WIN 49 - Sponsorship Made Simple with Shannon Cherry ‘The Power Publicist’

Welcome to win the Women Investing Network, the podcast where you can learn from successful entrepreneurs, business leaders and real estate investors who are winning in business and life. Learning from others is the fastest way to grow your skills, gain knowledge and avoid pitfalls so you can win. Join our hosts, Elizabeth Embry and Jason Hartman. Elizabeth is a seasoned real estate investor, experienced corporate executive, and skilled mentor. Jason is a self made multimillionaire investor, entrepreneur, and highly acclaimed thought leader. Together with their successful guests, you'll get the tools you'll need to win.

It's my pleasure to welcome Shannon Cherry to the show. She is an expert on attracting sponsorships. And if you want to raise money for unpaid engagement or paid events that you're doing whichever way you want it to go, sponsorships can be a very valuable thing, obviously. And I think you'll really want to hear this interview to learn how to attract sponsorships for your engagements and your events. Shannon, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

My pleasure. Tell us what types of sponsorships speakers and various event promoters should be considering and then let's kind of drill down into how they achieve that and make them all happen.

Absolutely. Now, there's really four types of sponsorships that a business owner or a speaker can go after. So the first one is events that you're creating yourself or holding yourself. And these can be live events, which we're all familiar with, as well as virtual events like TeleSummit or even online workshops, whatever you call them. Another one is you can actually attend another event that somebody else has created, either as a speaker or you're a blogger, or if you even want to hold your own event, of course you can do that and speak. So that is one. The other thing is to underwrite a continual marketing program such as an ezine or a blog, if anyone is marketing themselves using those kind of things, whether you are a speaker or business owner, you can often get underwritten for that as well. And the other one is to underwrite the cost of other promotional programs like a book or speaking tour.

Excellent. Well, what does this mean to someone that is wanting to attract the sponsorship? I mean, I assume when you talk about sponsorships, the money aspect can be all over the board, Right?

Right. There's two kinds of maybe we should take a step back and know that there's actually two kinds of sponsorships, at least the way companies look at it. The first is cash. We all know what that is. And the second is called in kind, or what's known as a sponsorship business is soft dollars. And these are things services or products you might need that you're getting for free. For example, if you use a laptop in your travels and you also use it for your PowerPoint presentations as a speaker, you probably could get underwritten by a computer company to give you a laptop and maybe even an LCD projector so you don't have to pay those expenses outright.

Hmm, Excellent. Now, what will the sponsoring entity get in return, though? I mean, are you going to agree to put their logo on your PowerPoints, say their name? What types of things do you give in return?

Well, that is a great question. And the real key to getting a sponsorship is that every business is different. Every company, like your company, like any company, is a little different. So what they want may differ based on what their needs are, but there is one thing in common. They want to reach the target market that you are reaching. So the more you are able to show them how you are going to help them reach that target market, the better chances you have in getting a sponsor.

When you talk about this, what is really coming to my mind is the world of professional sports car racing, that kind of stuff. Because you see the uniforms, they're replete with logos. The cars are replete with logos. Of course the field is replete with logos. And I guess what maybe you're saying is that speakers and various business people of all types should really model their business after this to some extent, aren't you? It is.

I mean, we know that people in sports who get sponsorships, that's a business. That is how they earn their living. I mean, Tiger woods, for example, we all know who he's had sponsors with in the past. And those sponsors know that he attracts a certain audience. So that to them, that's a business deal. So looking at that as a business deal is the real thing and is the way to go about this. This is not like a handout. This is a business transaction. So when you start modeling what sports people have done for years because they're just reaching a specific target market, the more likely your approach, if you're doing it similarly, will help you earn that company's dollars.

And from the speaker side of the business, as a platform speaker, I guess we're not to the point where speakers are wearing baseball caps with logos or putting logos on their suits, right?

Well, you know, some people do. I've done it before as a speaker, and I know some of my students have as well actually create T shirts that they've worn. Not on stage, but other times during an event that have. I'm sponsored by so and so.

Yes, they're sort of wearing it in some ways, but you can also be very unique and come up with other ways. Even though you might not do it on stage, you might have them in your PowerPoint, you might be able to weave a story in about them. You also might be able to, you are not going to share their names, but say Dell or if that was a computer company, who is your sponsor, is interested in your opinions on something, would you mind filling out this form ways to pull them into your target market? They also give a lot of good giveaways to give to your audience, which is awesome and you don't have to pay that expense. One of my sponsors actually creates fortune cookies and customized fortune cookies at every speaking event. I actually hand out their fortune cookies with their logo and name on. And everyone's like, wow, this is a great idea. And they think about it as a strategy for their business to hand out as a gift or do whatever with.

You know what was really intrigued me about what you just said and I'm not sure I understood it correctly, but are you saying that the speakers from the platform can basically do surveys for the sponsor, almost like a sort of a miniature idea of a focus group? Is that what you mean?

Absolutely, absolutely. What you have to do is make sure though that that's what you're potential sponsor wants. So having a conversation with them way before you actually propose a sponsorship is the best way to go because you're going to find out what their needs are.

Are there any particular businesses on both sides of the equation or where certain types of businesses or companies that are particularly receptive to sponsorship opportunities and then particular speakers or event promoters on the other side that get the sponsorship. Is there a particular sort of few different vertical areas here or niches or types of businesses that really just. It's really workable and it's easy. It's not an uphill battle in trying to get them.

The thing is, sponsorship marketing is in its infancy, so actually it's a clear playing field. Except of course if you're in sports. But it really is. The sky's the limit. The key here is I always say start with the low hanging fruit. If you are a business owner who does business with certain companies and they want to reach your target market as well, you should be tapping them first. That simple. And that is the easiest way to get a yes. So, for example, say you get your business cards printed somewhere asking them to sponsor you by printing something else, perhaps in kind for a presentation or other things. That is A great way to start that sponsorship or relationship with someone you already know and you can actually advocate for.

And maybe you'll get free printing or free business cards at least out of it, right?

Absolutely, yeah.

Now, what should someone expect? I mean, give us some idea if you would, as to the money here. I mean, what are you offering them versus what you're charging them? I think a lot of speakers listening want to do this. It's certainly just a great way of thinking about new revenue opportunities and new promotional opportunities. But they wouldn't know what to ask for necessarily when they try to call on a sponsor.

And that is the key. Goes back to one thing I said, doing your homework before you approach them first, making sure that you have a good match with the target market, knowing that they want to reach that target market. And here's my little trick to find out if you watch the business news channels at all, no matter what one you're into, if you're watching one of them, look at the advertisers. If you're a business to business person or a small business person or whatever you do as a speaker, if you're a motivational speaker, watch the Oprah Network. Look at who is advertising because they want to reach the same target market you are already reaching. That's number one. Once you find that out, then making sure it's a good fit by finding out what they want from your target audience. What do they want to get from it? Is it their name? Obviously it's illegal to just share their name and phone number and stuff like that. That's sort of against the Can Spam Act. But what else could you give them to get access to that group? And then once you do that, find out how much that would cost you to do that. And I always say then add 20 to 50% depending on what it is because you always forget the work involved in doing what you promised them. Essentially you have to look at yourself as an outsourced marketing department to the specific target market at this point. Specific event.

Very interesting. And if someone is looking for a sponsorship and they're calling on, say with a small business, it's easy if you're looking for a small business sponsor, but with a larger company, what department do you try to reach? Just sort of the marketing department or.

Yep, you actually hit the nail on the head is most people like a company like FedEx, which by the way does a lot of sponsorship for. Businesses tend to have their own sponsorship department. But I would avoid any place that has a sponsorship department at all. Costs, because the money comes from marketing. And if you can get the marketers behind you, they're more likely to say yes.

Very interesting. So the sponsorship departments then aren't the place you want to go. You want to be in the general marketing department then, huh?

Exactly, because basically you're offering outsourced marketing services. So if they are interested in reaching a specific target audience, you are more likely to strike a deal with them than going through a sponsorship department, which is also dealing with all the nonprofit sponsorships they may be doing as well as they are just so used to so many people asking that they say no. Most people aren't because sponsorship marketing is in its infancy that they cannot. They're not used to people going this route. And you can actually directly ask the marketers who may have it in their budget to do something for you.

Sure was really telling there that this kind of sponsorship market is really in its infancy. How did you get involved in it? I mean, you were really a trendsetter, it seems like that you would. You would even think of this. I mean, there must have been something that inspired it, right?

Well, I started my career by. Well, not started, but in the middle of my career before this time. I'm not that old yet.

I created the largest charitable wine auction in New York State. And as a result of that, I had to learn sponsorship inside out, up and down every which way.

I did very well. Made multimillion dollars in one night with sponsorship. But then I went back into my own business and put it on the shelf for a little while. But then I created an event that I do every year, and sponsors started coming to me because they wanted to tap that audience. And I realized that if I can have one or two people say, I want to tap this audience, and I'll pay you for the privilege of doing that. I started talking to other business who would be interested in doing that. And this year, for this event, I've already secured $36,000 in sponsorships. And that's dollars and not counting the in kind stuff. So it sort of gradually went on its own course once I realized the opportunity. And then this year I just started really focusing on getting not just one or two sponsors, but sponsoring almost every aspect of my business so far since in six weeks I have done $20,000 worth of sponsorship for myself.

Do you have. That's fantastic. Do you do other revenue streams as well, or are you strictly sort of a sponsored person?

I'm not just a sponsored person, actually. My company is a public relations company. So I've done public relations for several years on my own with my own PR firm and then also do some Internet marketing and professional speaking. So the combination of the three kind of put me right where I needed to be to understand the sponsorship process.

That is really fantastic. Can you talk a little bit about, just for a moment about some of the myths surrounding the sponsorship world and why it might be keeping people from asking for sponsorships and getting sponsorships in their business?

Well, one we sort of touched on already, which is that you need to be this Tiger woods or another big name to get. And that's really not the case because sponsors are looking for people at all levels to promote their products and their brands because they want to reach a particular target market, one that you might have. So that is really important. Another one is that there aren't that many sponsorship opportunities out there. Now we sort of just kind of talked about this too, that if you go to the sponsorship department, that may be, but if you go to the marketing department, that's a whole different thing. And believe it or not, there's 17 billion. That's billion with a B offered this year, 2011 alone in sponsorship money and in kind.

Amazing. That's a big market. I mean, I hope when you said that, Shannon, everybody listening, their ears really perked up because there's some big numbers out there. And again, it doesn't require being some big famous person. There are little tiny markets. And when I say tiny, I mean hundreds of people type markets rather than millions of people type markets that sponsors are interested in, right?

Yes. And even the smaller businesses want to sponsor. There was a study that showed in 2009 that 57% of businesses with 100 employees or more were increasing their sponsorships despite lowering profits.

Very interesting.

So there's a lot of opportunity out there.

So what are some of the mistakes that people make when doing this? I mean, I suppose there are some legal aspects we need to think about. I mean, contracts and so forth. How do they get set up there and what mistakes should they really make sure they avoid?

Absolutely, there's a lot. I mean, contracts are one thing and knowing the laws of what, what the federal government requires you to claim on your taxes is one aspect of it. So don't forget, if you get sponsored, you have to claim that on your taxes, even if it's an in kind service. Believe me, that's one. Another one is what's called proposal saturation. And that means when someone sends a proposal to any and every company, because that's a big no, no, as A matter of fact, when I was starting my PR firm business, one of the things I did for a company called Minolta was evaluate photography sponsors. Minolta would sponsor two or three photographers every year. So did our competitor Canon. And what would happen is some photographers would send the same exact proposal to us in Minolta as they would to Canon. And even though we were competitors, I talked to the person who was responsible for this all the time. And we would always compare notes because first of all, we didn't want to award a sponsorship to the same people. Second of all, we kind of like to make fun of them. I mean, to be honest, the things that went wrong and the people we made fun of the most and the people who definitely got in the rejection pile were the people who sent the same proposal to the Minolta people as well as to the Canon people. So blasting the same proposal up. That's why going back and finding out what each individual corporation wants before you even start a proposal is probably the best way to go.

So personalization rather than mass market, in other words. Good point.

Right. And of course, then the other part of that is lack of research. I mean, that is another mistake. When people don't do the research beforehand, that's just going to make you fail right there.

Yeah, good point. How many sponsors might someone have? I mean, say it's a professional speaker. Are they going to have three sponsors that sponsor sort of different aspects of their business or more or less or just one?

It depends on. It really depends on what they're looking for. I say get as many as you can because, I mean, why not? Because. Just because. Say you do get a company that's a computer company that donates your laptop, an lcd. That doesn't mean you don't still need a printer. That also doesn't mean you wouldn't like money for an airline or you need a videotaping service. I mean, there's so many ways to use sponsorship in a really effective way. Why limit yourself now? Again, that goes with that whole the assumption of logo placement. Oh my gosh. On my suit jacket, I'm going to have to have 50 logos on it. You don't need that because every proposal is different and every sponsor is different. What you're offering them is going to be different. So you don't have to say, and we're going to put your logo on my suit jacket because it's not going to happen that way.

Very good point. Well, what else would you like people to know about the sponsorship world? I mean, this is really fascinating. I think that people listening have probably not been thinking about this and you in coming on the show today have just added some nice potential income or nice potential products in terms of the in kind sponsorships that you talked about, which is really sort of a barter arrangement to people's lives. And this is just a not thought about revenue stream I think for most people is it.

Right, right. And hopefully we're going to make it one that people know about more and more and people can do this on their own. Absolutely, absolutely no problem. I've given you the tips today to be able to go out and do it. Just do the research beforehand, make a connection and build a relationship and then the proposal. I mean that's the basics. But if you want to get there faster, I do have a class called Sponsorship Made simple and that is at sponsorshipmadesimple.com where I take you through the entire process with a project you are working on to get sponsors. So it is not this. I am going to teach you something in this imaginary world. We are going to get you a sponsor during the class. Usually three quarters of the people who attend the academy get a sponsor by the end of the class.

That's fantastic. Now what is the format of your class? Is it a live in person thing? Is it webinar? What is it?

It is webinar based. So every class is recorded as well. So if you can't make one that's fine. Plus we do one on one strategy sessions with me. So before we even get to class, I help you find the right project to get funded and teach you how to find the right projects to get funded. We also look at other ways like the low hanging fruit that I talked about. I help you analyze your low hanging fruit so you can improve immediately get your return on investment for the program and then I review sponsorship proposals one on one at the end.

Fantastic. Well that is a great offer and where can people find out more? Give out your website.

Sure.

It's sponsorshipmadesimple.com sponsorshipmadesimple.com Excellent, excellent advice and insights today. Shannon. Thank you so much for joining us. That was Shannon Cherry a sponsorship made simple.com and we really appreciate having you on the show. Shannon.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for listening to the Women Investing Network. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the show on itunes or the platform of your choice. You can find the show notes and resources for today's episode@womeninvestingnetwork.com remember that guest opinions are their own and information is of general nature, so be sure to consult appropriate tax leave, legal or other professionals for specific advice.