How I sold $73,000 in event sponsorship's in 6 months (and I didn’t know anyone)
Before I give you the juicy details of my sponsorship adventure, I think it's important to understand that I never set out to sell event sponsorship’s or even knew what the heck I was doing 10 years ago… I stumbled into this world and discovered, I really actually liked it… like a lot.
My sponsorship history
Prior to starting my business, I worked as a corporate event planner for a company in Southern California.
As an event planner, I would never handle event sponsorship sales or even advise on sponsorship’s. The most involvement I had with sponsors was if they wanted a poster at the event, and make sure that it was displayed correctly. My clients were always responsible for that piece and to be honest, way back when in 2007 it was a completely foreign concept to me.
In 2010, when I opened the doors of my own company in a new state, I started to take on work that was a little different than what I was used to… nonprofit events.
I never once questioned the ability of my clients who sold sponsorship’s because it just happened. It was never an issue… they always seemed to make the money they needed and I never thought twice about it.
However, after a couple of years of working with nonprofit events along with all my other corporate events. I started to realize that there was a significant difference in the understanding and ability to sell high-value sponsorship’s. My nonprofit clients struggled, and even hated selling sponsorship’s to their events…. But on the flip side, some of my corporate clients were driving new lines of revenue through their events.
Understanding this unique position, I started to make notes about why my corporate clients could sell with such ease and make lists of where my nonprofit clients were lacking when it came to sponsorship’s.
During nonprofit client meetings, I began making suggestions and offered my insight on the situation and for the many that took that advice, they began to see significant increases with their sponsorship sales. And thus were able to create a greater impact not only for their event but for their entire organization as a whole.
This literally went on for 10 years.
10 years of collecting data, comparing successful sponsorship’s to non successful sponsorship sales and trying to understand what the difference was between them all. I learned some super important lessons from all my clients and here are a few “most important lessons”
Marketing
In order to sell meaningful sponsorship’s, you have to understand that a sponsor is looking to market to your demographic… and if you’re a nonprofit, your cause is the icing on the cake. What better way to market, when you have a great cause by your side.
Personality
Not everyone is cut out to present value (or sell). While anyone can distribute a sponsorship package, not everyone can present and align value with your cause and their mission. You have to want to genuinely be a relationships person, to do well. Oh, and love your cause.
Benefits
This is a game of finding mutually beneficial terms for both parties. When you first understand what your sponsors wants and needs are, and are committed to making those things happen you benefit them. They pay you a sponsorship fee and that benefits you. So many nonprofits don’t see this and miss an opportunity to build strong relationships with corporate partners.
All this to say, I learned a lot in those 10 years.
Fast forward to December 2018, where a client of mine and I thought it might be a good idea if I sold event sponsorship’s for our upcoming event which was 6 months later.
I thought, well, I’ve taught people for the last 10 years how to do this, how hard could it really be?
Actually, it was pretty stinkin’ hard!
Now, I’m not saying that to discourage you from reading more, or even selling sponsorship’s. It was hard because I really had to put my words into practice. I had to take my own advice and step into a role that was very unfamiliar. So I can totally relate to anyone where you’ve just jumped into a foreign role and not feel 100% about the job you’re doing or if you’re even doing it right.
I said yes to this new role because…
Now, a couple of things to understand here. I said yes because most importantly I believed in the organization and understood the company that I would be selling. This is super important.
If you don’t have a true connection with your cause or company and the mission behind your purpose, you most likely won’t be good at selling sponsorship’s. You have to believe in what you are selling and get excited about it when you’re talking to sponsors. My attitude is contagious to those I’m speaking with and they can sniff it out if I’m not passionate.
I also said yes, because I was responsible for the outcome of the event. I could promise something to a sponsor and know that I could execute it. I don’t believe this is a must but it is important to know what you can and can’t do and have clear expectations of what you promise.
I also said yes because I wanted to prove my system actually worked first hand. I wanted to know that what I learned from watching others do this, was something I could commit to.
Now, at this point, I was committed to the process. I had 6 months to find sponsors… and I didn’t know a single person. While I understood the company that I was selling, I didn’t know anyone in the industry. I didn’t even know who would even be a good fit to sponsor the event, because I had no idea what companies would be relevant to my demographic.
At this point in time, I didn’t have any natural low hanging fruit to go after.
#lessonslearned
1. Learn to be a great stalker… ah-hem, I mean researcher.
Yup, like creeper stalking on LinkedIn, Google searches, social media and websites… I did so much research and discovered companies I didn’t know existed. I still wasn’t 100% if they were the right fit or not, but started to make a really long list of anyone I thought might be a possible fit. I did this for a few weeks…
In the meantime, I wrote out an email script to introduce myself and my event, along with some demographic information about who would be attending the event and I sent this to everyone on my list.
#lessonslearned
2. Short and sweet is the name of the game
Now, my first round of emails didn’t work out very well, #lessonslearned #2. Long emails about your event and why it's great, and blah, blah, blah with an attached sponsorship package was not the thing that got me noticed. It was a quick Hey! I’m Danielle, I’ve got this event coming up and wanted to see if it might be a good fit for your company.
I had a really short and sweet email that I started using to engage with new companies.
I also learned that they rarely responded to me on the first email I sent to them. So, I kept notes in my outreach list of each time I contacted someone and set a reminder to reach out either a few days later or a week later and follow up with another prompt until they responded.
At about the 3-4 email, I would send some sort of deadline email that would trigger a sense of urgency and about 75% of my contacts would reply then.
#lessonslearned
3. Follow up is your best friend
My main goal in this outreach was to get a response. I really didn’t totally care at this point if it was a yes… I just wanted to know there was a real human being behind the computer and they would respond. Once I got a response then I knew I could begin having an actual conversation.
The next step in this process was then to get them to have a meeting. Now, none of these people lived near me so a physical meeting was impossible, so a phone or zoom call (video chat) was my goal.
It wasn’t until this point that I would send them a sponsorship deck. I sent them an email prior to us having a conversation (like the day before) with a reminder of our appointment. I sent them this late because I didn’t want to give them too much time to make a decision about what they wanted to do before I had an opportunity to give them my pitch.
The ultimate lesson here thought, follow up. Follow up until you get an answer!
#lessonslearned
4. I don’t actually have a pitch!
My goal in getting these potential sponsors on the phone/video call wasn’t so I could pitch them on my sponsorship package. I wasn’t trying to sell them at this point still.
My goal on this call was to just learn about them. Here are some things I wanted to find out:
What they did… obviously, I could read their website, but it was a great way to kick off the conversation about them first.
What do they love most about events?
Have they sponsored an event before?
If so, what did they like about their sponsorship opportunity? I also wanted to know what they didn’t like about their past sponsorship.
Find out their top 3 goals for their sponsorship
If not, what do they want to get out of their sponsorship… what are their top 3 goals?
What would make this opportunity meaningful to them?
Now, at this point, I haven’t once talked about the event or what sponsorship opportunities I had, this conversation would point me in the right direction of what to offer them.
Usually, once we got through with this round of questions, they started to ask me about the event and we would review various aspects of the experience attendees have, why our event is so different and what I love most about the event. Remember, my passion for what I’m doing keeps them interested and engaged. If I love what I’m doing then they will more likely want to be apart of it.
It's always a great place to be when they prompt questions about the event and what sponsorship packages look like.
We would then move into what I thought would be a really great fit for them sponsorship wise, based on all the information they told me previously I would know exactly what level would help them accomplish their goals.
For example, their top 3 goals might be the following:
Speak at the event and showcase expertise and provide an opportunity to give back/educate.
Brand awareness to a new audience
Opportunity to talk one on one with attendees
In order to meet all these goals in my case, this would put them in the $10,000 - $20,000 range, so I would let them know in order to meet your goals this is the level they would be looking at.
My package outlined all the various opportunities at each level and what they would get.
Sometimes the decision-maker was who I was talking to and other times it might be a marketing director, event planner, or another partner of the business and they would tell me what they wanted to do or they would go chat with their team and get back to me.
Obviously, if they said yes on the spot, I would let them know I would draft up a sponsorship agreement and get that over to them along with an invoice.
If they needed to go back to the team and decide, I would make a note on my sponsor list and make sure to consistently follow up with them until I reached a confirmation.
#lessonslearned
5. Sponsors need a lot of communication.
When you’re offering high-value sponsorship opportunities you have to stay in constant communication. Many of these high-value sponsorships require marketing a couple of months prior to the event, meaning you’re going to need logos, specific graphics, possible content and copywriting from them, links to anything want attendees or your audience to have.
Just because they said yes and paid, doesn't mean you don't have to do anything until the night of the event.
Sponsors want to know that you are taking care of them and thinking about them. If they have to start asking you when things go out or what you need from them, they start to feel unsure of their partnership.
Take your relationships with them seriously. The ultimate goal is to have these sponsors sign on year after year, and this first year with them is the sign of a long term relationship with them. If you take care of them and keep the communication open and stay on top of all the things you promised, they will feel well taken care of and want to recommit for future years.
I hope my experience selling 73k in sponsorship’s in 6 months help you take the steps you need to secure sponsorship for your upcoming event. Don’t forget to leave me a comment and let me know how these tips helped you!
Danielle