Write Proposal Deliverables a Sponsor Can Sign

A sponsorship proposal is not a brochure. It is the first draft of a contract. When a larger company decides to sponsor you, its lawyers often lift the deliverables straight out of your proposal and paste them into the back of the agreement, the part usually called Schedule A. Whatever you wrote becomes what you owe.

That changes how you should write it. The deck can be big and colorful. The proposal has to be specific enough that both sides know, line by line, what was promised and whether it got done. Here is how the brands who sign these documents want them written.

Specific and measurable, or it doesn't count

Ben Dolan, VP of marketing at VP Racing Fuels, has a clear picture of the proposal he wants after a deck has started the conversation. "The proposal that I'm expecting to see would be specific deliverable through the year. How frequently are you going to be committed to posting? What kind of content are you going to be getting us? Will you do five videos across three of our products, or three videos across five of our products?" he said at my Motocross Sponsorship Summit. "I really need to see specific, measurable." ▶ Watch Ben Dolan explain this

He wants it that way because he has seen vague deals fall apart at renewal. "What's happened historically is we hear a lot on the front end, and you get to the end of the season and it's time for renewal. And you say, well, what'd you do this year? I'm looking at my Hookit numbers and you underperformed on Hookit." When he pressed those racers, the answer was usually that he never asked them for anything. Dolan's view is that a sponsored racer is part of the team and should be bringing ideas to the brand all season. "I'm expecting them to bring the opportunity to us throughout the season to add additional value, not wait for a phone call, because we're just too busy to be tracking down to that level, each person." ▶ See the full clip

Written deliverables protect you from that conversation. If the proposal says six videos and you made six, nobody can tell you that you did nothing.

Pitch one idea, with a date and a price

James Ort, who works in BRP's sponsorship department and has read proposals "probably in the thousands," gets frustrated by pitches that never get to the point. "I hate when someone hits us up and they're like, hey, I'd love to partner with you guys. I'm like, all right, what do you got?" he said at the Off-Road Sponsorship Summit. "Hit me with a very specific idea, like I want to do this content piece at this location, this date, here's what it's going to cost, and here's what I need from you. The more specific you can be in that pitch, the better." ▶ Watch James Ort on this

That sentence is a template for every line in a proposal: what you will do, where, when, what it costs and what you need from the sponsor to make it happen.

Spell out every logo and every activity

Megan Meyer, the two-time NHRA world champion who writes proposals for her own team and for other racers, describes the proposal as a plain Word document with no pictures, just "a list of all the different deliverables and exactly what you are going to do." She means exactly. "I've had ones done where I'm including, I'm going to put your logo on the car and it's going to be 10 inches wide... and it's going to go on this panel and this panel, and I'm going to have a three-inch logo on my fire suit, and two on my helmet, and on the trailer. You can get very specific with it," she said. ▶ Watch the Decks & Proposals session

Logos are only the start. At the Drift Sponsorship Summit she listed what else belongs on the page: "How many appearances are you going to do? Are you going to be doing any sampling? Are you going to do any lead generation? Are you going to be doing any social media posts for them? Lay out everything that you are promising to deliver to this company in return for what it is you're asking from them, whether that's funding, products, service, discounts, or all the above." ▶ Watch Megan Meyer on proposals

To know which of those to include, you need to know what the company has planned. Meyer's advice is to hold meetings before you write. "What campaigns do we have coming out next year? Is there certain products you're going to promote? You need to have meetings with the companies to figure all of that information out, and then list it in a proposal that you both sign." ▶ See the full session

Write it to their plan, and keep it short

Tony Yorkman, who ran sponsorships at K&N Engineering for years, told my Motorsports Sponsorship Summit that he used to rewrite most of the proposals he was interested in. "Nine times out of 10, we would rework the whole proposal that came from the person that I actually had the interest in, to fit my plan," he said. "It wasn't that they weren't capable of doing it... but I didn't see that because they didn't know what my plan was yet." ▶ Watch Tony Yorkman explain this

So find out the plan first, then write to it, and don't pad it. Yorkman wants a proposal that is "more concise, not too much fluff, easy to read, and allows you to take that next step." ▶ Watch the clip

Megan Meyer puts it even more simply: "A proposal is just a very simple business plan. It's basically, it just says this is what you're going to do and what they are going to do." ▶ Watch Megan Meyer on this

Promise only what you will actually do

Because the proposal can become a contract, every line is a commitment. Meyer has watched racers cut corners on deliverables because they assumed nobody was checking, figuring that a company that doesn't go to the track will never see it. They do check. "Once you said, hey, I'm going to be doing five social media posts about your company and this certain product, well, maybe you only ended up doing four and you didn't do that fifth one. Well, that could cause for them to not renew with you," she said. "Just make sure that you don't overpromise on the deliverables, but making sure that you can over-deliver." ▶ Watch the drift session

One attendee at that session shared a simple fix: put every deliverable and its due date on your calendar the day the deal is signed. It's on the team to execute, not on the sponsor to remind you.

Ben Dolan added one more promise that belongs in every proposal, even if it never appears as a line item. He wants proof "that it's your focus, not your hobby. And that when we sponsor you, you're not gonna turn around and be off focusing elsewhere, that we're still gonna be a priority for you for that season. We're gonna get the kind of love that we need, and you're gonna fulfill the contract." ▶ Watch the session

What else goes on the page

Beyond deliverables, a complete proposal should cover the business terms a lawyer will look for: the length of the deal (usually a season or a year), who your current sponsors are, whether the new sponsor gets exclusivity in its product category, and what you expect in return, whether that's cash, product, discounts or a mix. I also like to show how part of the sponsor's money will go back into promoting the sponsor, because it tells them you think like a marketing partner. For how to put numbers on each line, see Pricing the Deliverables in Your Proposal.

The takeaway

• Write every deliverable as a number, a place and a date. Five videos across three products is a deliverable. Content is not.
• Meet with the brand before you write, so the deliverables match its campaigns and new products.
• Include activities, not just logos: appearances, sampling, lead generation, social posts.
• Keep it short and plain. A Word document is fine.
• Only promise what you can do, then put every deliverable on your calendar and over-deliver.