The latest writings from our team
How to Use Audience Data for More Sponsorship Sales
If you want to stop having your emails deleted, phone calls ignored and proposal thrown in the shredder it is essential that you get started in gathering data on your audience immediately. There is a gap in approach and knowledge between brands and sponsorship seekers. Many sponsorship seekers do not possess the level of data and knowledge of the audience that sponsors require to make informed decisions. Sponsors have a limited budget, limited time and limited patience for sponsorship seekers who don’t know the audience they offer.
The Hottest Activations from May 2024
Well, boys and girls, festival season is officially upon us, meaning that the sponsorship activations are coming hot and fast. We’re also...
Networking Strategies that Drive Sponsorship Success
I am asked constantly how to find sponsorship prospects, how to find the right people and how to get prospects to take a call or meeting. My answer is to go back to the principles of sales. People buy from people! Cold calls have a terrible success rate and leading with the sponsorship package is a one way ticket to the recycle bin.
How To Ask For Sponsorship: Questions For The First Meeting
Asking For Sponsorship Is Easy! As Long As You Don’t Ask For Money (Yet!) Prospecting is arguably the most important part of the sponsorship sales process. It is through the process of discovery meetings, geared towards information gathering rather than sales, that you learn whether or not the market will support your goals. The goal of the first meeting is not to make the sale but to gather information and demine whether or not you have a fit. The types of questions that you should ask your prospects must reflect the goals of the first meeting. 10+ Questions To Ask Potential Sponsors Here are the five most important questions you should be asking in the first meeting in order to be able to create a custom sponsorship package: Who is your target audience? This starts the meeting on the right path, right away. Don’t launch into a pitch, instead, get your prospect talking about their target audience. Not only will this give you valuable information for your proposal and your own audience research but it shows your prospect that you understand how sponsorship works. What action do your customers take right before they make a purchase? How do you typically get […]
How to Get Sponsorship: Steps to Success
Sponsorship can seem complex and even random at times- sometimes technique A works, other times, technique B does the trick and sometimes, seemingly for months on end, nothing seems to work at all! There is, however, a way to change the odds, and it is surprisingly formulaic. If you want to know how to get sponsorship or how to keep the sponsors you currently have, try the following nine steps: Never go in Sponsorship Proposal First Sacrilege, I know! “Send me a sponsorship proposal” is code for “no thanks” and when you go in proposal first you go right to the no. You certainly shorten the sales cycle but you don’t get the answer you want. Making your prospects read a sponsorship package full of assumptions and hope they find something that appeals to them does not lead to a strong close rate. Instead, have a conversation with your prospects about their sponsorship goals and find out what makes them tick. Ask them what they want to see in a sponsorship package! Want to know how to get sponsorship? Ask your sponsors! Questions, Questions and More Questions! The only time to speak in a sponsorship meeting is when your sentence ends […]
Modern Obstacles to Sponsorship Sales (And How to Overcome Them)
The landscape for sponsorship sales and marketing has changed a lot in recent years. Previous generations of business owners clamored at...
Sponsorship Recruiting, The Cowboy Way
I know what you’re thinking: “Why do I need tips to grow my network? I love cold calling!” I’ve heard it thousands of times, sponsorship professionals and fundraisers want to spend all of their time cold calling giant companies and asking them for silent auction items or a CSR grant. Well, I hate bursting bubbles but there are better ways to sell sponsorship than the cold call.
The Sponsorship Package is an Outcome, Not the Starting Point
Most organizations start their sponsorship journey by creating a sponsorship package. They create beautifully designed proposals, edited by multiple levels internally, voted on by the board and written (and rewritten) with every single eventuality in mind. “If we create a sponsorship deck that covers absolutely every option for a sponsor, then every company we approach will see something for them” is the guiding logic. Then once all of the above is complete, and only then, does the organization reach out to sponsors, sending in the masterfully created sponsorship package and waiting for the sale.
Seven More Deadly Sins of Sponsorship
In this post, I talked about the Seven Deadly Sins of Sponsorship. I got a lot of great feedback on the post, as many sponsorship seekers...