Last updated March 19, 2019
Sponsorship can often be a tricky approach to navigate, especially if you keep knocking on closed doors without any idea of why. There are many reasons why you might be falling short, and therefore, identifying where you went wrong can make for a stressful ordeal. Below I have highlighted five key reasons sponsors say no in order to help you reassess and establish clarity.
Too many politics
Businesses, especially the ones you will be looking to approach, have various levels of leadership. Within this, you will find people with varying agendas, making decisions on sponsorship easier said than done. This then becomes tricky to interpret whether it is you or them causing your sponsorship deal to hit a wall. To counter this, it is best not to put all your eggs in one basket. Consider approaching several targeted businesses when seeking sponsorship. This will help ensure your cause doesn’t only land in the hands of someone who can’t do anything with it.
Your cause doesn’t match their brand
Potential sponsors won’t support anything they don’t believe in or doesn’t match their brand. You have to do your homework and target businesses that pursue similar ideals, otherwise your deal will stumble at the first hurdle. This does not necessarily mean you have to be clones of one another, but you have to have some thread of commonality to tie you together.
You haven’t supplied packages upfront
Like I mentioned before, sponsorship has to be beneficial. Expanding on this, potential sponsors want to know their end of the bargain before they write a cheque or supply products. Simply saying, “if you provide us with funds we will give you anything you ask for”, is not enough motivation. You have to be crystal clear about what you are offering in return for their support. If you haven’t, you’re wasting their time.
You’re not supporting yourself
There is a saying that we should only help those who help themselves. This is true when it comes to seeking sponsorship. A potential sponsor doesn’t want you to flop any more than you do. If they see that you haven’t established a firm foundation to build from, they won’t help pour concrete to finish it. This means you have to be a champion of your own cause, before you even think about sponsorship.
They simply can’t offer sponsorship
If you are still getting nowhere with a potential sponsor, it may simply mean that they can’t offer you sponsorship, even if they really want to. There is no point dragging the process out if this happens, take the loss as experience and move on. Tightening your grip will only hurt your chances of receiving sponsorship from them in the future.
If you want to dive in deeper to the ins and outs of sponsorship, sign up for our next ‘Secret of Sponsorship’ workshop. This one day workshop will give you the tools and strategies you need to develop an effective sponsorship plan, and will leave you feeling re-energised in the process. Be prepared to re-think how you do sponsorship in your organisation.
Follow this link for more information: www.exult.co.nz/workshops/secret-of-sponsorship/
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