Serving The Sponsors

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sam Swett of Covington, Louisiana, has fished on the B.A.S.S. professional bass circuit for 10 years. Avid fishermen in his home state know him as an expert knowledgeable bass angler.

Question: What do you do for a sponsor? Why does a company or someone pay you money or ask you to endorse a product? Answer: Every sponsor hopes I can create more sales and more demand for its product. I'm almost an infomercial because I wear the product signatures on my shirt and have decals on my trucks and boat. When I approach a company for sponsorship, I try to approach a company that I can truly represent and believe in, like a bait company that I know its lures will catch fish. Then I can faithfully throw that bait. For example, if I fish in a tournament with a witness in the boat, and I use Brand X, but later I go up on stage and say I used Brand Y Worm, the word gets out that I've lied. My reputation will be damaged. So, I want to make sure I choose companies such as Riverside, Smithwick, or Bomber -- baits I know I can throw to catch bass. Then I can represent the companies honestly, and my word stands basically good as gold when it goes into print because I'm fishing with those lures.

Question: You want companies to sponsor you whose lures, rods, reels, lines, boats and motors you can depend on to catch fish in a tournament, right?
Answer: Definitely, because if all the facets of fishing -- boats, motors or fishing lines -- don't produce, I can't win. For this reason, I try to choose the best, and hopefully the best companies will pick me.

Question: How many days a year do you spend on the road doing in-store promotions and selling products for your sponsors?
Answer: Last year I logged over 220 days on the road for my sponsors and fishing in tournaments.

Question: How many of those days did you spend on sponsors?
Answer: I would say at least half.

Question: So, you give your sponsors about 100 days a year to sell products?
Answer: That many days At least, because a lot of times we can have a tournament day and that night after the tournament's over, we may have a local store promotion to attend. But, that's only three or four hours generally, which means you can do two things at one time.

Tomorrow: Breaking Into The Pros