My 8-Step Sponsorship Wheel System: How to Land Consistent, Well-Paying Partnerships

The Sponsorship Wheel is a sales pipeline.

The concept of a sales pipeline might sound intimidating if you've never had a corporate job, but it's basically a way for businesses to track how close a prospect is to becoming a paying customer.

And most creators oversimplify what it takes to close a deal successfully.

This is how most think it works:

• A sponsorship opportunity pops into their inbox

• They negotiate on the price and the brand either says yes or no

• If yes, they produce the deliverables, then publish

But what actually happens in real life?

You get a rude awakening after sending drafts to the brand.

Instead of approving the drafts immediately, the brand returns with feedback.

"Hey, can you redo this?" they say.

And you think, "Wait a minute, I think this is good. I don't get it?"

But the brand says, "Unless you update this, we can't move forward, and we won't pay you."

So you get smart next time.

"I'm going to add language to the contract that says what type of feedback would constitute a redo."

This way, the brand can't give you an arbitrary reason to rewrite your post or reshoot a video (like they disliked the color of your shirt).

Or maybe the brand gives you an initial round of feedback, you make the changes, and then they come back with something else.

"Ugh, fine," you think.

You revise it, and then there's another round of requests.

Before you know it, you're seven rounds deep with no end in sight.

So you add language in your agreements that protects you from those scenarios.

But then the next company comes back and says, "We just don't like what you created. It's not what we had in mind."

What do you do?

Do you fight them on it?

Do you make an argument for why it's going to perform well?

That's a tricky conversation.

You know what would've been better?

Getting their buy-in ahead of time by sharing a concept of how you'll bring the partnership to life!

Some companies will ask you for this, but a lot won't, so it's your job to send them a concept to greenlight.

Now we're in business.

You create the deliverables, the brand approves them, and you finally hit publish or complete the activation.

You submit your invoice, all the annoying vendor paperwork and tax forms, and screenshots of how your work performed.

Then, a few weeks or months later, the money hits your bank account.

Woohoo! You're a Sponsor Magnet.

But wait, are you?

Why isn't the brand reaching out to work with you again? Instead, you're back at square one, hustling to convince a new brand to hire you.

The final missing step is submitting a "Post-Campaign Report" with quantitative and qualitative analyses that, critically, help the brand understand that you've uncovered new opportunities for them.

"But Justin, the brand didn't ask for that. They seemed fine with screenshots of my metrics."

The truth is that brands often don't look beyond the numbers.

It's your job to provide deeper context that the numbers simply won't explain.

Because let's face it: not every sponsorship will do well.

A lot will perform average.

Some will downright fail.

Those are the scariest ones. It's terrifying to ask a brand, "How'd it go?"

"Thanks for asking. It actually sucked." Yikes.

Now, a brand will rarely say that to your face, but the key is realizing that your analysis serves as the mechanism to pitch them on the next campaign.

Speaking of pitching, remember we jumped right into the negotiation at the beginning because the company reached out to us?

Did you consider that the company also contacted 20 other people simultaneously?

If you knew that was happening, would you have changed your approach?

Sure, you got this deal, but what about those times when you lost a deal?

Maybe you didn't correctly pitch the brand on why you were the best person for the job (amongst the 20 others they were vetting).

Let's set the record straight.

A pitch is not just when you contact a brand cold through their DMs or press email.

A pitch is not just reserved for creators at the beginning of their journeys.

Understanding how to properly craft a sponsorship pitch, whether inbound or outbound, will help brands understand why they should pay you 2x or 3x the amount others might be charging.

A pitch is also something else.

It's the grease that keeps your Sponsorship Wheel spinning.

Put another way: Every sponsorship should start AND end with a pitch.

When you submit your analysis to the brand in Step 8, you return to Step 1 and pitch them on the next collaboration.

There you have it.

My Sponsorship Wheel framework:

• Step 1: Pitch

• Step 2: Negotiate

• Step 3: Contract

• Step 4: Concept

• Step 5: Produce

• Step 6: Feedback

• Step 7: Publish

• Step 8: Analyze

We've now reached an important moment. You've given me the benefit of the doubt thus far but I know I'm still battling that skeptical voice inside you:

"I'm not an influencer…"

"I don't have a big following on social media…"

"My content/business is just too niche…"

"No brands or companies would ever want to work with me…"

I hear you. I understand you. I was you for many years.

But I'm willing to bet…

Even if you're not an 'influencer'…you do influence people.

Even if you don't have a big following…those that do follow you are extremely engaged.

Even if your business is niche…there are niche brands you can serve.

Even if it seems like no brands would ever want to work with you…have you actually asked them?

Set aside your hesitations and concerns. Suspend your disbelief.

Open your mind to a better, more abundant future for yourself and your business.

A future where you build lucrative, longer-term brand partnerships.

A future where you master pitching and pricing so you stop leaving thousands on the table.

A future where you unearth the confident negotiator inside of you.

Can you guess the step-by-step system that will make that future a reality?

The Sponsorship Wheel.