Writing a Sponsor Proposal: Creating an outline

Over the years, I've had to do a lot of writing. I've written white papers, proposals, brochures, business plans, you name it. Even though today I sometimes start to write without an outline, I find that the best documents that I've created and the ones that have gotten the most executive approval, have been the ones that began as an outline. I provide for you an outline of a sponsorship proposal below. You need to fill in the blanks and maybe even add sections based on the sponsors specific needs.

Sponsorship Proposal Outline

• Executive Summary - a summary of the documents main points written for an executive on the go. Write it last.
  
• Introduction to NASCAR and What's New for the coming year - use this section to teach the sponsor about NASCAR and any exciting new opportunities that they should jump on in the coming year. In this section, dispel the myths of NASCAR (e.g. It's only for smoker southerners) to help the customer understand the huge opportunity this is.
  
• The Previous Year in Review - If creating a proposal for a new sponsor, tell them how you did in the previous year. If proposing to an existing sponsor tell them what you achieved. If this is your first year racing, omit this section. What did you and the sponsor agree were the objectives of your program for the year (e.g. generate "X" number of leads or "Y" number of TV impressions) and what did you actually achieve. Point out any places where you went above and beyond to give them more value for their dollar.
• The Opportunity for "Company Name" - Tell them what you know about the company, its customers, its market, its products. Tell them how you can help them reach the target audiences they seek. Provide market data to back up your case. Admit that you've made some assumptions based on research you've done about the organization but that you'd like to learn more given the opportunity.
• What it is to be a Sports Sponsor? - Help them understand what exactly they would be committing to if they move forward and invited you in for a meeting to discuss the opportunity. Spell out how they are committing to provide funding, but more importantly, having a point of contact on their end that is responsible for utilizing their sponsorship to the companies maximum benefit is in their own best interest. Tell them about the additional marketing opportunities and what you are actually selling.
• Summary and Next Steps - Summarize the key points in the proposal highlighting the highest value points for them. Specifically spell out the next steps if they decide to proceed. USE DATES. For example, all sponsorship agreements must be signed by X/X/XXXX for sponsorship in the 2008 year. Working back from this date, we've created the following meeting schedule as a guidance for the next steps that we'll need to take together. Proceed to plan dates for the first Web-based conference-call/presentation, the first on site meeting, the second on site meeting, the final planning meeting and then monthly or bi-weekly meetings afterwards to keep the customer updated. This is as needed by the customer. 

NOTES:

THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Most people take this opportunity to write an introduction to the proposal . This section should be no longer than one page and include a summary of the entire document. It's sole purpose is to give an executive... like say, a CEO... a very quick and easy document that can be read in a short time. It gets to the point and the person can easily decide, yes, no or "I should make more time to find out more about this great opportunity". It doesn't matter if you're not meeting with the CEO or sending the proposal to an executive. This summary makes your proposal very portable. You can use components of the executive summary in e-mails to people in the company. People that you send the proposal to can use the executive summary when they present your program to decision-makers within the organization. The benefits go on and on. Write it, write it last, and make it excellent.

NO PRICING! Resist the temptation to provide pricing for new sponsors. You want to give them pricing after you've spoken to them to make sure you understand their business and can therefore represent the full value you are bringing to the table. For example, if I told you I could sell you a computer for $2000 you'd think I was crazy when you could get one down the street for $500 bucks. But, if I understood that you were a graphics person that played video games on the Internet, I could meet with you and show you the computer had a 20" monitor with super fast graphics and a fast processor for playing games. That means more to you and you'd understand why the computer cost what it did and you'd probably think it was worth it to you then. The same thing goes for racing. If people see a price and don't fully understand how it relates to them then they think the price is just for putting their name on the car when in fact it is more than that.

PREVIOUS YEAR IN REVIEW: It's important to keep reviewing program progress on a regular basis with the sponsor. You should never use your yearly or sponsorship renewal proposal to report on progress. This will probably kill your chances of re-signing. Make sure that regular progress reports are seen by the people who approve the budget for the sponsorship (like executives), not just by the people who you work with on a regular basis.