This post aims to provide a brief education on how your organization can go about building the best sponsorship sales deck. Additionally, please contact us here to receive a sample sponsorship sales deck that can be used as a useful frame of reference during your design process.

A sponsorship sales deck is not just a presentation; it's a strategic asset used by rights holders to showcase their value to potential sponsors. Whether you're in the midst of initial exploratory meetings or advancing towards a detailed proposal, understanding how to leverage your sponsorship deck effectively is crucial for sponsorship success.

That being said, the sponsorship deck is just one part of how you will secure new partnerships. A listen-first approach, a strategic solution-building mindset, and good relationship management are all extremely important as part of the overall sponsorship sales process!

General Content Flow of a Sponsorship Sales Deck

Generally speaking, I recommend looking at a sponsorship sales deck as having five sections (see below):

Click the “+” below to learn more about about each section’s contents. Note that each section below’s name is for descriptive purposes only - not an actual copywriting recommendation.

Adjust Your Deck Based on Situational Context

The key to success in building your sponsorship sales deck is taking this general outline and tailoring it to the situation. The length of each of section in the above framework, and the thoroughness of the information within each section, will depend on Timing/Purpose, Audience/Reader, and Medium of Delivery:

1. Know Your Timing and Purpose: The value of your deck varies depending on the stage of the sponsorship discussion. Tailor your content to suit the context—be it sparking interest in an exploratory meeting or sealing the deal in a follow-up presentation.

2. Understand Your Audience/Reader: The type of information and experience you’re looking to convey through your sponsorship sales deck can often depend on the role of the person who reviews it!

3. Consider the Medium of Delivery: How the content will be consumed by your audience/reader can play an important role in your design and content decisions.

1) Know Your Timing and Purpose

The common stages of a successful sponsorship sales conversation often warrants three different types of decks:

• Intro/Overview Deck gives a brand overall familiarity with your property or properties and the associated (general) sponsorship offerings. A general recommendation would be that this deck is shorter (<20 slides), more visual, and designed to present a compelling and powerful story to the reader/audience.

  • While this deck provides a glimpse at the organization’s core sponsorship offerings, there’s no need to get specific with opportunities/packages until the brand tells you, in response to this deck, if they’d like to learn more about a certain type of package.

• Tailored Opportunities Deck often hones in on specific offerings and investment levels that might be of interest to the brand based upon what you have learned about their needs/objectives. This type of deck should generally be kept to ~30 slides or less + a light appendix.

  To view an example of this type of deck, click here and request our “Sample Sponsorship Sales Deck”

• Proposal fully fleshes out one or more sponsorship packages (including pricing and asset mix details). This type of deck should still be kept to ~35 slides or less but it might warrant a more substantial appendix to get specific about assets and package structure.

2) Understand Your Audience

Your sponsorship deck will be scrutinized by a diverse set of eyes, each with unique expectations and priorities. Tailoring your deck to cater to these varied perspectives is essential for resonance and engagement:

For different readers/audiences, tailor your deck’s content accordingly:

• C-Suite Executives: Focus on the alignment with the brand's image, marketing themes, and the potential to impact high-level KPIs.

• Sponsorship Marketing Experts: Highlight the quality and variety of benefits, logistical feasibility, and cost considerations in addition to executive concerns.

• Creative Brand Marketers: Demonstrate how the opportunity supports the brand's positioning and creative campaigns, leveraging personalities, stories, and intellectual property.

• Sponsorship Valuation Agencies and Media Buyers: Provide detailed metrics on the value of impressions and engagements across all touchpoints.

3) Consider the Medium of Delivery

A live presentation demands a visually-driven approach with minimal text, allowing you to verbally elaborate on key points. Conversely, a deck intended for independent review should be more detailed, providing all necessary explanations through text.

• Is the deck going to be presented in a boardroom in 30 minutes? 

• Is it going to be skimmed on the subway via mobile phone?

• Is it going to be reviewed by a team of analysts over the course of several weeks?

Polish Your Design

Beyond its content and situational structure, it’s important that your deck’s story, insights and value proposition resonate with the reader or audience as much as possible. By harnessing some simple design principles for your sponsorship sales deck, you can ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward and maximizing the opportunity in front of you!

Click the “+” to learn more about about each design principle outlined below.

The below images are from a useful web article on slide design here.

Ultimately, a lot of work and preparation can go into building the best sponsorship sales deck for your organization… but like with most things, once you get some momentum, maintaining and updating your materials becomes relatively efficient. And of course, getting feedback from prospects and sponsors will help you to refine and iterate along the way!