What is a CPOP? Do you have any idea? It is one of those industry acronyms that we all hate, but what it stands for is important. It is part of what we have been preaching for almost 20 years. What is your Customer Point of Pain – CPOP?

As I have always said, until you know where the pain is, you cannot fix the problem. It is like a doctor/patient relationship. Until you tell the doctor how you feel (sluggish, agitated, cramped, can’t put weight on your foot, etc.) she or he cannot diagnose the problem. Until they can diagnose the problem, they cannot prescribe a solution. It is the same in our business.

Until you can determine the CPOP, you cannot help. I hate it when sponsorship consultants come to properties or brands and tell them how they can help. It’s pretty hard to help when there is no confirmation of the pain or issue. The same goes when a property sends out a stock sponsorship package to a sponsor prospect with no idea of what the sponsor seeks to achieve. Miraculously, the property has the solution for whatever ails them—it is the Gold Package!

Before you can determine the CPOP, you need to meet the prospect, spend time with them, understand their business, and determine their needs—locate their pain point. It might be that sales need a boost. It might be they have a GR or PR issue. Perhaps their brand needs a boost and higher profile, or perhaps they need to drive more traffic to their new app or website. It might be about recruitment or retention of staff. Whatever the pain point, you need to find it and then see if you and your property can bring pain relief to the sponsor. If you can, you will have a deal. The more pain you can take away, the more money they will relinquish. It is a pretty simple formula, but still we have properties using stock packages to pitch sponsors they have never met or hardly know.

The equation is simple. Understand the sponsor and their business. Understand them well enough that they inform you of their points of pain. Then determine how/if you can help them take away some or all of that pain. Then deliver on it. It’s like going to the doctor’s office with a concern and getting a diagnosis and prescription to take the pain away. I feel like I have said all this twice—because I have. I need to drive the point home. If you don’t know the CPOP, whether you are a consultant serving a client; a property pitching a sponsor or a sponsor activating at a property to a public facing consumer, in each case you need to know your customer’s point of pain to be able to solve their pain issue.

Please remember to stay HIMPS! (Healthy, Isolate when possible, Masked, Physically distanced and Safe!).

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