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How Much Am I worth?

It is amazing the parallels between marketing our homes in the real estate arena, and marketing ourselves to potential companies. Today is a buyers market in both arenas, where investors can steal beautiful homes and anglers alike. Though these two markets are very different they serve as a valuable tool for comparing worth. Housing prices are determined by the market and how much other homes are sold for. With that said, think of it this way, if your neighbor arbitrarily drops the sale price of his house, "guess what"? Your home automatically drops in value too. Think about this; when an angler approaches a company and then gives away his services for little or nothing, what happens to the rest of us? We all go down in value as well! A sponsoring company's take on this is, why buy the cow when I get the milk for free?

How many of us have asked ourselves, "How much product should I ask for", "how much money should I be paid", or "maybe I should just settle for this or that, and fill that empty space on my tournament shirt". Some of you are laughing, but let the truth be told, every level angler asks themselves this, but not all of us are properly building our industry. I will never say that I am all knowing in this segment, but I do have a degree in marketing, and have substantial amount of experience in dealing with contractual negotiations in million dollar and above proceedings.

What happens if every fisherman starting tomorrow wears a white t-shirt, white hat, and all white boat and motor with no logos at all? Let me tell you this from experience, every industry manufacturer marketing budget would blow up and massive dollars would be allocated to promote their products. So I ask you now, why do we give promotions for free?

Fishing for free should be your first objective. In order to do this, some critical steps should be taken. Not all of us will be able to receive a monthly retainer, however, you can possibly get product in return for some promotions. When it comes to free product (tackle only), I generally will only promote the product verbally and through my website, with no advertisement on my jersey, boat, or vehicle unless there is a substantial amount delivered. Let's face it people: bottles of water, energy drinks, and packages of worms don't pay entry fees or come close to covering expenses, let alone add to your bottom line! If this was the standard amongst anglers, you would see more advertisement money for individuals. And let's also acknowledge that you don't have to win tournaments to be eligible for cash compensations.

The Bassmaster ELITE SERIES inaugural 2006 year set off a trend that, in my opinion, is a double edged sword. There are Anglers wrapping their boats and promoting products without receiving appropriate compensation! There is a complex equation that can assist everyone on how much a wrapped vehicle and boat are worth. I would be willing to bet that 85% of the anglers who have wrapped boats and vehicles aren't making a dime outside of BASS ELITE SERIES! It's time to grab this fish by its gills!

Highway impressions, destination exposure, city demographics, market analysis of product, television, radio, e-commerce, charity, web presence, newspaper and writing articles, career days at local schools, boat shows, tackle shows, in-store promotions, and fishing exposure at the tournament level, just to name a few, are never considered in its entirety. The average local fisherman who is running a wrapped boat should not receive less than $20,000.00, outside of their entry fees, at the professional level. Any team or individual shouldn't have a wrapped boat unless receiving at least this amount, because of double the exposure.

You might be asking how I came up with this. Begin with understanding what product it is you are promoting. How large is the company, and is the market they are trying to capture local, regional, national, or international? The very next question is, are you prepared for negotiations, let alone do you know how to negotiate?

Because of my background I am very fortunate to understand where to obtain consensus numbers complete with demographics, and purchasing habits of consumers. All of this information can be found if you understand where to look and how to interpret it. Taking these numbers and multiplying them by mileage, exposure, and impression hits can provide additional information. For some of you I am probably speaking in "tongues," so here are a few items to consider in "lamens terms:" Understand the market that you will be exposing product to. If it is local, you need to figure out the miles you are driving, and how many people will view your rig between destinations. The other consideration is will the vehicle you use just be used during fishing or will it be a commuter vehicle as well. How many spectators will attend weigh-ins? Will you be featured in magazines, and so on, etc. etc? In a nut shell here are my thoughts and numbers on compensation:

Wrapped Vehicle and Boat –
Local        Team fishing only no commuter vehicle         $30K Regional      Pro-Ams (Stren, National Guard, Bass Opens)               $40K - $60K National  FLW, BASS ELITES                                           $100K - $150K

Many of you are asking yourself how in the world can someone ask for that kind of money. The answer is, you don't. You illustrate where the value is for everything you have to offer in a proposal, resume, and presentation outlining each and every aspect of what you will deliver for ROI (return on investment). If the company does not see the value, either you are not worth it and need to re-evaluate the proposal, or your presentation did not illustrate it properly. Nine times out of ten, we don't have the facts or the data to support our proposal. We need to be educated on this so the industry as a whole has a standard and each and every angler gets what they deserve. When we take a deal for nothing, we create less demand for a product. When we prepare properly and deliver a proposal, the value will never be less than what is paid to us in compensation. What this means is we are never paid what we are worth, but we need to get close. We can't achieve this if we have an angler selling out for minimal entry fees and packages of worms while a different angler is attempting to achieve the maximum compensation to the same or different companies. This confuses the companies and devalues the wrapped product.

This subject can be discussed for hours, so I will close with some advice for whoever would like to embrace it. Prepare your resume and keep it up to date. Make sure that you submit a proposal, along with a presentation illustrating the value that you bring and validate all of the content within it. Now that you have the shells, all you need are the nuts!

Vince Hurtado