Sponsorship – Page 3 – The Sponsorship Collective

The One Thing Every Sponsor Wants (And Nobody is Doing)

by Chris Baylis | Jun 26, 2024 | Discovery Sessions, Sponsorship

Everybody wants a silver bullet to sell sponsorship, the one thing that works every time. Guess what? It DOES exist! Is it a well written proposal? A solid elevator pitch? The perfect combination of logos, sampling rights and exhibit space? Nope! I talk to sponsors a lot (yes, the people with the money!) and I hear over and over again that properties (the people who want the money) are missing the mark almost every time. There is one thing that your sponsors want more than anything else and nobody is doing it. That one thing? Discovery sessions.

How to Use Audience Data for More Sponsorship Sales

by Chris Baylis | Jun 11, 2024 | Asset Valuation, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Inventory, Sponsorship Prospecting

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.

Networking Strategies that Drive Sponsorship Success

by Chris Baylis | Jun 4, 2024 | Cause Marketing Basics, Event Sponsorship, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Recruiting

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

by Chris Baylis | Jun 4, 2024 | Discovery Sessions, Event Sponsorship, How To Ask For Sponsorship, Sponsorship, Sponsorship Prospecting, Sponsorship Recruiting, Sponsorship Sales

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 […]

Modern Obstacles to Sponsorship Sales (And How to Overcome Them)

by Chris Baylis | Jun 4, 2024 | Corporate Sponsorship, Sponsorship

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

by Chris Baylis | May 21, 2024 | Pipeline Building, Sponsorship, Sponsorship for Major Gift Officers, Sponsorship Recruiting

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

by Chris Baylis | May 21, 2024 | Asset Development, Asset Valuation, Sponsorship

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

by Chris Baylis | May 21, 2024 | 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...

“Just Send me a Proposal” The Five Words you Never Want to Hear in Sponsorship

by Chris Baylis | May 15, 2024 | Sponsorship

Telling people “no” is an uncomfortable experience and people try to avoid it at all costs and so our prospects have come up with an ingenious way to say no without having to say no, and it sounds like this: “Just send me a proposal” Which is code for “no thanks.” The reason it works so well is that as sponsorship seekers we are obsessed with the idea that the sponsorship proposal makes the sale. We reason that once the sponsor hears about our great cause and sees how many benefits we’ve stuffed into the “gold level” of our package, they will jump at the chance to give us money. The sponsor asks for a proposal to get out of an uncomfortable situation and the sponsorship seeker happily sends over the proposal under the false impression that the sponsor has any intention of reading their sponsorship package. Just Say No to Stock Proposals The next time someone says “Just send me a proposal” I want you to use the most powerful word in the English language: “No” Take a moment to let that sink in! It should make you uncomfortable because it goes against everything you think you know about […]

Archive: Sponsorship