Speaker 1: I hear this question all the time Chris if gold silver bronze are so bad. Why do they use it? They in this case mean some wildly successful sponsorship seeker Well on today's video. I'm gonna explain why check it out Everyone Chris Bayless here from the sponsorship collective before we dive in make sure you hit the subscribe button button and click the bell icon so that you get updates every time I release a new video. If gold, silver, bronze are so bad, why do they use it? I get this question constantly, where sponsorship seekers are looking at some mega brands, mega sponsorship seekers, looking at their sponsorship package, which is clearly laid out as a gold, silver, bronze package, and the sponsorship seekers assume that's how sponsorship is done. they copy the sponsorship package, send it out into the world and hear nothing in return. Let's look at an experience that I had back in 2008 selling sponsorship. I was heading in to talk to a longtime sponsor of ours and on my way in their office building, there was a stream of people walking out of the office with boxes full of their stuff. In other words, people were being laid off and let go right as I was going in to ask them for a sizable six-figure sponsorship. I sat down with my prospect, I made my pitch, and he said, Chris, I just laid off 80% of my team. We simply cannot be part of your event or your opportunity. Plus, he said, we have to be the gold level sponsor at a local hospitals gala because in exchange for that sponsorship, they've agreed to purchase five years worth of x-ray machines from us. So in this case, this individual was indeed purchasing a gold level sponsorship package and he would be recognized as a gold sponsor on all of the signage. And if an outsider was looking at this, they would think that this giant x-ray machine company was buying Gold, Silver, Bronze sponsorship packages off the shelf. Unfortunately, that is incorrect. What this individual was purchasing was a trade deal in exchange for sponsorship to the foundation's event. They get a contract over five years from a sales perspective. So in this case, the hospital wasn't successful because of gold silver bronze. They were successful in spite of it. The problem this creates is that the sponsorship seekers that have significant leverage, they don't really have to worry that much about the assets that they're offering. They can still make a sale because they have other things that are highly valuable that are not contained in the sponsorship package. So when sponsorship seekers look to these large players and see that they're just offering logos on stuff, it sends the wrong message. It sends the message that you too can be successful if all you do is offer logos on signs and speaking opportunities. Even when an organization has these high leverage opportunities, I would still challenge them to think bigger, to think about other ways you can add value to the sponsor. Because if you're outside of a marketing cycle or outside of a new product line or outside of a sales contract negotiation for product or machines or whatever, you lose all leverage. You're not offering any value other than the promise of business. So I would say even for those big shops that have high leverage opportunities, sure it can be easy to force people to buy gold silver bronze packages that they don't want. What they really want is business. It works, but it works a whole lot better if you treat them like partners. For all of the other sponsorship seekers out there who are looking at the big shops and saying they're using gold, silver, bronze, why shouldn't we? This Chris guy keeps telling me not to, yet I see these major hospitals, universities, sports teams using gold, silver, bronze. You have to ask yourself whether or not you have the same leverage as them, the same audience as them, and the same ability to deliver on your sponsorship agreements as them. And if the answer is no, then you should not emulate them. What you should do instead is identify your audience, do your valuation, build good activation opportunities to connect your sponsor to their audience, and build custom sponsorship packages. The question is not how come they're using gold, silver, bronze, and I'm not supposed to. The question is whether or not those properties are succeeding because of gold, silver, bronze, or in spite of it. And if you dig a little bit deeper, you will find the latter far better to offer high value opportunities to your prospects, customized just for them than copying what you think another property is doing. A few years later, I ended up in a role where I had no choice but to sell gold silver bronze packages. I wasn't senior enough in my career to actually get the leadership team to change their minds. They were sure gold silver bronze was the way to sell sponsorship even though I knew it wasn't and I just had to do what I was told. So I used my gold silver bronze package as a conversation starter with my prospects. And I would go through the discovery process. I would ask them what they're trying to achieve. I would ask them how to customize something just for them. And then I would go to my leadership team and say, look, I can sell this silver sponsorship package for $5,000, $10,000, $20,000. But they mentioned to me that they would be interested in these four or five other assets that are not included at the silver or the gold level. are custom assets that they are willing to pay for. And instead of $20,000, they told me they had $50,000 if we'd be willing to add these custom assets to their sponsorship package. Well, of course, my boss and my boss's boss agreed because it was more than double or sometimes triple the rights fees of these predetermined levels. Now again, to an outsider, you would look at that and say, this organization is just selling gold, silver, bronze, we should copy that, but the conversations that were happening in the background had nothing to do with gold, silver, bronze. What I'm getting at is that appearances are deceiving. Basing your sponsorship sales strategy on what you think others are doing based on the documents that they make public is a bad strategy. Instead, you should be focused on what your audience wants, what your organization wants and what your prospects want, and build something custom just for them, instead of looking externally and justifying your practices based on what you think others are doing. Look at your results, measure your outcomes, and create custom opportunities for your sponsors. And remember, the sponsorship package does not make the sale. You do. Good luck out there.