Mr. Sponsorship

Photo by: yoko12

Mr. Sponsorship
By Milt Gedo (c)

Lessons from Elves

This month you’ll see that marketing lessons can be learned from almost anybody… even Christmas elves! As sponsored or sponsor-seeking racers, we need to be aware of changing trends in marketing and we need to “see what works and apply it, and see what doesn’t work and avoid it.” Following is what we can learn from elves:

Do you remember a website last Christmas season that featured dancing elves, and presented the visitor the opportunity to paste a photo of themselves (or a friend, family member, boss, etc) on an elf as it danced around the computer screen to some hip music? The website was called “elf-yourself”, and here’s the first lesson to learn: Which company offered this website? Give yourself a few minutes to think about it, then read on to reveal the answer.

Some say the “elf-yourself” promotion was a success, with 26.4 million people visiting the site, or nearly one in 10 Americans. Visitors to the site increased 99% in October, 89% in November and 29% in December. In November/December their market share of internet users grew 508%, and by December it ranked No. 55 among all websites. A successful promotion, wouldn’t you say? YES… very successful… if your goal is to drive visitors to a website. So, do you know which company offered this website yet? Let me help you by making it multiple choice: Was it A) Office Depot, B) Office Max, or C) Staples?

Critics of this promotion say that while internet traffic was high, it didn’t lead to actual sales. Yes, the elves are cute and funny but they don’t relate to the brand, and the website didn’t list any product specials or sales events, or even a Christmas product “wishlist”. So what was the point of the website? Interestingly, the senior VP of marketing/advertising for the company stated, “We weren’t looking for sales. We were looking to build the brand, warm up our image.” Of the three choices listed previously, this company is running in third place behind the other two competitors… is that a coincidence?

So what lessons can sponsored and sponsor-seeking racers learn from these Christmas elves? I think the first lesson is: Find out what your sponsor (or prospective sponsor) is looking to get from a sponsorship. As we learned from the elves, not every company is looking to increase sales… some are looking to reach other goals, such as building the brand and/or warming/changing their image. What if you present a proposal to a company based on increased sales, but that’s not their primary objective? As I always preach, find out what your sponsor wants, and then give it to them!

Another lesson we can learn is that every action should be analyzed for effectiveness. For example, many racers offer as an “action” to a prospective sponsor a link from their team website to the sponsor’s website. This action might be very valuable to a company that does a lot of sales via the internet, but almost worthless to a company who doesn’t market online. Also, before we offer any actions to a sponsor, we need to analyze it to make sure it will achieve whatever goals the sponsor is trying to reach.

Thirdly, we should realize that even the best intentioned promotions can sometimes fail. In the “elf-yourself” promotion, although it may have helped warm up the company image, ultimately it didn’t increase sales during the busiest shopping period of the year… the Christmas season!

I encourage all sponsored racers to analyze the promotions and programs you have in place for your sponsors and be sure they’re meeting expectations and goals. For sponsor-seeking racers, evaluate your current proposal and your list of actions and be sure you have the ammunition available to GIVE THE SPONSOR WHAT THEY WANT!

Oh by the way, in case you couldn’t remember (or simply didn’t know), the company who offered the “elf-yourself” website was Office Max. If you were one of the 26.4 million people who “elfed-yourself” last year, yet couldn’t recall which company offered the website, perhaps that’s another lesson to be learned from elves… think about it!

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.

Racing Sponsorship - Quick Tips Vol.4

Racing Sponsorship - Quick Tips Vol.4
By Don Terrill (c) - www.RacingSecrets.com

(1) Prove it
Telling someone you can help their business is one thing, but being able to prove it is another - The latter infinitely more powerful at persuading potential sponsors. Ask your current sponsors for testimonials and then build a "proof portfolio" by tracking and documenting all of your marketing efforts going forward - hopefully successful efforts.

(2) Overreact
A normal reaction to being short on sponsors is to say, "I'll just try harder." - Unfortunately, This will only get you more of the same. An overreaction would be to revamp your entire team funding system - from how you find prospective sponsors, to how you pitch them, to how you eventually close them. Use this method whenever you're faced with a problem in any area of your life - Ask, "How can I overreact?"

(3) Don't be a Victim
Don't blame the economy, politicians or your lack of free time - If you don't have enough team funding or anything else in your life, it's no one else's fault but your own. Now the question is, what are you going to do about it? How about first taking responsibility for the problem? From that position you'll realize you have the power to fix it.

(4) Make your own Luck
"Luck" can be as simple as convincing someone with the power to "open a door" for you, to do so. Find those people who have the power to help in your sponsorship efforts (e.g. someone who can introduce you to business owners) and then prove that their efforts to help won't be wasted - in other words you won't blow the "luck" they give you.

(5) Play Offense
An example of playing defense would be BEGGING your current sponsors to sign up for another year. Playing offense would be STATING that you have so many sponsors, "you may have to let some go." Playing defense would be ASKING for a renewal of last year's deal. Playing offense would be REQUIRING 20% more.

photo by i_harrier

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan
By Milt Gedo (c) - www.sponsorship-101.com

What are your goals and plans for this new year and new racing season? Besides the obvious goal of winning more races, what are your goals regarding sponsorship for 2008? Are you seeking a primary sponsor, or looking to add an associate sponsor to your team? Will you improve existing programs and relationships?

Whatever your goals are for 2008, it’s important to have a plan and to work your plan. As in all areas of life, first you set your sights then you chart a course to reach them…racing and sponsorship are no different. If your goals for this season are to become a sponsored racer or to increase your sponsorship income, I’ve outlined a basic plan below:

Step 1: List your team assets. The first step in finding sponsorship is to discover what your race team has to offer a potential sponsor. To clarify, assets in this case doesn’t mean race car, trailer, etc., rather what types of actions your team can offer a company to help them achieve their marketing goals. Your actions should be classified as “at-track”, “off-track”, and “media”. This first step requires a lot of thought, and it’s best to brain-storm with another person (spouse, car owner, crew chief, etc) while developing your list. Remember to think outside the box and think big!

Step 2: Create a list of potential sponsors. After you have a good list of team assets, the next step is to create a list of companies you think might be a good fit for motorsports sponsorship. As in step one, it’s very important to think outside the box while creating this list. Think of new companies/industries that are currently not involved in racing, but that might target the demographics you can reach. This is NOT the time to analyze each potential sponsor… you’ll do that in the next step. What’s important here is to build a list of good, quality prospects… the more the better.

Step 3: Know your prospects. Once your list of potential sponsors is complete, it’s time to trim the list down to several solid prospects. This step could possibly be the most time consuming, but cannot be skipped. There are many questions you must answer about each prospect to determine if they are eligible for motorsports sponsorship, and more importantly if they would be a good sponsor for YOUR team. Some of the questions you must answer include: Who are their customers? How do they reach them now? What is their annual marketing budget? What is their marketing strategy? As you research each company on your prospect list, you’ll eliminate companies that don’t “fit” the required profile. Don’t be surprised if you cross-off 80-85% of companies off your list. But the remaining 15-20% will be very good potential sponsors, and these are the companies you should expend all your efforts to pursue.

Step 4: Contact your prospects. At this point, you should have 10-20 companies that are very good prospects for sponsorship of your race team. Now you need to contact each prospect, via mail, phone, or in person (if possible). Your goal here is to engage in a conversation, explain how your actions fit into their marketing strategies, and how your race team can help them with their marketing. Your second goal is to have your prospect ask to see “something in writing”, i.e. a proposal. If you get one of your prospects to ask for a proposal, you are very, very close to reaching a sponsorship agreement. Also, you can be confident your proposal will be read and studied, as opposed to most UNSOLICITED proposals that usually end up in the garbage, unread.

Step 5: Send a custom proposal. You are now ready to send a proposal to a prospect that has expressed interest in your racing program. Be sure you do NOT send a generic, one-size-fits-all proposal. You should send proposals that are customized for each individual prospect, including action pages and demographic pages. I wrote a detailed book about proposals, “How-To Write a Winning Proposal”, which is available through RacingSecrets.com. I recommend anybody who is SERIOUS about sponsorship purchase this valuable book. Remember, you get one chance to make a good impression, and your proposal is usually that one chance… don’t blow it!

Step 6: Follow up and close the deal. After sending your proposal, give your prospect adequate time to review it (about 1 week is normal), then make a follow-up phone call or visit (if possible). Answer any questions or concerns, review the actions you’ve offered, and then ask them what the next step should be. At some point you’ll negotiate a budget, but if you’ve done your research properly, your budget and their budget should be fairly close. Remember not to undervalue or overvalue your program, and be prepared to adjust your actions to fit their budget. Lastly, after you close the deal, remember to ALWAYS fulfill your commitments, give your sponsor more than they paid for, and stay in contact! If you do these things, you’ll enjoy a long relationship with your sponsor.

Now you have your goals, you have your plan… go work it! Good luck in 2008 both on the track and off, and thank you for your loyal readership!

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 www.sponsorship-101.com

photo by: FlyingJ054100

Racing Sponsorship - Quick Tips Vol.3

Racing Sponsorship - Quick Tips Vol.3
By Don Terrill (c) - www.RacingSecrets.com

(1) Ask for Help
You'll be surprised how often you get what you want when you ask for it - Ask racers, who are successful at getting sponsors, how they do it? Then ask them if they'll help you. What's the worst that can happen, they say no?

(2) Think Big
You don't have to stop chasing the $1,000 a year sponsors, but why not put some effort into finding that big sponsor, the one that would make other racers jealous and take your race team to the next level?

(3) Put the Sponsor First
If you can do this, truly put the needs and desires of the sponsor before your own, you'll never have trouble finding or keeping them. The key is to be genuine - faking it will never work.

(4) Clean your desk
Hopefully you have a dedicated desk for your sponsorship efforts and hopefully it's clean. If not, clear off and clean up the top of your desk - you'll be surprised how much more focused and energized you'll feel.

(5) Dedicate time
Set aside time every week for finding new sponsors and keeping the ones you have happy. Use a software calendar to remind you - there are free ones all over the web - like www.google.com/calendar.

photo by Hankthatank

Conquer First Contact Fear

Conquer First Contact Fear
by Beverly Terrill (c)

Preparing your Presentation

There is no better way to overcome anxiety than to be prepared. A few years ago, I worked as a Retirement Specialist. It was my job to convince employees of small companies to invest in the company’s Retirement plan. This was no easy task. I had a slideshow and prewritten script that I used at every company with just a couple of variations based on the particulars of the company. My success was measured by the percentage of employees that signed up for the plan. As I learned my job, I began to be able to speak more freely and not read from the script. I was able to anticipate the questions that I would need to be able to answer. I was also able to increase my participation rate because I was viewed as an expert on this subject. This is exactly what you need to do. Begin with a base presentation and then modify for each prospect based on your research. This will give you a comfort level that will exude confidence.

Practice, Practice, Practice

So once you have this presentation created, you need to practice. I would begin in front of a mirror. Then you can move on to your significant other. If you have a crew or friends that won’t be merciless, use them as an audience. But I sometimes find I would rather present to strangers than be heckled by my friends. That is an image that I can’t get out of my head. This goes along with being prepared. Know your stuff inside and out!

Research the Prospect

This can be fun! An obvious place to start is with the Internet. You can Google the company and hopefully they have a website. There is normally an “About Us” page or maybe some company history. Sometimes if it is a national chain, you can’t really get information about the local store. In this case you need to do things the old fashioned way. Check the yellow pages. If the company has a slogan, it will most likely be in the yellow pages ad. You can also visit the company if possible and look for the mission statement. This is normally posted so that it is visible to the customers and/or employees. Another way to research your prospect is to get information from an employee of the company. Ask around. Chances are the cousin of your wife’s step Uncle’s daughter works there. (You get the point).

What are you looking for? Your goal is to find out what the company does, how long have they been doing it and why are they successful? Also, it is very beneficial to find out who you will be speaking with and a little about that person. For instance, does he/she like to be called Mr/Mrs? How long has he been in this position? You can get this information by talking to his secretary. Phrase your questions so you appear interested in learning more. Don’t make it sound as though you are writing for a tabloid. “ I hear he’s only been here for a year” sounds negative. You should say “From what I have learned the business has really been growing, how long has he/she been in the CFO position?”

The main objective is to be able to incorporate some of the companies ideals and philosophy into your presentation.

Create a “Cheatsheet”

Even after all the practice and repetition, we can still forget some of the important points we wanted to speak about. This is where your cheatsheet comes in handy.
Create an outline of the topics you will discuss and then add the specifics that you do not want to miss under each topic. This will allow your brain to relax. In a wonderful book titled “Getting Things Done” the author tells us that if you have a safe place to record everything, our brain then becomes less bogged down. But you can’t fool yourself, you have to know that everything is at your fingertips and you don’t have to remember every little thing.

Prepare Your Mind

Okay behind the Number One tip of being physically prepared, is to be mentally prepared. Draw on your best memories. It doesn’t have to be a past sponsor experience although that would be ideal. It could be the time you inspired your teammates in a high school basketball game. Focus on your strengths. You have to know that you are not peddling promises. You have a proposition that is going to help this company. There is no need to be nervous.

Hand It Over to Someone Else

If all else fails, ask someone else to either create the presentation and/or present it for you. It may be that you are not comfortable with the presentation you created. You may just get tongue tied when you try to speak publicly. Know your weaknesses and your strengths. If you have someone in your crew or your household that will better represent you there is no harm in delegating the responsibility.

photo by piddy77