Sponsorship part 2

In my previous post I asked how you, the racer are going to offer a return on investment, (ROI), to the company that sponsors you. The key to a really successful relationship with a sponsor, and a relationship with anyone one else for that matter, (I am not going to get into your personal relationship management here, but the exact same techniques apply), is to look at it from their point of view.

Let’s look at the potential sponsor, they’ve decided to do some marketing, some advertising. They have dozens of different choices, and tens of thousands of combinations of all those choices, but you can be sure they only have a limited amount of money. So how are they going to choose where to put their money? Many racers will look for sponsors who have an interest in racing thinking that the CEO’s interest in racing is enough to sway them into investing their money into the racing program. Although this is true to some extent, it will not last very long if the company is not getting a ROI. You the racer have to realize that if the company is not getting a return on investment, the money they are investing in your racing program is coming out of their profits. It is a gift from them to you. Your children notwithstanding, how long will you keep handing over large amounts of money to someone just because you kinda  like whatever it is they are involved with? It might be ok the first year, but it will start to wear thin pretty quick. This is why we see so many sponsors come into the sport and leave after a year or so.

Ok, so we see that just because the company has an interest in racing doesn’t mean that is enough for them to stay in the sponsorship. What will keep them? At the risk of oversimplification, you need to offer better value for their investment than ANY other marketing medium. Not just other racers, but every other form of marketing out there, including TV, print advertising, social media, websites, all of it. BETTER VALUE. If you can offer that, you will have a sponsor for as long as that company has dollars to spend on marketing. Yes, that is a huge task, but it is absolutely possible.

How?

It’s easy really,all you need to know is what the sponsor wants. Not what you THINK the sponsor wants, you need to know what the sponsor wants. You need to know the sponsor’s 1 year plan, five year plan, and ten year plan. You need to know the target market for the sponsor and exactly what it is  they want to accomplish. You need to know it as well as the CEO knows it, and better than the staff knows it.

This is actually easier with larger companies than it is with small companies because the larger company already has it drawn up. They became large companies by knowing how to identify their goals, both short term and long term, and they write them down. When working with smaller companies I often feel like I am a detective, asking all sorts of leading questions to find out what it is EXACTLY that they want to accomplish.

So, the first thing you ask a potential sponsor, is not if they will sponsor you. The first thing to ask a potential sponsor is “What are your goals?”

What do you think sponsorship is?

So you want to get a sponsor for your racing, excellent. Tell me, do you know what sponsorship is?

If you are like most racers you are going to say something like “Yah, I know what it is. Some company gives me money to race and I put their name on the side of my car, and maybe put my car on display in a shopping mall or something.” Or some variation of that same idea.

Sorry, but you’re wrong!

The reality is that companies do not give you money so you can race. Plain and simple. If you want money to race then you want a racing partner, you don’t want sponsorship. Companies give you money to advertise, or more correctly to market, they do not give you money to race.

I am a race car driver, but my business is marketing, racing is the tool I use to reach the market. Don’t ever doubt that if you have sponsors, your business is marketing.

Sponsorship is marketing, well, sponsorship is one small part of marketing. And if a company is going to invest money into your marketing program, they expect a return on it. If they are not going to get a return on their investment, they will look at other things to invest their marketing dollars into. So how are you the racer going to ensure you give the company a return on their investment, or even better, how are you the racer going to give the company a bigger return on their investment than they would get from any other marketing investment? That’s the challenge, most racers don’t know what to do, or how to give the companies any return on investment, let alone a bigger return than other forms of marketing. Oh yeah, and the companies like to be able to measure that return as well. Do you, the racer seeking sponsorship know how to do that, do you know how to give a bigger and measurable return on investment of marketing dollars than other forms of marketing?

I will continue this series on sponsorship over the next little while, so check back often and I will share as best I can what I know about how to deliver the best value to your sponsors, or your potential sponsors. But be warned, sponsorship is not free money, you have to work for it.

BC Custom and Classic Car Show April 29 to May 1, 2011

It is confirmed that Fire 4 Hire Jets will be on display at the show, but more importantly we will be putting on our fantastic fire show Friday Night and Saturday night. You do not want to miss this, it is absolutely spectacular. You will be close enough to feel the heat from my afterburner, yeah ok, you can probably feel the heat from my afterburner a mile away, but you you know what I mean. If you have not seen a jet car fire show before, you need to be there, and if you have seen one before you know exactly what I mean. Bring your friends and family too.

I will be on hand all weekend to answer questions and sign autographs so come on by for a visit, I want to talk with everyone.

Check out the details for the show here

New Website!

The Fire 4 Hire Jet Car website is up and running thanks to Dean Murdoch at Speedzone. It is not finished yet, but there are already some great photos of our jet cars and info up. Have a look at it here, and be sure to bookmark it and check back often for updates.

Our schedule is still being finalized and I will let you know when that is done, but I can tell you that we will be at the BC Classic and Custom Car Show April 28 to May 1 (the dates on their site are incorrect, and will be fixed soon, the show is definitely April 28 to May 1) putting on a great fire show on Friday and Saturday nights. I will be there all weekend, so make sure to find me and say hi.

And don’t forget our new site: Fire4Hirejets.com

Marketing

I am very excited to have UBC Sauder School of Business MBA students using my Racing Business as a project in their Integrated Marketing Communications class.

This is an exciting opportunity to invite some fresh insight into the motorsports marketing world and I am excited to see the results. It is also an exciting opportunity for the students to get more real world experience in a very exciting area of business and marketing. I am thrilled to be able to give them this opportunity.

Resolutions

News Years day 2011. Have you made your resolutions? I have. Well, I am not sure that resolution is the right word. I have goals, I work with them every day. It is part of my routine. It doesn’t matter to me if it is January 1st, or March 22nd. As far as achieving my goals today is like most others in that regard.  What do I want to do? What is my dream?

Dreams, yes, we all have them, we even make resolutions about them, how come some people achieve theirs, and others don’t? The ones who achieve them do several things. All of them are a requirement to achieve your dreams. The first thing the achievers do is quantify it, make it measurable. Not just “I want to lose weight”, it has to be “I want to lose “x” number of pounds”. How much weight, a measurable number. How much money, how far, how long, how high, how fast. Measure it, quantify it. Ok, now you know how much.

The next key important thing is a deadline. If your dream is to go to Mexico for a holiday, set the date, say “I want to go to Mexico for a holiday in November”, or March, or whenever it is that you want to go. When you set that date, you have actually made a commitment. And that is incredibly powerful. If you want to really reinforce that commitment, share it with someone. Write it down, and tell someone. I dare you. I will write mine and tell you mine in a little bit. It’s kinda scary to tell someone your dream isn’t it? But trust me, once you make that commitment things start to then fall into place for making it happen. If I can post my goal here for all the world to see, then you can certainly tell one person.

So now you know how much, and know by when. So far it is easy. Here comes the stumbling block, get off your butt and do it. ‘You’ need to do it. No excuses, no waiting for this, or waiting for that, you need to actually take action. You want to lose weight, then you have to adjust your diet and you need to do the exercise. ‘You’ want to go to Mexico, ‘you’ need to save the money, ‘you’ don’t make enough money to save as much as you need? Then ‘you’ need to get a second job, or ‘you’ need to reduce your expenses. ‘You’ need to book the time off, ‘you’ need to book the airfare, and the hotel. ‘YOU’ have to do it, ‘you’ have to take action.

My goals: I have many levels to my goals, the major goal is to win a world championship in Top Fuel Funny Car by 2020. Pretty lofty huh? Could be intimidating and unachievable except that I have broken it down into much smaller and easier to accomplish goals. Once I accomplish all the little ones, the big one is already done. (a small caveat here: winning a world championship is the goal, but as with any sport the final outcome cannot be totally controlled by those competing. Those competing can only do everything in their power to be the best at the time. If I set my goal as being the best I can be, then it is not measurable, and if I do not set my sights on winning, then I may as well not compete. So to be true, my goal is to be competing for a world championship by 2020. In fact I would like to be defending my world championship by then). So back to the smaller goals. Among those small goals for this year is a certain level of sponsorship. By the end of 2011, 365 days away, I will have a certain amount of sponsorship in place for the 2012 season. I will keep the dollar value to myself, but given the overall objective it is a large number.

To review, I have the dream: sponsorship. I have set the quantity so I can measure it, in this case a dollar figure. And I have set a deadline, December 31 2011. Add to that I have written it down, and I have told the world about it here. I am committed to it. What’s left? Action. “I” have to do it. I have in fact broken it down further into even smaller tasks. Meeting the right people, increasing my value to sponsors, preparing proposals, and helping others.

What was that last thing he said? Helping others?  How can me helping others get me closer to winning a world championship? To be honest, that is all a sponsorship is. I help my sponsors market their product or service, and they in turn help me. But what I have found is that if I help people first, the help I get back is even bigger. It is really amazing.

So, how can I help you? We have been talking about New Year’s resolutions, so let me help you with yours. Write down your resolution and send it to me. Totally confidential. You might not even be sure how you are going to accomplish it, ask me and I will help guide you through the steps to make it an achievable goal. I have learned a lot working through mine, so I will teach you all I know to help you achieve yours. I hear you thinking already: “But I can’t afford to sponsor you, how will I help you?” You don’t need to worry about that, it will come back to me, it always does. Maybe not from you directly, but it will come back.

In that theme I will be starting to write about sponsorship over the next little while. I am going to share all I know about getting and keeping sponsorship, mostly aimed at Drag Racing, but the themes will crossover into all forms of sponsorship. Watch for it coming soon.