It must be sponsorship sales month!
I’m getting at least one email, letter or flyer every couple days soliciting a sponsorship of some sort. Having been on the buying and selling side of sponsorships for years I’m going to offer a few tips on offering sponsorships to your member companies.
1. Match the quality of the offer with the amount of the “investment” you are offering. This means you don’t mail your offer on a cheap, black and white photocopied piece of paper – if you are trying to get someone to consider spending $250 – $10,000 (or more). Take some time to craft a great letter, personalize it and print it on something other than 20lb. bond paper and enclose it in a 9 x 12 envelope with real stamps and a real persons name in the address area.
2. Send only one sponsorship offer at a time. Do not confuse the “buyer” with three or four offers at a time. Take the time to learn about the potential sponsor’s company and offer a package or program that is customized to get them the highest value for their investment. If you must send “multiple choice” sponsorship offers at least limit them to one type of event at a time – don’t mix a Membership Meeting sponsorship offer with a Trade Show sponsorship offer.
3. The benefits are more important than the features. Features are what the sponsorship includes like: your company logo on a 4 x 8 ft. banner. Benefits are explanations about why the feature is valuable like: Over 225 of the most powerful, successful and influential business people in the area will pass by your company identified as a major supporter and sponsor of this event. The banner will be placed in a high traffic area near the buffet line and then moved to the exit door to get your company maximum exposure from this influential group of decision makers. Estimated number of times your company logo will be seen over the course of the evening – 775 impressions!
4. Sell the event, then the sponsorship. Before offering a sponsorship to an event, sell the event. In order for a potential sponsor to make a decision about an investment they need to know as much as possible about the event and why it will be valuable to their company. Too often, there is a very brief, if any, description of the event followed by two pages of sponsorship opportunities. Take a little time to write a great and detailed description of the event and don’t assume just because the event has been produced annually for 26 years that all of your members know what the event is. Remember, a good share of your members don’t even know what goes on at a Membership meeting!
5. Face-to-Face is always best. There is no more effective way to offer a sponsorship than “in person”. If you are offering a $2500 sponsorship it is more valuable to offer to meet for lunch or breakfast at your member’s location or facility and bring box lunches or a platter of pastries and fruit. It may seem like a “shameless bribe” but the odds of success will increase exponentially over a cheap black and white photocopy or worse – a mass email offer.
6. Follow-up is critical. Sometimes it takes a second, third or fourth contact offering new information each time to get your member company to make a “good” decision. Don’t give up after just one “try”. Follow-up can be done in person, by telephone or by mail.
Email is ok as a support tool but it is not a stand alone sponsorship sales tool. For most consumers it takes nine separate contacts before they make a new purchase. Most sales people give up at one contact.
7. Getting a “no” is not the end of the world! One of the biggest challenges in selling sponsorships is fear. The fear of getting a “no” stops most event coordinators or directors and sales people from making a personal call or presentation. Instead, emails and flyers are sent eliminating the fear of rejection but also lowering the odds of success dramatically.
When someone says “no” they are not making a personal judgment about you. They are just saying “no” to your offer. In our office we have our own way of responding to “no’s” – we say “NEXT”.