Whenever we begin to work with Chambers as new Total Resource Campaign (TRC) clients, we brainstorm possible sponsorship opportunities as well as member businesses that might be interested in various sponsorships. Inevitably, someone will ask why a member business would sponsor an event or unique opportunity. There are three really important reasons businesses sponsor Chamber opportunities. Before I tell new clients those reasons, though, I tell them a story. Play with the Big Boys I wasn’t always a consultant. When I was a Chamber executive myself, I was running a TRC and at an event, someone slipped me a signed contract. I was so excited that I had to pause the conversation I was involved in to quickly skim the contract. Imagine my delight when I saw that a member business had chosen to underwrite our largest sponsorship of our new event! When I saw who had signed the contract, my delight faded, however, as I knew this gentlemen and his business and knew he had simply checked the wrong box. I called out – loudly – across the small but crowded room and said, “Bill! You checked the Presenting Sponsor box!” He responded with the biggest grin on his […]
Your Chamber staff and volunteers have completed your Total Resource Campaign (TRC) or sponsorship campaign and are pleased with the results. Thank you letters have been sent. Your upcoming year is looking good. Now What? After you’ve taken a moment to thank your staff for all of their hard work, you need to begin working on a new plan. This plan is far less rigid and organized than the plan you had for your TRC but in some ways, this plan is just as important. You need a plan to follow up with your sponsor members throughout the year. You want to remind those businesses that they are valuable to you all the time, not just at TRC time. Those businesses and what they mean to the community are why you wanted them to sponsor through the TRC. Following up with them throughout the year will reinforce that with them, so that next year when your volunteers ask them to sponsor again, they won’t feel like they are only important to you when you need a check. How Do You Make that Happen? In order to make your sponsors feel valued, you are going to want to use many of […]
In the life of a sponsorship campaign, there are natural peaks and valleys. Most campaigns start off strong, but some experience a lull around the mid-point. The key to a successful campaign is how chambers handle that mid-point lull. Keep in Contact Maintaining close contact with your volunteers is crucial at every point in the campaign. If your staff has been communicating well with your volunteers, then you will want to continue to do more of the same. But if you take a critical eye to your communications thus far and determine that more can be done, consider these tips. Contact your top producers every couple of days. Just check in with them and see what they are working on and offer any assistance they might need. Those volunteers who have made some sales but not many should be contacted once a week or so. Make sure they know that you are there if you need them and that you are counting on them for their sales, but don’t call or email so often that they begin to see that communication as an annoyance. Lastly, look at how you are communicating with those volunteers who have not sold anything to […]
