Sponsorship obligation delivery and escalation workflow
Problem
Sponsorship obligations live in the contract PDF once it is signed, and nowhere else. The delivery executive works from a spreadsheet tab updated by hand, or from a screenshot forwarded into a messaging group, translating a clause like four LED perimeter rotations per home fixture into a task only they remember to do. Reminders happen when someone messages a colleague directly because a deadline is close, if anyone notices in time. Evidence that an asset was delivered, a photograph, a social post, a signed sheet, gets collected only when the partner is due for renewal, by which point half of it cannot be found. A missed obligation is usually discovered by the sponsor, not by the club.
Product idea
A workflow that starts the moment a contract is marked signed. The account manager enters each obligation as a line item: asset, quantity, deadline, evidence type required, referencing the contract rather than replacing it. The tool assigns each item to a delivery executive by category, sets a due date against the fixture or event calendar, and sends a reminder ahead of it without anyone having to remember to send one. An item left open past its date escalates to the commercial director instead of sitting quietly in an inbox. Marking an obligation delivered requires an attached photograph, post link or document, so the evidence exists at the point of delivery rather than being reconstructed at renewal. It does not read or interpret the contract itself; obligations are entered by a person who has read it.
Who it is for
Sponsorship delivery executives who do the work, account managers who own the relationship, and the commercial director who is accountable when an obligation is missed and who would sponsor this internally.
Possible first version
A web app where obligations are entered manually against a signed contract: asset, category, quantity, deadline and required evidence type. Assignment rules route items to delivery executives by category, an email reminder fires ahead of each deadline, and overdue items escalate to the commercial director. Evidence attachment is required to close an item, and a renewal view lists every obligation and its status for a given partner. Out of scope for version one: contract text extraction, CRM integration, automatic detection of inventory sold twice, and any notification channel beyond email.
- Build classification
- Workflow application
- Rough effort
- 4-6 week first release
- Roles involved
- Commercial director, Partnerships manager, Sponsorship delivery executive, Account manager
- Relevant to
- Professional club, League office, Women's league, Venue & stadium operator
- Systems in play
- CRM and pipeline tools, Contract repositories, Inventory spreadsheets, Messaging apps
- Product framing
- Automate a workflow
Questions we get asked
We have two seasons of contracts already signed. Do we have to enter all of them before this is useful?
No. Start with contracts renewing in the next cycle, or anything newly signed, and add older ones as time allows. The tool is useful for the newest cohort from day one, and the backlog thins out naturally at each renewal rather than needing a single large data entry exercise up front.
Does this replace our CRM or the inventory spreadsheet?
No. The CRM stays the system for the deal and the relationship, and version one does not touch the inventory spreadsheet either, though checking it for assets sold twice is an obvious next step once obligation tracking is proven. This tool owns only the chain from obligation to delivery to evidence.
Our delivery team already gets chased in the messaging group when something is due. Why do we need another tool?
A person chasing in a group depends on that person remembering, noticing, and being available. It leaves no record afterwards, and nothing escalates on its own if the person doing the chasing is out or moves on. This workflow does not depend on anyone remembering to send the reminder, and it keeps a record of who was told and when.
Will it read the contract and set up the obligations for us?
Not in version one. Obligations are entered by a person who has read the contract; the tool does not extract or interpret contract text. Automating that extraction is a plausible later step, but it is also where a wrong reading of a clause becomes expensive, so it stays a deliberate manual step for now.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
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