👋 Today, we’re taking a fresh look at how to improve your sponsorship sales process.

You can be an ad sales beast, but if your newsletter isn’t reaching the inbox, then you’ll never build a sustainable business.

If you have deliverability issues, please support Revenews by checking out our partner Smart Delivery. They’ll fix you.

The Sales Process I'd Actually Say Yes To

This is always a useful exercise to do, in any discipline. Let's flip the script. If you were sitting in the buyer's chair, would you actually say yes to your own sponsorship pitch?

Most wont, by law of sales statistics. But most media co’s are also getting a lot wrong.

The average sponsorship deck is a 22-slide monument to irrelevance, stuffed with vanity metrics and zero understanding of what the buyer actually needs.

Think back to when you’ve bought something and it felt east, what did they do?

Here are a few key pointers to structure your sales process so you get a YES. Because it's built around what buyers actually want to see.

🔎 Less Fluff, More Signal

Your one-pager (maximum two pages) should answer three questions within 30 seconds: Why this audience matters to them and what they're buying.

That 22-slide deck you've been perfecting? It's a hard no unless you're an enterprise media co with 12 media properties. Even then, condense it for pitching new business. You’ll lose their focus at the opportune moment.

Focus ruthlessly on signal over style. Build a simple 1-pager that clearly explains your audience, campaign mechanics, and example outcomes. A 1-pager can be 2 pages if you REALLY want, but less is more on the first touchpoint with someone.

The best media kits, in my opinion, tend to be 6-10 pages, story-led and data-backed.

🤑 Clear Pricing

Show tiers or bundles upfront. Make the math embarrassingly easy. The moment a buyer has to guess what something costs or decode a complex pricing structure, you've lost momentum.

I know there’s a debate on whether to include pricing in a deck, but I sit in the ‘include pricing’ camp. Sue me.

Avoid the tyranny of choice. Don't present a menu of 12 different sponsorship options. Offer 2-3 clear packages that ladder logically (i.e. good, better, best). Each tier should have obvious value differentiation.

Don’t say "We'd need to get on a call to discuss pricing." Buyers hate this. Price transparency builds trust and accelerates decisions. But at the same time, you don’t want to list out a full menu of every option you have. Alas, nuance.

If your pricing varies significantly based on timing or inventory, provide ranges. "Newsletter sponsorships range from $4,000-$12,000 depending on placement and scale" gives buyers enough information to self-qualify.

Establish the audience fit —> communicate pricing in a concise and relevant way.

What Winning Deliverability Looks Like

This is the inbox sweet spot - but you don’t get here by accident.

It takes smart sending, the right setup, and a solid understanding of deliverability best practices.

Smart Delivery helps you get there, fast.

They’ll clean up what’s broken, build what’s missing, and show you how to keep it that way. No guesswork. No long-term dependency. Just better email performance, delivered.

Want results like this? Start with Smart Delivery.

❤️ Actually Care

This is where most pitches fail. You should be talking 20-30% of the time in discovery calls. The rest should be listening.

Before you pitch anything, understand their goals, target market, timeline, budget parameters, and what success looks like to them. If you're presenting your campaign in the first 10 minutes, you're doing it wrong.

Don't tell them what their goals should be, let their answers guide the conversation. "You probably want to increase brand awareness" assumes too much. "What does success look like for this campaign?" actually gets you talking value.

Once you fully understand their position, then plan a campaign that serves their best interests. Sometimes that means recommending they wait. Sometimes it means suggesting a different format entirely.

Counter-intuitively, this approach closes more deals because buyers trust advisors over salespeople.

Shock, being honest can help you.

🎪 Show Don’t Tell

Stop talking about "vibe" and "brand alignment." Show past ads from similar brands or write mock examples for their specific use case. Let the brand see themselves in your world immediately.

The strongest creative examples demonstrate understanding of their category, audience, and typical messaging approaches. If you're pitching a fintech company, show fintech ads. If you're pitching B2B SaaS, show B2B SaaS. Duh.

Be data-driven in your examples. "This campaign generated 47 qualified leads at $23 cost per lead" tells a story that "This campaign performed really well" simply doesn't. Buyers need proof of performance, not promises.

Mock up their specific messaging if possible. "Here's how your new product launch might look in our newsletter format" is infinitely more compelling than showing generic examples from unrelated categories.

👊 Follow Up Like You Mean It

Don't be shy about follow-up. People aren't replying for 76 different reasons, budget timing, internal priorities, other campaigns running, and almost none of them are personal.

Add value each time you follow up. Don't just ask for status updates. Share relevant case studies, industry insights, or competitive intelligence. "Saw [Competitor] launched a similar campaign, here's what we learned from their approach" keeps you top of mind productively.

Add value is a buzzword. What it means for you is:

• Provide Insights on your audience

• Insights on competitors’ campaigns

• Updates on your growth

• Other insights around media buying more generally

• Offer them help booking the campaign

• Discounts - although this is contentious.

Buyers are busy and skeptical. The best sales process is the one that demonstrates you understand their business and creates genuine urgency around solving their specific problems.

Before you send your next sponsorship proposal, ask yourself: Would I actually say yes to this if I were them? If the answer isn't an immediate yes, keep refining.

P.S. Need help selling more sponsorships? My agency Ad Sales as a Service helps media companies do just that.