Everyone likes to be liked by everyone. Especially us feelers – we love it. I have yet to meet a person who enjoys being mistreated or disliked for any reason. Sadly enough, it’s never going to happen, so it’s a good idea to develop some thick skin, learn to act with integrity regardless so you can stand behind your efforts, and create some boundaries. It’s the developing proper boundaries that I’m going to address here, specifically how saying “yes” all the time is not always a good thing.
If you’re in some kind of sponsorship sales, (and you probably are if you’re reading this blog!) It’s probably in your genes to say yes as a reflex! Babies curl their hand around your finger when you gently tap their palm, men spit off of high towers or bridges, women must stop for a shoe sale… and sales persons LOVE saying yes – it’s a reflex. We have this results oriented tunnel vision of, get the signature on the dotted line!” And sometimes we have to stop and think about what we’re promising before we go there. At SponsorPark (which granted is not sponsorship sales), when we were first launching our business into beta testing, we were so excited to get those first proposals up on the site that I was likely to say yes when really it was to no one’s ultimate benefit that I do.
For example, for one new client I ended up consulting over their opportunity, reviewing their marketing information, their boilerplate language, and their history and event effort summaries in order to actually write their proposal for them. I consulted, reviewed their data, wrote the proposal, and pushed it live to the site. In exchange for literally no dollars. Now, it’s not uncommon to do more than normal when you’re just getting started, but there were a few things I finally realized. First of all, we now have almost 7,000 clients and nearly 4,000 active proposals on the site. There’s no way we can offer that kind of support to each of our clients, there’s just not enough hours in the day. And if we did spend that kind of time, there would be other efforts we offer in the growth of our services that benefit our members that we wouldn’t have time to invest into! In addition, the truth is that a sponsorship opportunity representative is going to know the ins and outs of their opportunity better than anyone, and there’s really no better person to communicate that in the initial proposal. It’s to the best interest of the sponsorship opportunity representative that they do the writing, and I offer my insights after the fact – which is now the way we make sure to do things.
When it comes to sponsorship sales, do you offer to do things for the sponsor that would honestly benefit them more if they had their own hand in it? Do you promise things or say yes to things that you can’t control? Like that their company WILL grow 15% as a result of their partnership, and if it doesn’t, you’ll personally hand them back their check? Do you say yes to being present for all activation efforts when you have a team that you can just as effectively delegate to? Do you say “yes” if they ask you to grow a third arm? There are some things that it’s not good to say yes to, and here are a few questions we think you should ask before saying “yes:”
- Is saying yes going to ultimately benefit our sponsor and why?
- Is saying yes going to ultimately benefit our property and why?
- Is there a better alternative I can suggest instead that will better support both of our goals in order to truly be mutually beneficial?
There’s a fine line between sacrificing convenience for a sponsor, and being walked on. Sacrificing convenience might be a necessary part of compromising within the partnership, but allowing yourself to be walked on is a whole different thing. If saying yes will support your sponsor and it won’t hurt your property, do it! But if you are hurting either the sponsor, or your own property (by taking away from your resources, abusing your talent, crippling your efforts to achieve your own goals, etc) , be prepared to offer an alternative solution with a good explanation for your thought process. It will ultimately establish trust, loyalty, productivity, and mutual respect and admiration.
Think about it – if you’re in a marriage, do you honestly prefer your spouse to always say yes? Before you instantly scream, of course I do! Consider it honestly – don’t you respect them as a partner for respecting themselves as valuable contributors to the relationship? And don’t you take them seriously when they demonstrate the ability to communicate value as well as contribute to solution oriented conversations from time to time? The same is true for a sponsorship relationship - allowing yourself to get walked on doesn’t strengthen your team, and it doesn’t earn you’re the respect of your partner. So exercise your discernment, and do whatever you can, but remember sometimes the magic word is not: “yes!”