Finding Sponsors

Sponsorship letter writing – why they don’t work

If you’re still sending an unqualified and unsolicited sponsorship letter to potential sponsors, please STOP!

Put yourself in the shoes of a marketing manager who receives hundreds of sponsorship letters every month. What’s the likely-hood they are going to take time out of their busy day to read a sponsorship letter from someone they don’t know, asking for some sort of investment into something they don’t care about?

You guessed it – zero, zip, zilch, nada.

You’ve been pounding away for months now, cold calling potential sponsors only to get the brush off from a gatekeeper or sending out proposals that never get a response.

It’s becoming depressing and you’re starting to get upset, angry even, that no one can see your potential.

Don’t stress, you’re not alone. It’s the dilemma of many sponsorship seekers.

If this is happening to you then it’s time to stop, re-group and have a serious think about your approach to sponsorship.

The reasons why you’re not getting anywhere can be summarised by three simple words: Who, what and why.

When you come into contact with a potential sponsor they’re going to ask themselves these questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What’s in it for me?
3. Why should I choose you?

As a sponsorship seeker, it’s you job to provide the answers to these 3 questions in a way that makes you and your opportunity the logical choice.

Let’s look at each of these questions in detail and discuss ways you can improve your answers and get sponsored.

One of the key steps to securing sponsorship is doing your homework. You must get to know your potential sponsors and determine if you’re compatible with their target audience(s) and marketing objectives.

One of the worst things you can do is send an unsolicited, untargeted, irrelevant proposal to a potential sponsor. You’ll get absolutely nowhere and will waste your time and their’s.

Time spent doing your research now will pay you back 10 fold in the long run.

Before you begin the process of finding that perfect sponsor, I assume that you have a good understanding of your target audience – those people who are interested in what you do. Be it visitors to an event, members / fans of a sporting association or specific audience demographic etc.

The process:

• Step 1 – Create a wish list of sponsors
• Step 2 – Research each of the sponsors
• Step 3 – Record the details in the Sponsor Research Template
• Step 4 – Reality check using the Sponsor Compatibility Matrix…how compatible are you really?
• Step 5 – Pick up the phone and contact your hot list of sponsors

Sometimes you’ve just got to stop what you’re doing, sit back and take stock…literally. If you take the time to really look you could spot sponsorship opportunities all around you.

At the moment I’m sitting here in my lounge room surrounded by brands and objects and things that I like. If you take the time to understand what motivates you to select one brand over other then you’re 1 step closer to understanding what you have to offer a potential sponsor.

Take a quick inventory of what you can see…

For me, I’m wearing my Tendence watch. I love this watch, though it’s a bit bigger than I imagined. One of the disadvantages of buying online – no frame of reference.

I hate cold calling – it gives me the shivers. But if you’re going to be a successful sponsorship seeker it’s a skill you’ll need to develop.

After the dismal failure of my first sponsorship proposal I’ve decided on a new approach. I won’t put finger to keyboard until I phone a potential sponsor and I’m able to develop some familiarity and rapport with them first.

And here’s a technique that may just do the trick…