 
    |
|
|
WALK IN YOUR VENDORS’ SHOES
Presented at ORGPRO on July 17, 2007
By Sharlan Douglas, APR, President, Douglas Communications Group and
Debra McGuire, CAE, IOM, Director of Communications and Education,
Michigan Townships Association
Session objectives
To create awareness about
useful resources that can provide value to the membership and increase
non-dues revenue for the association.
To help vendors understand what they can ask for when working with
associations and to discover how to obtain value through creative
marketing relationships.
Content
Sponsorships and other traditional marketing methodologies are not
adequately meeting the needs of today’s vendors.
You can’t “build it and they will come.” Successful sponsorships work
from the outside in. As Fats Waller sang, “Find out what they like, and
how they like it, and let them have it just that way.”
Research your vendors covertly (Internet) and overtly (interview them).
Find out what other organizations they sponsor, how much they spend and
why.
Benchmark yourselves against other similar organizations, aka your
competition.
Analyze your sponsorships over the last 3-5 years. Slice and dice the
data. Compare gross revenue from each of your programs, publications
and events. Who are your largest sponsors? Smallest? Which ones are
not giving enough compared to their status in their industry? Break
them out into levels, e.g.
Under $2,000 a year
$2,000-$5,000
$5,000-$10,000
$10,000-$20,000
$20,000+
Create an honor roll: Vendors that commit in advance for a year’s worth
of donations at a specified level get bonus benefits. (It helps them
plan their annual budget and you only have to pester them once). Look
for gaps. If you have a number of sponsors giving a total of $3,500 a
year, use the honor roll to move them up to $5,000.
Use the results of your research to make the case to your board (not the
other way around. Retooling your sponsorships or creating a
comprehensive honor roll will take time. Consider legal implications;
for example, calling sponsors “partners” implies a business relationship
that you may not intend.
Consider also your mission, bylaws and corporate culture. Some
organizations are very comfortable with an overtly commercial
relationship with vendors, while others maintain arm’s length.
Members benefit from your efforts to help them learn about useful,
beneficial products and services. Think about setting criteria for the
kinds of businesses you will accept as sponsors.
The Internet could meet 80 percent of your communications needs.
Printed materials don’t have to be extensive or expensive.
Make it easy for your customers. Don’t make prospects talk with three
different staffers to understand all their marketing options. If you
can’t create all-in-one account executives, make sure that all staffers
who sell sponsorships know the features, benefits and costs of the other
programs.
Create packages based on what you learned about your vendors. Be
willing to customize them – one vendor won’t know what you’ve done for
another.
IT’S OK TO SELL! You often will be dealing with people who are sales
people themselves. They appreciate someone who gives them thorough
information and who knows how to close a sale.
Create a grid to make sure your sponsorship benefits are meeting all the
anticipated needs of vendors. The ORGPRO session began with this table,
and session participants added ideas ...
|
What sponsors want →
Benefits the association can provide ↓ |
Prestige/Image |
Multiple
Impressions |
Access to CEO/ Volunteer
Leader |
Cost-savings |
|
Sponsored reception @ Conf. |
X |
|
X |
|
|
Web banner |
|
X |
|
|
|
Plaque or framed certificate |
X |
|
|
|
|
Magazine ads |
|
X |
|
|
|
Discounts on . . . |
|
|
|
X |
|
Obtaining member rates |
|
|
|
X |
|
Dinner with assn. President |
X |
|
X |
|
|
Signage @ . . .
|
X |
X |
|
|
|
Specialized logo to use on
ads/booths |
X |
|
|
|
What do sponsors want?
Quantifiable leads
Hits, responses
Email addresses
Exposure
Product introductions
The want us to do their marketing for them
Data, demographics
More (bigger booth, better location, freebies) |
What benefits can we deliver?
Multi-year contract
Dessert sponsor (wrap a cardboard sleeve around the dish)
Product sampling
Coffee cup heat sleeve
“belly band” around the event directory
Opportunity to address the audience
Banner on pre-show eblasts
Exclusivity (One big sponsor takes the whole show?)
Post-event sponsor survey
Pre-event sales training |
|
|
