Sponsorship Strategy Sessions

Whether you’re grappling with change or trying to create it, if you and your team lack experience, objectivity, or inspiration, finding the solutions you need can be tough. A sponsorship strategy session might be exactly what you’re looking for.

These in-person working sessions are short, sharp, and shrewd, as I bring all of my sponsorship experience and expertise to the table, finding your solutions and igniting excitement around what those solutions mean for your brand or organisation.

The result won’t be a formal paper, but whiteboards full of valuable, on-point strategies and analysis that will form the backbone of your forward plan.

Ways you can use a sponsorship strategy session

Strategy sessions usually run over a day or two, but for larger organisations with multiple teams, can stretch over several days. Whatever the timeframe, it can be structured to achieve a host of objectives. Strategy sessions can also be combined with in-house training and/or partner training.

7 ways sponsors can use a strategy session

• Working through major elements of a new sponsorship strategy
• Aligning your sponsorship strategy to a new brand plan or budget constraints
• Developing leverage and measurement strategies around one or more major sponsorships
• Working with regional managers on localised iterations of sponsorship leverage
• Working with individual brand teams to leverage broader sponsorships or themes
• Live sponsorship portfolio audits
• Issues management

7 ways rightsholders can use a strategy session

• Developing the major elements of a new sponsorship strategy
• Reworking your portfolio structure, offers, and/or pricing
• Offer development for one or several major sponsorships or sponsorship types
• Hit list development
• Negotiation planning
• Issues management
• Working with the teams from one or more sponsors to develop leverage and measurement plans around their investment

Benefits of sponsorship strategy sessions

While you’re not going to get a beautiful, written strategy from me at the end of your strategy session, like you would with consulting, there are some major benefits for going this route.

• It’s fast. You’ll need to formalise it, but you’ll have the analysis, advice, and forward plan you need to get rolling, within an intensive day or two. No more procrastinating.
• It creates buy-in. Strategy sessions are generally run with teams, but I recommend involving broader stakeholders and/or senior executives, if possible. If they’re involved with the actual formulation of the work, they’re more likely to run with it.
• It’s educational. I’ve got a whole host of options for helping you get the answers you need, and most of them involve working through various exercises that show the rationale, while quietly teaching the organisational skills that make best practice soar.
• It’s flexible. We can arrange your time to include various teams, smaller working groups, larger stakeholder groups, or your executive management team. Sessions can have a formal agenda, while many clients schedule a loose Q&A over lunch or at the end of the day.

Why you want to work with me

If you’re going to commit the time and resources to a strategy session, you want to know that the time will be well-spent, with outcomes that are immediately actionable, and a revitalised team.

• I balance big vision, savvy analysis, and hard-nosed practicality, giving you advice that’s both doable and inspiring.
• I do my homework. By the time I walk onto your premises for our first strategy session, I’ve done extensive planning and background work. That way, we spend minimal time creating context, and maximum time creating plans.
• I don’t pull punches. You don’t need a yes-(wo)man, who won’t give you the analysis and advice that will create real change. I’ll give it to you straight, every time.
• I’ve written the bestselling books in the industry, worked with blue chip clients all over the world, and stayed on the cutting edge of sponsorship thinking for three decades, bringing unparalleled credibility to the table.
• Most of my strategy session clients are repeats – extending previous consulting or training work, giving the team a refresher, or bringing best practice thinking at their new workplace. Click for a list of just some of those sponsorship consulting and training clients.

What now?

These intensive working sessions are best done in-person, but can also be done remotely, from my base in Sydney.

If you want to discuss your requirements, please drop me a line and tell me a bit about your organisation and your challenges. We can then set up a phone or Zoom meeting to discuss the options.