SponsorshipU Launches White Paper

We got an excellent, albeit pretty long, powerpoint this morning entitled "Acquiring Event Sponsorship: The 30,000 Foot View" from SponsorshipU, a free no frills guide for event organizers seeking funding.

I shudder to think what the ground level view would look like if the 30,000 ft. is 64 pages. In any case, we pulled what we felt were the three most important slides below. Be sure to download the full deck at the link above when you have some time.

1. One thing sellers often forget when they create their initial proposition is the stage they're at in the lifecycle of a sale and how that can influence what kind of pitch sponsors will be most receptive to. Give too much and your prospect might be overwhelmed. Give too little and you might not gain their interest. Consider the context.

2. Sponsorship sales is a minefield wrought with mistakes that can weaken your negotiating position. Everything from offering up a generic price too early (seller's remorse) to asking for sponsors like it's a donation rather than a promotional investment with cold, hard ROI. Luckily, there's also a few things you can do to enhance your negotiating leverage:

3. A mistake that many novice sellers make is confusing benefits with ROI. Talk about ROI in the sponsor's business terms, not in yours (the benefits you will offer them).