Sponsorship Strategist

Jackson Hewitt: Think sponsorship

If ever a marketing campaign cried out for a sponsorship component, it's this one. Check it out.

 

 

Jackson Hewitt, how about a dance party on April 16 for all new and existing customers?

Aesthetics matter

Seth Godin wrote an interesting post last week, predicting a deterioration of the quality of marketing – a "coarsening," he calls it – as marketers increasingly prefer direct response advertising, clickable and measurable.

"Coarse" is a great term to describe the Kraft strategy I described in the previous post, "Big is not a strategy." No nuances, no subtlety, no human touch. Just a big noodle. A big hot dog. 

Some sponsors skip over activation entirely, which is like buying a TV or radio spot and not giving the station the spot. In other words, it's a waste of money.

Some marketers bemoan the measurability of sponsorship, expecting instant results from a qualitative medium, when perhaps they are unsure what to look for.

Setting up a jumbo noodle in a park is like the equivalent of speaking louder when having a discussion with a person who speaks a different language. It doesn't mean you're getting through.

Godin ends the post by saying, "Measurable isn't always the only thing that matters." True for sponsorship, too.

3 ways Steve Jobs may inspire you

We now live in a world without Steve Jobs, and an enormous void exists.

He leaves a legacy that will inspire millions of us for many reasons for generations. I offer three ways Mr. Jobs may inspire you:

• Experience of the brand. If you've never been in an Apple store, visit one soon. It's more like an attraction than a retail experience. The feel, the vibe, the overall experience of an Apple store should be your inspiration for your sponsorship program. For businesses that sponsor events, your onsite component should be so compelling that it becomes an attraction or an event in and of itself. Eventgoers should gravitate to your area and want to hang out there, playing around with your products or chatting it up with your staff, without fear of being surveiled or pounced on by overzealous sales people. Be generous. Let people experience your brand.

For sponsorship sellers, guide your sponsors and prospects by developing ideas and ways to participate in your events so that your audiences have this level of experience with your sponsors' brand.

• Speeches. Visit YouTube, search for "Steve Jobs," and spend some time watching his speeches, especially around product launches. Mr. Jobs clearly had a sense of humor, an eye for the dramatic, and a sincere way of drawing us in, expectantly. Do audiences at your events respond like this?

 

• Joy of Apple Products. I noticed in the days following the news of Mr. Jobs' passing a strong sensation of a void in my life. I did not know Mr. Jobs, and though I've been a customer since 1987, this connection still didn't account for this void and the quality of the sorrow.

Countless other technology and cultural writers have written about creativity, innovation, and why we love Apple products; however, it was not until I read Peter Shankman's blog post about why we love Apple that it all started to make sense for me. Shankman describes how such a deep level of customer service is woven into the products that we trust – we have complete confidence that our Macintosh or iPhone or iPad or Apple TV – or other product by Apple – is going to work, a confidence we don't have in most products and services.

I'd take it one step further. I realized the void I was aware of is not just counting on the products to work but relying heavily on Apple to take care of my technology needs. I don't need to spend time wondering what I need. The design team at Apple has done the work for me and creates products that are intuitive, effortless, elegant, and truly personal. They are products that live with me in my home, in my office, and in my travels.

This is no easy task, but your organization – through its products, services, brand reputation, relationships with customers, events – might hold these same aspirations.

To Mr. Jobs' family, friends, and colleagues, my deepest sympathies. To the team at Apple, we're counting on you, and we know you have big shoes to fill. Trust your intuition and your heart.

 

Top 10 Skills and Characteristics of Successful Sponsorship Sellers

Next week I'll be speaking before a group of senior leaders and board members of nonprofit organizations about corporate sponsorship. Because some of the executives who belong to this organization are in a career transition, including from the for profit to the nonprofit sector, I promised to share with them important skills and characteristics of individuals who are successful in corporate sponsorship development.

Here's my list of top 10 skills and characteristics:

1. Comfort selling the intangible. Many people can sell, but not everyone is comfortable selling what doesn't exist. I remember having a conversation with a friend, Ted, who sold steel lockers and related equipment when I was selling sponsorship. He said, "I can't understand how you can sell something that you can't touch. I need quotas and numbers and tangibles." We laughed when I confessed that I felt the same way about what he had to sell. Later in my career, after I launched my consulting practice I began teaching a day-long course on sponsorship at Temple University. In my first class was a gentleman hoping to change careers from insurance sales to he-didn't-know- what. He was earning a certificate in executive event leadership hoping upon hope that he'd find his way and generate some spark of an idea. Frankly he seemed a little lost. At the first break of the day, he ran up to me, shaking with excitement. "Gail, this is it. Sponsorship sales is what I'd be good at." Made sense to me. If you can successfully sell something as intangible as insurance, you have the foundation for selling other types of intangible offerings.
2. Strong ideation sense. A career counselor once described ideation as a sixth sense in which a person is comfortable putting two or more disparate ideas together knowing the results will have impact. That's sponsorship at its heart. Those without this skill may look at you like you have 2 heads. You don't.
3. Innovative. Sponsorship requires you to actively create constantly. You're always looking to the future to see what your sponsors' marketing and sales plans are in the next year and how that aligns with your organization's or event's plans. You have to solve problems on the go, but not just solve problems, create something fantastic out of problems.
4. Strong writing, speaking, and conversational skills. You must be able help prospects and clients see what you're seeing. Without strong verbal skills, you're at a loss. Those people I mentioned who think you have 2 heads for coming up with some crazy idea? They'll never see what you see without the verbal bridges you have to build. You know who else needs your help? Mr. or Ms. ROI. The guy or gal who only thinks in numbers, outcomes, results, quantitative data (which is just about everybody these days), for whom, as one corporate sponsorship buyer said of her boss' boss, "if you can't measure, it doesn't happen."
5. Confidence. It takes some chutzpah to sell anything. You have to believe in yourself and in what you're selling. Your confidence contributes to a trusting relationship. It allows you to guide and educate the seller so they can see what you see and benefit from the value you have to offer. No one wants to buy anything from a wet noodle.
6. Multi-tasking. In an age when many of us are trying to slow down the pace of life, fed up with the torrent of information coming at us, suffering the toll of constant stimulation, multi-tasking might seem like an odd characteristic for me to champion. However, it's important. You must juggle the various schedules, needs, and realities of both your sponsors and your organization or event. You must be the scout ahead of your sponsors, leading the way for them, seeing opportunities, managing the project on time, on budget, with ease and grace.
7. Marketing. Having experience in marketing, understanding how the tools of both traditional and social media marketing vehicles function for desired results, knowing the core impetus behind marketing leaders will help you empathize with your sponsors and prospects. You can stick your feet in their shoes and develop ideas and programs that will achieve marketing results that you understand.
8. Carpe diem! Remember this bit of Latin? "Sieze the day." For sponsorship sellers we might change the ages-old phrase to: "Carpe oportunitas!" Sieze opportunities. You have to be quick on your feet. You have to understand the medium of sponsorship so well that when you see or hear an opportunity to enhance your sponsors' program, to engage your prospect, to make their eyes light up, you act. 
9. Interest in the business world. You have to be curious about the marketplace. Follow trends. Seek trigger events. Know when a change in a company's situation might be an opportune time to partner with them to further their – and your organization's – goals. If you don't read the business press regularly, you are severely handicapped in your discussions.
10. Passionate. The best sellers are enthusiastic people in general. I'm not talking Pollyanna happy. You're human; sure, sometimes you have a bad day. I am talking about genuine passion in the organization, cause, event, festival, team, performance, or whatever it is that you represent. Passion can be like a wave that carries a surfer. Your connection and enthusiasm about who or what you represent carries you through otherwise uncomfortable, challenging, and awkward moments. Your passion has the strength to convert these conversations into the kind of conversation you might have with a 4 or 5-year-old, for whom everything is a delight.

My list is by no means comprehensive, but if you have these 10, you're in the right career. 

What do you think? What skills or characteristics have you found to be most valuable? 

When you're afraid to make sponsorship calls

Here's the bottomline: if you don't tell anyone about your sponsorship opportunities, if you don't work together with prospective partners to co-create meaningful opportunities, you're not going to have sponsors nor the revenue from that source.

You know this, of course. But that doesn't make having actual conversations with real live sponsors any less scary, right?

Here are three suggestions:

1. Don't fight the fear. Fear (with consciousness) can be a good thing. Fear surely saved many a caveman and woman from untimely death. Fortunately, sponsor prospects are not known for attacking much less defending themselves to the death. Rather for modern day cave people, the worst you have to fear is calls and emails that go ignored. Silence. (You may know this, too, and still there's fear.) Solution: If you can sit with the fear for a few minutes and grow curious about it. Ask what it has to tell you. From my experience, usually the fear will tell you that you're missing something – a piece of information (but don't get stuck in research-land), a tool, important skills. Figure out what you need and give it to yourself. Thank your fear.
2. Change your mindset. Your fear may be telling you all kinds of wild stories – you're not good enough, you have nothing to say, they'll laugh at you, they'll say no, etc. etc. Do you hear any of this kind of talking? Solution: If so, you need to outwit that voice and become clearer about the value of your sponsorship opportunity. And you need to change your mindset from beggar to partner. You're not begging for dollars. Your intention should be to enthusiastically let prospects know about an opportunity for them that will help them accomplish business objectives. If that's not your intention, there's a problem.
3. Do it anyway. It can be scary to call people you don't know or to position yourself or your offerings in a new way. But, as I said at the beginning, no calls, no sponsors. If you've checked out #1 and #2 above and deduced that you're suffering from fear that's becoming procrastination, do it anyway. Solution: Set aside time first thing in the day, get relaxed and comfortable, smile, and make your calls. They shouldn't be cold calls, and therefore the person should be at least neutral to hear from you. No more excuses. Just make the calls.

One more suggestion: Imagine success. You may just be surprised by an interested sponsor, and you don't want to blow it.

Think like a starving artist, and you won't starve

One day last week, I left a meeting with someone who is under a great deal of pressure because of current budget squeezes that impact her nonprofit organization's funding. The physical sensations of stress she described were indelible, and I felt a great deal of empathy as I walked through the City towards my office.

I passed the Merriam Theatre in Philadelphia, and a crowd spilling out onto the sidewalk, hours before showtime, piqued my curiousity. Then I heard drumming. Stomp was in town, and at this very moment, they were conducting a masterclass for high school-aged – and very enthusiastic – kids. 

With nothing more than plastic buckets, wooden sticks, and passion, this drumming circle crackled with energy. If you've ever seen Stomp, you can imagine.

It reminded me of a few things:

• The human spirit is a live wire of creativity, passion, and inspiration. Accessing that energy requires no budget.
• Anyone feeling stressed or pressured can find instant relief through the arts – music, visual art, performance, wonderful writing, beauty in some form. Our own internal creative energies can help us through a challenge.
• Shouldn't arts funding be as critical as human services funding? (Yes, that's rhetorical.)
• We have a mythology about the starving artist. The most creative and artistic people revel in the constraints of their craft. Sure, they spend lots of time fantasizing about what they'd do with piles of money. The best and most innovative push on, transcending the constraints and making the most of their resources.

And that's where you might be inspired. Rather than focus on what you don't have, perhaps you might think more creatively and bigger about what you do have. Perhaps you have more to offer than you might imagine, or can focus your sponsorship effort in a new way that yields bolder results.

Today I received a press release about the Blue Cranes, jazz artists from Portland, OR, about to launch a cross country/East Coast tour by train. They rallied their friends and friends' friends on a Kickstart fundraising effort, raising nearly $7,000 to cover their costs. They also sought a rail sponsor and found a promotional partner in the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) which so far has written a blog post about the tour.

Blue Cranes' print publicist Matt Merewitz and the band members developed some great ideas for a rail partner. Blogging along the way. Performances by the quintet at station stops. Mentions to the group's audiences all along the tour. They're all great ideas which hopefully will come to life with a committed partner on the next tour. NARP, for now, is simply a promotional partner, and my hope is that they recognize the value of having an innovative band exemplify NARP's ideals, encouraging people to travel by train, and commit at more appropriate levels in the future. My hunch is that Blue Cranes' fans and audiences share the values of America's railroad passengers but who may not have considered train travel as an option.

"I believe in their mission," alto sax player Reed Wallsmith said about NARP. He looks forward to the collaboration. 

While I wanted to hear reports of a great partnership between the two and cash and/or inkind fees commensurate with the exchange of value, I remain hopeful that that will happen in time. What I am excited about seeing, which is exactly my point, is that the Blue Cranes are making things happen. They set out to accomplish a revenue goal and through lots of ingenuity on their part, they accomplished it. Next time, they'll have stronger ideas and new skills that they can use to secure a substantial sponsor or two. (NARP, you have a great opportunity, so I hope you're thinking big, too!)

If you're struggling with making your fiscal year-end or event budget goals, do what you need to do to shake the anxiety and stress. Shift your energy and reconnect with your own creativity. You need new ideas, fresh thinking, and a way to see your work, your event, your sponsorship offering from a new angle. That's when you'll think big and pursue big partners to leverage big results.

To check out the Blue Cranes and  learn more about their tour, watch their video below or visit their web site for dates near you. Blue Cranes photo credit: Jen Downer