While a lot of the hard work is in attracting sponsors to your event, knowing how to effectively negotiate for a win-win outcome is the ultimate aim. Here's four ways to improve your sponsorship success at the negotiation stage.
- 1.Set your price
Know what your event or community group is worth and what price you are comfortable putting on it from the outset. When I say price, you need to know what you need and equate that to either dollar value or in-kind support. Once you've set your price, don't move from that position. As long as you have made a fair ask in the first place, your potential sponsor will either come on-board or they'll try to negotiate for less.
It's at this point you can afford to be creative. If you don't want to let the sponsor go then think about what other combination of funding/support would make sense to your event/organisation and negotiate for that – as long as it's of equivalent value.
- 2.Go for the multi-year deal
Usually a sponsorship reaches its peak at three years. Negotiating for a multi-year term means you're giving yourself the best possible opportunity to benefit from the relationship. There's plenty of other upside too! You know you have the funding and the support for the next three or so years and you can plan around it. You also don't have the challenge of finding new sponsors every year.
Generally, a multi-year deal is also what a sponsor wants too. It means they can build on the event year-on-year and incrementally improve their activations.
- 3.When to agree to category exclusivity
Depending on where you live and the size of your events, a lot of sponsors request category exclusivity. This is perfectly acceptable and living regionally as I do, it's the norm. The only time this creates problems is when you as an event-holder grant exclusivity to a sponsor and a much bigger one in that category comes along. You've potentially missed out on a significant amount of sponsorship funding and/or support.
The best way to handle this is to decide from the outset what level of funding you need for your event and at what level you will grant exclusivity. Generally speaking, the more a sponsor is willing to pay, the better their chances of securing exclusivity. Don't give it away if there's little benefit back to you.
- 4. Manage expectations
Make sure that everything you promise you can deliver to the sponsorship seeker and vice-versa. Much of the communication breaks down because of poorly defined expectations on either one or both parts of the sponsorship relationship. Set out clearly what you can and cannot deliver and also ask that of the other party so there's no disappointment at a time when it's too late to fix. Give preparation and planning very chance of turning your sponsorship into a roaring success!
Was that helpful? Want to know more about how to handle sponsorship negotiations, how to leverage, activate or measure your sponsorship outcomes? Register at www.eventsponsors.com.au
