Developing your sponsorship fee strategy is no place for the faint of heart.
Indeed, setting fees with an abundance mindset — by valuing what you truly have to offer — must be the mindset that prevails. That often means uprooting and dislodging mindsets based on lack.
Last week while working with a client to build the skills and strategy needed to dramatically grow its sponsorship program, one staff member asked me the most tender question.
We’d just uncovered an area where the organization had severely undervalued itself. In fact the organization effectively had given away value without receiving one dime for it. Now before we lay blame or find fault, in fairness, the organization previously had no context for developing a fee strategy. They simply didn’t know. Because of that, the agreement they’d reached with the sponsor caused them to leave a lot of money on the table.
When we talked about how to correct the problem, everyone agreed on the necessary steps, and we resolved to correct it for 2017.
And then this staff member had a moment of pause.
If the sponsor didn’t for some reason agree to the new and better terms for her organization, she wanted to know, would that mean the two organizations wouldn’t work together as they previously had?
I could tell that something had switched for her and that a moment of doubt or fear had taken over. She chalked it up to not having a business sense — though her great ideas in our conversation up to that point told me she had the instincts.
Partnering with the corporate sector when there is an exchange of value means embracing the value your organization has to offer and feeling empowered about representing — and sometimes even guarding — that value.
If a company values what you have to offer, they’re happy and willing to make the investment. You need the mindset of a partner, of an equal, to develop and earn a fee strategy commensurate with your high value so that you maintain high quality income and credibility.
How’s your mindset? And who’s helping you cross the chasm when fear and doubt are pulling you down?
