Finding Sponsors

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 theirs.

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 you need to learn to love the cold call.

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 cold call a potential sponsor and I’m able to develop some familiarity and rapport with them first.

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