Hey there Navigators,
In my umpteen some years of consulting for businesses, many times I helped scare up some sponsorships for sports complexes and non profit companies. Potential sponsor companies are quick to say no, so you have to adapt and find ways to at least get them to talk to you.
Remember, a lot of times a sponsorship has nothing to do with an actual cash gift from a company. 99% of the time it is goods, product, service, or just plain ol' marketing. Sometimes its just getting a discount. All sponsorship gifts though, help your bottom line.
Usually getting a sponsorship from a company comes with a price. So when you approach a company make sure you have clearly written out a professional looking document that states what you will be doing for that company if they sponsor you.
Heres my super sneaky tip for you when approaching those big boys. You know, the big ol corporations that make billions a year. The big boys hate their competition. So... Use that hate as a tool to get what you want.
Heres an example: a restaurant that was opening up was trying to decide which of the two major soda companies they were going to carry. The owner of the restaurant told me he was going see which had the better pricing and that would be how he would decide which company he would go with. So I told him, before he decided, let me approach the two companies and see what kind of deal I could get him.
I went to the first soda company. I told them I was opening a restaurant and since they were my "favorite" kind of soda, I wanted to see what pricing they could give me. So they got me all kinds of price lists on equipment, and bottle and fountain sodas. Everything they gave me had their big old logo all over it. So I told them thank you and I would look their documents over and i'd get back to them. I had a binder and I placed all of their company propaganda in it. Walked out the door and drove straight to their number one competitor. Went inside with my newly stuffed binder and told them I was opening a restaurant and I was trying to decide which company to carry. And since they were my "favorite" kind of soda, I wanted to see what they could do for me. So I got ushered into an office to speak with a sales rep. Silly me, I had my nice new binder and well... I should have been better organized because darn it if that binder didnt just start dropping the competitions propaganda all over the place. I am kind of clumsy so as i went to scoop up my price lists, i dropped the whole darn thing and it was raining the competitions logo all over the office. Then of course I had to place the open binder on the sales person's desk to put all my stuff back in. I was so "embarrassed" that I just jammed the stuff back into the binder and closed it back up, but in my haste there were papers with the competitions logo just sticking out all over the place. I sat the binder on the desk and took my seat. I told the rep that I was looking to see what his company had to offer to my new restaurant that would make me their customer. I got the price lists from him and a free reach-in display case cooler for the restaurant and a free soda fountain if I was interested. I told him thank you and I would look his stuff over and I would get back to him.
Got back in my car, and took out the business card for soda company 'a' and gave my sales rep a call. I told him I was very interested but I wanted to meet with him again. Now my binder was stuffed full of both soda company A's and company B's propaganda. You see where this is going?
In the end, the new restaurant owner got a reach in display cooler, fully stocked for free the first time, a soda fountain for his bar area, picnic tables with sun umbrellas, menu boards, a couple clocks, a neon sign, and a couple hundred dine in plastic drinking cups. Of course all of these things were free but the price he had to pay was their logo was on everything. Me... I made about 5 or 6 trips back and forth to the sales reps.
I have scheduled meetings with sale reps where silly me, if I had been more organized, I wouldnt have scheduled them at the same date and time. Obviously, this is when they are scheduled to come see me. Having a sales rep sit in another booth watching you laughing it up with his competition seems to get you better pricing and offers. I wonder why?
A little healthy competition, never hurt anyone, especially your bottom line. Don't be afraid to ask for more. You walk away with the loot and some sales rep does a victory lap around his office because he beat the competition. Whats this have to do with sponsorships? I work 'em the same way.
Thats all for now, Navigators.
"If you are searching for Fear, I will Navigate!"
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