I have been in sports management for just over 13 years, as a volunteer and as a professional. I have spoken with quite some colleagues and of course learned a lot of lessons. Today I’d like to share some of the lessons I have learned along the way.
These sponsorship tips may not be not work for everyone, in all cases, and I realize that most of them deserve an explanation.
Of course I’d love to hear about your tips and of course whether you agree or not with these tips about sports sponsorships.
- Your first steps should be working on a strong internal sport organization
- You can’t do everything yourself, delegate anything someone else can do.
- Be ethical and reliable
- Don’t make promises you cannot keep
- Success is more important than money.
- Don’t only aim for financial sponsorship, but combine it with material services (Value in Kind)
- Your next door sport organization is your competition
- Write to do lists, lot’s of them!
- Sponsorship is more than putting a logo on a T-shirt
- Read the annual report of the companies you are targeting
- Writing press releases and getting positive coverage should be part of your sponsorship strategy
- Your lifestyle heavily effects your businesses performance.
- Credit for what you have done, isn’t important.
- Present your sponsorship proposal in color
- Make it visual, make it emotional !
- A sponsorship program of quality, gives satisfied sponsors who will then show loyalty
- Companies tend to distrust volunteers of sport organizations
- You don’t know everything, learn.
- You should present the (concept) legal agreement
- If something is working, keep doing it.
- Sponsorship is a process of communication
- Take 1 or 2 of your athletes with you to a sponsorship meeting
- One massive thing is better than 10 small.
- Success often comes to those who don’t give up.
- Ask and you will receive.
- What you focus on is what you get.
- Don’t be afraid to say no to a sponsorship proposal
- Protect the rights of your sponsors
- You will find yourself explaining an negative incident to your sponsors
- Companies often forget to use their marketing budget for sponsorship
- Don’t expect marketing managers to be conscious about the business opportunities of sports
- Over perform
- Sports marketing (and sponsorship) is a profession
- Inform all local businesses yearly about your activities and accomplishments
- Never, ever give up!
Now make your top 10 list, and start taking action….now 😉
