A Unique Perspective

I have read in many different publications, including this one, various ideas and strategies on how to sell sponsorship. I have tried to communicate some ideas myself. Send proposals. Don’t send proposals. Call first. Don’t call first. Include dollar amounts. Don’t include dollar amounts. The ideas are as varied as they are conflicting. The point is that there are many different opinions, not any one of them has the exclusive corner on the right way to sell sponsorship. Believe me, having been in this business since 1986, I have witnessed many different success stories and learned many different ways in which teams, drivers and race properties have sold sponsorships. I can’t count the number of times I have mumbled, "wish I’d thought of that." In the racing sponsor business there are exceptions to every rule except one, and that is there is not just one single way to sell sponsorship! But what many of these published ideas I have read, as well as some of the articles I have written myself, have neglected to include is a very important element of a successful marketing effort.

Ideas count. And good ones count a lot.

What I mean by this is that your racing program is in competition with every other race team, sport, entity, etc. We all know that. But if you rely on presenting your team with the same old tired elements as everyone else, then it is to be expected that your proposal, written, telephoned, faxed, sent, or any other means of communication, will almost certainly be transferred to landfill status. It’s not only about a marketing manager’s limited time, or ability to see, hear, understand your proposal. It’s also about the lack of new ideas, new strategies and unique capabilities that your program has that will SEPARATE it from the others in the dust bin!

Nearly every race team can offer a standard menu of sponsor benefits. Things like name on the race car, VIP tickets, hospitality for guests and friends, exposure on television, the list goes on and on. If you are a marketing manager, rest assured you have seen all this before. If you were not interested in the last proposal you saw, and you dumped it into the trash, what makes one think that you would view this proposal any different? The fact is, that as a marketing manager, you probably don’t! And with time the essence of a marketing manager’s day, he/she does not have the time to really consider your proposal, to really search for those unique capabilities. With peripheral review they decline it because they already considered one just like it before! So regardless of whether your proposal is full color, b/w, sent, express mailed, phoned or any other means of communication, if you have not included your best effort at making your proposal different, then consider it relegated to the trash, regardless of how you communicated it. Nearly every marketing manager of nearly any size business has already received at least one motorsport marketing proposal. Some have received more. Others still have received hundreds! And with every repeated offer, they repeat the response they forwarded the previous one - no thank you.

I am not here to tell you how to try and sell your sponsorship. That is up to you. I would not advise against trying nearly any means of communicating what your team has to offer. You can send it, fax it, phone it, or have it delivered pony express. But what is IN your proposal will make a difference between success and failure.

In today’s modern and extensive race marketing world, it is harder and harder to create a unique aspect to what you are selling. But it is imperative that you try. The more unique you can make your selling points of your race promotion, the better the chance you have in gaining some attention from a marketing manager or sponsor decision maker. After all, if they have seen it before and said no, then expect more of the same. But if they haven’t seen what you are offering before, you have a different twist, a new angle, a surprising element, then well, hey, we might have to think about that.

Ideas don’t come easy. If they did, we would all be sponsored. The difference between getting sponsors or not may not only rest in your ability to make a contact, it may also lie in the level of creative thinking you possess in dreaming up a racing promotion that will be different than everyone else’s. The same ol’ same ol’ is not likely to accomplish the objective.

more

Here are some quick points.

Try to tie into the prospect’s current marketing themes. If you can devise a way in which your racing program could help the company’s current marketing efforts, then you have aided in creating more efficiency and leveraging of their current promotion theme. Efficiency saves money. Sponsors like that.

Don’t rely on exposure. Everyone else does too. Nothing unique there.

Add "warm and fuzzies." Perhaps a charity connection that promotes causes can help drive new and different attention toward your racing program.

Local kid. Start local and use the partially "unique" aspect that the driver/team is located within this community as a selling point. If I live in Atlanta, and you in Cincinnati, I can’t use the local Cincy connection as a benefit when approaching a Cincinnati company. The Cincy driver/team can. That’s just one element to use to separate your team from others.

Don’t rely on the cost of racing as equal to the sponsor value. It is not an automatic correlation.

Make your sponsor proposal relate to your prospective sponsor product. Don’t allow your racing program to be a giant leap when trying to relate to the sponsor’s product or service. Let’s say your prospective sponsor is a female oriented product, then you must focus and tell the sales story of how women LOVE your racing program and why after experiencing your racing program, will purchase the sponsor product. Sell it! Make them believe it and you might get the sale! Without it, you likely don’t stand a chance.

Focus on how your racing will lead directly to increased sales – it is the NASCAR success story. More than any other element besides their strength in television ratings, NASCAR’s success is due to this element. NASCAR sponsorship translates into sales.

Include off track elements, like show cars, driver appearances and turn appearances into an event. Bring people to the store, dealer, or whatever and whatever, the prospect is. More people can translate to more sales.

Cross promote with your other sponsors. Sponsors LOVE to do this. It’s because it means SALES!!!

Racing is the advertising medium. Your racing history is not. The sponsor is interested in how your racing program will uniquely help him sell his products, not primarily in how you can win races. If winning races sells products, then focus in on it. If it doesn’t directly tie in to sales, find other ways to sell product.

Your unique combination of elements are the tell-tale indicators of your marketability. The more you have, the more likely the sponsorship sale. The more unique your approach, the more attention you are going to get. Not everyone will sign on. Some prospects will say no. Many will. And guess what, the next proposal that falls under their eye that is a repeat of your proposal is likely to get the same answer you got. But a unique approach to your racing program will guarantee greater attention from prospective sponsors. No matter how its communicated, new ideas attract attention. Turning one of these into your next sponsor is far easier than turning a rejection of tired and repeated marketing elements from just another "no" yesterday into a "yes" today.

In the racing marketing game, uniqueness is important. Being different can be the most important first step in gaining attention, telling your story and making the pitch for sponsorship.