What can you do to give your sponsorship proposal the best chance at success?  Here are 5 Laws of Sponsorship Proposals from Abby Clemence at Infinity Sponsorship.  Use them wisely:

1.  Save Your Precious Time
Never send out a ‘cold’ proposal without first starting a conversation.  You’ll save time, money and heartache if you pick up the phone first and ask questions to discover whether there is a ‘fit’ between your organisations.

2.  It’s Not About Your Needs
A potential sponsor knows what you want.  Make your proposal about how they can become more successful by aligning with you.  It’s not about logo overload all over your website.

3.  A Proposal is a Taster
It’s a discussion starter, not the final word on sponsorship with your event or organisation. Make sure you convey the message that you want to dive deeper in conversation once they’ve read your proposal.

4.  Avoid “Logo Overload”
If all you can offer is logo placement, you have misunderstood the power of the sponsorship relationship.

5.  Get it Professionally Designed
Just do it.  Your proposal is competing with untold numbers of other not-for-profits, events and marketing opportunities for sponsors.  You’ll want to stand out. Trust Abby!

Does your business have a unique selling proposition? Test your business by asking yourself these three questions.

1. Does my marketing propose some specific benefits to my clients?  If so, what are they?
2. What is it that we do that our competitors don’t do? What is it that we do better than our competitors?
3. Is our proposition powerfully and convincingly presented? If not, how can it be improved?

Interesting marketing perspective by Theodore Levitt – he suggests that railroads did not stop growing because the need for passenger and freight transportation declined – the need grew but it was picked up by other forms of transport.  He suggests railroads assumed they were in the railroad business rather than the transportation business.  They were product-oriented not customer-oriented.