In September, I’ll be doing two of my most popular webinars, covering two of the industry’s most vexing subjects.

15 September – Short Lead-Time Sponsorship Sales

Sponsorship lead-time is unforgiving. You only have so much time to get your sponsorship sold before the sales window closes, and as the days tick away, and the pressure to meet targets increases, it can be very frustrating. The plain truth of the matter is that when you’re on a short lead-time, the game does change, and you need a different set of skills to continue playing with any success.

This 60-minute, live webinar combines the principles of best practice sponsorship with strategies, tricks, and angles honed over my 25 years in the industry, providing sponsorship seekers with the unique skills required for selling sponsorship with a short lead-time. Topics include:

• Why lead-time is such a critical factor in sponsorship sales
• What’s realistic for short lead-time sales, what’s not, and how to manage unrealistic expectations
• Tipping the balance toward “yes”, while time is tipping it toward “no”
• Knowing and working all of the angles
• How to structure an offer to reduce the lead-time factor
• Accessing alternative budgets
• Weighing the long term against the short
• Options for turning a bad situation into a good one
• What you absolutely must not do, or risk damaging your personal and organisational credibility

For complete information on Short Lead-Time Sponsorship Sales, click on the registration link, below, or download the full PDF brochure .

24 September – Critical Skills for Sponsor Retention

Please, don’t leave!  Unfortunately, begging is unlikely to get a sponsor to renew. Between the economy and increased scrutiny on expenditures, sponsor expectations have never been higher, and neither have the pressures on sponsees at renewal. The same old offers just aren’t cutting it anymore.

It is easier and cheaper to keep a sponsor than to find a new one, so instead of crossing your fingers at renewal time, you should be taking steps now to ensure you get the renewal when it comes around.

While sponsors are rationalising their portfolios, these are the skills you need to ensure you are in the “keep” column. This 90-minute, live webinar provides sponsorship seekers with the tools and skills to elevate your status with sponsors, effectively showcase your value, renew more sponsorship, and create strategic opportunities to increase investment by current sponsors. Topics include:

• Why sponsors don’t renew
• Sponsor management that will set you apart
• When and how to set yourself up for a great renewal (it’s not when you think!)
• Strategies for keeping your sponsors engaged throughout the relationship
• Fostering outstanding sponsor leverage
• Hot buttons that will encourage your sponsors to invest more
• Helping sponsors understand their results
• Creating useful reports
• Dos and don’ts of negotiating renewals
• Pros and cons of renegotiating mid-term
• Getting your sponsors to advocate for you

For complete information on Critical Skills for Sponsor Retention click on the registration link, below, or download the full PDF brochure.

I am contacted by a lot of sponsorship seekers who are unsure where to start with raising sponsorship, or they are trying to raise sponsorship and it’s just not happening. Many of them have read the books, but realise they need more help and that it needs to be individualised. They also realise they don’t have the budget or time for a full consultancy.

What they really need is a jump start, so by popular demand, I’ve created the Power Sponsorship Jump Start program for sponsorship seekers.

See below for an overview or download the PDF brochure for the Power Sponsorship Jump Start for all of the details!

What is included?

The Power Sponsorship Jump Start is an individualised program of education, coaching, and sales material development. You’ll be working directly with me. The program includes:

Development of a proposal template

Not sure how to showcase your property? What to include in a proposal? Not to worry, as Kim Skildum-Reid will develop a quality proposal template for your property. The proposal will be based on best practice principles and sponsor-side insight gleaned from 25 years of advising major sponsors.

Three coaching sessions

You will receive three coaching sessions for your use over the course of six months. How you use these sessions is up to you, but some suggestions are:

• Collaborating on a hit list of potential sponsors
• Developing customised sponsorship offers to slot into your proposal template
• Offer pricing, including in-kind options
• Negotiation and renewal preparation
• Issues management

On-demand access to webinars

You will receive on-demand access to five full-length webinars for sponsorship seekers, allowing you to quickly raise your own skill level. These webinars include:

• Essentials of Best Practice Sponsorship (90 min)
• Best Practice Offer Development (90 min)
• Best Practice Sponsorship Sales (90 min)
• Short Lead-Time Sponsorship Sales (60 min)
• Critical Skills for Sponsor Retention (60 min)

On-demand advice

Just have a quick question? You can email, call, or Skype me anytime for the duration of the Jump Start.

Recommended resources

You will receive a copy of The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit 3rd Edition, as well as a compliment of my white papers. Once I understand your situation, I’ll also provide a list of recommended reading and resources, including specific sections of The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit, other pertinent books, white papers, specific blogs to read, specific blogs and Twitter feeds to follow, and more.

Collaborative workspace

As a Jump Start client, you will have access to a private, secure, collaborative workspace for document sharing, questions, comments, and more.

Who will benefit from a Jump Start?

The Jump Start has been created for sponsorship seekers and is equally appropriate across categories, from arts organisations to festivals, professional development to sports, and many more.

The program is fully tailored to your needs. Below are just a few of the situations where a Jump Start could make a real difference to your results:

• You are just starting to seek sponsorship and are unsure where to begin.
• You have a new property for which to seek sponsorship, and you want to get it off to a flying start.
• Your sponsorship program has gone stale or hit a plateau and needs to be reinvigorated.
• You are moving up in class – seeking bigger sponsors than you ever have before – and want to get it right.
• You were hoping to find a sponsorship broker, but can’t find a good one, so you’re on your own.
• Your sponsorship sales team is new or inexperienced, and you need them up to speed fast.

Not sure if a Jump Start is right for you? Drop us a line with your questions on admin@powersponsorship.com, US +1 612 326 5265, or AU +61 2 9559 6444.

A couple of months ago, I introduced Sponsorship School 2010 for charitable organisations. Sponsorship School is a six-month, intensive program of webinars, coaching, homework, and peer support – all offered at no charge. Dozens of non-profits applied and eight were selected, based on those applications.

Sponsorship School is a big commitment from me, but it also requires a big commitment from the participants. Unfortunately, some of the organisations didn’t keep up their end of the bargain, and by the end of the first month, we were down to five.

The great news is that those five organisations have been working super-hard. They are taking their homework seriously, interacting with and supporting each other, and fully engaged.

The even better news is that they are sharing that experience with you. You are welcome to join the Sponsorship School group on LinkedIn, where you will find the monthly homework posted – in case you want to follow along – as well as feedback from the participants every single month.

I just want to finish off by saying “thank you and well done” to all of the participants. I’m always delighted to work with people who are willing to work as hard as I do. Yay!

On a routine check for copyright infringement last night, my team came across one of the most blatant cases of plagiarism I’ve ever seen.

In clear breach of international copyright law, Brian Cimins, CEO and Founder of Grapplers Quest, twice – in December and February – copied the entirety of one of my most popular and comprehensive blog posts, claiming to be the author.

It’s not uncommon to find instances where someone has reprinted one of my blogs to their website without permission, but it’s usually just a case of unfamiliarity with copyright law. What is so appalling and, frankly, stupid about this case is that Mr Cimins has claimed to be the author of my work.  The plagiarism is so brazen, Cimins didn’t even bother to change the article to US English!

Want to check it out for yourself?

Here is the link to my blog, “12 Steps: A Sponsor’s Guide to the Recovery”.

http://blog.powersponsorship.com/index.php/2009/09/12-steps-a-sponsors-guide-to-the-recovery/

Here are links to the plagiarism. The guy smartened up and removed them from his site this morning, so the links are to PDF versions of his handiwork. Prepare for your jaw to drop.

Cimins blog post 28 Dec 09

http://www.powersponsorshipdownloads.com/powersponsorship/GrapplersQuestPlagiarism-28Dec2009.pdf

Cimins blog post 26 Feb 10

http://www.powersponsorshipdownloads.com/powersponsorship/GrapplersQuestPlagiarism-26Feb2010.pdf

I’m sure you’ll agree, this is appallingly blatant stuff. Seriously, what kind of person does this?? When I shot him an email yesterday, he came back with an apology for the “inconvenience” and “confusion”. No confusion here. My work on his site with his name on it is stealing. He also told me to “keep up the good work”. Apparently, he needs more content to plagiarise.

What now?

If you ever read this blog, you would know two things about me:

1. I put a lot of effort into creating practical, best practice information and resources for the sponsorship industry.
2. I am a major league idealist.

For these reasons, I’m holding him to account to both his industry (MMA) and ours and am exploring my legal options. He has stolen my work and my hard-earned expertise. That is not okay.

On the off chance you want to tell Brian Cimins what you think of his unethical, illegal appropriation of my work, this is how you’ll find him:

Brian Cimins
CEO & Founder, Grapplers Quest
Email: bcimins@grapplersquest.com
Twitter: @GrapplersQuest

Anyone else?

Our industry creates a lot of content. Has anyone else faced this kind of blatant theft of intellectual property? I’m flatly stunned.

UPDATE 14 MAY

We let a range of MMA media know about Cimins antics yesterday, and have now heard back from a number of them. It would be fair to say is that he’s not very popular. One alleges he stole their database, which wouldn’t surprise me a bit. And I got a link the this little tidbit: Apparently, Cimins had a side career as a cybersquatter.

Sponsorship community, take note: You do not want to do business with Brian Cimins or Grapplers Quest (www.grapplersquest.com)!

I’m delighted to be speaking in Scandinavia for the very first time in May, at Scandinavian Sponsorship & Experiential Days!

The lineup of speakers is top notch and I strongly recommend anyone in Northern Europe (or anyone who wouldn’t mind a trip to Stockholm) consider attending. I’m doing a keynote on how sponsorship relates to experiential marketing (and vice versa) and a breakout session on ambush marketing.

Conference details

1. Stockholm, Sweden
2. 19-20 May (I’m doing pre-conference workshops on the 18th, details below)
3. Organised by the Swedish Sponsorship Association

For all the details and to register, go to the Scandinavian Sponsorship & Experiential Marketing Days website. Delegates can get a SEK 1.000 discount by using the code KIM10.

Pre-conference workshops

I’m also doing two pre-conference workshops on 18 May – one for sponsors and one for sponsorship seekers. Attendees to each will receive one of my latest books – either The Sponsorship Seeker’s Toolkit 3rd Edition or The Corporate Sponsorship Toolkit – and get a bonus coaching session with me, valid for 12 months (value US $700!).

Don’t miss out. I don’t know when I’ll be doing training in Scandinavia again! I can’t wait!!