Jeremy Thompson
CEO and Founder, caytoo
A lot has changed in sponsorship over recent years. A lot hasn’t.
In our five years helping rights holders with lead generation, one thing that hasn’t is the dilemma when selling sponsorship. Do they cast the net wide with a generic message (quickly hit quantity) or cherry-pick a few targets with a customised message (slowly hit quality)?
A senior global partnership sales team exec at a top Premier League club freely admitted to me he still isn’t sure which option is best and even they tended to flit between the two.
We advocate ‘learn and earn’ as the results speak for themselves. This is the simple premise that by learning more about the objectives/challenges of the target prospect you earn the right to a conversation with them.
However, we are not naïve enough to ignore the merits of spray and pray. Not least, the ‘reporting upwards’ metric of how many companies you have pitched that week/month, and that sometimes different approaches work better based on a set of circumstances.
But the fact remains there’s a huge inefficiency in the current system, with more than 95% of activity being wasted. That’s not good for anyone.
So, is there a middle ground?
The big challenge sales teams face is targeting the right prospects at the right time with a relevant message (‘learn and earn’).
However, the Holy Grail is to be able to do this at scale (nearer ‘spray and pray’).
The quandary is can you have a foot in camps at opposite ends of the spectrum? You can’t be a Republican and a Democrat.
It was during our efforts to improve lead generation through the learn and earn route that we started to get excited it could be possible.
We had started monitoring 230,000 publications around the world each day to unearth crucial buying signals. We uncovered thousands more than anticipated but realised they broadly fell into just 10 buckets – such as launching a new product, expanding into a new territory, receiving funding/investment, hiring a new senior marketer etc.
The volume of this relevant news-based lead gen meant we had almost accidentally stumbled on the reality of…
… mass customisation in sales prospecting
In its traditional sense, mass customisation is producing personalised/customised goods to meet the diverse needs of a wide range of consumers at close to mass production prices.
Global sandwich chain Subway, with its variety of customised sandwich options, is a prime example, as is Nike by You (originally NikeiD) that enables people to personalise and design their own Nike merchandise.
Back to sales prospecting. Here, we are unearthing a digestible or ‘Goldilocks’ level of information about the target prospect: enough for what you need to make an informed and relevant pitch but not so overwhelming it takes time to unpick and transmit.
Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.
Crucially, we are identifying thousands of instances of such information in relatively short time periods.
So, you can create a ‘learn and earn’ pitch pretty quickly but have access to enough signals to potentially do it hundreds of times a week.
You can be a Republican and a Democrat.
Mass customisation directly addresses the 95%+ inefficiency I referred to. Even just a 10% improvement would generate significant time/cost savings and results.
Packaged up to be relevant and efficient
There’s obviously another layer of relevance beyond the buying signal missing in this scenario. Do the characteristics of that company fit with your organisation?
For instance, could they afford your rights, does their location match or is the category off limits due to current partners?
So, we have built a platform that enriches each buying signal with company data such as revenue, location and category so you can filter and match targets relevant to you.
It also contains decision-maker contact data, so you know who to pitch, and previous sponsorship activity which is run through our proprietary Partnership Propensity Scoring System. This combo means you can prioritise who to pitch based on the signal, the fit between you and them and their buying propensity.
To help with workflow, there’s also some simple CRM functionality plus we are building an AI-driven auto-outreach capability (i.e. using AI to craft a pitch based on the buying signal and your characteristics).
All enabling you to undertake customised pitching on a much larger scale.
Come see for yourself
We think this could solve that eternal dilemma by fusing the best of both extremes in an actionable manner within your research/insights and sales workflow.
But what do you think?
We are giving the first live sneak peek of the platform at Leaders in Sport at Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, London on 16/17 October so come and check it out and give us your opinion. Rights holders will also get the chance to win a year’s free subscription worth thousands of £ / € / $.
Hopefully see you there. If you can’t make it but are interested in seeing the platform just register your interest here and we will be in touch when it’s ready.