Winning sponsors is easier if you do your homework – and you dump the ‘fluff’

News Feed
Wednesday, 26 September 2018

DO your proposals for sponsorship try to convince them with something like...

Sponsoring with us will:

• Get you in front of your prospects.

• Improve your brand awareness.

• We need your help. or

• It’s a great opportunity?

While all of this is true, it’s a mediocre pitch. It’s too fluffy. I have a saying, “fluff walks. Money talks”. You know that for the most part, businesses care about the bottom line. Instead of being fluffy, make your proposals focus on the bottom-line benefit to them. You can quantify a significant amount. First let me give you an example.

I was presenting to an international group of C level executives in the consulting engineering field.

The point I wanted to make was about improving productivity and profitability. I could have said this: “If you have staff trained on software shortcuts, they can free up at least 20 minutes a day”.

How does that sound to you? Is it a good statement to make? Is it a good ‘selling point’? 20 minutes is a great amount of time which could go into improving productivity which of course can be turned into more billable hours.

But it’s not good on its own. It’s fluffy.

Instead I said: “depending on your organisation’s size, you can increase income by this much when you teach staff several email shortcuts that free up 20 minutes a day.

I removed the fluff by quantifying what 20 minutes would mean in improved productivity thus increased billable hours.

So how did I come up with these figures?

I picked up the phone and called a principal at one of the engineering firms I had worked with in the past. I asked what the average billable hour fee was for both principals and engineers as well as the average administrator’s salary. Next I asked the approximate number of principals, engineers and administrators that would be employed by different-sized firms. Finally I quantified 20 minutes a day in a five-day working week for a 45 working week year. That was 74 hours per annum.

I next flipped to the slide that had all the figures to prove the point I was making.

Turning this around to event sponsorship - how do you quantify? It’s easy. Think of everything you can. Add up the revenue estimates. Add in the savings estimates. Subtract the cost of sponsorship and you’re left with their return on investment!

Here’s a few examples:

• What is the value of one new sale for the sponsor to a delegate?

• What is the lifetime value of one new client/sale from the delegates for the sponsor?

• What savings are there in having all their business development managers in front of clients for a few days – if it saves x number of travel days around the country?

• What are the savings of having their brands in front of their prospects as opposed to advertising in the newspaper, magazines or on line for a year?

• What is the value of having their name, logo advertised by you to delegates leading up to the conference for x number of months?

*  Debbie Mayo-Smith is one of Australia’s most-sought-after motivational speakers and trainers. Debbie gives speeches, seminars and trains on technology and personal productivity. Sign up for her quick tip newsletter here. http://debbiespeaks.com/newsletter/newsletter-sign-up/

To have Debbie speak at your next event or train your team, call 64 27 575 5359 or visit her at www.debbiespeaks.com

 

Winning sponsors is easier if you do your homework – and you dump the ‘fluff’

News Feed
Wednesday, 26 September 2018

DO your proposals for sponsorship try to convince them with something like...

Sponsoring with us will:

• Get you in front of your prospects.

• Improve your brand awareness.

• We need your help. or

• It’s a great opportunity?

While all of this is true, it’s a mediocre pitch. It’s too fluffy. I have a saying, “fluff walks. Money talks”. You know that for the most part, businesses care about the bottom line. Instead of being fluffy, make your proposals focus on the bottom-line benefit to them. You can quantify a significant amount. First let me give you an example.

I was presenting to an international group of C level executives in the consulting engineering field.

The point I wanted to make was about improving productivity and profitability. I could have said this: “If you have staff trained on software shortcuts, they can free up at least 20 minutes a day”.

How does that sound to you? Is it a good statement to make? Is it a good ‘selling point’? 20 minutes is a great amount of time which could go into improving productivity which of course can be turned into more billable hours.

But it’s not good on its own. It’s fluffy.

Instead I said: “depending on your organisation’s size, you can increase income by this much when you teach staff several email shortcuts that free up 20 minutes a day.

I removed the fluff by quantifying what 20 minutes would mean in improved productivity thus increased billable hours.

So how did I come up with these figures?

I picked up the phone and called a principal at one of the engineering firms I had worked with in the past. I asked what the average billable hour fee was for both principals and engineers as well as the average administrator’s salary. Next I asked the approximate number of principals, engineers and administrators that would be employed by different-sized firms. Finally I quantified 20 minutes a day in a five-day working week for a 45 working week year. That was 74 hours per annum.

I next flipped to the slide that had all the figures to prove the point I was making.

Turning this around to event sponsorship - how do you quantify? It’s easy. Think of everything you can. Add up the revenue estimates. Add in the savings estimates. Subtract the cost of sponsorship and you’re left with their return on investment!

Here’s a few examples:

• What is the value of one new sale for the sponsor to a delegate?

• What is the lifetime value of one new client/sale from the delegates for the sponsor?

• What savings are there in having all their business development managers in front of clients for a few days – if it saves x number of travel days around the country?

• What are the savings of having their brands in front of their prospects as opposed to advertising in the newspaper, magazines or on line for a year?

• What is the value of having their name, logo advertised by you to delegates leading up to the conference for x number of months?

*  Debbie Mayo-Smith is one of Australia’s most-sought-after motivational speakers and trainers. Debbie gives speeches, seminars and trains on technology and personal productivity. Sign up for her quick tip newsletter here. http://debbiespeaks.com/newsletter/newsletter-sign-up/

To have Debbie speak at your next event or train your team, call 64 27 575 5359 or visit her at www.debbiespeaks.com