To maximise our sailors' prospects of securing competitive levels of funding we are running bespoke commercial coaching for each of them. The coaching will not just give the sailors a better understanding of how sport sponsorship works and how to best approach brands, but it also forms an integral part of our evaluation and selection process. The process that; in the end, will lead to one of these existing young talents being the figure head of our Vendée Globe 2020 campaign.
We are looking for raw talent, commitment, enthusiasm and passion, as well as the ability to engage effectively with corporate sponsors and media.
It's a hard ask of a twenty-something to be commercially savvy, when their day job is spent on the oceans. In order to give the sailors the best possible opportunity to find their own sponsor, we want to provide them with some of this knowledge. The coaching includes areas such as how to network most efficiently, how to create compelling presentations and sales material, how to validate their proposals and practical training in public speaking and pitching, with the added benefit of time spent in the boardrooms of multi-national companies, pitching their campaigns in a live and evaluated, "Dragons Den" type environment.