How to Get What You Ask For
The old warning, “Be careful what you wish
for; you just might get it” has jokingly warned us to beware of asking for what
we want because it may be more than we can handle.
To be honest, I’m not sure what it means to
be afraid of getting what I want. Certainly, sometimes what one wants does not
always turn out to be what we had hoped but that is part of life and part of
making a commitment to values. If we choose carefully, what we want can be
everything we want it to be. In your case, we know what you want: to compete
and in order to compete you must get sponsorship and that means you really do
want it.
I’ve always felt that a successful racer was
a racer at all times. This athlete is always thinking about getting the
advantage. Every person he meets is a potential sponsor or knows a potential
sponsor. Every sponsor interaction is handled well, professionally and intended
to continue a long-term relationship. He is always thinking of ways to improve,
if even minutely, the racecar’s performance. He wants his team members to work
hard for him and so he maintains a friendly, helpful and mutually beneficial
one-on-one relationship with each of them. He is always looking for new
knowledge, additional training, and anything that will ensure a better car,
better driving skills and a stronger team. He studies marketing and contracts
and learns how his competitors do it and is not afraid to offer similar if not
better programs. He views racing as a self-improvement program where he, and
his team, keep getting better in all areas and therefore more competitive. One
of the key lessons learned very early in the growth process is that people will
not know what you want unless you tell them.
If you ask for nothing…
…you get nothing. People like to help
people reach their goals and it gives them pleasure to do so. Likewise, if they
know you are looking for sponsorship, they will think of you when they consider
sponsorship. Ask yourself, what happens if they don’t know you want
sponsorship? You must tell people what you want; it is an indication of your
commitment to your career and to their success.
There are many ways to tell people what you
want. Of course, you can tell them verbally. You can also place a want ad or
full page ad in a magazine. You can ensure your voicemail message asks for
sponsors and you can create a website where you’ve posted your sponsorship
proposal. You can hire a marketing person or agent to pursue dollars for you.
There are probably many things you can do but they all involve an active
approach on your part. You need to do things and they should be
well-thought-out and make a good case for sponsoring you.
Moral: You must have an active program of
sponsor search, a marketing plan and someone to execute it. You can’t get a
sponsor without working to meet people who would give you money.
The quality of your sponsor search is
dependent upon the quality of your planning. Nothing starts without a plan and
you must meet with your team to determine what will be done and who will do it
and most importantly, how it will be done. To be honest with you, marketing
requires expertise and that means good people with top training. If you don’t
have it, you must get it if you want to be successful.
But letting people know that you are seeking
sponsorship is a question about which there is another side. How much should
you ask for? And this is where flexibility and negotiation is an important
issue.
Check out some of the opportunities at
http://www.insmkt.com/sponsorbank.htm
If you ask for too much…
…you will either get it or be told it is
outside their budget – actually, if they tell you it is outside their budget,
they are not interested. Make a counter offer and see what they say. If you
ask for too much and if they are really interested they will try to negotiate a
lower amount.
Asking for too much and not getting it does
not mean the sale is over. It means that the price you have presented does not
meet their desired price.
If your price asked gives you a reasonable
profit, then it is not too much. The customer who thinks it is too much has one
or more problems:
§
It is too much for them – too much for their
budget
o
Have you done your home work? Did you check
Hoovers.com and other databases to determine if the company has the kind of
income that would enable them to pay for a sponsorship effort? We at NCMC use a
rule of thumb that most companies spend about 20% of their revenues in marketing
and if that 20% is more than 20 million, you may have a company with plenty of
marketing dollars. Whatever rule of thumb you use, the key point is that if a
company is showing a loss over the last few quarters or if the gross revenues
are only a few million or less, they probably don’t have enough money to spend –
or you must go for something less than primary sponsorship; say product trade or
a discount on product purchases, something less than a major investment.
§
They are not convinced the expenditure will
bring the returns they need to be successful
o
Perhaps they had a bad experience with
another form of sponsorship. Perhaps they need immediate results from their
marketing expenditures and don’t see that happening with your proposal. They
may not understand the importance of logo impressions or hospitality. You
should ask your contact to explain thoroughly what went into the decision and
ask for a chance to respond to it in order to show that you can provide the
value they are looking for. You will need to come up with some good ideas and
arguments in order to change their mind and don’t forget to offer lots of free
tickets too.
§
The perceived value is not worth the cost in
real terms
o
They’ve looked at your proposal, counted up
the costs and compared the costs to other forms of advertising that they are
doing – and it does not look like a good deal.
o
Again, you need to find out what
calculations they have done, ask them to show you the numbers and do your own
analysis.
o
You may need to recalculate your pricing and
or improve the value of your offering – or convince them that there is more
value than they perceive.
§
Your offer is weak
o
Sometimes it is the unfortunate truth that
for that particular company your offering and the benefits they would derive for
the price is just not strong enough to get them excited.
o
The best thing to do is to evaluate your
offering and strengthen it as much as possible and, most importantly, find a
company that views your offering differently.
Moral: Don’t be afraid to make a profit.
Everyone has to make a profit – especially your sponsor.
If you ask for the right amount…
… you will either obtain it or you are told
it is outside their budget. Make a counter offer and see what they say. If
they are really interested they will try to negotiate a lower amount and find a
way to lower your offerings so you are not elevating a secondary sponsor above a
primary.
§
Make sure your counter offer involves fewer
services so you can afford to do it and have some money to race too.
§
If they counter offer, match that offer with
a sponsorship package.
§
Create a custom program that matches the
parts of the offering that they like without those that don’t appeal to them.
§
If you don’t yet have enough money, make
sure that they know the offer is contingent upon your getting other sponsorship.
The key to getting what you ask for in
sponsorship is negotiation and being flexible about changing what you ask for.
For additional ideas on how to find sponsors
go to 101 Ideas for getting and keeping a sponsor:
http://www.insmkt.com/101.htm
:
http://www.insmkt.com/gspi.htm and
http://www.insmkt.com/gspi2.htm.
The
Science of the Sponsor Search Volumes 1 and 2.
http://ncmc.blogspot.com/
Sponsor
Bank. Check it out at
Sponsor Bank
Check out
how to get a digital logo car for your proposal:
http://www.insmkt.com/money8.htm
Thanks
Robert
Villegas
New
Century Marketing Concepts
http://www.insmkt.com/fund.htm
1-317-881-3826
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at 317-881-3826 Have a Question?
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