Who is a Sponsor?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary – A sponsor is (of a company etc.) to pay costs of one particular event program, etc. as one of the ways of advertising. In other words, a sponsor is an individual or organization that has a shared value with the event being organized or for any kind of personal or organizational investment.
What is Sponsorship?
It is a material/tangible and or immaterial/non-tangible transaction between two entities (sponsor and organizer) with a clear or vague understanding of accruing immediate and long-term benefits. Immediate: meeting prospects, clients, stakeholders; long term: brand visibility.
Offer from the Organizer
The organizer’s offer needs to address more of the immediate needs of the sponsor. It is human nature to value a bird in hand rather than two in the sky. This is also because, for larger organizations, one almost always deal with the agents (managers etc.) and not with the principals and agents. Their interest is always short term as an agent (manager etc) is always eyeing for the next better opportunity and seldom interested in the long term affairs of the organization. Moreover, there is no standardized method that can measure the cost/benefit of sponsoring an event with precision. So, a flux like environment is shared by both the parties and both work with some ignorance and hence this is governed by some of the rules of Game Theory. A good negotiating point is to start: “your competitor has on-boarded.”
Assessment by the Sponsor
In a culture where time is valued very highly, assessment will be fast and closure, either way, will be quicker.
In a culture where time is not valued (of one’s own and of others), assessment will be long and procrastination will surely barge in.
Because of the factors mentioned above, assessments will be highly influenced by trust and referral, reputation and past experience (showcase) and “story”. Again, the “agent’s” personal preferences will be highly influential because after all, sponsorship is a cost and there is no clear cut cost/benefit metric and the agent will always be conservative and this conservatism will be lesser when the agent finds some “personal” interest. This may not guarantee closure of a favorable kind but the agent will provide some momentum upstream.
Summarizing in pointers
1. “Make an offer that the other party cannot refuse” – your offer should be designed with the other party’s need fulfillment rather than your requirements of funds, resources etc. It follows like a corollary, it is not the event’s theme that is important, it is the story being presented.
2. Plan for a long time cycle.
3. Prefer and pamper a shared value sponsor more than a fleeting abrupt decision making ones.
4. Loss/Bankruptcy protection: many organizers in good faith spend upfront and then after everything is over, find that the sponsor is not paying (invoking a vague response: did not get the benefit anticipated or promised) or worse, find that the sponsor is not solvent. Since these are somewhat insecure debt, at best part realization after a long time and at worst, writing it off is better.
5. If you enjoy this work temperamentally, this is a very interesting area of work that will provide you deep insight into how businesses work, how people function, how people function in full self-interest and in half-knowledge of things, how to smell risks and reward, how to communicate with and without agenda.
