The Fundamentals of Sports Media and Sponsorship Sales: Developing New Accounts Sales are the backbone of support for both media rights and sponsorship. PricewaterhouseCooper is forecasting that these same two revenue sources will grow to $37 billion annually by 2018. In 2009, sponsorship and sports media rights produced just north of $20 billion. In today's general environment of restrained growth, sports revenue continues to outpace the expansion of many mainstream industries. Because of these projections, there will be an accelerated need to find and train best-in-class sports sellers over the next score of years. Cold calling is not only the soul and fiber of effective selling, it’s the lifeblood of its success. Once landing their first jobs, budding sports sellers invariably begin at the bottom rung, fighting in the trenches for new business. The Fundamentals of Sports Media and Sponsorship Sales: Developing New Accounts is a tutorial in narrative form that provides practical step-by-step instruction on how to develop new sponsors and advertisers. There's guidance covering the gamut from getting organized, identifying prospects, preparing for the first conversation, commanding the room when presenting a proposal and closing a piece of business. Sports sellers don't have it easy. They're repeatedly shot down and they constantly deal with phone calls that are unreturned and emails that are unanswered. There are enough emotional challenges to weaken the resolve of even the best seller. As such, the text is chock-full of motivational suggestions and stimulating success stories. The book provides counseling to help sellers maintain their emotional equanimity through the crucibles that they tackle daily. As such, there are chapters on what sellers can learn from great leaders and many tips and tricks to get through gatekeepers and other obstacles. There are also interviews with some twenty sponsors who share their views on a variety of subjects including how new sports sponsorship opportunities are best presented to them and what they consider to be aggravating behavior by sellers. Whether it's the chief marketing officer of Wal-Mart or the sponsorship head of MasterCard, the guidance they share is precious. The last chapter covers inspiring cold call successes including the three greatest in sports history; the sale of the naming rights to Barclays for the arena in Brooklyn, the NASCAR sale to Nextel for the naming rights to its cup series and most recently, the multi-million dollar sale by a relative newcomer to the business to Moda Healthcare, covering the naming rights to the Rose Garden in Portland. As a result of this achievement, the seller, Uzma Rawn, was selected to Forbes' top 30 under 30 in the sports space. In other words, effective cold calling is the springboard to heralded success and often riches!