If you are hiring a motivational speaker for your event, one of the key considerations is budget. Many associations and organizations want to hire a great speaker, but the fee is too high.
This may be a great opportunity to get a sponsor to support the motivational speaker investment. Consider key organizations that would most benefit from the exposure to the audience. Below are some tips on finding the organizations and individuals who are willing (or able) to sponsor a motivational speaker:
- Start with larger organizations in your industry.
- Look at other similar industry associations ( state or national level) and snoop around their website to see what sponsorship levels they offer and who their main sponsors are.
- If you are a state association, contact the national association for direction, they may have resources to help you.
- Be prepared. Who is your demographic? What is your audience size? What is the benefit to sponsoring the motivational speaker?
- Ask the motivational speaker who typically sponsors their keynote.
- Can the motivational speaker add clout to a potential sponsors marketing campaigns, or is there a way to build good will? Use this to help build a value proposition with potential sponsors (i.e.- an environmentalist speaker would be valuable for certain organizations to align with).
- Check LinkedIn for any contacts that might be useful.
- Ask for a quick email introduction to potential sponsors from your key contacts.
- Know about the organizations you wish to partner with. How can you solve their problems?
- Put a call for sponsorship on Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks.
- Tie the theme of the conference to the sponsorship benefit.
- Often it is the Head of Sales or Marketing who is the sponsorship contact, however this isn't set in stone, so ask around.
- Attend trade shows and get contacts of potential sponsors
