Five keys to a successful sponsor request
1. Customise unique solutions
Give your potential sponsors unique solutions, tailored to their business model and adapted to their ideal customer!
Read up on each company. What are the company’s business goals? What is most important to them? What is happening in their industry? Use all the relevant information you can find. Your mission is to sell an event that aligns with the company’s business strategy and strengthens the relationship between the company and its customers.
And make sure to make your written request / presentation visually attractive, easy to read, professional, and linguistically correct.
2. Be clear about profit
Your sponsors expect you to give them a substantial return on their investment. Be clear about what they can expect from the sponsorship. Produce concrete examples!
3. Be specific about exposure
Be clear about how you will expose the company and their products at your event. How much leeway and space will they have? When and how? Be specific!
4. Be open about competition
Are your potential sponsor’s main competitors among the attendees? Tell them! It is something that you need to be transparent about, and the effect may be that your potential partner feels that they need to be represented at your event as well.
5. Know your audience
It’s important that you are familiar with and has included information about your audience in your request. The purpose is to increase your potential sponsor’s understanding on whether or not their ideal customers will be represented.
Add some extra spice – Tell a story …
Describing a previous successful sponsorship is an effective and relationship-building way to sell the sponsorship. Bring up any challenges you faced and how, together, you managed to pull through with the event. Include testimonials from different attendees as well as recommendations from social media. It shows that your events have great spreading power.
A few lines for those who organise frequent events …
In those cases, cooperation is even more important. Make sure to create as strong a partnership between you and your sponsors as possible. Show that cooperation with them is important to you.
Think long-term and ensure that the sponsorship lasts for a long period, preferably an entire season. That’ll save you both money and time.
You should also be clear about whether the events attract the same audience or if it varies. Companies that sell products and services with a long selling-cycle prefer the same audience, while other companies need a new audience every time.
Good luck! Any hey – do you have any questions or thoughts? Don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!
