This is where the external work begins.
Everything in Modules 1 and 2 was internal. Important foundational work, but none of it produced a client, a deal, or a dollar.
Now that changes.
This is where you identify the right prospects, evaluate them against your criteria, navigate the pitch process, and land the first deal (or the next deal) with the right structure, client, and onboarding in place.
You’re not going for the fastest or easiest deal, or the one with the biggest fee. The right deal is carefully chosen, properly structured, and executed flawlessly from the beginning.
Here’s why that matters so much at this stage: This deal sets the precedent for any deal that follows. It sets a standard for what an endorsement from you means and how it can be effective for your advertiser.
This deal makes every subsequent conversation easier. A bad one makes them harder. Be patient and deliver the deliberate work of finding and landing something worth having.
Before Starting This Module
Watch the introduction video in the header at the top of this page.
Read the following articles before working through the steps below:
- Watch the Module 3 Introduction video.
- Reread: Start Getting Endorsements: Your First Deal Is Closer Than You Think
- Read: Protecting Your Brand: Choosing Clients Wisely
- Read: Should You Endorse This Advertiser? The Art Of Saying Yes
- Download the Advertiser Evaluation Scorecard (Step 2 in this Module)
Be sure to review all of these resources before you proceed.
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Step 1: Build Your Target List
The best endorsement deals start with a personality who has identified the businesses they’d love to work with, and who can walk into any conversation with the AE or sales manager with names and categories.
This step produces that list.
What to Do
First, watch this overview of how to build a client and prospect list that will be easy to launch your new business:
Download and work through the My Natural Endorsement Targets Worksheet. The process has three stages:
The Enthusiasm Inventory: Without thinking about commercial viability, fees, or whether the client advertises on the radio, list every business, product, or service you love, use regularly, and would recommend to a close friend without being paid for it. Think across multiple categories: restaurants, fitness, health, home services, automotive, financial services, retail, and local businesses you patronize consistently. Don’t edit this list yet. Just write down everything that comes to mind when you ask: “What do I use and believe in?”
The Fit Filter: Go through your enthusiasm list and apply your Personal Brand Statement and Endorsement Criteria from Module 2. For each item, ask:
– Does this fit the brand my audience understands me to have?
– Would my audience accept this endorsement as natural for me?
– Can I speak about this with stories from real experience?
– Is this a business capable of supporting an endorsement campaign? Items that pass this filter move to the target list. Items that don’t get set aside, at least for now.
The Opportunity Assessment: For the items that passed the fit filter, evaluate the commercial opportunity:
– Is this business currently advertising? On your station? (Existing advertisers are easier entry points)
– Is there an AE who manages this account or has a relationship with this business?
– Is this business large enough to support a talent fee on top of their existing buy or would an endorsement be a stretch?
– Is there a natural season or moment when approaching this client makes the most sense?Rank your final target list by the combination of personal enthusiasm, brand fit, and commercial opportunity. The top three to five items are your priority prospects.
Guidance
The target list almost always contains at least one business you have been mentally endorsing for free for years. Maybe you’ve mentioned it on the air, recommended to listeners, or posted on social media without formalizing it into a commercial relationship. If that business is on your list, it’s your first call. The relationship is warm, and the story is real. The AE conversation practically writes itself:
“I’ve been talking about this place on the air for two years. Has anyone ever approached them about an endorsement?”
The best targets are usually closer than you expect. You’ve been a member of a gym for three years, or the restaurant owners know you by name. These are endorsements that will work because the authenticity is baked in before the campaign begins.
Deliverable
A completed My Natural Endorsement Targets Worksheet with a ranked list of three to five priority prospects, each with a personal note, a brand fit assessment, and a commercial opportunity rating. This is the working document that drives the rest of this module.
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Step 2: Evaluate Before You Pursue
A target list is not the same as a qualified prospect list. This step applies the formal evaluation process to your top targets so that every conversation you enter is about a client you’ve already determined meets your standards, not one you’re still figuring out as you go.
What to Do
For each of your top three priority prospects, complete an Advertiser Evaluation Scorecard.
The score is only useful if the inputs are honest. Pay particular attention to:
Section A: Brand Fit. If you would not recommend it with enthusiasm to a friend, note why. The gap between “enthusiastic” and “probably” is the gap between an endorsement that works and one that doesn’t.
Section B: Client Quality. The commitment length and creative freedom questions are key. A client who wants a four-week run to see how it goes doesn’t understand what they’re buying. A client who insists on word-for-word script delivery is buying a live read, not an endorsement.
Section D: Warning Signs. Read each carefully against what you know about this prospect. If you don’t know enough to answer the warning sign questions, it means you need to know this business better before pursuing an endorsement relationship with them.
Score each prospect. Note which sections are strong and which are not. The decision output is at the bottom of the Scorecard (Approve, Need More Information, or Decline), and the answer should be clear by the time you’ve completed it.
Guidance
A Scorecard score of 76 or higher is a strong yes. Pursue this client with confidence. A score in the 55-75 range is worth pursuing, but with conditions you’ve identified. A score below 55 indicates concerns that need to be addressed before pitching, and you may need to move on to a different prospect.
The most common mistake at this step is talking yourself into a score that isn’t there. If the brand fit questions are producing 3s and 4s because you like the client but don’t use the product, the Scorecard is doing its job. Don’t override it. Either invest in product experience until the score reflects familiarity or redirect your energy to a prospect whose score is naturally strong.
Note: Completing this Scorecard on a prospect you decide not to pursue is not wasted effort. It tells you that either this category isn’t right, this business isn’t right, or you need different prospects in this category. That knowledge improves future evaluations.
Watch this video to understand how to evaluate advertisers:
Deliverable
At least one completed Advertiser Evaluation Scorecard with an honest score and a clear decision. If your top prospect scores below 55, complete a second Scorecard on your next-ranked prospect. Continue until you have at least one prospect approved for pitching.
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Step 3: Initiate the Conversation
An approved prospect becomes an active opportunity through a conversation with the right person inside your building. This step is about having that conversation correctly to bring your AE or sales manager into the opportunity, so it positions you as a professional commercial partner and produces the best possible outcome for everyone.
What to Do
The conversation has a structure. This works:
- Open with your genuine connection to the business. Not “I’d like to pursue an endorsement with this client.” Start with something like, “I’ve been a customer at Giovanni’s for three years, and I think there could be a great endorsement partnership there. Have you ever approached them about host endorsements?”
- Share your Scorecard thinking (but don’t show the document). You’ve evaluated this prospect against your criteria and know why it’s a good fit. Communicate the category alignment, the audience fit, and the stories you already have. This is what makes the conversation feel like an opportunity rather than a request.
- Hand it off cleanly. Your job is to identify the opportunity and light the spark. The AE’s job is to build and close the deal. Make that handoff explicit: “I’m excited about this one. Let me know how the conversation goes and what you need from me to make it work. I’m happy to go with you to help close the deal.”
Guidance
The framing of this conversation matters. There’s a difference between a personality who walks into the sales manager’s office and says, “I want to do an endorsement for Giovanni’s,” and one who says, “I’ve been going to Giovanni’s twice a week for two years, and I think there’s a real endorsement story there. Have you worked that account?”
The first version is a personality asking for something. The second is a personality that brings an opportunity with a great chance of producing results. That’s a different proposition, and it’s received differently.
If the prospect you’ve identified is an existing advertiser, the conversation is even simpler. The AE already has the relationship. You’re not creating a new relationship. You’re proposing a richer version of one that exists. That’s an easy conversation for a good AE to have.
If the prospect isn’t advertising on your station, the conversation requires more groundwork and patience. The AE must establish a new relationship. That takes time, and you may need to stay involved as a resource and a motivator. Understand that this timeline isn’t in your direct control.
Deliverable
At least one active internal conversation about a qualified prospect. Log the date, what was discussed, the next step, and who owns it. This log is the beginning of your endorsement pipeline tracking. Then, follow up to do everything you can to make it happen.
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Step 4: Structure and Sign the Right Deal
When a deal is ready to close, this step ensures it closes on terms that protect your brand, rate integrity, and long-term commercial position. Be patient. It may take a while, but everything after this deal gets easier.
What to Do
When an endorsement opportunity reaches the contract stage, work through the following sequence:
Review the Endorsement Contract Checklist. Apply it to the actual contract in front of you. Check every provision. Flag everything missing. Note everything vague. This is what you built the knowledge for in Module 2. It’s time to use it.
Confirm the rate structure. The per-airing rate is the goal, but whatever the agreement should be spelled out. Ensure all deal points are in there.
Confirm your approval rights are protected. Your right to approve this client before the deal was structured should be reflected in the agreement. Your creative freedom to deliver endorsements in your own words and voice should be stated.
Confirm the post-departure provision is addressed. What happens to recorded spots with your voice if you leave the station? This provision needs to be explicit. If it’s missing, add it before signing.
Involve management if it’s appropriate. This doesn’t mean fighting with the sales manager over every term. It means bringing any concerns through the proper channel. Have each conversation with the relevant decision-maker, framed as professional alignment rather than confrontation. The Rate Raise Conversation Cheat Sheet has specific language for common pushback scenarios.
If the deal is significant, have an attorney review it. You shouldn’t have to do this often (and likely not at all). Ideally, the primary provisions are handled in your employment agreement. But if something seems off, get it checked out.
Guidance
The most common deal-closing mistake is accepting a retainer structure when negotiation pressure has intensified. Resist this. A retainer that covers all activity at a flat monthly fee is a ceiling on your compensation with no floor on your obligations. This is a bad first deal because it’s what all future deals will be based on.
If your rate isn’t part of your employment agreement and you haven’t been able to establish a per-airing structure, a capped per-airing deal is a reasonable bridge, but a flat retainer with unlimited activity scope isn’t.
The second most common mistake is signing before the onboarding plan is in place. Step 5 covers onboarding in detail, but the point here is that signing the contract and starting the first read are separate events. There should be time and process between them. If the AE is pushing to start airing spots prematurely, push back. A campaign that starts before the personality is ready produces substandard endorsements from day one.
Closing the right deal is more important than quickly getting a deal done. Watch this video for details:
Deliverable
A signed endorsement deal with a per-airing or capped per-airing structure, an approved client, and a clear onboarding timeline established. If the deal isn’t closed yet, document the current status and next steps. The pipeline is the deliverable until the signed deal is in place.
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Step 5: Onboard the Client
The difference between an endorsement campaign that delivers results and one that generates complaints is usually established during the onboarding phase, before the first ad airs.
What to Do
For every new endorsement client, complete the following before the first spot airs:
The client meeting. A conversation with the owner, manager, or key personnel of the business is key. Learn as much as you can about their business and about them. Be curious: “How did you start this business? What are you most proud of? What do your best customers say about you? What’s the thing about your business that surprises people when they discover it?” This conversation is where the endorsement stories come from.
The product experience. Visit the restaurant. Use the service. Wear the product. Experience what the client’s customers experience enough to have stories. The Four Pillars Prep Sheet (Module 4) requires product knowledge. Get it now.
The copy framework conversation. Establish clearly, with the client and the AE present, how the copy process will work: what points need to be covered, how you’ll deliver them in your own voice, what the copy refresh schedule looks like, and how feedback gets communicated. Setting this framework at the start prevents the copy conflicts that derail otherwise good relationships.
The expectation conversation. Set realistic expectations about results. Endorsements build effectiveness over time, not immediately. Establish what success looks like for both parties, what will be tracked, and when the first review conversation will happen. Clients whose expectations are properly set at the start stay through the building period and renew when the results arrive.
Guidance
Onboarding is the investment that makes the campaign worth what the advertiser paid for it.
If you consistently produce endorsements that generate real results, clients will tell other business owners, and you’ll get renewals and referrals. This starts with onboarding your new partners.
Take the time. It pays for itself in the quality of every read for the life of the campaign.
Deliverable
A completed onboarding process for every client should be documented in the Client Relationship Calendar (Module 5 tool). This is the operational home for every active endorsement relationship. Start it at onboarding, not at renewal.
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Before Moving On to Module 4
Watch this video to ensure you’re ready for Module 4. This is your Final Module 3 Check:
Do not move to Module 4 until you have the following:
- Completed My Natural Endorsement Targets Worksheet with ranked priority prospects
- At least one completed Advertiser Evaluation Scorecard on a real prospect
- At least one active internal conversation about a qualified prospect in progress
- A signed deal with the correct structure or a qualified prospect at the contract stage, with a clear timeline
- If a deal is signed: onboarding completed
Note: This module has no fixed completion date, and that’s intentional. Finding and landing the right deal takes time. What matters is that the work is active, targets are identified, evaluations are complete, internal conversations are happening, and the pipeline is progressing.
If weeks pass without movement, don’t ask, “Why isn’t a deal closing?” Ask, “Which of these steps is stalled, and what moves it forward?” Use the steps as a diagnostic. The answer is always in one of them.
⚠ Do not move to Module 4 until a deal is signed or a qualified prospect is at contract stage with active momentum.
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Bonus Resources
Endorsement Ad Success Starts With Your Contract