Posts by Larry Weil
A Template for Groundbreaking Deals
When a sponsorship deal is big enough to make the mainstream news it is truly groundbreaking. We haven’t seen this much buzz in quite a while, but while the news media, sports talk radio, and the advertising world are focused on the impact of beer on campus the sponsorship world sees a new gold rush. First,…
Read MoreWhat is Sponsorship and How Does it Work?
I am often asked, what is sponsorship? It used to be a pretty simple answer. Most people think of sports sponsorships like McDonald’s and the U.S. Olympic team, or Bud Light and the NFL. There are many easy examples to see in sports, so it is a good place to start. Sponsorship has grown to…
Read MorePreparing to Get a Sponsor: Rule #1 Sponsors are Not Investors
Sponsors are risk averse. That’s right. They must know that a property or partnership can deliver what they say. I get inquiries every week from well-meaning individuals with underdeveloped concepts. It could be a concert series, a festival, a race team. They all have one thing in common: as soon as they get sponsorship money…
Read MoreMoving the Needle: Quality and Quantity Required
Lots of properties contact me to tell me about what a great match they are for one of my clients. They have spent a lot of time rationalizing. Very often they are trying to make something fit because it meets their needs not the sponsor’s. So they twist and mush until they think they have…
Read MoreWhy Would I Share These Secrets? Two Tools You Must Have
Many of us have heard the expression that a carpenter is only as good as his (or her) tools. The application to any kind of sales, but especially sponsorship sales is pretty obvious. But you can’t talk about tools without talking about mastery. I recently had a conversation with someone who I consider to be…
Read MoreHow to Overcome 6 Fundamental Obstacles to Selling Sponsorship
It wasn’t that long ago that Sponsorship was pretty straightforward. Lots of companies were enamored with the opportunity to link their brand to a team, property or venue. Call it the “halo effect”, affinity or just the popularity of sports, celebrity, music, or cause. Plenty of free spending brands wanted to latch on for the…
Read MoreWho Killed Authenticity?
Creative types spend large amounts of time trying to dig into brands searching for the “authentic” essence and finding the exact image, quote, music, color palette or story that evokes a feeling that something is real. We see and hear the word authentic attached to “experience”, “taste” and even “replica”. Our perception that something is…
Read More7 Ways Submitting Sponsorship Proposals is Just Like Tinder (But Without the Good Parts)
You busted your hump to put together a great proposal. You checked out your prospect on their website, set up a Google alert, researched key people on LinkedIn. You sent it. Nothing, Nada, Crickets… For those of you who don’t know how Tinder works or even what it is, here is the short version. For…
Read MoreWhy No One Responds to Your Sponsorship Pitch!
Let’s not kid ourselves. You don’t want to answer the phone and get a sales pitch and neither does your prospect. So how do you sell without a sales pitch? Stop selling. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. If someone sends you an email, reaches out on LinkedIn, leaves a voice mail or actually reaches…
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