$HOW ME THE MONEY

WITH DAVE DEMER

“LIVE BY THE RATINGS, DIE BY THE RATINGS”

That’s a phrase we used in the radio business selling ads. When our ratings were near the top of the ranking list, that’s the first thing (and sometimes the only thing) we’d talk to potential advertisers about. “Look how good our ratings are, we’re worth every penny we’re charging you.” Inevitably, ratings would fluctuate and the price per commercial would drop, because we made a point of basing the price on the ratings. Ratings dropped, price dropped.

Sports teams have the same issue: Sell by the ticket sales alone and you don’t have a plan for when the team isn’t performing well.

When you’re talking to a potential event sponsor, attendance will come up in the discussion. If you’re lucky enough to have lots of attendees, that’s great, but there is no guarantee they will always be there. And if you don’t have a huge attendance, how do you ask for a dollar amount that isn’t based solely on the number of people at the event?

Fortunately (or unfortunately!), I’ve had plenty of experience in this space. I’ve sold sponsorships for college football teams that had so few attendees, people just sat where they wanted. And radio stations where you had to get to the 2nd page to find their spot on the ranking list. And yes, plenty of events where attendance was weak.

Here’s how I handle it.

I start by downplaying the attendance right from the beginning, not by hiding it, but with my answer being kind of nonchalant and very open ended.

“How many people are expected?”

“I think in the past we’ve had as many as X and as true with all events, we’ve had years with weather where we only had X, but what really is great about our event is…..”

Fill in the blank from there, maybe with:

• The quality of the people that do show up is what really matters

• Our event has so much to do for the whole family that people come and stay so you get more time with the people that do attend

• They are all local so they can become your customers after the event, they aren’t traveling here to attend

• Or one of many other things you can say to shift the conversation away from the quantity discussion.

From there you can try to shift the entire discussion in another direction. Try pivoting to a discussion about what matters most to them, maybe by asking how many customers they’d love to generate out of being a sponsor.

For example, if a car dealer tells you that in order to be a partner at your event, they’d need to generate an additional 20 sales, that’s great info to have. Whether you have 10,000 people or 50,000 people is less important now, instead it’s time to focus on what you can do to help them sell 20 cars. If you do that, they won’t ask about the total attendance number ever again.

Dave Demer has been selling sponsorships for events of all shapes and sizes since 1993. In his 30+ years he’s picked up a trick or two to target, research, meet and close sponsors to the tune of millions of dollars. He’s been media, sports, special events and non-profits. He’s currently the Founder and President at The Event Shop (www.TheEventShop.com) a non-retainer based sponsorship sales firm. And on weekends, he still loves a great festival, concert or sporting event!