Sponsorship Sales: Selling the Benefit 25th August, 2010

I recently saw a sponsorship tweet tip that said, “Think about how you can benefit the sponsors business, before you make an approach.”  My immediate reaction to this tweet was that it was absolutely ridiculous (sorry tweeter!) – OF COURSE the sponsorship proposal should be about how the opportunity should benefit the sponsor’s business; it would be ridiculous to think otherwise.  If you did think otherwise, you’d just be asking for money, free money at that.  And no one wants to give away free money.

However, upon further consideration, this tip may not be as ridiculous as it immediately seemed.  Slingshot Sponsorship helps brands and rights owners create sponsorship proposals for their assets and it is true that we stress this in every training session – the proposal needs to highlight the benefit not the event, platform, inspiration, etc.  The more specific the tailored benefit, the more likely that you will get your prospects attention.

The first stage in this process is to understand your prospect’s brand and really understand what drives their business. Thankfully, we live in a world where this information is at our fingertips, so there is no excuse for poor sponsorship proposals.  If you have the time, we’d also recommend that you meet with your prospect or at least speak with them over the phone so you can get a real understanding about what their marketing objectives are. 

One of the benefits of using sponsorship as a marketing platform to build brand relationships is that it can be incredibly flexible and tailored.  Sponsorship can be used across all media channels and all media sectors.  For this reason, you should be able to create an engaging campaign tailored to your prospect.  Benefits will arise from these tailored sponsorship proposals and will be the only way to successfully sell sponsorship.

Make sure to keep following our blog as we will be putting out tips on writing sponsorship proposals throughout the year!