How to follow-up with ease
You are probably not going to like this next sentence. Most people are not going to respond to your first email asking them to be a sponsor, so don’t waste time crafting a huge email about the wonderful event or activity you are running; most people will not read it.
You have to plan on follow-up.
Follow-up can be easy if you plan and stay organised. Here are 3 ways to stay on track with follow-up, so you don’t waste valuable time and miss out on opportunities that could lead to sponsorship.
If you are in the Halton Region, we have a workshop on April 29th on "How to Identify your Sponsorship Offering" We hope you can join us!
Sign up for our monthly newsletter on sponsorship and receive a free download on "5 Tips to Speed up Sponsorship"
You are probably not going to like this next sentence. Most people are not going to respond to your first email asking them to be a sponsor, so don’t waste time crafting a huge email about the wonderful event or activity you are running; most people will not read it.
You have to plan on follow-up.
Follow-up can be easy if you plan and stay organised. Here are 3 ways to stay on track with follow-up, so you don’t waste valuable time and miss out on opportunities that could lead to sponsorship.
- Make your first email about identifying the right contact person, even if you know they are the right person. Don’t bother sending over a huge description to someone who is busy and doesn’t have time to read your email. Keep your emails short and to the point, so they can quickly reply, ‘Yes that would be me,’ or, ‘You need to speak to Mike over in Marketing; I’ve copied him in on this email.’
- Plan your follow-up emails. Companies get hundreds of requests for sponsorship, some get thousands. You are going to have to follow up, people are busy and you are not at the top of their to-do list right now. Identify a follow up time and schedule it. I normally follow up weekly, towards the latter half of the week
- Keep a call log of who you are contacting and when. If you aren’t using a CRM, an Excel spreadsheet works well to record who you called, when, and when to follow up.
- Don’t make people feel bad or guilty for not replying. Let them know that you know they are busy and ask, ‘when is a good time to follow up?’
- Always leave the door open. If they tell you they have no budget, ask when they review their budgets, and can you reach out again then.
If you are in the Halton Region, we have a workshop on April 29th on "How to Identify your Sponsorship Offering" We hope you can join us!
Sign up for our monthly newsletter on sponsorship and receive a free download on "5 Tips to Speed up Sponsorship"
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