Super User Cgolf Posted May 19, 2016 Super User Share Posted May 19, 2016 So I have a question for you all, what are the benefits and costs of being a pro staff angler. For me personally, I would only want to pro staff baits and gear I already use, and know it is good stuff. I have seen a few guys bounce around sponsors and I know that has to cost them a little bit, especially when you get into rods and reels. I assume that most pro staff deals get you a great discount on product, and what they expect may vary? What are some different levels of expectation that are out there? I just saw a Yum pro staff request that talks about social media presence. I assume others look for trade show attendance too. To my other question, is NPS worth it, and how much does it cost to get a resume submitted through their site? I currently promote some brands for free on social media because I like and believe in their product. I am on the fence with the pro staff thing, because I could see myself spending even more money to get properly geared up with their brand. I also have always undervalued myself going back to my RC racing days when I could have had a full paid ride if I would have just asked, sadly I never did. So learning from that I may not want to pass up some opportunities if they are available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinBlues Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 I just joined nps to see if it works or not... Cost to join - Free Cost to become Am/Pro - $49.00 Cost to submit resume to company looking for anglers - $20.00 and a free member and $16.00 as an Am/Pro Benifits... it is what they say bridging the gap between anglers looking for pro staff/sponsorship opportunities, instead of anglers resumes getting lost in the black sea of mail/email or cold calling not talking to the right person... These companies spend money to post what they call casting calls looking for anglers. I know this because i posted about my current sponsor that i have had for 4 years that i found before joining nps and an employee of nps messaged me to see if they would be interested in joining nps... i had a few questions before i talked to my sponsor and that is how i know is cost company money to look for anglers... These companies are looking for more anglers to promote their brand, so potential anglers resumes get into the right hands of the marketing department of a company.. As for the wanting to represent the brands you already use and have cofidence in, there are 500 companies that use NPS, just keep watching for the companies the produce the products you use and submit your resume when they are actively looking for anglers to join there team... Thanks and good luck.. And yes it worked for me, I submitted a resume on the second day and was accepted to join there team.. I have been in contact with the head of marketing on the west many times and talked with him about some ideas of mine already... I have now been a member of nps only for 2 weeks... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Cgolf Posted May 21, 2016 Author Super User Share Posted May 21, 2016 4 hours ago, BassinBlues said: I just joined nps to see if it works or not... Cost to join - Free Cost to become Am/Pro - $49.00 Cost to submit resume to company looking for anglers - $20.00 and a free member and $16.00 as an Am/Pro Benifits... it is what they say bridging the gap between anglers looking for pro staff/sponsorship opportunities, instead of anglers resumes getting lost in the black sea of mail/email or cold calling not talking to the right person... These companies spend money to post what they call casting calls looking for anglers. I know this because i posted about my current sponsor that i have had for 4 years that i found before joining nps and an employee of nps messaged me to see if they would be interested in joining nps... i had a few questions before i talked to my sponsor and that is how i know is cost company money to look for anglers... These companies are looking for more anglers to promote their brand, so potential anglers resumes get into the right hands of the marketing department of a company.. As for the wanting to represent the brands you already use and have cofidence in, there are 500 companies that use NPS, just keep watching for the companies the produce the products you use and submit your resume when they are actively looking for anglers to join there team... Thanks and good luck.. And yes it worked for me, I submitted a resume on the second day and was accepted to join there team.. I have been in contact with the head of marketing on the west many times and talked with him about some ideas of mine already... I have now been a member of nps only for 2 weeks... Just curious, in general what you get out of pro staffing? I assume it is discounted product in return for social media posts, trade show attendance, and product placement in stores. Thanks for the answer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinBlues Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 What you get from companies depends on what you can do for them... they will offer you discounts to free gear in exchange for the value of promotion/exposure/getting there equipment in to new stores.. it all depends, then there are certain things you will be expected to do.. a certain about of posts, likes, trade shows, ect.. ect.. to being exclusive to them... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blckshirt98 Posted May 25, 2016 Share Posted May 25, 2016 I saw the NPS stuff show up in my Facebook feed a couple of weeks back and it pops up fairly often now., especially advertisements of Zoom looking for like a hundred or so pro staff people. I went and checked the site out and it was interesting but I'm not out there enough for a company to add me. However, if I wanted to be all in on finding a sponsor some things I'd promise is wearing their branded gear whenever I enter a tournament or fish recreationally, putting their stickers/decals on a boat/kayak/car, promote them on social media, give out samples of their baits to people I meet while fishing, etc. In the current state of technology I think having social media accounts with X many followers would go a huge way in helping you get a pro staff gig, especially if you often post pictures of yourself with fish that you've caught - if you can say you caught that fish using X rod/reel/line/bait and wear a companies branded gear each time, it would really help them see how often their brand will go by a pair of eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Senko lover Posted May 30, 2016 Super User Share Posted May 30, 2016 Honestly, the benefits aren't really worth it if you're just getting a discount on product. The company is still earning money from you while getting you to work hard promoting their product. There are some companies that earn more revenue from their pro staff than they do from regular customers. If you're big enough or desirable enough, companies will pay you to promote their product. Otherwise, honestly, it's probably not worth it. You're better off just buying from tackle warehouse. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinBlues Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 If you spend thousands a year in fishing tackle or fishing related products say like myself, any discount offered helps... yes if you big enough or desirable enough they will pay you, you are correct. But not everyone can be a desired bass pro right away... being on a pro staff that offers at least a discout helps in gear cost, more money for travel more money for entry fees ect ect... this is my opinion! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super User Cgolf Posted June 1, 2016 Author Super User Share Posted June 1, 2016 On 5/30/2016 at 10:03 AM, BassinBlues said: If you spend thousands a year in fishing tackle or fishing related products say like myself, any discount offered helps... yes if you big enough or desirable enough they will pay you, you are correct. But not everyone can be a desired bass pro right away... being on a pro staff that offers at least a discout helps in gear cost, more money for travel more money for entry fees ect ect... this is my opinion! I also know that you get to test some potential new gear that may or may not hit the market, and have some input on that product. Have seen in at least one case where pro staff guy had his bait brought to market by his sponsor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinBlues Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 17 hours ago, cgolf said: I also know that you get to test some potential new gear that may or may not hit the market, and have some input on that product. Have seen in at least one case where pro staff guy had his bait brought to market by his sponsor. Yes that is true... part of a pro staff agreement is to have input on product design and product ideas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blckshirt98 Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 It would also depend on the discount. I think people get confused with the term "pro staff" in that I think many think it means "pro team" where they send you free stuff to use and you wear their gear and stick a decal on your boat and go fish. "Pro staff" is "promotional staff" where you get like a nominal discount on their stuff (I heard it can sometimes be only 20% off MSRP) where you can often find a cheaper price online if you're wanting to try out their baits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassinBlues Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Yes many people get confused with the term pro staff... it is promotional staff is what it not professional staff... and discounts very from company to company and depending on what you can offer them, because let's face it, it's not what they can do for you, it's what you can do for them... let's look at it like this, if you get on a pro (promotional) staff and you get company xyz some new accounts in local tackle stores ect ect, discounts change to free product, and promotional staff changes to pro team, all depending on the work you put it... just like anything else it takes work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zachh Nute Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 On 5/30/2016 at 9:28 AM, Senko lover said: Honestly, the benefits aren't really worth it if you're just getting a discount on product. The company is still earning money from you while getting you to work hard promoting their product. There are some companies that earn more revenue from their pro staff than they do from regular customers. If you're big enough or desirable enough, companies will pay you to promote their product. Otherwise, honestly, it's probably not worth it. You're better off just buying from tackle warehouse. I completely disagree. The benefits are completely worth it. Networking in this industry is the most important thing you can do. Becoming a pro-staff, does exactly that. You don't want to just go around and apply for every company on earth, but if you spend lots of money on a companies products each year and would like to promote them, then apply for a pro staff position. Even if you start at the bottom of a company, you can prove yourself and work your way up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmersonFish Posted August 22, 2016 Share Posted August 22, 2016 As far as NPS goes, it depends on how you use it. If you sign an agreement with a rod manufacturer who gives you 30% off of their rods, and a t-shirt provided you: buy a minimum of 5 of their rods within 15 days, use their rods exclusively in tournaments, wear their logo at every weigh-in, have their logo on your boat and truck, document contacts with local tackle shops where you are trying to get their products into the store and everything else you do to promote their product, make yourself available for two weekends a year for trade shows, and put a bunch of time into your youtube, facebook, twitter and other social media accounts, you better be a fan of those rods anyway and plan on buying the maximum number of rods at the discount to make that investment of your time worth the money you actually save. I see a lot of guys selling off all of their current rods, that I know they like, to get money to buy the rods from the sponsor, and because they can't use the old rods in tournaments anymore per the agreement. On the other hand, some of the smaller companies on NPS seem to be getting their business exclusively from people who agree to NPS "pro-staff" deals. They'll take anyone who will apply and give them a discount on product that is so overpriced I can't imagine anyone is paying retail. Plus most of these companies charge shipping for their stuff, something a lot of people forget about, versus a decent size TW order. Sometimes, you don't have to sign any kind of deal at all. You can buy as little or as much as you like. So I guess it doesn't kill you, but you still are expected to represent the company for the privilege of getting a "discount" on their expensive, somewhat obscure product. Then there are probably people who really benefit from it who get on the pro-staff with companies where they would already be buying large quantities of product and are getting a legitimate discount. These are generally the more well known bait manufacturers who are a little more selective about who they will take. There are also probably better deals out there than the example given above that I haven't seen, particularly for more qualified people. The bottom line is, NPS and the companies that use it have a pretty sweet little deal going. I'm not bashing the concept. Hell, I'm on NPS. It's fun to mess around on. I've applied for several "pro-staff" positions. I won't say who with, but I've turned down every offer I've received because once I've done the math after I considered how much product I'd actually purchase, I would be selling myself awfully cheap. So I've wasted money on applications, but I look at it as an entertainment expense. Maybe one will come along one day that I take. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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