Congratulations, you signed a sponsor, it’s time to celebrate! But it’s also time to get down to business.
How are you going to turn new sponsors into raving fans who will refer others? I have four things I think are critically important.
The first is aligning for activation, this should really be a one-on-one discussion between your team and that sponsor’s team to think about how you can both leverage the opportunities to work together and maximize exposure for both organizations.
Second, add value everywhere. If you are a nonprofit, helping support not only your mission, but the sponsorships that are coming in from your corporate and other partners, you really need to think about all of the places you can value add. So, look at the things that you’re already working on and think about how you can level them up. What was promised in your sponsorship package and what would make it just a little bit better?
In that same vein, over deliver on assets. Look at what you promised, think about what that gap is between what you promised and what’s really realistic, or what’s really achievable. Do something that over delivers. It is always better to under promise and over deliver then the opposite.
Finally, make it turnkey. As much as organizations want to get involved and do goodwill and support the mission of organizations that are doing good work, it still is something that takes their time. It’s still something that they have to add to their workday list of responsibilities and carve out time for and that can be really tough if you’re competing with someone who has a really busy schedule. What you really want to do is focus on looking at what that sponsorship partnership looks like, and making it turnkey. Think of the ways you can run everything as close to the finish line as you can before having to engage that sponsor’s team to help make edits or sign off on approvals. The more you can do to make it easier on them, the more likely they are to come back and to refer others.
