Will You Sponsor My Meeting?

There are plenty of reasons why you should find sponsors for your next sales incentive meeting. There’s the obvious – offsetting meeting costs – especially needed in these lean times. Then, there are the not so obvious reasons. When you ask a company, vendor, or organization to sponsor your meeting, it’s an opportunity to strengthen a relationship, says Tiffany Cohen, CMP, director of education and marketing for USFN, an association for mortgage banking attorneys. "It gives me an opportunity to touch base with [clients and vendors] every now and then," says Cohen. "Using them as a partner strengthens that relationship and it can benefit both companies in the long run."

"An additional benefit would be the presumption of greater industry support," Cohen adds. "The more sponsors you have, the more credibility it gives your organization. It’s the way the human brain works – people want to be where everyone else is – they want to be with the winner. They may automatically think, ‘Look how many people they have supporting them.’

"Meeting planners need to become more creative," says Cohen. "We understand the value of meetings and events; it’s getting everyone else to buy into it. Getting sponsorships can help you sell your meetings to higher-ups."

Once you have corporate buy-in, you need to approach a company to sponsor your event or meeting and sell them on the event and the reasons why they should participate. Cohen says to consider your company’s vendors, customers, or even a national company such as Coca-Cola to cosponsor a meeting. Communicate the benefits to the prospective sponsor. For instance, sponsoring meetings provides an ideal platform for companies to promote their brand, launch new products, and meet new customers.

Cohen says to share information with prospective sponsors such as the number of attendees expected and the demographics of the attendees. Talk to your sponsors and find out what they want to get out of it…do they really need a tangible takeaway? If so, how can this event provide that for them? Offer logo opportunities – a baseball cap, a golf ball, or a water bottle donning a company logo as giveaways to all attendees. You may even want to create a sponsorship fact sheet that includes an overview of the meeting, planned activities, location, times, audience, sponsorship levels, and suggested promotional ideas.

"It comes down to logo and brand recognition," says Cohen. "For my sponsors, I always include a complete sponsor listing with logos and contact information on my Website and on any programs."

If you are creative, you can come up with many different ways and levels of sponsorship. For example, instead of money, the sponsor of a 5k run could supply sports bottles for each participant and water stations along the route. You can have more than one sponsor – unless you are selling it as an exclusive – and sell sponsorships at different levels. Perhaps the biggest sponsor has top billing, prominently displayed logos, room drops, or other giveaways.

Finally, always keep your sponsors in the loop by forwarding any press releases, collateral, or other documents that showcase their names. Make sure they know about other sponsors and new activities (more promotional opportunities) that are introduced. Get your sponsors involved so they can see the benefits for themselves. In addition, provide your sponsors with a post-meeting report. The report should include photos of their logo being prominently displayed, all collateral material, press releases, tear sheets, news stories, radio and TV mentions, and whatever else promotes their names. With this report, write a simple handwritten thank-you to show that you value their participation. It will go a long way when you ask them for sponsorship again.

"Meeting planners shouldn’t be afraid to think about sponsoring their events, especially in this economy when meetings are in jeopardy," says Cohen. "There are many sponsors who would love to get in front of your audience and this is a cost effective way for them [and you]."