Being a sponsorship sales professional requires that you really know how to engage a person in conversation. Truthfully sponsors are already wary of your intentions for speaking, and so it can be tougher than a typical conversation, and there are efforts that will kill your chances of being remembered or considered and ways that will drop their walls and draw them in.
How to engage:
What you want to remember is that people love to talk about themselves, and people like to feel considered. Your ultimate goal is to engage them in a dialogue that intertwines your efforts. At the end of the conversation you want them to see how valuable they are WITH you. Instead of your goals or their goals, it’s not even how to meet one another’s goals (yet), it’s how you can meet their goals as a partner. When you’re talking to a brand manager about how you’re going to help them grow or touch their target audience in a meaningful way, you’ve got their attention. When you make it clear that you have done your research about their recent marketing campaigns, note trends or changes in trends, their previous efforts with a charity, a new product launch, etc; this shows that you have specific interest in them, as opposed to anyone who will offer you money. You connect the dots by finding out if they would be interested in integrating a particular marketing focus you’ve observed in a memorable way with your efforts as a partner. You suggest a few ideas if that IS of interest to them, and this line of discussion will draw them into a brainstorming session for how they might make that possible. People are quick to analyze efforts that involve themselves, and analyzing typically means problem solving, or brainstorming; and this draws them into the idea of a partnership.
How to turn them off:
As opposed to discussing their needs in a dialogue format, you simply produce a monologue about who you are, why you’re amazing, and why they should partner with you (for your benefit). I can’t count how many times a sponsorship sales rep has discussed with me why they are the best thing since sliced bread or why their program qualifies them for sainthood. I hate to sound apathetic, but sponsors really don’t care. They didn’t agree to offer their valuable time with you to learn about you necessarily; they’re there to learn about why a partnership is a good idea for their brand. That means, you need to focus the conversation on their brand vs. your opportunity. Even if they ask about who you are and what you’re doing, make sure to be cognizant of how much time you spend talking about yourself or you’ll end up driving them to ask themselves why they opened that door. Remember, your ultimate goal is to engage them in a dialogue that intertwines their brand with your organization. So instead of rattling on about why you’re unique, one of a kind, and why they’d be crazy not to consider you, prove it. It’s like dating – women don’t want to date a man that’s all about himself. If a man wants a woman to take interest in what he’s about, he first has to prove that he values her and engages her. Same goes for pursuing a sponsor. Separate yourself from 99% of other sponsorship requestors and engage them in their goals and objectives.
Any other brilliant tactics to engaging a sponsor, or terrible turn-off’s? Please share – the sponsorship community might learn and grow from your insights!