Have you ever instructed your staff member who has no sponsorship skills to go call some random company about sponsorship?
- It starts innocently. You’re brainstorming. Momentum builds. And suddenly leaders are so convinced that they have the best idea ever and tell their staff to take action. It even happens in organizations with no sponsorship operations.
On one hand, I commend your quick thinking and conversion to action. Truly.
On the other hand, what were you thinking?
This seemingly opportunistic and by all counts positive action may be misguided, the equivalent of telling your staff member to go jump into an abyss. Let’s unwind:
- How do you know the company is the right fit?
- Who is your employee going to call?
- What is he/she going to say?
- Assuming he/she gets someone on the phone and manages to figure out what to say, what is your staff member going to sell?
Do you see where I’m going with this?
It may look easy to get sponsors. How hard could it be to just pick up the phone? After all so many organizations slap a bunch of logos on their marketing materials, everyone must be doing it.
But there’s a lot more to it than that.
I’m all for moving fast and seizing opportunities. But not so much for tossing employees — and even organizations’ reputations — over abysses?
Slow down. Develop your strategy. Have the right competence in place.
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