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Big league drafts can offer sports organizations a
lesson in how to scout sponsorship talent. |
Media attention is already focused on the NFL draft this month. Shortly thereafter, that attention will turn to June’s NBA draft and Major League Baseball’s amateur players draft.
In terms of intent (why the draft and scouting departments exist), there are valuable lessons applicable to how sports organizations could solicit and secure corporate sponsorships.
Professional sports franchises scout not only to identify talented athletes but also to determine if those athletes will be a good fit. Among the questions that concern teams about potential prospects:
- What is their performance history?
- Do they fill a team need?
- How do they affect existing players?
- How much coaching and assistance will they need before they are ready to contribute?
- What values are important to them?
- Is there an opportunity to establish a mutually beneficial long-term relationship?
These are the same questions teams should ask about a potential corporate partner.
Talent scout
Sports organizations that are the most effective in acquiring quality corporate partners are skilled in scouting and assessing the potential benefitsof a relationship long before the actual solicitation.
Each party must understand the other’s business, the goals and most effective strategies for achieving them, as well as which plays (activation platforms) will be most successful in cutting through the clutter, gaining traction and initiating action. The relationship has to be mutually beneficial if it is to survive more than the terms of the initial agreement.
When a team is assessing a potential player, it looks not just at his position but also at a second role he could possibly play. The Pittsburgh Steelers, for example, drafted Indiana quarterback Antwaan Randle El to play receiver, but in Super Bowl XL they relied on his abilities as a quarterback in a key play.
In a similar vein, a potential corporate partner that has never been involved in a sports sponsorship should not be overlooked if that organization has the ability and the resources to reach its target market through sports.
Scouting and testing are ways for a coaching staff and a player to get to know each other better. And isn’t that what it takes for a sponsorship to be a successful match?
Draft day
Why not create a draft day for the purpose of scouting potential corporate partners (prospects) and allow both parties to learn about each other? An on-site, draft-day agenda designed to identify and recruit such prospects would include the following items:
- Educate prospects on the opportunities and benefits of a relationship with the team.
- Understand the prospects’ concerns. What is important to their businesses and how do they define success? Are the prospect and the team a good fit for each other?
- Introduce key organizational members to prospects in a creative and casual environment.
- Offer a glimpse of what it is to be a team “insider” (access and information not available to the general public).
- Inform prospects of success stories, as told by veteran “players” (current corporate partners).
- Identify the best prospects for follow-up, cultivation and solicitation.
A schedule of draft-day activities with corporate prospects could be designed to coincide with the team’s player draft. For example:
- (10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m.) Prospects are issued draft-day gear and participate in workouts (ice-breaker exercises).
- (11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.) Prospect introductions, direction of the franchise presentations (by president, coach or GM, VP of corporate partnerships), future opportunities, overview of what is new in sponsorship.
- (12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m.) Lunch
- (1:30 p.m.– 1:45 p.m.) Break
- (1:45 p.m.– 3:15 p.m.) Prospect evaluation meetings and two-way interviews with key team personnel. (Both sides need to learn about each other and determine if there is a fit.) Topics: identifying business objectives, measuring success, client/vendor entertainment policies, employee entertainment practices, past or current sports partnership experiences.
- (3:15 p.m.– 4:15 p.m.) Venue tour (arena, suites, clubs, locker rooms), LED demonstration, scoreboard welcome, dance team and mascot greetings.
- (4:15 p.m.- 4:45 p.m.) Break
- (4:45 p.m.– 6:45 p.m.) Conclusion. Includes buffet dinner (similar to game-night fare in the clubs and restaurants), address and explanation of the draft strategy by player personnel representative or coaching staff member, draft viewing party, gift distribution.
Within 48 hours, all prospects should be contacted by the staff member who conducted the initial evaluation. Follow-up visits should be scheduled to the prospects’ place of business to determine if they will join the team.
While this may seem like an elaborate way of doing your homework about corporate partners, it enables both parties to get a look at each other in a non-selling atmosphere and determine if there is potential for a relationship.
And isn’t that the goal of every first sales meeting?
Bill Sutton (wsutton@bus.ucf.edu) is a professor at the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida.
| Tell us about the most successful idea, program or execution in your field of expertise. Why did it work? Or tell us about the one that got away and how others can avoid those pitfalls. Write to Jerry Kavanagh at jkavanagh@sportsbusinessjournal.com. |
