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By Sylvia Allen
Once you
understand the sponsorship concept and the current selling climate (see
“Part One: Behind the Shift,” June/July 2006, p. 38), you’re ready to
start looking for sponsors and putting together a program that meets the
expectations of everyone involved. Here’s what you’ll need to know.
Finding the Funds
Where can you find sponsorship dollars? Many of you may only look within
your own communities to find sponsorship dollars. However, if you have
consumers, there are many more areas to look for sponsorship money.
The little guys.
Your initial temptation is to go to the top-tier companies.
However, you’ll have more luck with smaller companies. Large
organizations receive thousands of requests a week, and you’ll have
difficulty making your request stand out from all the submissions.
You’ll be more successful by going to the smaller organizations. And
don’t just buy a mailing list, put together a package, send it out and
follow up with a telephone call. It’s a waste of your time and money.
Instead, find out who the decision maker is, and make a telephone call.
Establish a relationship and determine if there’s a fit. Don’t waste
your time or the sponsor’s; if it’s not a fit, move on. Conversely, if
it looks like it would be a good partnership, continue.
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Resources for
finding sponsorship dollars include The Entertainment
Marketing SourceBook, which has contact information for more
than 5,000 sponsors, entertainment and media companies, retail
chains and service providers. |
Multiple
contacts. Incidentally, you know there’s more than one
contact at a company. The different areas that have sponsorship
dollars are the office of the president; the vice presidents of
marketing, human relations (for employee benefits), community
relations, public relations, multicultural marketing (another big
pot of money that often goes untapped), brand management and sales;
product and brand managers; and, oh yes, the vice president of
sponsorship. When one door closes, just knock on another one.
Hit the books. Where do you find
the names of these people? There are several wonderful resources. My
favorites are the Sports Sponsor Fact Book, published by Team
Marketing Report in Chicago (www.teammarketing.com), and The
Entertainment Marketing Sourcebook, published by EPM Communications
in New York (www.epmcom.com). The key value to these publications is
that they give you contact names, plus their telephone numbers and
e-mail addresses. They may not be just the right person, but they’ll
be able to direct you to the appropriate contact. It’s easier than
starting with the telephone book. Also, keep in mind that you can
reach outside of your community for sponsors. National organizations
need marketing opportunities — ways to reach their customers. If
you’re producing events, the attendance represents their customers.
Both of these books will cost you several hundred dollars, but you
make the money back with your first sale.
Get a partner.
Another resource for money is the Promotion Marketing Association (www.pmalink.org).
This organization represents the many sales promotion and marketing
companies that handle product tours (i.e. the Spammobile, the
Weinermobile, the BarBQMobile, etc.).
 These
people are looking for sampling opportunities and are willing to pay for
“space.” They don’t need any kind of sponsorship mention but are willing
to pay money to have a sampling opportunity at your event.
Usually they’re looking for a minimum attendance of at least 10,000. As
with the reference books mentioned in the previous paragraph, you will
have to join the PMA to get the directory, but it’s worth it. One sale
and you’ve recouped your investment.
Keep reading. Another way to find
money is to read and see what’s happening in other markets. Read AdAge,
Brandweek, Promo, Event Marketer and Sports Business Journal, for a
start.
Look at where people are spending
sponsorship dollars and how; look at the personnel changes (remembering
the cornybut- true saying, “A new broom sweeps clean”); and look for
changes in spending.
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Your goal is
to customize a program that helps the client achieve his
objectives while generating sponsorship dollars for you. For
example, the author offered a marina sponsorship of a nonprofit
activity at SeaQuest Kids; the sponsorship included promotion of
his involvement to the media. |
A good example is when Sports Business
Journal carried a headline that Target canceled its NASCAR sponsorship,
which represented a $40 million annual investment. That meant that
Target had $40 million to invest in other events (and they were looking
for family events).
Search the Web for sponsorship companies and read up on them. The
Internet is a vast resource — take advantage of it.
How to Get Started
Three key steps in getting started are knowing your property, knowing
the sponsor’s business and focusing on solutions, not the sponsorship
itself.
Know your property. What are the
assets? What is the value you deliver to a sponsor? How can you
customize your offering to meet a sponsor’s need? Know this information
so well that you never have to look at your notes; it should be in your
head and your heart — and don’t depend on a PowerPoint presentation to
carry the sale. You lose eye contact with the potential sponsor, and
they tune out your pitch. Any form of presentation material becomes a
crutch and hinders your ability to sell with passion and knowledge.
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Features Versus
Benefits
As salespeople, we often
worry about our needs, not the sponsor’s needs, and we get busy talking
about all the “things” that a sponsor gets — posters, flyers, banners,
table tents, etc. We do this without thinking about the benefits that
are necessary for the sponsor’s success in participating in your events.
Don’t sell features; sell benefits. What are the benefits? Here are some
that are important to sponsors:
• Increase sales
• Corporate hospitality
• Introduce a new product
• Expand use of current product
• Sampling • Entertainment
• Employee incentives
• Customer incentives
• Trade incentives
• Product branding
• Differentiate product from competition
• Association with a particular lifestyle
• Heighten visibility
• Shape consumer attitudes
• Recruitment
You can come up with more, based on your individual sponsor research,
but these are the basic, most common benefits needed by sponsors. |
Know your
sponsor’s business. Find out the following information before
contacting potential sponsors:
• Who are their customers?
• What are their marketing objectives?
• What have they done in the past?
• What worked for them?
• What are they using for measurement?
• Are they in a growth, sustaining, or re-trenching mode?
• What are their product lines?
• Are they compatible with your event?
You must know the answers to these
questions before the sales call.
Sell solutions, not sponsorship.
When you’re visiting with sponsors, ask them about business problems
they currently have; their objectives in their market (using the data
you gathered earlier); and what they want to achieve. This way, you can
customize an offering that helps them achieve their objectives while at
the same time generating sponsorship dollars for you.
For example, in Keyport, N.J., we have a
marina that wanted to get involved with our events. The marina owner’s
goal was to demonstrate support of the community and create awareness of
new ownership, as well as visibility for the marina. After talking with
the manager and discussing why the marina wanted to get involved, I
offered him sponsorship of a nonprofit activity at our event — SeaQuest
Kids — that involved two days of boat building at our Festival of Sails.
Since his involvement came too late to be included in all the marketing
materials, we promoted his involvement to the media, and the
boat-building project was featured extensively in print and TV coverage
of the event. He was happy; SeaQuest Kids was happy; the client was
happy. We offered a solution to meet his marketing needs; we didn’t try
to force him into a sponsorship that wouldn’t provide a solution to his
marketing objectives.
Sponsor Expectations
What do sponsors want in return for their investment? Certainly you’ll
have gone through the various benefits and determined what is important
to the sponsors. In addition, try to give a minimum return on investment
of three to one; i.e. if they give you $1,000, deliver $3,000 in
measured marketing value (the value of all the assets that were assigned
to that particular sponsor). Respect the sponsor’s investment; don’t be
cavalier in your treatment of their money.
Be honest and deliver on
 promises.
Follow through with on-site implementation, and keep the sponsor updated
on a regular basis about the progress of their sponsorship. Lastly,
provide them with a post-event report that demonstrates all the value
received by that sponsor for that investment. Try to include event
pictures with that report with photos of their booth, banners, etc. Give
them a visual summary of their participation and the value of that
sponsorship investment.
Have fun with your sponsorship selling. You’re providing marketing
opportunities to your sponsors that are mutually beneficial. They become
your partners and friends. Enjoy it!
Sylvia
Allen is president of Allen Consulting Inc., a sponsorship and event
marketing company located in Holmdel, N.J. (www.allenconsulting.com).
She is a well-respected authority on sponsorship and is regularly
featured at National Main Street conferences. She is the author of How
to Be Successful at Sponsorship Sales and can be reached at (732)
946-2711 or sylvia@
allenconsulting.com. |
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