Sponsorship Valuation Template 

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite sponsorship topics that’s definitely everyone else’s least favorite. You saw it in the title. It’s sponsorship valuation.

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why so many sponsorship seekers hate the valuation process. 

If you set down the wrong path when valuing your assets, you can either severely overinflate your value (which turns sponsors away) or underinflate your value (which reduces your sponsorship dollars).

That’s why I want to share with you my free Facebook Group training on sponsorship valuation. The training includes a handy valuation calculator for you to replicate in your own sponsorship program. 

Let’s get started, shall we?

Valuation Calculator Template 

Per the video link above, this is a screenshot of my valuation calculator template. Now you can visually follow along as I explain. 

Before I proceed, I want to make clear the above numbers are representative values only. In other words, they’re examples and should not be used in a real sponsorship package. 

So how do you use a template like this? Well, first, you have to click the video above and request your valuation calculator template download. Then, once you have the spreadsheet in front of you, you can begin tinkering with the numbers.

Let’s use property naming rights, which is the first asset in the listed inventory, as an example. 

You’d calculate the cost per name in wordmark based on your own research. Then you can input the total number of views and the value will go up as a result. 

If the cost per name in wordmark was $0.0063, which is the default value in the template, and your property naming rights had 5 million views, then the value would be approximately $31,303.67. That’s not too shabby!

The calculator template will automatically calculate the value of your assets for you, which is convenient. If you’re not so great at math, you also won’t have to stress so much about crunching numbers or placing decimal points correctly. 

Valuation can be stressful enough as it is, so there’s no need to make it worse!

You may be wondering about the assets I selected in the template. Are they just random ones? No, actually, they’re not. These are the more common assets that I’ve seen sponsorship seekers put in their own sponsorship packages over the years.

That does not necessarily mean these assets will be right for your sponsorship program. Remember, this is a template, and that means it’s completely editable.

Please don’t insert random assets that don’t make sense into your sponsorship program just because you see them in the template. Replace assets, delete whole rows; do whatever works for you. 

I want to make one more note before I move on, and that’s about hard costs. Most sponsorship assets have hard costs associated with them. 

Going back to the example of naming rights, if you’re adding signage to a building, that signage doesn’t come free. The cost to obtain the sign would be categorized as a hard cost. 

You will initially pay for hard costs out of your own pocket. Then you should be reimbursed. 

Many sponsorship seekers don’t bother to add hard costs to their valuations though. The costs never get factored into their sponsorship package either.

They’re just eating those costs, which can be quite expensive depending on the assets and activations you’re planning for a particular sponsor! 

With hard costs factored into this template, you won’t have to make that mistake. 

Sponsorship Valuation Best Practices 

Being able to crunch numbers is only one part of the sponsorship valuation process. If you’re not sure which assets you’re supposed to offer a sponsor or how to sell them, this section of my top valuation best practices will point you in the right direction. 

Use Your Audience Data

I’ll help you out and tell you one asset you must include in your sponsorship package. That’s your audience. 

Okay, technically, you don’t sell your audience, but in every other way except literal, you kind of do. 

Your audience is what entices a sponsor to want to work with you. They see the untapped potential in your audience. The sponsor already imagines how they can integrate your audience into their customer base.

Well, they should be able to do that, but it all depends on how much information you give them. 

Imagine this. You’re telling someone a story based on something that happened to you in real life. How do you put the listener–who has never been in a situation like what you went through–in the environment you were in?

You provide details, details, and more details. You don’t just say it was a cold and rainy night. You wax poetic about the heavily pelting rain, the dampness in the air, and the bone-chilling cold. 

You describe sights, sensations, sounds, and feelings. And this is what makes the listener feel like they were right there with you.

So why am I talking about storytelling in the middle of my article on sponsorship valuation?

Your audience data is a lot like a story. If you only have very basic details on your audience, then it’s a boring story that doesn’t grip anyone.

It’s when you delve into highly specific niches such as neighborhood or borough, occupations within an industry, income as it relates to spending, and other such niches that your target sponsor is on the edge of their seat eager to hear more.

It’s like being an excellent storyteller. You presented all the right details and you definitely captivated attention. 

Are you still not totally convinced that highly niched audience data is crucial to building an inventory of assets that sponsors are interested in?

Allow me to drop this little tidbit. 

The more valuable a target sponsor perceives your audience, the more willing they may be to pay for assets in your menu. 

Do Your Research

My sponsorship valuation calculator template is handy, but as I said before, those numbers are purely for the sake of example. You’re going to have to research assets to determine how much they’re worth.

This is the only way for you to begin to narrow down which assets are valuable and which should be left on the cutting-room floor. 

Your research will require you to determine the market value of each asset. For example, if I went into Google and asked how much a marketing firm charges for Facebook ads, I would see that the hourly rate is about $137. 

The next part of the process is a bit of a gut-check, which is probably why sponsorship seekers struggle. You have to look at the value of your audience and your company or organization as a whole and ask if $137 is too much or too little for your own Facebook advertising services.

That’s a question that only you can answer. 

I know it’s tempting to say that yes, every high value you see in your research is exactly how much you should charge a sponsor for those services. If you follow that logic, it will come back to bite you. 

As you go through your list of sponsorship prospects and reach the point where you discuss asset pricing, each will have the same reaction. They’ll turn you away because you’re overcharging. 

Now, I have to take a moment to talk about copying asset pricing. There may come a time in your research when you find a value for an asset that you think fits your asset as well. That’s okay. 

I’m not saying you have to change the value of every asset based on what market value says. If market value and the value of your own asset seem to match, then so be it.

The real problem arises when you search for the value of assets and blindly copy every price you see down to the last decimal point without evaluating whether those costs are commensurate with your experience and services.

Document Your Work

Here’s one of my top best practices for valuations. As you do your market research and adjust the prices of your own services to a sponsor, document how it’s done.

This is a whole heck of a lot easier when you use my sponsorship valuation calculator. You can insert values into each category in the calculator and then save it. 

That calculator really is more for your own company or organization’s internal use. My team is working on a modified version of the sponsorship valuation calculator that you can easily share directly with a sponsor, so stay tuned for that. 

Be Flexible

Valuation numbers are not set in stone when you present them to the sponsor. 

Let me say that again. 

The numbers that you painstakingly calculated over hours or even days or weeks are not necessarily the final value the sponsor will pay.

That’s not to say that all the work you put into valuation was for naught. It wasn’t. Those numbers serve as a baseline for the sponsor to work with.

Once they see the going prices for some of your assets, they may suggest raising the value for some assets and lowering the value for others. 

My suggestion? Don’t attach too much emotional value to any one asset. You don’t want to feel so strongly about some assets that you’re unyielding. 

However, keep your eyes and ears open as the sponsor suggests amending prices. If they want to drop an asset that wasn’t all that high-value in the first place, then let it go. However, if they want to significantly slash the price of an asset that you know is valuable, say something. 

You’re the one who values the assets, after all, not the sponsor. Once they see how you documented your valuation process, they might agree to the market value price or higher. 

Conclusion 

Sponsorship valuation gives most sponsorship seekers headaches because it’s confusing, difficult, and there’s no real guideline out there for what’s a good price versus what isn’t.

Well, there is now. My sponsorship valuation template calculator is sure to help make valuing your assets quicker, easier, and more efficient. 

The calculator doesn’t replace good, old-fashioned market value research, but rather augments that research so you feel confident about the numbers you present a sponsor. Good luck!