should include the background information of the team, a driver profile, geographical information about the racetracks, and the levels of sponsorship with pricing and items or services included.
• Do research about the company. When you approach a company and seek their sponsorship, it is important that you know what they do. In order to do so, perform thorough research. You should also have a good idea about what the sponsor’s target market is. And then, use this information to think about how you may be able to deliver the sponsor’s message.
• Do business with the potential sponsor. Doing business with a company before asking them for a potential sponsorship is a big plus and goes a very long way. It bears no sense when you start to approach a company for a potential sponsorship for your race team when you are a non-customer compared to many customers who have been doing business for a long time with them that they could easily sponsor when they approach them.

Don’ts:

• Don’t contact sponsors after business hours. An example may be seeing a sponsor active on their social media at night. Just because they are online doesn’t mean that they want to talk about pure business. If you decide to contact the business that you are seeking a sponsorship deal with, it is best that you should do it during business hours.
• Don’t look for sponsorships during trade shows. Trade shows are a time when racing businesses are focused on making sales and generating revenue. It may be a good time to see them in person, but unless foot traffic ends up being slow, don’t stop in their booth. If you do end up in their booth, keep conversations short and don’t give them any proposal because it has a high chance of being ignored or being totally thrown out.
• Don’t sell a sad story. Placing the focus on a sad story when looking for sponsorship will just detract from the main focus of seeking one – which is to make sales for the sponsor. Seeking sponsorship in this way creates an instantly uncomfortable situation for any potential sponsor who tries to read the request.

How To Create An Effective Racing Sponsorship Proposal

Here are the steps that you can take in order to make an effective racing sponsorship proposal:

1. Be Clear With Your Offers

If you’re a racing team who is planning to approach companies for a potential sponsorship, make sure that you are ready and are clear with the offers that you have in hand. The heart of your sponsorship proposal will lie in what you have for them. The sponsors would then base their decision on how you’re going to help them in exchange for their support. In this step, assess yourself and ask yourself what can you do for the sponsors in order for them to be willing to work for your racing team.

2. Perform Your Research

Sending a sponsorship proposal to a potential company that you barely know is something that you should not do. Doing this will drastically affect the quality of your sponsorship proposal. It will always pay to perform a thorough research on your potential sponsors. Observe how they conduct themselves through the classified advertisements in the newspapers or how they conduct themselves on their online content through social media. By performing thorough research on a potential sponsor, you give yourself the opportunity to customize your offers based on the data that you’ve gathered.

3. Know What You Need

It’s just as important to know what you want in a racing sponsorship deal as it is to know what you can offer. Make sure that your sponsorship proposal outlines your needs in great detail. Even if your needs seem to be a lot, it helps to lay them down and convey them simply and descriptively. Also, make a detailed checklist containing the different items that you need in the sponsorship deal. By doing this, the potential sponsor will know if they are capable of meeting your demands or if suggesting a negotiation is the better way to go.

4. Elaborate On How You Will Measure Success

The sponsorship doesn’t come to a conclusion just because all the parties involved have done their part of the bargain. More often than not, the sponsors for your racing team will be requesting for an evaluation that their sponsorship has actually resulted in something valuable. This step is something that needs input of the team’s sponsors. The team can meet with their sponsors and discuss with them their own standards of success and ask the perspective of the team sponsor. More often than not, sponsorships are rewarded with marketing exposure and the sponsors will be more than likely to gauge the success based on their increase in new customers and social media reach.

5. Perform A Follow-up

Once you’re done creating the sponsorship proposal, get it printed and send copies to the potential sponsor and keep some copies to yourself. A few days later, don’t be shy to give the potential sponsor a call and ask for their feedback on the proposal. If it goes to plan, then it will be down to the lawyers from all parties involved to sort out the smaller details of the sponsorship deal. Should a change be requested, review the parts that need changing and adjust them accordingly. But if things do not go to plan and the sponsorship proposal ends up being rejected, it doesn’t hurt to ask them why so that you can take some lessons from the experience. Asking them also ensures that you keep in touch with the potential sponsor for more opportunities that may come in the future.

FAQs

Sponsorships serve as a solid testament that businesses that work together properly can grow together and flourish better compared to their competitors. Race teams and motorsports organizations heavily rely on sponsorships, and they often need as many as they can get and not just a single sponsor. Drivers also need sponsors as well, to promote their brand and make their identity known. Sometimes a sponsor for a race team can spell the difference between long-term success or being a complete laughing stock. As stated earlier, sponsors may also outline the difference between a race team’s continued participation in the sport or their total disappearance. The same goes for drivers as well, because having sponsors nowadays may give you an advantage between securing a race seat or being on the sidelines. In this article, effective examples of a race sponsorship proposal are posted for you to use as a reference when you need to make one for your race team or for your drivers.