Waiting for a Company to Realize an Opportunity?

Last week at the Crain's conference, I had the pleasure of listening to a wonderful panel (The Major Institutions: How Size Matters) that included: Peter Gold, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera; Sharon Gersten Luckman, Executive Director of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation; Zarin Mehta, President and Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic and George Steel, General Manager of the New York City Opera.

After the panel answered questions from the moderator, they opened it up to the audience. One of the first questions was about corporate sponsorship. It was interesting to hear the different viewpoints and words used to describe corporate relationships. For example, one panelist used the word "underwriting" to talk about corporate relationships (which indicates to me that they are short sided and only thinking about events), and another mentioned that sponsors are asking for more "bang for the buck" but giving less money to make that happen.

The most insightful comment was made by Peter Gold of the Metropolitan Opera regarding the The Met: Live in HD series which is in its fourth season and now sponsored by Bloomberg. Basically, when HD launched, the Met knew it would be attractive to sponsors. However, they did not land a sponsor immediately so they were "waiting for a company to realize the opportunity" around the series.

I'm sure that the Met wasn't idly waiting for a company to come around, but this made me think about the sales strategies (or lack of) around sponsorship.

Often, sponsorship is treated like a commodity, especially when we think that sponsorship "sales" is about sending out a list of benefits/levels then waiting for a corporation to call.

The world has changed and it is no longer acceptable to list sponsorship benefits and wait for a company to realize the opportunity. We need to be proactive and understand that sponsorship deals (not underwriting, not an event, not an online "sponsorship" ad) are often very complex with long sales cycles and many decision makers.

Do you have the right pieces in place for success? How about the following:

- a system that helps you to set priorities
- an understanding of the sales cycle and when to let a prospect go
- a solid pipeline of prospects. Know the company's mission, size, locations, products, financial performance, customer segments, leadership, competitors, etc
- a knowledge of interactive marketing/marketing and sales with an emphasis on consultative selling
- a deep understanding of your offering
- an ability to come up innovative (mutually beneficial) solutions