Sponsors

Sponsors are the most important area in GPRO. The difference between being successful in Elite and not being successful in Elite is the knowledge of the sponsor system.

1) What to look in a sponsor?

The 2 stats I always look for in a sponsor are finance and negotiation. Finance for obvious reason -- they offer more money, and I have found that sponsors with high negotiation stat tend to be a bit more flexible in their negotiations and tend to offer a good sponsorship amount

2) Which sponsor to select?

I always select sponsors whose attributes match what I want to do next season. There is little point in selecting a sponsor with high expectations if you are not going to be doing well when he is sponsoring you (there are ways you can get away with selecting those sponsors as I am doing right now, but you can figure that out by yourself). Also take a look at the total estimated negotiation of that sponsor. If some manager is already on a sponsor, do not start negotiations with them unless you are confident you will get good positions and finish negotiations before the other manager.

3) Giving answers to the sponsors' questions

I always tell sponsors what they want to hear rather the truth because that tends to give better sponsorships. I now know exactly how to get away with lying to the sponsors without them threatening to leave you. However until you figure that out, it is important to select the sponsor which suits you and your plans the most.

Also note, there is a question that says:

"What are your plans for next season?" (or something similar to that) with options such as:

1) Championship
2) Promotion/Top 4
3) Mid table
4) Lower table
5) Relegate with lot of cash.

This is one of the most misleading question in sponsor negotiations. The sponsor is not actually asking your plans for next season. He is asking what sort of results you are going to get for the entire time they are sponsoring you.

Here's a scenario: If I am in rookie this season and I have a sponsor, to whom I have told that I will be promoting next season, and I manage to finish negotiations with him on 16th race of the season. The contract is (say) of 27 races.

So, now I go to amateur, and I consistently score high positions and even manage to promote. At the end of amateur season, the sponsor still has 10 races left on his contract.

Now, I am in Pro with the sponsor still active. At this point, I don't manage to get good enough positions. The sponsor will complain in this case because although you think you told him plans for only the next season when you negotiated (ie the season you promoted from Amateur), the sponsor thinks those are your plans for the entire duration of your sponsorship, and he may leave if you do not start scoring good positions in Pro as well. There is a way to get round this because there is a stat which will decrease the chances of sponsors leaving you as well...

4) How many sponsors you should negotiate with?

I would say negotiate with 2 sponsors at the most if you are in rookie. Don't go for more at this stage because you will end up slowing down your negotiation rate for each individual sponsor.

5) Negotiation priorities.

What do these priorities mean? Do they increase the rate of negotiation?

They don't. They are just a way to allocate a part of your sponsor progress to a particular sponsor.

There are 5 priorities
1) Very low
2) Low
3) Normal
4) High
5) Very High.

Very low = 1; Very High = 5.

If you have 2 sponsors and you have sponsor 1 at very low and sponsor 2 at very high; then your total sponsor negotiation will get split into them in the ratio of 1:5.

6) What affects the speed of sponsors?

1) Race start position
2) Race finish position
3) Driver/Facility
4) Some other factors.