Perfect Pitch Fridays IV: The Waiting Game

Sponsorship is quite often a practice in persistence.

As a property (or a seller of sponsorships), nirvana comes when YOU GET THE CALL from an agency or brand interested in learning about sponsorship opportunities. Since 90% of the time, you're pounding the pavement to "pitch" them, when they come to you it's puppies, ice cream and christmas day - all rolled into one phone call.

The time sensitivity of what you're selling is obviously a huge factor in how aggressive you should be in your pitch. Is it a one time event coming up next month, annual recurring four month activity or an athlete endorsement?

Sometimes, however, the best approach can be in not "forcing the need," but rather in positioning yourself in the best way when that need arises. You may want to dictate the aggressiveness of your pitch depending on how/when the client could potentially leverage your opportunity. For instance, the other day, I had breakfast with an athlete agent who reps some of the biggest names in sports and he was telling me about the different approaches they use to sell their talent to brands and agencies. Some times they will ID a particular brand that they know is coming out with a specific campaign that fits one of their athletes, but more often they will present their "portfolio of talent" to an agency - with specific ideas of how they could partner with - but then wait for the client to present "the need". Ultimately, it's very tough to create the need, but when a client campaign is in the works and they need talent, you'll be well positioned to get the first call.

We're a big proponent of the "present without pressure" approach. In fact, that is what SponsorPitch is all about - presenting your opportunity and allowing marketers to find you, based around their needs.

Some things to think about as you head into the weekend!