Approaching Sponsors:
Learning "You" and "Your" Can Take You A Long Way!
One thing we know from years of selling sponsorships is that when you actually sell one, very seldom is the decision by the sponsor based on "I'm so glad that Event X came to me to sponsor them... They're AWESOME!"
Ultimately, the reason the majority of sponsorships exist is because there's an ultimate BUSINESS BENEFIT to the sponsor who is choosing to engage with the property that they choose to sponsor.
There have been many times when businesses have been approached by racers or series with statements like these:
"If you sponsor me, I'll put your logo in front of hundreds of people every week and since I win a lot, your logo will also be in the Winners picture a lot, too!"
or
"Sponsoring our series would be great for your business because we race in front of crowds of 2,000 and 3,000 people at several different tracks all across the midwest!"
Now, an honest show of hands... Can you remember a time when you used something like that within the first 2 minutes of your initial pitch to a potential sponsor?
So, what's so wrong with those? In reality, there's probably nothing WRONG with them because they're all factual statements... But this tip isn't about RIGHT or WRONG, it's about what might work better!
One thing you have to remember about sponsorships is that the most beneficial and productive ones are the result of CONVERSATIONS rather than simple 'Sales Pitches'.
SO... Imagine you are an owner of a business that someone is asking for sponsorship from.... And remember, this means that as a business owner, you get called on CONSTANTLY by everyone from window-washers to floor mat cleaning services to office supply stores trying to pitch you on why they are better than whoever you currently use... SO, considering all that, which of the following statements do you think would result in YOU being more willing to simply talk to them for longer than it takes for you to figure out how to say, "Sorry, I'm too busy to talk right now"?
a) "I'm Joe Smith and I'm looking for sponsors. I race at Racers Speedway every Friday and it only costs $250 a week to sponsor me and have your logo in front of lots of new customers"
or
b) "Hi... I'm Joe Smith... I was driving by and hadn't noticed your store before, but now that I've been here, I can see that you seem to have a pretty good thing going! How is business anyway!?"
I think you get where we're going with this. Since 'sponsorship' is typically the result of a conversation, then if you want to be as successful as possible at finding new sponsors, one way to do that is to figure out how to learn to turn your 'pitch' into more of a conversation and less of a sales pitch.
We're not saying that you'll sell EVERY POTENTIAL SPONSOR you approach, but what we are saying is that by approaching them with the desire to learn more about THEIR BUSINESS versus approaching them by telling them about YOUR RACING, in more cases than not, the conversation will last longer and give you a better chance to understand exactly how sponsorship of YOU might help THEIR business.
One last thing to keep in mind as you work on engaging new potential partners to consider sponsoring your race team or event: Once you get a business owner talking about THEIR business, you're not just learning things that could help you customize your pitch, but you're actually prooving that you care as much about their business as you do about getting their sponsorship support so you can race.
Best of luck to you and if you'd like to offer any feedback on this sponsorship tip, feel free to CLICK HERE to add it to the Sponsorship Tip forum board here at RacingIn.com
