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Today’s question: “What is the most important thing to have in my sponsorship booth?”
GREAT question! First of all, I can tell by your question that you’ve already made the decision to sponsor an event, so congratulations! Sponsoring and speaking are the best ways I know of to connect with qualified prospects for your business (assuming, of course, that you choose your sponsorships wisely).
Many of you know that in my first year of sponsoring and speaking alone, I invested over $100,000 and sponsored 7 major events, so believe me, I learned a lot about what is and isn’t important to have in your booth!
And my biggest lesson was that, as long as your booth is presentable, YOU are the most important thing in it.
Just as many new business owners to fall into the trap of thinking beautiful business cards or websites or a perfectly-structured coaching programs will fill their business with clients, people who are new to sponsoring often think that their booth and the things in it will magically attract customers with credit cards in hand ready to buy.
That’s now how it actually works.
Your booth needs to reflect you. The real, unique, authentic you that your clients are looking for.
Does it need to be presentable? Absolutely!. I once sponsored an event at a very high-end hotel, and one of the sponsors’ booth was a table covered with a cheap disposable table cloth and a balloon, and that was about it. She was selling coaching, and people avoided her booth like crazy.
So, yes, you do want your booth to be attractive and professional and welcoming to the people you want to attract. But the purpose of the booth is simply to draw people in (in truth, your presence in that booth also contributes to that), and once they are there, YOU become the most important part of that booth.
Because if they buy, they are buying from you. They buy what you’re offering because they connect with you and your offer in some way. They buy if they feel like you and what you offer are the solution to their problem.
So what can you do to make sure you’re prepared? Here are 3 tips you’ll want to incorporate.
Tip #1: Remember why you are there. Know what results you want from the event and who you want to connect with. You are there to grow your business in some way, so act that way. You are there as an expert in whatever you provide, so remember that as you interact with people in your booth. You want to be your best you — on steroids! And look the part! If you are a wealth coach, for example, and your clothes look shabby and cheap, you will actually repel the clients you are there to attract.
Tip #2: Plan your conversations with people who visit your booth ahead of time. I always think this through from the end result I want from the event. I come up with a couple of questions to ask each person who visits my booth. The purpose of the questions is to quickly determine whether they are someone who I can help and whether they are someone I want to help (my ideal client).
Tip #3: Take one or multiple assistants or team members with you to work the booth. At live events, people tend to hit the sponsor booths in short and intense bursts. And you want to connect personally with as many of them as possible. In order to do that, you need people to hand them off to who can complete transactions with them and also people who can “screen” booth visitors for you while you are busy talking to someone else. Be sure to prepare your booth staff with your sponsorship goals and the questions/conversations you want them to be having.
Bonus Tip!: Be your best you, but don’t try to be someone else. I know I had to learn this the hard way a couple times early in my business. Everytime I tried to be someone else I ended up with clients I did not like working with! If you are your best you, you’ll naturally attract the clients you most enjoy working with, because they are attracted to the real you. If you feel like you have to act like someone other than who you really are to attract them, working with them will turn into a real chore!
As you might imagine, I could expand on this topic in even more detail, and I will in future articles, but these three tips will get you headed in the right direction so that you can make your sponsorships successful and profitable.
Take them to heart, and watch your sponsorship results grow!
Are you ready for a customized sponsorship strategy that will help you reach your business income and impact goals? Apply for a Multiply Your Income & Impact Strategy call with Debbie!
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