Introduction: The Challenge of Getting a Fast YES
In the high-paced world of sports-tech startups, one truth stands out: it’s not the cutting-edge technology that wears you down—it’s the interminable waiting. Endless polite calls, enthusiastic nods, and comments like ‘super interesting’ fill your days, followed by requests to ‘send us a deck’ or to ‘circle back after budget season.’ And then, more often than not, silence ensues.
“The hidden leak in your sales process, and how to fix it fast.”
Your team feels the slowdown. Your runway keeps ticking. Your pipeline looks full, but your bank account does not. You’ve done the hard part. You launched. You built. You even closed deals. So why does every new opportunity still feel like starting from zero?
Understanding the System for a Fast YES
Most founders are not taught the system for securing a fast YES from sports brands. This blog is here to provide that system—a practical guide for founders eager to move beyond ‘This is interesting’ to achieve real traction.
1. Choose One Perfect Customer and One Dream Outcome
When everyone is your customer, no one says yes. Many founders cast too wide a net, pitching a solution that could apply to leagues, clubs, federations, brands, academies, broadcasters, and even fans. But a brand won’t commit if they can’t easily understand who you serve. Here’s the rule: A fast YES comes from a clear WHO and a clear WHAT.
- If we could only win one type of customer this year, who would that be?
- What one number, one result, would make them say: ‘This was one of the best decisions we made this year.’
Your output: One Ideal Customer Profile sentence, One dream outcome in numbers. You now have direction. You now have someone real to sell to. This alone removes months of noise.
2. Turn Your Product Into One Clear Offer
Decisions are made on outcomes, not features. Founders love explaining their product. Brands don’t buy products. They buy clarity. You need one commercial sentence that everything else sits on: “We help [specific niche] get [specific result] in [clear time frame] without [big thing they want to avoid].”
If you can’t say your offer in 10 seconds, the brand won’t fight internally to explain it either. Ask yourself:
- Which part feels weakest: the niche, the result, the time frame, or the ‘without’?
- If you were your own customer, would this sentence make you pay attention?
A fast YES comes when the brand can repeat your offer in one sentence during their internal meeting.
3. Build A Pilot So Simple It’s Hard To Refuse
Brands don’t fear your price, they fear internal effort. Most pilots fail before they start. Not because the tech is bad, but because the pilot feels heavy. A fast YES pilot is:
- 30–60 days
- One team, one campaign, or one segment
- One main success metric
- Minimal effort from the brand
- A clear path: What happens if it works, What happens if it doesn’t
Two questions unlock everything:
- What is the smallest experiment that still proves real value?
- What scares the brand most about a pilot, and how do you remove that?
If your pilot requires committees, approvals, training, or cross-departmental juggling, it won’t start. If it feels like a smart test with a clear upside, it will.
4. Stop Relying On Luck: Build A Lead Engine
Founders don’t need more intros. They need predictability. Ask any founder where their last five meetings came from, and most will answer: “Luck.” “Events.” “Someone introduced us.” “We posted on LinkedIn and got a bite.” Momentum built on luck always collapses.
A real lead engine is simple:
- How many qualified conversations per month do you need
- Where did your best opportunities actually come from
- What is system-based and what is coincidence
Ask yourself:
- In the next 90 days, where will your best meetings realistically come from?
- Which channel deserves double the effort? Which one is wasting your time?
When you know where deals start, you stop waking up every morning hoping today is the day something ‘comes in.’
5. Fix The Only Stage In Your Deal Engine That’s Actually Broken
You don’t have a sales problem. You have a stage problem. Every deal goes through five stages: Outreach, First call, Proposal, Follow up, Close. Most founders treat them as one messy activity called “sales.” A fast YES happens when each stage has a standard.
Try this exercise right now: Take one live deal and walk through each stage. Ask:
- Where did it slow down?
- Where did energy drop?
- At which stage do you lose most deals today?
- Does every deal run differently?
Your goal is not to become better at sales. Your goal is to identify the one bottleneck that kills deals. Fixing one stage can double your close rate without changing anything else.
6. Make A 90-Day Commitment That Actually Changes Your Behavior
Knowledge doesn’t move deals. Commitments do. Founders finish workshops inspired and then return to pipelines that look exactly the same. Change only happens when you commit to three things for 90 days:
- Stop chasing the wrong customers. Wrong-fit customers drain time and never say yes.
- Test the same offer and pilot every single call. Repetition builds clarity. Clarity builds yes-momentum.
- Make one upgrade in your system. Examples: Always speak to the owner of the problem, Always send a one-page pilot within 48 hours, Review your pipeline weekly by the 5 stages
Ask yourself: If we meet in 90 days, what must be different in how you behave and how your system works? That question alone can transform your year.
Conclusion: YES Is Not a Mystery
Sports brands don’t say yes because your tech is amazing. They say yes because your offer is clear. Your pilot is simple. Your deal engine is structured. Your behavior is consistent. Your system removes their fear. Your message makes sense internally. Founders don’t rise because they hustle harder. They rise because they build a process that makes it easy for the right brands to say yes. You don’t need perfect technology. You don’t need more ‘great calls.’ You don’t need luck. You need clarity, structure, and a repeatable system. When those three align, yes comes faster than you think.
Call to Action: This week, I’m opening seven 20-minute Deal Diagnostic calls for sports-tech founders who want clarity on how to secure three commercial deals in the next 90 days. If you want one of the spots, reply with ‘Deal’ and I’ll send you available times.
With the Love for Sports and Innovation, CEO, HYPE Sports Innovation
