Sponsorship sales is a priority for most events companies. The good news is that customers love the idea, with over 95%* of them recognising the potential. The bad news is that lots of salespeople are pretty bad at doing it. Let’s look at why.
Approaching the sale from the wrong point of view
The biggest mistake that sponsorship sales people make is to approach the sale from their own perspective rather than that of the client. Today’s buyers are under lots of pressure – they need to deliver ROI; they have tons of choice; and their decisions are heavily scrutinised. A failure to appreciate this, leads salespeople to approach the sale in a way that makes it hard for the customer to say ‘yes’ to sponsorship.
Below are two examples of why sponsorship needs to be sold from the client’s point of view:
1.The client needs to know why sponsorship works
If clients are to choose you, they need to be confident that your recommendation is going to work. Salespeople need to build the case for sponsorship before talking about content, signage, ads, bags and lanyards. Fortunately, the case is strong. Event sponsorship enables audiences to experience a brand and that experience creates an emotional connection that is both powerful and long lasting. Salespeople need to focus the client first on why sponsorship is so powerful for the audience before selling what they have.
2. Recommendations need to appeal to your client
Too often, solutions are packaged up for the benefit of the sales team rather than the client. Most exhibitors say they prefer to be able to select options rather than have them bundled together in a fixed price package*. If clients are to truly buy into sponsorship, salespeople need to stop presenting gold, silver and bronze packages, and start presenting tailored recommendations in terms of their impact on the audience.
Buyers love sponsorship, but salespeople need to make it a lot easier for them to buy.
If you would like to learn loads more about how to drive your sponsorship revenue, then join us at International Confex on 25th February.
* EXHIBITOR’s 2019 Trade Show Sponsorship Survey
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