Chris Baylis
Author · Speaker · Founder, The Sponsorship Collective
Modern Sponsorship Sales: From Being Ignored to Predictable, Multi-Year Revenue
Sponsorship is often the most important — and the most unpredictable — revenue line on the balance sheet.
Proposals get sent.
Emails get ignored.
Forms get submitted.
Nothing comes back.
Teams work hard. Revenue stays inconsistent.
The problem isn’t effort. The problem is the model.
The dominant sponsorship model is outdated. It was built for a time when sending a package was enough.
Today, brands operate behind filters, procurement systems, and internal approval layers most outreach never penetrates.
Properties increase volume. Brands increase barriers. Noise rises. Results don’t.
The majority of sponsorship outreach today is optimized to feel productive — not to produce revenue.
Chris Baylis confronts that reality directly.
He teaches attendees how to replace reactive outreach with a simple, sponsor-first method that increases close rates, strengthens renewals, and builds predictable, multi-year revenue.
Bring This Conversation to Your Audience
How Chris Changes the Conversation
Many events include attendees responsible for sponsorship revenue — often among many other responsibilities.
They are following the accepted model:
Sending tiered packages.
Pricing based on guesswork.
Submitting through brand portals.
Measuring activity instead of leverage.
And they are frustrated that it isn’t producing reliable results.
Chris challenges the assumptions behind that model — directly, honestly, and without apology.
He makes one thing clear:
The current system optimizes for convenience, not outcomes.
It minimizes time invested.
It maximizes activity.
It produces inconsistent revenue.
Sending more proposals will not fix an outdated sponsorship model.
Your audience leaves able to:
- Run discovery conversations that surface real budget
- Present partnerships live instead of emailing decks
- Set pricing sponsors can defend internally without rewriting your proposal
- Design renewal conversations months before contracts expire
- Move from one-year transactions to multi-year agreements
This is not theory.
It is a repeatable method.
Organizations that modernize how they sell sponsorship gain leverage and revenue stability.
Those that don’t remain trapped in unpredictable cycles.
About Chris Baylis
Chris Baylis is the Founder of The Sponsorship Collective, a firm focused exclusively on sponsorship sales strategy and execution.
He is the author of The Sponsorship Bible, published by Wiley — a category-defining book that formalizes the modern lifecycle of sponsorship sales.
Chris built his approach after seeing the same pattern across industries: capable professionals copying a sponsorship model that no longer worked — and assuming the problem was themselves.
It wasn’t. The model was outdated.
Rather than adding tactics, he rebuilt how sponsorship is sold.
Today, sponsorship properties across conferences, sport, associations, nonprofits, education, festivals, major events and other audience-driven properties use his framework to improve close rates and strengthen renewals.
He doesn’t just motivate audiences. He raises the standard.
The Sponsorship Bible
The Sponsorship Bible anchors Chris’s sessions. Published by Wiley, the book outlines a sponsor-first method for modern sponsorship sales — from clarifying value and structuring discovery to pricing, negotiation, renewal, and scale.
It reframes sponsorship as a sales and marketing discipline grounded in how brands actually buy — not logo placement, mass outreach, “awareness” or guesswork.
This is not opinion.
It is the culmination of years of battle-tested strategies that produce results.
Session Formats
Chris delivers:
- Plenary and Keynote sessions
- Breakout sessions
- Workshops
- Executive leadership training
Why Chris Belongs on Your Agenda
If sponsorship revenue matters to your audience — or should — a session run by Chris moves their program forward.
Not another trends discussion.
Not another general sales talk.
Not another workshop on “strategic partnerships” and “alignment”
If your audience owns sponsorship revenue, then a session with Chris should be on your agenda.
