Selling Sponsorships in NOT about You

I`m not sure how many times I have said this about sponsorship marketing, but if I had a nickel for each one, I would be retired today. Yet, people seem surprised when I say it. Listen carefully. For those of you that sell sponsorships, it is not about you.

Sorry, let me put it a different way. For those of you who sell sponsorships, it is not about you.

Recently, I was delivering a session on proposal building. I tried to explain that the reason sponsors invest money with a selling property is because they want to see results. It is all about them. At the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists™ we recommend to our clients that, when they write a proposal, there should be only one page about them and the rest needs to be about the sponsor. One person in the session tried to sell me on how many children’s lives they had touched. He said that he needed three to four pages (in a six-page proposal) to talk about who they were, what they did, the positive effects of their work, and so forth.

I could not get across the notion that, by the time you build the proposal, the prospect should know all that. The proposal needs to be all about the prospect or sponsor.

In my mind, it comes down to one thing-can you help the sponsors achieve their business goals? If you can help them, and if you can take away some hurt, you will get money. If you can’t, don’t bother writing the proposal. As a sponsorship marketing specialist, the property is basically a “solution provider.” If you cannot provide solutions, don’t bother pitching the offer. As a property, you are there to serve the sponsors. They are not there to serve you. It is that simple. And if you follow that premise, you will get the money.

These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well. Please add your thoughts or comments below. Thank you for reading and your feedback.

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