How to Get 394 Warm Sponsorship Prospects in Your Pipeline – for Free

How many prospects can you reasonably handle in your pipeline without running out of time to treat them all properly? 150? 250?

What if I could offer you 394 warm prospects? And what if I could offer it to you…for free? I know what you’re thinking: anyone can download a list of the 394 biggest companies in their area of interest. But, I didn’t say 394 cold prospects, I said 394 prospects who will take your call and meet with you.

I have two techniques that I would like to share with you, and neither requires a sponsorship proposal or a complicated valuation (though you should ALWAYS know your value).

Check out this infographic to help with the prospecting process.

The Business Breakfast

Let me state for the record: sponsorship is NOT fundraising. Fundraisers and charities may use sponsorship as a revenue tool, but it is most definitely a form of marketing (not corporate philanthropy). Why am I telling you this? Because the first strategy is borrowed from the charitable sector…and is the single best tool for growing your pipeline.

How do I know it works? Because a consultant friend of mine helped me triple the revenue of a charity I worked for (yes, three times the revenue) in 18 months!

Here is what Mena has to say about the business breakfast:

“We’ve used business breakfasts extensively through our work with clients, from fundraising for capital campaigns to finding community ambassadors for the organization’s work.  They have proven to be a fabulous tool to get up close and personal with prospects and in bringing new contacts to the organization. What I love is their simplicity, how well they can work to get people introduced to your cause but also the fact that they work for organizations of all shapes and sizes. We have used them in relation to multi-million dollar campaigns to launching fundraising programs for small start ups.”

~ Mena Gainpaulsingh, Purposeful Fundraising Inc.

Here’s How It Works:

First, you need a referral network of some kind. Current sponsors, service providers, suppliers, people you golf with, your board of trade, your board of directors if you are a charity…anywhere you know people and talk to them regularly.

Here’s What You Do:

• Identify one person, with a conveniently located office and board room that holds up to 20 people
• Ask them to hold a low-key networking breakfast, coffee and muffins only, and to invite three of their colleagues
• Identify three other people in your network and invite them to your networking event if, and only if, they can bring three people from their network
• At the event, network for an hour before the business day starts. Have your host introduce you as a friend and colleague and then tell the crowd you want two things from them. The first, is to buy them a cup of coffee in the next two weeks. The second, is for someone in the crowd to agree to hold an identical event for you next month

Not only will you have your next business breakfast planned but you also have a pool of prospects to come, who can bring three of their contacts. People love to network! What better way to start a new relationship than by offering your prospects value before you even ask them for a penny.

What do you do over coffee? You ask them their thoughts on who you should be talking to about your sponsorship opportunity, you ask them what they value in a sponsorship offering and how the two of you can work together. Still stumped? Check out my 5 Questions for Every Sponsorship Prospect.

How the Math Stacks Up:

One business breakfast per month, 12 new prospects = 144 blazing hot prospects every year.

So what about the next 250 prospects? Let me show you!

How to Get Sponsors: The Friday Five

Here’s how it works (you even get to take vacation with this method):

• Take your never-ending list of cold prospects
• Every week of the year, except for two, send a list of five prospects to that same referral network
• Do it on Friday at 1:00 in the afternoon when nobody wants to do any real work and ask one question: Do you know anyone on this list, or at these companies, that you can introduce me to?
• Write the introductory e-mail for them so all the have to do is forward it and CC you.
• The trick? Use LinkedIn to research your five prospects to make sure they are connected to at least one person on your referral list

How the Math Stacks Up:

Five prospects x 50 weeks/year = 250 warm prospects who will take your call.

Build a Presence on LinkedIn

When it comes to strengthening one’s presence on social media, I find that LinkedIn often gets woefully overlooked. That’s a shame, too, as this professional network is one of your best opportunities to find potential sponsorship prospects all nice and warm.

More so than just tracking down companies on LinkedIn, which you can do with a simple Google or Bing search, LinkedIn takes it further. You can find out which employees work at the company you’re researching, and if you pay for LinkedIn, you can send them a message even without being priorly connected.

I know, I said these are free strategies, and I’m sticking by that.

After all, even without that, you can find contact names within the company so you can begin researching on and outside of the platform to learn more about the contact, such as their phone number or email address. Then, when you’re ready, you can reach out.

 

LinkedIn will recommend other possible contacts to you, so if you look up enough companies for potential sponsorship partnerships, your next prospect could be dropped right into your lap via their personalized recommendations.

Building a following on LinkedIn doesn’t require many different instructions than any other social media platform. Post often, sharing advice and insights helpful to those in your network. Join groups and participate regularly. Comment on people’s posts.

In short, be active and helpful and you’ll find your fair share of sponsorship prospects.

Ask for Referrals

Another excellent way to find warm prospects is to connect with your existing network. Ask past sponsors, vendors, and other business partners if they can recommend any companies that might be open to sponsorship arrangements.

Referrals are great because you already have your “in” with the contact at the sponsorship company, which is sure to warm them up faster.

That said, you’re still expected (and nay, required) to do your due diligence. Just because someone you’ve connected professionally with in the past suggests a business as a potential sponsor doesn’t mean that business will be a fit.

No one knows your brand values and audience better than you, so do some cursory research before proceeding with a prospect.

Network in Person and Online

Is networking sort of a pain? Yes. Is it still a viable way to find warm prospects in your sponsorship pipeline, especially for free? You betcha.

Okay, not all networking opportunities are free. You might have to pay for some events and expos, but there are still plenty of free ones out there, so always be on the lookout.

And if there aren’t, be aware that it’s always free to network online.

Get Active on Social Media

Your warm prospects don’t only operate on LinkedIn. They’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and Snapchat. If your business or organization isn’t on those platforms, you’re missing out on two things.

First, you’re missing out on the opportunity to build your brand, which matters to your audience, be that customers, donors, or attendees. Second, you’re losing the chance to connect with potentially viable prospects.

The same tips I shared for generating a buzz on LinkedIn apply to any other social media platform. The key to becoming a big name that people recognize and will want to help is to be around.

Post at least once a day, sharing valuable information your audience will find helpful, educational, informative, or even entertaining. It can be your own material or third-party resources. It doesn’t matter so much who puts it together, just that it’s high-value.

Also, be helpful out there. Share the wealth, build contacts, and the people who you’ve helped will usually be happy to drop a recommendation.

Not only that, but by prioritizing your social media presence, your brand becomes more visible, which could draw more interested prospects your way.

Survey Your Audience

Where better to go to get sponsorship prospects than directly to the source? I’m talking about your audience, of course.

Audience surveys are designed to shed light on your current customers, donors, or attendees. Depending on the caliber of your questions, you can learn about their job titles and income, the last events they’ve attended, what they’ve got coming up that they’re excited about, the brands they gravitate toward, and their decision-making power.

And you need all this information, especially the information about other brands, as that informs your sponsorship prospects.

When Customer A mentions Y Brand, and Customers B through F talk about X Brand, you have to pay attention to those companies. After all, you’re on the hunt for warm prospects, and who will be warmer than the brands your audience uses directly?

FAQs

Are warm sponsorship prospects more valuable than cold prospects?

Oh yes, absolutely! Cold prospects have no connection to your audience, so they’re harder for you to get your foot in the door with, so to speak. Warm prospects already have that audience connection, which makes them a lot more valuable to you and potentially vice-versa.

Can I cold call or email a warm prospect?

You can, but I always recommend seeking a contact in common if possible. Connect with your network and ask if anyone knows anyone who can help you get a foot in the door.

My warm sponsorship prospect turned me down or ghosted me – now what?

Even though there’s a higher likelihood of your converting a warm prospect, it’s by no means guaranteed. Therefore, you could find yourself in the less-than-enviable position of being ghosted or turned down by your prospect.

It’s not a great feeling, but a warm prospect is under no extra obligation to work with you just because there’s more alignment between them and your audience. That’s why having a big list of prospects is always best, as you can move on to someone else if you get denied.

Sponsorship Pipeline Building

These techniques work, and they work well. When my clients implement these techniques I always hear the same complaint: I’m struggling to keep up with number of prospects.

394 prospects in 12 months, not including your ongoing prospecting by asking your sponsors for referrals, looking at your competitors and attending networking events.