Sponsorship Fulfillment: the Forgotten Art

If you’re a sporting event organizer, or soon to be one, you have probably invested a lot of time, thought, and energy in trying to snag great sponsors for your event.  You and your team have probably brainstormed for hours about how your event can enhance the sponsor’s brand image.  You’ve studied their target demographic and shown them how your event is a match made in heaven.  You’ve figured out clever ways to promote their products at your venue.  You’ve tailored an ingenious proposal that demonstrates how your sporting event is a sure lock to bring them the bottom-lime business results they’re seeking.  And finally, perhaps you’ve even netted that elusive and lucrative sponsorship contract. Now comes the hard part.  You have to deliver.

If you’re thinking, “oops, I forgot about that part,” then read on.  This article is called “Fulfillment – the Forgotten Art” for good reason.  Often we get so caught up in the front-end business of winning sponsors – researching, pitching, schmoozing, selling, negotiating – that we don’t pay as much attention to the back-end or post-signing phase.  That is, the Fulfillment part of the bargain.  That’s the stage where we actually have to do all of those wonderful things we promised.

Fulfillment is all about following through on what you have promised your sponsors.  Arguably, it’s the most important step in the sponsorship process.  It’s certainly the part that is most critical to your long-term success.  So what is Fulfillment?

Fulfillment is the payoff or reward you furnish for the sponsor.  Fulfillment answers the simple question, did you fulfill their expectations?  Did your event do what you said it would do?

The simplest way to ensure success in the Fulfillment stage is to make sure you know your sponsors’ expectations, right from the start.  The only way to know this for certain is to ask them.  Yes, sit them down and ask them what they want to accomplish through this sponsorship.  Make sure you’re on the same page.  Keep the discussion in specific terms, not generalities.  Are they looking for a bump in sales for a specific product or service?  Are they looking to increase brand recognition?  If so, how will you measure that?  What corporate message are they trying to communicate?  What demographic are they after?  What risks do they want to avoid?

You will also need to manage their expectations as the event unfolds.  Make sure expectations are realistic and that you can deliver.  The key is to be honest with sponsors and yourself.  Let them know if their expectations are out of whack and try to help steer them to more realistic ones.  In the end it does you no good to over-promise.  Better to under-promise and over-deliver.  Remember, bad news travels faster than good and an unhappy sponsor in your local community can cost you dearly.

Always be professional.  Sponsorship is a business relationship, not a recreational one, and should always be treated as such.  If you say you are going to do something, do it.  Be on time for meetings.  Return email and phone calls promptly.  When writing communications, use your spell-checker and write in some recognizable form of the mother tongue.  Keep and circulate meeting notes.  Touch base with the sponsor often and make sure his/her needs are being met on a regular basis.

Keep your promises and follow through.  If something is not going as you hoped, talk to the sponsor as soon as you become aware of it (the earlier the better).  Be open.  Solicit their ideas and make them part of the solution.

Update the sponsor throughout the entire event cycle: planning, promotion, registration, event day and post-event.  Simple relationship management will go a long way toward keeping expectations on track and ensuring a positive result.

After the event, have a post mortem with each sponsor.  Discuss the results and ask for feedback and suggestions.  What could have been done better?  Where did we drop the ball?  What aspects did you like best?  How can we improve the process next time around?

Lastly, and most importantly, focus on tangible and quantifiable results.  Try to put processes in place by which you can track and measure success.  Use hard numbers whenever possible.  Assuming you and your sponsor have agreed on some measures of success, how did the event measure up?  Did the participants offer any direct feedback?  Did you give them the opportunity to do so through questionnaires/feedback cards, etc.?  If you gave out the sponsor’s coupons to event registrants, how many of those coupons were redeemed?  At what percentage rate?  Did the sponsor see any increase in foot or web traffic after your event?  Can you tie that increase to your event in some demonstrable way?  Did your event participants purchase additional products and services, if such were offered?

Obviously you’ll want to focus on positive results as much as possible, but don’t ignore the negative ones.  An honest acknowledgement of where things fell short of your mutual expectations can go a long way toward building trust for the future.

Tracking concrete results may feel like a headache, but the effort can be well rewarded.  Why?  Because real, numerical results demonstrate, in no-nonsense, black and white terms, that your event was successful.  Not only will your current sponsor appreciate this tangible evidence, but you can now use these numbers to impress and attract future sponsors.

Handle the Fulfillment phase of the sponsorship process with the same care and enthusiasm you put into the pitching stage and you’ll net yourself a stable of long-term, trusted sponsors.

More information on event planning can be found at http://www.Compete-At.com.

Tagged as: Forgotten, Fulfillment, Sponsorship