When you send a proposal to a potential sponsor, it’s important to get things right. We’ve provided this checklist for you to use before sending out your proposal:

1. Research – Have you found a link between your potential sponsor’s target market and your community?  Is this clearly laid out in your proposal?
2. Know your numbers – Be clear on your reach, how many followers you have, how big your community is. Who is going to see the promotion for your event or activity? What are their interests?  Be honest and don’t exaggerate.
3. Have you identified your potential sponsor’s goals and needs?  How can you leverage this proposal to reach their goals?  How can you support them and make their life easier?
4. Does your potential sponsor have the resources to hold up their side of the sponsorship? If they are hosting an event for you, do they have the space? If they are writing blogs or developing content, do they have someone who can do this? If you are adding to their workload and becoming a drain on their resources, they won’t renew.
5. Does your offering reach their budget needs? – It is important to identify what budget they have available for sponsorship, and work within that offering. You can let them know you will give them first refusal on other opportunities as they come up.
6. Sponsorship cannot guarantee results, so never commit to generating a certain number of sales, sign-ups, etc.  All you can do is provide the opportunities.  You can lead your community to landing pages or social media sites, but you cannot make them sign up or follow.
7. Do you have a creative ‘wow’ or hook?  Your list of activities may be the same for each sponsor, but how are you going to personalise each sponsor’s experience with your community.  This brings you back to your sponsor’s goals and needs.  All sponsors may have a booth at your show, but how do they engage your community?  Offer suggestions on how your sponsor’s products and solutions can match your community’s needs.  For example, we recently did a show with a number of sponsors; one was a mobile phone provider.  We suggested they provided a recharge station at their booth for mobile devices and also 5-min massages for attendees to recharge themselves. 

If you have covered all of the above, you are good to go!  Sign up for more tips and advice at http://eepurl.com/cdnyk5
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I was at a sponsorship event recently and it was confirmed that a large Canadian bank receives, on average, 10 sponsorship requests every HOUR!  How do you make your sponsorship proposal stand out?  Here are 3 ways to increase your success rate:

Find the right person
I find it is easier to go top down, rather than bottom up on the organisation chart, so I go to the highest contact I can find, and build a relationship without being a nuisance. How do you do that? Practice helps.  Start by make sure you do your homework to find out if your target audience is a fit with theirs.  Then keep your introductions short; ask for the right person to speak with regarding a sponsorship targeting XXX (make sure the XXX is about your audience or their target market, or about a goal they are trying to achieve.  No more than a sentence.),  and be sure to follow up.  I recommend no more than weekly; people are busy.

Tailor your proposal to your sponsor’s needs
Do not send over your proposal straight away.  After finding out who the right person is, set up a discovery call or meeting to expand on the research you have already done.  Ask questions and LISTEN; find out what objectives need to be met for them to view sponsorship as a success and ask them about their budgets and the approval process.  Collate that information and tailor your proposal to their needs.  Show them how you can support and help them reach their goals with your sponsorship proposal.

Don’t send them Gold, Silver or Bronze Packages
It screams, generic proposal.  If you have done your homework, listened to their needs, and discovered the budgets they have available before hand, you’ll know this information in advance and have the information to tailor your proposal.  

EXTRA TIP: If the sponsor need to reduce the cost after, then you MUST take items out of the offering, to show the value in the reduction.

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