The holidays are officially here. As the mouth watering turkey finds its’ way into your eagerly anticipating belly’s in a couple of days, and the dusk of Black Friday emerges – every sale driven consumer’s favorite day of the year, and the fear of every sales clerk in retail – at some point, someone is going to ask you what you’re grateful for. We’ve got our highest priorities; our faith, our family, our careers, our health… and if you’re reading this blog, odds are you’re considering your sponsorship efforts too! Now, I know it has been a rocky year, and while I’m sure there’s some things you’re really happy about, it’s likely that your wheels are already spinning in anticipation for a fresh year of new strategies. I’m a big fan of actionable check lists of to do’s, and so today I’d like to share what we have come up with as our top 10 key tips to finding a sponsor. We’re going to be focusing on each of these ten tips over the next few weeks, and our hope is that it helps to equip you for an even more successful 2010.
1. Write a relevant initial proposal – This is not the final customized piece (which comes after you have already established interest). The initial proposal communicates the most relevant information up front; which quickly established whether a partnership is realistic. SponsorPark has developed a proposal template that walks you through this information.
2. Offer tiered packages / benefits – When you communicate the benefits of partnering to a sponsor, a quick way to kill interest is not to offer options, or worse, no insight at all as to what your asking price might be. Your tiers should also be cascading – make it worth a sponsors while to offer more support in exchange for a more extensive package of benefits.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Pursue those who have reason to be interested in you – This means you will need to do your homework and be sure to know something about what that company is doing and where they are going. SponsorPark does this for you by sending your proposal out to sponsors who have already indicated their interests and established search criteria.
6. Build a strong network – If two equally beneficial opportunities are presented to a sponsor, they are going to pick the one that they have existing ties with. Connect with as many people as possible – a great time to start this is with current sponsors!
7. Consider using an agency or connecting resource – Agencies generally speaking get paid when you see results, so they are working harder than ever right now. Best of all, SponsorPark allows sponsors to use our outsourcing tool for free – present yourself where sponsors are looking! And read really good top 10 lists!
8. Give yourself plenty of Time – Sponsorship can take 4-6 months to connect with the most appropriate person, negotiate a partnership, and sign a contract. The larger the sponsorship deal the longer it can take to close. This is also why it’s a good idea to pursue more than one sponsor at a time. Work smarter not harder!
9. Don’t sell yourself short – Even in a world where you might have to add perks you wouldn’t normally add to sell the sponsorship, or consider additional assets to bundle for more package options, make sure your pricing aligns with the value you’re offering a sponsor. When the economy bounces back, you don’t want to be stuck in a rut because you undersold your sponsorship previously.
10. Ask your sponsor what they want out of the Partnership – Once interest has been established and an initial meeting set, ask your sponsor what they want. At this point you have done enough research to know the basics about what they might consider a goal of the partnership, but stay on top of the ever-changing corporate world. Who knows, they might come up with even better ideas than you initially considered.
Our goal at SponsorPark is to help connect sponsors with sponsorship opportunities, and it’s my hope that this list will do a small part to support you in your sponsorship connection. If you have additional thoughts and tips to offer along the way, I encourage you to comment!
Now – a holiday season wouldn’t be complete without a gift, right?! So as a Thank you to our 4500 registered members, I’m happy to announce that once we hard launch in early 2010, we will be offering a significant discount to be used towards the package option of your choice – more to come. We realize that connections can take longer during beta when we are community building, and we know there have been some patient people out there – and for those of you who have received some connections, the discount will be offered to you too! And until we hard launch the discount is available for you if you register with us in the next couple of months. Thank you for your feedback, for your patience, and for choosing to register with us as an active member. We at SponsorPark are grateful for you.