How-To Beat the Recession

By Milt Gedo - www.sponsorship-101.com

Open any newspaper or turn on any television news program, and you’ll hear the word “recession” or even “depression” thrown around, along with all the necessary hand-wringing that goes with it. I’m not a financial guru (as my accountant will attest), so I don’t really know if the U.S. economy is in recession, depression or just a slow-down, but I do know one thing: Corporate America will always have the need to sell and market their wares effectively and efficiently, and motorsports marketing remains one of the best methods to achieve results.

If you’ve read my columns for the last 12-18 months or so, you know that I’ve been preaching the decline of “traditional marketing” (i.e. newspapers, magazines and television) in favor of “consumer driven” marketing, such as mobile marketing and event marketing. I recently saw the results of a survey that demonstrates this trend. The survey was conducted by Gfk Roper September 11 through October 10 of this year, and asked adults (18 and older), “What do you do during TV commercials?” The findings are interesting:

-52% of respondents claim they “Talk to others without paying attention to the commercials”
-51% responded they “Get up and do something else before the show comes back on”
-44% replied they “Switch to another channel”
-43% of respondents “Fast-forward through the commercials while using a DVR”
-26% of respondents said they “Turn the sound down on the TV or mute it”

Here’s the most important finding of all:

-Only 13% of respondents stated they “Sit and watch the commercials”

If you were the VP of Marketing for a company, and were responsible for spending your advertising budget in the most effective and cost-efficient way, how would the findings above make you feel about television advertising? Technology and consumer mind-set is changing the way companies look at advertising.

At a race event, the commercials are the race cars! When a fan watches a race, either in person or on television, they’re not going to “talk to another person to avoid seeing the sponsors”, “get up and do something else”, “switch to another channel”, “fast-forward through the race”, and no REAL race fan will ever turn the volume down or mute it! For fans who attend a race event, even walking through the Manufacturer’s Midway is not considered commercials “to be avoided”. The Midway at most motorsports events is more like a carnival, where fans can buy merchandise, get autographs and have a good time… all the while being bombarded with marketing messages. As I’ve mentioned, motorsports is the “original mobile marketing” venue, and remains the best value in marketing today.

So how can this information help you, the sponsor-seeking racer? Clearly, as corporate America tightens its belt, every dollar spent will be closely scrutinized… including advertising budgets. I believe the trend of spending less in traditional advertising and shifting those funds towards mobile or event marketing will continue and even pick up speed. Every serious race team should be prepared to capitalize on this trend.

When you sit down to create the list of actions your race team can offer a potential sponsor (Step one of my proven Six-Step program), you should include a heavy bias towards mobile and event marketing. Sportsman race teams are at a real advantage here, because you can offer a lot of these actions at a fraction of the costs of a Professional team. True, a Sportsman team can’t offer the same exposure at a race event as a Professional team (Television coverage, preferred parking in the pits, hospitality opportunities, etc.), but once you’re away from the track, the playing field is leveled.

In these tough economic times, the lesson is: Companies will always have the need to sell and market their products, and savvy racers/race teams know how to capitalize on this fact. Take advantage of the shifting market trends, and GET SPONSORED!

More tips from Milt...

New Sponsors? It's a Numbers Game

photo by Mulsanne

New Sponsors? It's a Numbers Game
By Don Terrill (c) - www.RacingSecrets.com

It's a numbers game my father told me - to find a great woman you just need to meet more women.

Well, what about sponsors?

The Formula:

Number of new sponsors = (Number of prospects you contact) x (Percentage of contacted prospects you close)

So, to get more sponsors you need to contact more prospects and/or increase your closing rate.

The closing rate is going to be dictated by your skills and economic conditions. Now, you can't do anything about the overall economy or a business's financial position, but you can improve your skills by...

• Educating Yourself - Read every sponsorship book you can get your hands on. You only need to get one good idea for a book to be worth it.
  
• Role Playing - Get your family members to play potential sponsors so you can work on your pitch. This should also help your confidence when you do the real thing.
  
• Becoming a Veteran - No shortcut here, the more experience you have in searching for sponsors the better you'll be.

As you can see, one of the ways to improve your closing skills is to make more closing attempts. How do you make more closing attempts? You contact more prospects.

In the end it really does come down to how many prospects you contact - (1) by directly increasing your odds and (2) by helping improve your closing skills through practice.

So, did I take my dad's advice on women? You bet, the best thing I ever did.

Advanced Team Funding: Niche Racing Business

Advanced Team Funding: Niche Racing Business
By Don Terrill (c) - www.RacingSecrets.com

I'm a huge advocate for starting a business to help fund your race team.

The story of RacingSuits.com:

This domain name was included in a large lot of names I purchased in 2000. I had every intention of developing each into a viable Internet business. Fast forward to present day: I own over 350 domain names and have turned a handful into successful websites. Looking at how long it took me to turn those domains into sites, I now realize I would need 10 lifetimes to develop them all. So, I've begun to sell off some of my portfolio. Last month I auctioned off RacingSuits.com.

I don't know what the new owner is going to do with the name, but what a great domain for starting a highly focused racing business where you did nothing but sell driving suits and accessories. I hope he makes it a huge success.

Here's how you can create a successful racing business:

• Pick your Niche - First look at where your passions lie. About any topic can be turned into a viable business, but your odds of success will be greatly increased if you do something you enjoy.
  
• Pick a Profitable Revenue Model - Most racers are very busy, so the last thing they need is a service type business that in essence has them getting paid by the hour. Even if you're not that busy, I still recommend that you look for revenue models that decouple your money from time.
  
• Build the Business - Nothing is more important at this point than the amount of overhead you take on. I have personally witnessed many first time business owners seal their fate by taking on unsustainable monthly fixed costs. Start small and see how it goes.
  
• Grow, Expand, Duplicate - Racers are not known for being timid and why should they be any different when it comes to running a business. Once you've got a good thing going it's time to build upon your success. Just think about constant improvement.
  

If I was going to build RacingSuits.com I'd start by selling other companies suits and quickly move to designing/selling my own - which is where the real profits are going to be.

What is your niche?

Check out my list of racing domain names if you're interested in starting something.

Sponsors - A Means to an End

photo by AcePixure

Sponsors - A Means to an End
By Don Terrill (c) - www.RacingSecrets.com

Do you really want sponsors?

No, you want the money they supply.

So, how do we get the money without sponsors?

• Earn more from your day job - Ask for a raise, apply for a new position or look for a whole new job.
  
• Take a second job - Most racers have a wide range of marketable skills and should have no trouble finding some side work.
  
• Start a business - As a serial entrepreneur, this is always my first piece of advice to teams looking for funding.

In the end, why even mess with sponsors if you can earn the money through efforts with much more consistent results.

Now let me ask, do you really even want the money?

No, you want what it can buy.

So, how do we get needed items without money?

• First, ask if you really need it - Trim your operation as much as possible. Think of how you can simplify every aspect of your team and you'll find plenty of answers.
  
• Barter - Now you're left with the true essentials. Find who can supply them and ask to do some trading.
  

In the end, racers just want to race for free. Stop thinking that sponsors are the only way to get there.

A Call To Action

Mr. Sponsorship
By Milt Gedo (c)

A Call to Action

As I’ve mentioned before, I often find inspiration for my columns from a variety of sources, and sometimes from an unexpected source. Such is the case for this month’s column.

I was recently reading a book about former U.S. President Reagan. The book discussed many of the qualities he possessed which enabled him to be an effective leader. One of these qualities is described as "a bias towards action". After some careful contemplation, I realized this is an action that all sponsor-seeking racers should try to cultivate. Let me explain:

First, let’s define “a bias towards action”, by demonstrating how Ronald Reagan used it. In an example from the book, when Reagan received a call in the middle of the night regarding the crisis in Grenada, it only took him a few moments of thought before he ordered the U.S. military to invade the small island to restore order. Reagan knew there were Soviet-backed Cuban troops in Grenada, and the invasion would probably add to the already tense U.S.-Soviet relations, but he ordered the invasion anyway. Reagan didn’t postpone taking action to schedule a cabinet meeting, to meet with allies, or to plead his case to the U.N. He knew what had to be done, and he got it done. In its simplest terms, “a bias towards action” is this: Know what needs to be done, and then do it.

Let me share with you a phenomena I’ve witnessed a lot, and have even been guilty of myself. I call it the “working hard at nothing” syndrome… let’s see if you’re suffering from it too. Many racers, when they decide to get serious about sponsorship, will start “working” towards finding a sponsor. They come up with a catchy name for their race team/business. They draw up a cool logo. They have business cards and letterhead printed. They get a dedicated phone or phone line to handle calls from potential sponsors. They develop a website. They create a list of potential sponsors, that is, companies they feel might be a good fit for motorsports marketing. They spend endless hours online and at the library doing research on these companies, getting contact names and mailing addresses and phone numbers. They create a professional proposal, complete with full-color pages and charts and graphs. Somewhere along the way, they realize that sooner or later, they will HAVE to make initial contact with the potential sponsors on their list. But the thought of actually picking up the phone and calling someone they’ve never met, in order to initiate a conversation about sponsorship, terrifies them (as it would most people). So, instead they go back to the library to do more “research”. They work on their proposal again, to get it “just right”. They draw sketches of what their race car will look like with a sponsor’s logo on it, etc., etc., etc.

Do you see what is happening in this scenario? Often racers avoid the difficult part of finding a sponsor, i.e. making the phone calls, by working on something else. This is what I call “working hard at nothing.” As a racer you feel better, because you ARE working on finding a sponsor, right? But the truth is, while all the other work you’ve done is important, NONE OF IT MATTERS IF YOU’RE NOT WILLING TO MAKE THE PHONE CALLS. You can have the best, most deluxe, leather-bound, full-color, gold-leaf professional proposal out there… but if you can’t get your prospective sponsor’s marketing person to agree to read it, you’re wasting your time AND money.

This is where a “bias towards action” is helpful. Instead of putting off making the phone calls under the guise of “working on something else”, take a deep breath, pick up the phone and dial the number. And if that first call doesn’t go as smoothly as you’d like, learn from the experience, adjust your approach, take a deep breath, pick up the phone, and call the next prospect on your list. Even if you make 99 unsuccessful phone calls, the 100th call might be the one that gets you a sponsor. The important thing is that you pick up the phone and make the calls. Don’t avoid it by pretending to work on something else… no matter how “useful” it makes you feel.

As a friend of mine used to say, “If you have to swallow a frog, don’t look at it too long.” Think about it!

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Milt Gedo has been involved in motorsports marketing for over 12 years and helps sportsman racers acquire sponsorship through seminars and personal coaching. As an NHRA racer, Milt has a unique perspective on the struggle most Sportsman racers face in their quest for sponsorship. Milt is a full-time racer with sponsors such as KD Kanopy, American Racing Wheels, Goodyear and others. You can reach Milt at 775-727-4955 or cresptmktg@aol.com. For more information about Milt’s acclaimed sponsorship seminar, go to www.sponsorship-101.com.