How does a club manage its partnerships so that they create real added value for the club and its partners? PS Karlsruhe LIONS, who play in the ProA (Germany's second basketball division), had often thought about this question. Their answer is Paktum, as a flexible software solution for sponsorship and in a long-term partnership.
Key takeaways
PS Karlsruhe LIONS (basketball, ProA) and Paktum have entered into a long-term partnership.
Together with Fabian and Paul, we completed the onboarding in time for the new season.
Floor stickers are mapped visually, contracts are imported and invoicing is automated.
The CRM function for contacts and reliable forecasts was particularly important to the LIONS.
Four work streams before the season start
The goal was clear: when the new season begins, the LIONS' sponsorship should run in Paktum. With Fabian and Paul, we worked on four areas:
Floor stickers: The spaces on the court floor are mapped visually in Paktum. That way, you can see at a glance which position has been assigned to which partner.
Contracts: The existing contracts have been imported and are in the system with their terms and deliverables.
Invoicing: Invoices are created automatically according to the payment schedule, for example as instalments or a season invoice, exactly when they fall due.
Basketball know-how: We gathered the challenges that are typical in basketball and implemented them in Paktum.
How much effort automated invoicing can save is shown in our case study on invoicing in sponsorship.
Why the decision was made quickly
For Fabian Huber from the LIONS marketing team, moving away from separate lists was a key point:
“When we started talking to Paktum and the idea behind the solution became clear, the decision was made quickly. Instead of lots of separate Excel lists, we now work with one clear, all-in-one solution. The CRM function was especially important to us: it lets us follow up on contacts and build reliable forecasts,” says Fabian Huber, Marketing, PS Karlsruhe LIONS.
In sponsorship, forecasts are only as good as the data behind them. If contacts, contracts and invoices sit in separate lists, every forecast starts as a collection exercise. In Paktum, this data is connected. Real-time controlling shows where the season stands, and the backlog curve makes visible which revenue per season is already secured by contract.
Back in Karlsruhe
For Jens Kaeske, co-founder of Paktum, this onboarding was a personal highlight. He spent nine years at KIT, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, studying and completing his PhD. Now a club from that very city works with Paktum. For Jens, this closes a circle: the city where he did his research is now also a place where Paktum is in use.
There was a first as well: for our new colleague Jonas, it was his first onboarding. A ProA club, a fixed deadline at the start of the season and lots of topics at once: he could hardly have had a more intensive start.
Season start in the Löwenkäfig
The LIONS go into the new season with tidy sponsorship: contracts, spaces and invoices in one system, plus a CRM that brings contacts and forecasts together. We look forward to the first home games in the Löwenkäfig, the “lions' cage”, as their home arena is called, and to further exchanges with Fabian and Paul.
Do you want to move from scattered lists to reliable forecasts in basketball? Book a demo with Paktum, ideally with the plan of your own arena as an example.