Cast a vision:
Clearly as one who represents a sponsorship opportunity you have a passion for what you are doing, paint that picture for why it’s a big deal - tell your story. But be careful to pair feelings with thinking. Pair qualitative with quantitative reasoning.
Quantify your value in as many ways as possible: While there are some benefits you can’t assign a number to, such as popularity or the loyalty of your customer base; there are many things that you can, such as: target audience information, media and broadcast exposure, and category exclusivity you could offer. The economy has made consumers more aware of corporate spending and required accountability with decision makers. Make it clear and easy to defend as to why they should partner with you.
These two tips really are a good pair to talk about together, because as you are casting your vision, it’s important to marry the “feeler” and “thinker” perspectives so that while you’re giving life to an opportunity with expressed “meaningful” points, you’re also giving something of substance for them to walk away with. Fact is more powerful than opinion. Perspective is in the eye of the beholder, and so quantification is critical. For tip #3, I encourage you to reference the blog entitled: “Be a Good Storyteller; Cast Your Vision,” which we posted in September.
I will add that when you are casting a vision, it’s important to highlight your ability to captivate a particular audience and how a sponsor’s affiliation with you might improve loyalty to their brand. I had coffee with a potential client yesterday, and we were discussing the many different reasons a sponsor might choose to partner with you. Remember that while some up and coming brands might be interested in tremendous exposure, others are well established and looking for a powerful affiliation. It seems like there’s a new energy drink or line of clothing everywhere you look when watching the UFC – this exposure is exciting for them. But when you see the brand giants investing in a sponsorship opportunity their investment purposes are likely very different. Tiger Wood’s drama right now is a perfect example of how originally he had brands wanting their logo affiliating with him for the reach he had even outside of the avid golf fan, where now, the vision he casts might not be so pretty. The impression you make on your audience, and the loyalty you can offer a company with their consumer as a result is a major asset you can paint a picture of when casting your vision.
Quantifying your value has never been more important than it is now. There was a beautiful season for property rights holders – especially in sports, when all you really had to do was find a sponsorship decision maker that just really liked basketball, you offered season tickets as part of your package of benefits, and they were sold. Those days are now ancient history. Now, with companies being held highly accountable for their spending, sponsorship must hinge on the impression that it is a business development technique, a marketing option. There’s more to the partnership than tickets and logos. We really like SponsorshipPRO+ for their efforts in helping you communicate value from a partnership with their software. Using a resource like this gives you something tangible to offer sponsors when discussing previous successes.
We mentioned inventorying your assets in last week’s blog, and gave a brief summary about intangible vs. tangible assets. Even your intangible assets you can assign a ballpark value to (IEG offers some great consulting on this topic), though it’s wise to keep in mind this is a starting point. The value really is determined by the priorities of the sponsor – but you can start somewhere.
Imagine you are a student looking for colleges, after narrowing down your options to two choices, you attend a guided tour. At the first school the guide tells you; “Oh – you’re going to just love that our professors really care about your growth, and there’s so many extracurricular activities to meet people, and it really is a beautiful campus.” Now imagine that on your second tour you heard your guide say; “I understand you are interested in a business degree – our business school is in the top 5 in the nation, 90% of our students graduate with jobs already lined up. There are 5 fraternities and 26 interest specific groups you can get involved in….” you get the picture. You start getting the warm and fuzzy when you get some numbers to go with the statement. I’ll say it again; facts are more powerful than opinion.
Another reason why you need to quantify your value is because the truth is that it’s a buyer’s market. Sponsorships are competitive, and in the negotiating piece of getting a contract together, you need to be able to explain why you are charging for the values that you have to offer. Be careful not to back down too low in your packages – this undercuts your value and cripples you for the years to come. You can always add benefits to the packages you have established in order to spice it up and keep it competitive, but make it as tough as possible to argue by quantifying your value upfront.