Hear what 2021 graduate Sophie Marsh has to say about the course:
2020 ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate graduate feedback:
“The ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate was a brilliant experience. The course was well-structured, with relevant and up to date learning materials which were easy to digest and relate to my own sponsorship propositions. Having completed the course, I feel that I now have the tools and the understanding to prepare and pitch for some real qualitative commercial partners for our organisation.”
James Chadwick – Head of Marketing & Communications,
Surrey FA
“It is crucial to continue moving forward towards your goals and grow as a person and professional. The very insightful and highly practical ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate enhanced my sponsorship selling skills and provided me with new tools to implement in my everyday work. I would like to thank the European Sponsorship Association (ESA) and Catherine Hawkins for delivering such a high-quality program.”
Daniyar Ali – Marketing & Commercial,
International Paralympic Committee
“An excellent course which really helped me develop practical skills in sponsorship sales and kept my brain ticking and engaged with new insight and ideas. Highly recommended!”
Lucy Olden – Senior Account Manager, Threshold Sports
2019 ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate graduate feedback:
“A hugely positive learning experience, each module providing great industry insights, including best practice, authentic content, tips & tricks, trends and challenges. The course structure was well planned: in-depth, practical and hands-on. I highly recommend the ESA Sponsorship Sales Certificate to anyone starting out in sponsorship sales, or simply looking to refresh pre-existing skills. A huge thanks to Cat and the team for all their hard work.”
Amy Darragh – Senior Account Manager
“The course has helped me refine my skills and build confidence in pitching. The group tasks were particularly useful, as it was great to get feedback from people whose roles meant they looked at things from a different perspective from me – it will help me prepare pitches and proposals more holistically in the future. The final presentation, simulating a real life pitch, was great for putting the skills we learnt into practise.”
Charlotte Firmin – Partnership Development Executive
“The sessions were really engaging and the course was a great opportunity to meet other sponsorship professionals.”
Rights Holder graduate
2018 ESA Sales Certificate graduate feedback:
“A great way to understand industry challenges from lots of different perspectives – from rights holders occupying different sports and entertainment platforms, to other agencies. An approachable forum to ask those niggling questions, challenge yourself and learn from each other – no matter how long you’ve been in the game. Highly recommended.”
Charlotte Hynes – Senior Commercial Manager
“The course was fantastic and far exceeded my expectations, a huge thanks to Cat for all her hard work throughout, it was really appreciated and we were unanimous about how well delivered the course was.”
Sam Baring – Head of Sponsorship
“I thoroughly enjoyed the ESA Sales Certificate course, and felt it was a great environment to take a step back from every day work to reflect on industry best practices. My group included a mixture of industry professionals of varied backgrounds– so it was also great to share experiences and talk all things sponsorship with peers and the course leader.”
Deji Akande – Sponsorship Manager
“Every module of the course has helped me become a more confident and skilful sales professional. Each seminar provided great insights that I could then apply to my day-to-day role. Whether you’re starting out in sponsorship sales, or looking to refine your pre-existing knowledge, I wholeheartedly recommend the ESA Sales Certificate qualification.”
Ben Manning – Partnership Development Executive, EMEA
“I now feel excited and confident to take my property out to market and this is thanks to the ESA Sales Certificate. I have been working in corporate partnerships for over five years but sponsorship sales was a new discipline for me and by going on the ESA course, I was able to learn grounding principles and find techniques to flex my style to a more commercial value exchange approach. This will put me in a good position when developing my sales technique in the future and I highly recommend it to anyone new to this field.”
Katie Skilton – Strategic Partnership Manager
2017 ESA Sales Certificate graduate feedback:
“Thank you very much for the last few weeks. They have been extremely useful for my personal development and have given me a great insight into selling.” Nick Roberts, Partnership Executive
“Everything I had learnt up until the start of the ESA course was through my own trial and error, so it was great to gain a fundamental understanding of the theory behind the partner procurement process, from researching and prospecting right through to closing. Every single aspect of the course has helped me become a more skilful sponsorship professional, and I was applying my learnings in to my day-to-day role after the first seminar. Whether you’re starting out in sponsorship sales, or looking to hone your pre-existing skills, I highly recommend the ESA Sales Certificate.” James Bunbury, Partnership Development Manager
“The ESA Sales Certificate was a fantastic learning experience that has been well tailored to address the challenges faced when trying to sell sponsorship. The course was well-delivered by a host of industry experts who were able to share their experience and go through, in detail, how a sponsorship proposal should be positioned, targeted, packaged and sold. The shared learning experience, coupled with the open discussions with peers who themselves were from various rights holders, added a different perspective to my understanding of sponsorship sales. Having this level of engagement has definitely strengthened my knowledge and understanding of sponsorship. I would highly recommend this course.” Sam O’Donnell, Sponsorship Assistant