Love, Sponsorship Style

Become A ‘Matchmaker’ For Your Sponsors

We all need love – and that includes sponsors. You’ll feel the love in return – in the form of increased renewals and higher investments – if you take on the role of matchmaker.

Think about it – you have access to high-level executives at some of the greatest companies in the world. Who wouldn’t be excited to have any of them on their client roster?

And doesn’t it make sense to bring this A-list companies together, to everyone’s benefit?

Here’s how to launch Love, Sponsorship Style:

• -       Examine your sponsor roster for companies that do a lot of business-to-business (B2B) commerce. These companies land high-value contracts from major clients. They may most of their marketing money going after consumers (beverage companies are a good example), but they actually sell products to other businesses, sometimes as wholesalers, other times as direct suppliers.
• -       Once you’ve identified your B2B players, look for synergies. That real estate sponsor might be very interested in talking to a rapidly expanding retail chain. That waste management supplier would love to meet someone who manages multiple facilities. Your sponsor in the security business wants to get to know anyone with multiple locations. And so on.
• -       Arrange meetings, in a sponsorship context. This is very important. What do these sponsors have in common? You. So you must continue to serve as the fulcrum as they leverage these big commercial deals. This can involve using your venue or activity during the excitement of “game day,” or arranging a separate event just for sponsors. Emphasize the benefits of the environment you have created.
• -       If your list doesn’t include B2B sponsors … then here’s your chance to mine this wealth of potential new sponsorship dollars. Start from the perspective of arranging networking opportunities, make your plan crystal clear, and pitch it to your best prospects in this category. This can include those with local facilities, local headquarters or any thematic relationship. The low-hanging fruit is always the easiest to pluck.

By taking a proactive approach to matchmaking among your sponsors, and recruiting new sponsors with networking foremost in mind, you’ll cement relationships and bolster your unique selling proposition.