THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR SPONSORS: 15 best practices to manage your sponsorship projects WWW.OPTIMY.COM
Table of content 1 Research to sponsor the right project......p. 9 Motivation towards your job.....p.11 2 Communicate throughout the project......p.4 10 Effective change management for every project...p.12 Listen to be aware of progress of the project..p.5 11 Support the project manager in every project...p.1 4 Clarity with all information you provide......p.6 12 Facilitate problem solving when needed....p.14 5 Accessibility attitude towards everyone....p.7 1 Gain commitment towards every project...p.15 6 Monitor and give feedback on the project.p.8 14 Build durability with every project...p.16 7 Reliability and trust towards the project....p.9 15 Focus on Organisation....p.17 8 Openness and transparency in all areas...p.10 S Summary of this white paper....p.18
Research Research to sponsor the right project You will need to do a very in depth research whether 1 or not the project met your objective. If it does, is it 4 within your budget range. If not, are you going to decline the sponsorship or are you going to negotiate. A research will help you identify what exactly the project is and how will this sponsorship give your brand an awareness, help your brand, and promote your brand. When doing research you can also gain knowledge on 2 the project that you are sponsoring and you ll be able 5 to see where the budget from your sponsorship will be going towards. As sponsoring is technically targeting to a specific group of audience, you will have to research whether this is the right audience for the target audience of your aim. The research will equip you with the information you needs to make the right decisions. 6 If you are using a sponsorship management tool, the job will be slightly easier for you as you can just request for information from the party who would like to be sponsored in the application form. A good tool will also help manage elements to meet your objective.
Communicate Communicate throughout the project 4 Maintaining good relationship You can be clear about what exactly your needs are within this project and negotiate through clear communication in order to produce the outcome you and the party you are sponsoring desire. 1 Mobile users around the world 2 Helps project run smoothly Communication is an element for you to do your job well and helps everything run smoothly. Heart of the project For as long as you are sponsoring this project, there needs to be a good communication from beginning to end of the project. 4 Solves problems communicate any issues and solve problems together as a team.
Listen Listen to be aware of progress of the project 5 1 2 4 Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Listening is the key and without listening, messages may be easily misunderstood. The listening process involves five stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. Listening to become aware of what s happening. It will help you have a clear understanding of how the project is going along. Listening is a good tool when it comes to negotiating your needs. Through listening carefully, you will be able to understand exactly where the objectives don t meet and can negotiate towards a solution with the project you are sponsoring.
Clarity Clarity with all information you provide 6 1 2 4 5 Avoid misunderstanding Communication Clarity is an element to Clarity in this context is a form of avoid misunderstanding speech where you must and keep everything communicate your needs clearly. running smoothly A few things to watch out on throughout the project. clarity whilst communicating your needs: Speed, mumbling, a quiet voice. Objective of project Ensure that your objectives are clear since the beginning and make sure that everyone working on the project is clear about what the aim should be. Choice of words Have you thought about what you want the person listening to you to understand? Have you thought about if the choice of words clarify what you are trying to convey? Avoid damages Lack of clarity in communication may also lead to a great deal of damage.
Accessible attitude Accessibility attitude towards everyone 7 1 2 4 Be approachable Good knowledge Communication Documents To be able to be reached or approached is important. This will either want others to work with you or not want to work with you. Being able to provide any information requested. As a sponsorship manager, you should know all details of the projects you are working on. If a project you are sponsoring needs to communicate with you, it will be easy for them to communicate with you and you will respond within a reasonable time frame in order to not delay any deadlines. Accessible to any documents or any other information provided within the sponsorship.
Monitor and give feedback Monitor and give feedback on the project 8 1 Know everything Being able to monitor the whole process will be good for you as a sponsorship manager because it will be your responsibility to monitor the project. you ll be able to see how the whole process runs. If it s going the way you re expecting then great! If not, you re in control no matter what because you can monitor and give feedback to meet your needs and requirements. 2 Better result As one always say, feedback is crucial to gain better performance. As a project manager you must have seen many types of projects and you will have knowledge whether or not it is going well, if not, you re in control of improving the result. Achieve the goal Feedback works when there is a goal to meet towards the sponsorship. It helps you stay in control of the situation and give feedback to monitor all situations if feel like your feedback is going to help you achieve your goals.
Reliability and trust Reliability and trust towards the project 9 1 2 4 5 The trust has to be there since the beginning. The trust was there in order for you to want to sponsor this. The trust was there for you to put the sponsorship into action. Your trust in the project for the relationship between you and the project you are sponsoring to work and run smoothly throughout. Your trust in the sponsorship that it will benefit both you and party you re sponsoring. According to Harvard Business Review, trust is a relational concept. Make yourself reliable towards to project you are sponsoring to gain trust. Honest communication is needed throughout the process for an outcome that both desire. Miscommunication due to trust may lead to future mistrust.
Openness and transparency Openness and transparency in all areas 10 Avoid misunderstandings Transparency is set to allow everything to run smoothly, no hidden information and no misunderstanding on what other party wants. 1 4 Avoid unexpected surprise Transparency is there to avoid any surprise - sometimes the other party may not know that it will cause you harm but in order to prevent anything from happening, transparency is no excuse. Prevent irrelevant requests Allow for your sponsorship guidelines to be easily availed to prevent irrelevant requests Gain trust Being transparency is an act of trust, once you give trust, you will get trust. You will be notified with everything you need to know. 2 5 Sharing files Sometimes it is understandable that files cannot be shared due to privacy reasons if you fear of sharing the wrong file you can use a sponsorship management software to manage what you would like to share and what you don t want to share.
Motivation Motivation towards your job 11 1. As a sponsorship manager you must be active looking for events or campaigns you d like to sponsor and always have projects ongoing after one ends. 2. You must have the motivation towards each individual project to ensure that it meets your objective above and beyond. It is a lot of work tracking all of your sponsorship activities but with sponsorship. management tools, most things will be possible as you will be able to manage a lot of elements in just one tool that will allow you to be in control of everything.
Effective change management Effective change management for every project 12 Solutions. Sometimes things may not be as planned within sponsorship projects but there are always solutions towards any issues. As a project manager who managed many other projects before, you should always have solutions up your sleeve. Data as solution. If you are able to track all of your sponsorship activities and see what has happened previously when a problem occur then maybe the solution can be to do something similar as previously when changes must be made. A sponsorship management tool will help you track any changes by looking through previous data saved on the system.
Support the project manager Support the project manager in every project 1 Give support As much as you are already supporting the project by being a sponsor. There are things that you have to do above your role in order for the project to run smoothly such as supporting the project manager and working with them. Solution to help be in control If you are a sponsorship manager that manages many projects all at the same time. In order to keep track with all projects and support all project managers then sponsorship management tool is worth your investment as it helps you manage everything on there without hassle.
Facilitate problem solving Facilitate problem solving when needed 14 What can you solve? As a sponsorship manager, you should be able to work out what exactly each project need to be sponsored for. Your job is to identify the problems that you can help solve. Not just about the money If your product solves a certain problem for the people you are sponsoring you can provide products. Good leadership Some project may need someone to lead in order to run a successful project. The leader may also need to provide funding towards the project in order to make it work.
Gain commitment Gain commitment towards every project 15 1 Towards each individual project Once you have decided to sponsor each individual project, you have to ensure that you put time and effort into each project to make it work. If the result isn t as expected, it will effect your brand and the project itself. 2 Towards your role as a sponsorship manager You have to provide your commitment towards every single project you sponsor even if they were all at the same time. In order to do your job well as a sponsorship manager, using tools may help you easily manage your commitments and support every project when needed.
Build durability Build durability with every project 16 Tracking data You can manage this by seeing whether previous sponsorship has worked well for you. You can keep track of it and look back to see which ones are best to sponsor again as it gives you exactly what your requirements were or above and beyond what you asked for. Track using tools If you are a company that manages a lot of sponsorship activities, it will be a benefit to choose a sponsorship management tool that will help you manage your sponsorship activities easier by helping you track current and previous sponsorships.
Organisation Focus on Organisation 17 Use your skills. Maintain a good image as a good sponsor. Try to avoid big scandals as this may cause parties that need sponsorship to avoid working with you. Use your organisational skills to make sure everything runs smoothly. A solution. Being a sponsorship manager is a huge responsibility and requires a lot of organisational skills. If you manage a lot of projects at the same time, consider using a tool to help you manage your activities to avoid problems at all cost.
Conclusion 18 When looking for management solution tools, research whether the tool align with your needs such as: Does it provide an application form that will allow you to set your requirements and standards. Does it track your communication between the applicant or who you chose to sponsor Summary As you can see from many points in this document, it requires a lot of personal management skills and organisational skills. After all, it will still be difficult for one person to manage many sponsorship projects and still be on track with everything. Sponsorship management tool is a game changer when it comes to managing many sponsorship projects and going around about trying to be organised. The purpose of the tool is to make sponsorship management easier for you. Does it have auto response options Does it allow you to assign tasks in the tool to the project you are sponsoring Does it track your data for you such as geographical area, calendar of ongoing events or pervious events, and so on. A good tool will offer you many options to meet your needs Does it tell you the progress of the projects you are sponsoring The list may on go but you know what your requirements are. A tool that ticks the majority of your option will be a tool that s worth investing in. GIVE OPTIMY A TRY
Sources Icons: IconsDB, Wikimedia, Hero Education, Free Vector, Articles: Boundless, The importance of listening, Small Businesses, and Harvard Business Review.