Making sponsorship work - part one

You see them everywhere – company names on banners at sports grounds, erected in return for a great deal of sponsorship money.  Here’s the thing – it is of little value unless you can make it work for you. You also need to at least get names and contact details so you can build some relationships.

So here’s one way to make it work:

First of all their members need to be the type of prospect you want, and if so and you can afford it, then agree to their proposal on one condition.

You simply tell them.” Because I’m giving you a donation I’d like the names and addresses of all your members so I can write to them!”   They’ll be horrified - They’ll worry that you’ll harass members into business and give the club a bad name, and of course they will quote the Privacy Act, which is the best "out" the Government has given a lot of people.

So you allay their fears by saying, “ All I want to do is send a letter to them and you can mail it to them on my behalf. That means I won’t even see their names or addresses. You can put the letter in your envelope and send it out for me, I’ll even pay for the postage!”

Job done!  They will agree, because they want your money.  Next month I'll give you an idea of the type of letter you could send to the club’s members.