In the great quest for finding sponsorship, you need to do a lot of research. You might ask yourself "What do I research" and "Why do I need to do lots of it" which are all very important questions.  If someone approached you asking for money you’d want them to have a good reason for doing so.  In the realm of team sponsorships, the same is true.  Any sponsor in their right mind wouldn’t give you sponsorship unless they knew a few things, including what benefits they get for giving you money.  To answer these questions you need to find out all you can about the people watching you compete.

If a company is making let’s say, kayaks, they have a certain customer who’s looking to buy their products. Their target customer might be a person, male or female, between 25 and 40, who enjoys the outdoors, and is an adventurous outgoing person. The company would then want to spend its money letting that person know about its products, instead of someone in their 60s, who enjoys reading a book alone.