Tips for Getting Event Sponsors to say YES.

Guest Blog from Brink Events, Thanks Aiden...

Event planning often brings tight budgets. The ability to stretch these budgets and make the most of financial resources is important. For this reason, sponsors are often sought to alleviate some of the burden and provide additional support. Successful communication and negotiations will ensure long term success with your events.

Start slow – Don’t ask for the moon right off the bat. You’re building a long term relationship, so you need to prove yourself first. Getting a sponsor on board is an initial leap of faith on their behalf. Once you’ve established yourself and you’ve proven a good fit, you’ll have more bargaining power and you’ll be able to ask for more.

Money isn’t everything – Don’t be surprised if a sponsor isn’t willing to provide funds right away… or ever. Money isn’t the only worthwhile thing a sponsor can provide. Look deeper into the equation and search for other ways to work together. At the end of the day, there are two ways to increase profit – increase revenues or decrease expenses. If the sponsor isn’t willing to provide financial support (increase revenues), then they may be able to provide products, supplies, or materials, ultimately decreasing your expenses and/or improving the guest experience. So, be open to possibilities. If you’re just looking for money, you may be out of luck with many sponsors.

Proper fit – Ensure that the sponsors you pursue provide a good fit with the clientele and guests at your event. If there a lack in alignment between the products and the services offered by sponsors and the target group, then resources have been wasted. Your demographic and the sponsor’s demographic should be as similar as possible to maximize results for both sides.

Value creation – This applies to both the sponsor, as well as yourself. Ensure that there is true value in the relationship for both sides. Don’t try to close a sponsor simply to say you have another one on board. Look at the relationship as a whole, and make certain that you are both gaining benefits from the collaboration. An unequal balance will cause unwanted friction. It’s also very important to come to a basic agreement as to what both sides will provide and what both sides should expect. This can either be done verbally or in writing depending on the circumstances and level of trust.

The key to convincing sponsors to sign on with your events is to prove an ROI (return on investment). If they can clearly see that they will get more out of the event than they put in, it’s likely they’ll sign up. Being able to outline this equation and show the benefit will strengthen your case when bargaining with potential sponsors. In the end, you want to make it easy for them to say yes… and hard for them to say no. Your terms should be attractive given their situation. If you can prove that the time, money, and effort put forth by company will more than pay for itself, you should have no problem attracting new sponsors and securing old ones.

This guest article was written by Aidan Henry at Brink Events, an event design agency in Victoria, BC.