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Tired of your expertise staying hidden? "Writing & Influence," hosted by Elaine Acker, features interviews with accomplished writers and empowers business executives to confidently unleash their thought leadership through compelling content. Discover how to trust your instincts, silence your inner critic, and publish content that truly showcases your unique value. Each episode is packed with actionable insights to help you build your influence and grow your business using the power of words. Ready to turn your expertise into impact? Learn how to transform your knowledge into a powerful content strategy that leads to real results—all with the help from Elaine and her guests!
Ep18_BruceRosenthal
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[00:00:00]
Elaine Acker: Welcome everybody. Today I am here with Bruce Rosenthal and Bruce and I just worked together to publish his new book and it is called Mastering Association Corporate Sponsorships. And I think this is a classic example of how someone can look back on years of experience, tried and true processes that work, and also look ahead to the changes that are coming in a niche and say, this is how I [00:01:00] can help you navigate what is happening in your industry.
And it's a way that you can help leverage it in your business. Leverage a book in your business. So Bruce, welcome.
Bruce Rosenthal: Thanks, Elaine. Thanks for the invite.
Elaine Acker: Yes. It was so much fun to work with you, and I think that was because you were so thoughtful and responsive and really looking into the challenges that associations are facing today and what solutions you might've learned along the way to help them. And you chose really to zero. And on the corporate sponsorship piece.
So maybe before we tighten up on that, let's just look at the association space overall. Tell me what the biggest problems are that associations are facing.
Bruce Rosenthal: The biggest problems that associations are facing are around revenue and competition. So associations need more revenue and it's an incredibly expensive [00:02:00] competitive space out there, really for the
attention, not just to sponsors but members, exhibitors, and advertisers that. All of those stakeholders have many choices now, and not just the somewhat more superficial Google searches or, or even social media, but there are a whole range of professionals and organizations and companies. They're providing much more specialized information now, that from, from the sponsor standpoint, when I do competitive analyses now. For association clients we're coming up with anywhere 50, 60, 65 different competitors. Other places the companies could go to reach those same members, if not the association
Elaine Acker: yeah, and so that makes me think about, one of the things we talked about was that often in the past it was kind of transactional. When you looked at the relationship of the corporation and the association, they were looking at conference sponsorships and [00:03:00] events. That happened maybe once a year, twice a year.
But if I remember right, one of the things you were telling me was that these corporate sponsors now are going, how can I leverage this all year long? I'm marketing all day, every day. I'm not just marketing during these little windows of conference sponsorship. So tell me more about that shift in thinking.
Bruce Rosenthal: Well, it has been a big shift and you're right that historically, and this goes back many decades sponsorships have been pretty much platinum, gold, silver, bronze. I've seen as many as seven different levels kind of slicing and dicing all the different benefits and if you're goal to get a lot of benefits and if you're still to get a few less.
And if your bronze get a few less than that and they've been around the conference and. And you're right, companies started telling me that, you know, they market 365 days a year, so no matter how good that conference is, no matter how much attention they get at that conference, it's just a blip in time. And even with a little [00:04:00] pre and post visibility around the conference, it's still doesn't really solve the year long challenges the companies had. The big shift in that paradigm came with COVID when those conferences that were the cornerstone of those association sponsorship programs for so many decades, all of a sudden in 2020 and 2021, couldn't have the conferences. I know there were some associations that thought, well, the companies will just, take a break and come back in a couple years. And, surprise, surprise, the companies did not take a break. They needed to continue to find
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: market their products and services. So first of all, everybody started to learn how to sit in front of a, a Zoom or, or team screen during COVID, and social media.
Became more and more prominent and, and also with a lot of credibility. So a lot of LinkedIn groups and, and ways that folks were going to social media for not just social activities, but in fact, there's a book that that talks about social media is really being about [00:05:00] business and folks using it for business purposes and going to LinkedIn as a resource. So what companies started doing is putting all that together. And putting information out on LinkedIn and or doing webinars and promoting 'em on LinkedIn, and we've all joined those webinars and you check off that little box when you register that says, oh, you can put my name on your list. And I know when I first started looking at those, at the beginning of COVID, I thought, well, I just won't check off that box.
It's like, well then you don't sign up for that webinar. So you check off the box and you figure, okay, I like the webinar. They must be good folks, and you know, I'll get on their list. And then the companies became very savvy and said, well, we're not just gonna start sending out sales catalogs. We're gonna put those folks on our list and we're gonna send them educational information and we're gonna do something that actually I learned from the education director at an association where I worked years ago. Educate the sell, don't sell to educate. So the companies realized by sending a couple white papers and [00:06:00] links to other webinar recordings and a number of things on the company's website, and then there'd always be that little box in the corner that says, do you want a demo? Do you want more information? And I know we sometimes think that members don't want to be sold to, but in fact, members do need to buy products and services. And members found that very convenient. So the company would build its trust and credibility with white papers and webinars. And I'd say, would you like the demo? Would you like more information?
Would you like to talk to a salesperson? And companies began to use that for lead generation, and that became the big shift with COVID. And then when associations started having the conferences again after the COVID lockdown and reached out to companies some of the companies didn't come back and some came back and said, but we don't really need the 20 by 20 booth and we're not really gonna send 12 of our reps to your conference.
We can send two and companies started to measure the ROI and what they were getting from the [00:07:00] relationship. And I have a friend who used to work for a big corporation in the marketing department and he said, you know, think about it, post COVID. If you were the chief financial officer for a corporation and the company had been spending possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars on the road and going to trade shows and shipping exhibit booze around and all that.
And then COVID comes and you can't travel for two years. You can't send your sales force on the road, but you keep your sales up at that same level as it had been before, or maybe it dipped a little and then it went back up and there were a couple strategic meetings you went to, but you didn't do all that traveling. And my colleague said, why would you send the sales force on the road and spend those hundreds of thousands of dollars. And does the Salesforce want to go on the road,
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: you know, 40 weeks of the year.
Elaine Acker: Right. And well, and one of the things I wanna pull out from what you just said, you and I were talking not long ago about the changes in buyer behavior, and I think you just described it when you were saying, you know, they really looked at that educate to sell piece [00:08:00] instead of sell to educate, and we know.
That members of associations, just like all the rest of us that are shopping anywhere online we wanna dig in, we wanna learn everything we can about this company, about the problem I have about the solutions that are available to me before I say yes and get on a sales call. So,
Bruce Rosenthal: So.
Elaine Acker: so that's one thing I think we have to acknowledge that has also changed in the marketplace and not lose sight of that.
Because in some of the solutions that you suggest in the book, and I'll just get you to talk about those, you know, there are many other ways to collaborate in a meaningful way besides this transaction for a booth and a banner.
Bruce Rosenthal: Yep. And you're absolutely right. And I think the other buyer behavior that's changed, and this has gone on for many years, especially in the retail sector, people used to be very brand specific. So with clothing, they would either go to Nordstrom's or they would go to Target. And now you have folks that, oh, I'm gonna get my business clothes at Nordstrom's, [00:09:00] but I'm gonna get my leisure, wear a target, I'm just gonna go online and buy from wherever. Wherever I can get a good deal. So I think members of organizations and as much as associations have incredible value in their brand, it is not the only place that members go anymore. And
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: when we kind of combine this with the companies doing the educating and not just saying, our widget, but here's how our widget would improve efficiency in your factory.
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: or here's how our drug would help improve quality of care and not just, oh, here's how the drug is packaged and here's how you can buy it and here's how it's administered. But really talking about case studies and member examples and building that trust. And I think we all do that very much in our own personal buying habits of, you know, looking something like the, the landscaper company sends information on how to create the green lawn
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: you know, the [00:10:00] tricks and the trades that work. And some of us will figure, well, I can do that myself and other folks will figure, wow, I, that landscape company really provided me with a lot of good information. They must really know their stuff.
I'm gonna call them and pay them to take care of my law. I think it's the same with companies that sell to members of associations. When they build that trust and demonstrate with case studies, with examples, with data, with their research and development expertise that they can solve problems, then members are gonna say, yeah, that's the place where I wanna shop.
Elaine Acker: Yeah. And one of the things I noticed when you wrote the book, you really put it all out there. I mean, you gave people a step-by-step approach where even if they're not able to work with you right now, which I hope they all will, but even if they're not you didn't hold back. You gave them all of the benefit of your years of experience.
And your insights into how to make this corporate sponsorship thing work, both for the organization and its members [00:11:00] more important and for the company that's involved. So what inspired you to write the book in the first place?
Bruce Rosenthal: Well, I have always been a writer.
and so over in recent years or since I started getting involved in corporate sponsorship programs about 20 years ago when I was working with an association, before I became a consultant. I've always done a lot of LinkedIn posts and I've done presentations, so I've done PowerPoints, I've done a lot of articles and written case studies. so actually the idea of the book goes back about two years ago and I said, I can write a book. fast forward 12 months from that 0.2 years ago, and I had not written the book, I'd still written a lot of articles and somehow, magically all those articles did not materialize into a book. and I was sharing that story with our friend Catherine Brown and, and she said. I know somebody you should talk to. So, so Catherine reached out to you, Elaine, and said, you know, I know this guy Bruce, he has a book in his head and he can't quite get it out. So maybe the two of you could work together and, [00:12:00] and get that book out. So the goal was really to share the information that I've always shared, which is very actionable tips and strategies and things you can do and processes and to put that together into a book. And the idea is that some organizations will be able to take that book and run with it and implement it on their own, which is great.
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: some smaller organizations that, not be able to hire a consultant and wanna do it on their own. And that is fine. you know, it is all out there. So somebody has another marketing consultant and somebody else, they were an association management company they work with. They could give them that book and say, here's Bruce's book, do this for our organization. but I also think there are some folks that'll say, wow, here, here are all the plans, here are all the recipes. But I don't want to go in the kitchen and get my hands dirty. So let me call in Bruce and let, let him implement all of this. And it, it reminds me of years ago when I was working at an association and I was trying to convince one of our year long corporate partners to, to develop some [00:13:00] case studies of some work that they had done with our members. And they said, yeah, we don't want to do case studies, Bruce. ' cause then everybody will know what our secrets are and members just won't need us anymore.
They'll just go off and do it on their own. And, and I said to them. Pretty much the different scenarios I just outlined with my book. I said, if you do the case studies as a corporate partner, you'll get a lot of visibility and some folks will take those case studies and say. We can do that on our own.
And some will give those case studies to another consultant and they will implement them. But some folks will come to your company and they'll say, you wrote the case study. You demonstrated you have this expertise. You did this project with a member that's very similar to my organization. Can you do this for me?
And I think those are kind of the three buckets that the readers will fall into.
Elaine Acker: Yeah, and I always wanna, I wanna work with somebody who's been there, done it. Has a story to tell and understands that my association's probably not exactly like any other [00:14:00] one. So there's a certain amount of nuance and experience that's involved, I would think, to really implement this and implement it well in a way that truly benefits everybody.
But one of the things that I also love about you having a book, and this is what I love for anybody who wants to publish a book. That supports their business is that it unlocks so many opportunities that you never even saw coming. And you told me that even though we published this probably just a little over 30 days ago, you know, not quite 60 days ago, you're seeing some things happen in your business.
Tell me about that.
Bruce Rosenthal: Well, I think even from when we sent out the draft manuscript to some of my colleagues, and first of all it was just many of them wrote some very, generous testimonials were for personally gratifying, but I think it also kind of raised me on the visibility scale with those folks.
Even though they knew me, they were like, wow, Bruce has now done a book, and I think folks, whether they [00:15:00] have done a book or not done a book, they know it's hard work. And that it takes time. So, I think it raised my credibility with those folks. And there was nobody that turned down the opportunity to read the draft and write a testimonial. And then since publishing it, I've already received a few invitations to speak at conferences. I spoke at a conference last week and we did a drawing at the end of the session for three copies of the book. And that got some visibility for the book. And I had sent a, complimentary copy of the book to one of the people who had written a testimonial for me.
And she's written two books over the last I think six, eight years ago, she said, well, Bruce, congratulations on the book and I hope you are, successful with your book. As I was with mine, she said that my book took me to places I never thought I would be. So whether to conferences or in rooms with prospective clients it really kind of, solidifies.
It's like I have a book and you can hold it up and it's something more tangible than my hundreds of LinkedIn posts from the last five years.
Elaine Acker: Yeah, it's nice to be able to capture all that [00:16:00] knowledge in one place and to be able to share that with other people. So I never get over the excitement of holding a book, even someone else's in my own two hands. And seeing that it has finally come to life.
Bruce Rosenthal: Right. One funny story I got an email from somebody I knew a couple weeks ago and she said, Bruce, I was on a webinar the other day and one of the webinar panelists had your book on the shelf behind her desk and she said, now I see you published a book. I'm ordering it today. And I know who that, that person was.
But yeah, that's a colleague who I'd done some work with and, and she has a couple books from a couple of her colleagues on the shelf behind her desk. So just that sort of visibility and credibility that within the space of
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: professionals and consultants that they say, oh, I saw your book on the shelf behind the panelists, desks, and.
Elaine Acker: So what do you think was the hardest part of writing the book for you?
Bruce Rosenthal: The hardest part of writing the book was just making sure that what I knew and [00:17:00] experienced over the years with so many, you know, on the staff of an association for about seven years as VP of corporate partnerships, and then for the last eight or nine years as a consultant, that I can consolidate all of that between the front cover and the back cover in a way that made sense to folks.
And that's what you and I went back and forth on, I think we had a couple, three versions of the outline, just trying to, what is there, is this chronological or is this, and we kind of settled on the two parts with part, one being kind of the, you know, why almost the business plan. And then, and then the second part of the book, the how, the operations plan. And also realizing we were speaking to somewhat different audiences in terms of almost of course, size of associations. And what I always start with at the beginning of my webinars is remember that everything I say can be scaled.
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: unless it is a really teeny, tiny organization, but usually any organization with a budget of a million, million and a half upwards to whatever the same [00:18:00] practices apply.
And that's not true for every type of profession. I know I used to work with an organization of local governments and our members are very small, local governments and, and often folks would say, well, here's a strategy that worked in Chicago. I'm sure that would work in your city of 3000 people.
And it was like,
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: wouldn't. But most of the sponsorship strategies are very applicable to any size organization. So we were talking to different size organizations as well as I think the role of boards is very important and we talked about that a lot in the book. So that's why we really came up with the. and the how and the why is really that, that business plan demonstrating to the board why we need to pursue this idea and not leave money on the table and have a, a good competitive, successful corporate sponsorship program. And then the second part is more the, that operations plan of the association staff rolling up its sleeves and implementing the program.
Elaine Acker: Talk to me either about one of the case studies that's in the book, or another one that's come up since then. Show me how this works.
Bruce Rosenthal: Well, let me actually, lemme go [00:19:00] back actually many years ago to when I was working at an association and, and while I had kind of dabbled in sponsorships in a couple different organizations, I had a different role at an association back in 2009 and the association was, had a major revamp of its sponsorship program. and, and The last recommendation of the consulting agency was a senior level staff person to run the program and the CEO of the association called me in his office one day and closed the door and said, would you like a new job? And I said, oh, do you mean here? Or oh, no, no. I mean, I mean here at the association, he said, as you've probably heard we just wrapped up the revamp of the sponsorship program.
We need someone to run the program. You've worked here for a number of years, Bruce, and have, and one of the things he said, you have good relations with all the different departments on staff, which is we talked about a lot in the book, this is not just the job of one person to kind of dial for dollars, but it's really all hands on deck.
So support of the, the sponsorship program, so the CEO asked me to become the [00:20:00] VP of corporate partnerships and, his very simple marching orders I want, he said, I want to change this program from the transactional to the transformational.
Elaine Acker: Mm.
Bruce Rosenthal: From kind of a lot of logos and banners and bigger booths and kind of the way from the podium at the conference to really transforming that profession along with the corporate partners, because he recognized, and this was years before COVID when it was not as competitive as it is now, that we are really all working together.
And the other point that he made was. That the association's members are the sponsors customers. We are all talking to the same people, and especially now in this kind of wide open, everybody can access any information anytime he realized that members could go to the companies for good information as easily as they could come to the association. And there were some naysayers on staff, and I think even on the board that said, oh no, we're the association. The members will always come to our [00:21:00] association and we're seeing less of that allegiance than we used to. So he recognized that we really needed to make changes.
Now, that was 2009, so was a while ago, so he was very visionary in his thinking. Also, keeping in mind, that was 2009 was when the economy was still going in the wrong direction. So we had companies that were paying top dollar for a very good brand new corporate partner program. And there were several of those companies who we feared would get no new business from our members from the
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: in the next few years.
So that kind of set me on this path to what are the real value propositions? Why do companies sponsor, and fortunately we were able, we had one company that moved down level and then moved back up level as the economy got a little better. But we were able to keep them all in the fold and to continue to grow the program.
But the big change that we really made was to, even though this was a much improved program, we really put the whole gold, silver, bronze prospectus to the side and we [00:22:00] would engage companies with a conversation. And that has really become the cornerstone of this new strategy n not selling prepackaged conference focused.
To companies, but really to look at this as a year long or a multi-year partnership of working together on behalf of the members and, and the members' customers, or in case of healthcare organizations that people, that members serve. and, and to, to do that in tandem. So we began to Kind of socialize this idea of having conversations with companies. And at first even the companies in some cases were taken a little aback. And I know there was one company we were talking to about a renewal of their partnership and I was asking 'em company questions about the company's business goals and marketing objectives and what they wanted to achieve.
And, corporate marketing execs said, well, didn't we just have this conversation a year ago? And I said, well, we did, but I have a few more questions. And, and 10 minutes later in the conversation she said, oh, now that you mentioned we have a new initiative that we really think your [00:23:00] members should know about, the companies weren't even thinking about it.
They were still kind of in the mode of, what am I gonna put at the exhibit booth? What am I gonna put in the banner ad?
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: but there were other companies that began to really like the process. And there was one that, actually we were 10 minutes into the conversation and I kept asking questions and follow up questions and, and they said, can we just interrupt you for a second?
And I said, sure. And, They said, we just wanted to point out, we sponsored dozens of organizations. Nobody has ever asked us about our company's business goals and marketing objectives. They have never shown any
Elaine Acker: Wow.
Bruce Rosenthal: And I have found that consistently in including companies that are sponsoring upwards of a hundred, 200, $300,000.
And when I say does the association understand your company's goals? And the company's respond well? How would they, they've never asked. So I guess. Good that, that an association can, can be gleaning that much money from a company without knowing what its goals are, but [00:24:00] I think somewhat precarious because if the company realizes that somebody else, some other association might start to ask or they have other ways of getting those goals achieved that could be the beginning of the end of the sponsorship of that association.
Elaine Acker: That's kind of a zinger right there is to realize that you don't know nearly as much about your corporate client as you should have known.
Bruce Rosenthal: Well, and they have a wealth of information again, as, as that CEO I used to work with pointed out. The association's members are the. They're the sponsors customers, so the companies are out as much as the association staff is out there and at regional meetings and meeting with members and meeting with members of conferences. The companies are out there all the time too, and they're often very close to the, members in the members' workplaces and in the members' offices, and the companies tend to have a lot more money to invest in research and development than the association does s
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: to have that sort of discussion and [00:25:00] really bring the companies in the tent, and not just to provide information to members, but I, when I was on the staff of the association, we would invite corporate partners to come into the office one company at a time, and meet with the senior staff to meet with the CEO. And talk about what are we each hearing about in the field? What are we each hearing from members? What are the big changes? What are the big trends? What are the pain points? We would actually learn a lot from the companies, and I think they learned a lot from us. Several years ago I was working with an association of doctors and I was invited to their corporate advisory council meeting, which was a meeting of their board members and the senior executives from their corporate partner companies and during an hour of the day long session, the question for the hour was, what are the big challenges facing our profession? And they went around the table of the corporate partners and the board members, and [00:26:00] explained what the big challenges were. And I realized if I had been blindfolded, I would not have known who was answering the question. Because the board members and the corporate partners had the same answers. It was around how do we provide quality care for patients? How do we work better with our nursing staff? How do we work better with the insurance companies? How do we work better with the federal agencies who are regulating our profession? It is the same issues, so why not work together? And solve those problems. And as that discussion played out, they began thinking, oh, maybe we could work together in this meeting with the insurance companies or maybe we could work together on a letter to the regulatory agencies that is partnering.
And, have a slide in, some of my PowerPoints, the word partner. We often treat it as a noun. That company is
Elaine Acker: Yeah,
Bruce Rosenthal: But the word partner is also a verb. We partner with that company.
Elaine Acker: yeah. So many, so many opportunities and as you were talking, you [00:27:00] mentioned the federal piece, the federal regulations, and the things that sometimes associations and companies both have to deal with, which made me think about, you know, not to get into today's political climate specifically, but to acknowledge that as administrations change and regulations change, you know.
There are probably unthought of opportunities. You, you, you had one example, but you, you wouldn't normally, automatically think about partnering with a company to educate your members on a shift in policy or on a shift in something, but you had that exact thing happen and it was a super valuable experience.
Right.
Bruce Rosenthal: Right. We did. And, And it really, does apply to today's environment, politics aside, but this, so this was many years ago and it was right after the healthcare Reform Act, so called Obamacare passed. And, And I [00:28:00] worked in Association of Nursing Homes for retirement communities, who are our members. And right after it passed, we were having a senior staff meeting and a number of staff said, we're getting a lot of calls from members. Because they realized that healthcare reformed applied to their staff as well as the patients and the residents in their nursing homes and retirement communities.
And they were actually getting a lot of calls from consultants saying, you need to hire us because there are all these deadlines and if you don't meet these deadlines, you're gonna be penalized. And the members are calling us as their national association and saying, what should we do? as we're talking about this at a senior staff meeting and, and the CEO looks at the public policy staff and says, so. should we say to the members? And the public policy staff said the regulation is 1100 pages and we haven't quite gone through it yet. So we realized that was probably not a path to coming up with a quick answer. And, and we realized that one of our year long corporate partners was a healthcare consulting firm. So we called them and said, can you help us with this? [00:29:00] And they said, we'd be glad to. Why do we work on a PowerPoint presentation together? Well, actually to the together, part of it meant actually the healthcare consulting firm did 90% of the PowerPoint. And our staff looked it over and just to make sure that there was nothing salesy in it. It was all very factual about the deadlines and some of the deadlines were, were months or years off, but what our members needed to do in terms of their staff, what they needed to do in terms of their residents. And patients in terms of the Healthcare Reform Act our, we gave it to our, talking about everybody on staff having a role.
So we gave it to our marketing and our design staff, and they took the PowerPoint and put the corporate partners logo on, on the lower left hand corner of each slide and the association's logo on the, the lower right hand corner of each slide. then we decided to launch the. with a webinar. And the two presenters at the webinar were the CEO of our association and the CEO of the healthcare consulting firm. And they went [00:30:00] through and explained step by step all of the deadlines and what members needed to do and needed to be aware of. it turned out to be the triple win. So. first members got the information that they needed and the company was positioned as a thought leader.
There was nothing salesy. It was educating to sell. I'm sure there were some of our larger member organizations that called that consulting firm afterwards and said, you know, this was really helpful, but can you come in and help walk us through this and tell us what forms we need to fill out and what the deadlines are? That webinar recording and the PowerPoint out there for months afterwards as as to meet the member need and to continue to position the corporate partner. and it's also a good example 'cause I know we sometimes wrestle with, well, what if we don't know what all the activities are during the year and how can we come up with a year long corporate partnership if we don't know what's gonna happen month three or six or nine? and this was an example where a need came up. And we called one of our dedicated corporate partners and they said, oh, yeah, we hadn't planned on working on that. They also hadn't [00:31:00] planned on getting all the visibility from it,
Elaine Acker: Right.
Bruce Rosenthal: sure, let's stop what we're doing and we will help you with that.
So that was a partnership. And it was a very pricey partnership so that the association benefited
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: of as the subtitle of the book says, in terms of revenue and member value.
Elaine Acker: That's such a powerful story about how, the unexpected things can happen that can be such a powerful collaboration.
Bruce Rosenthal: and I think the same is true now, politics aside, but there are new regulations, there are executive orders, and I think it's a great opportunity for associations, whether it's putting together a task force with their corporate partners or calling a corporate partner and say, how are you dealing with this
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: or this new regulation? Maybe we could talk together about how to do that. Because the companies are wrestling with the same thing because they're working on the same issues with the same people.
Elaine Acker: And the worst thing you can do is do nothing. I'm just gonna put that out there. So you need to tackle it. Get in there.
Bruce Rosenthal: further the worst thing aside, [00:32:00] I think the other worst thing is for the association to work on that on their own, and then to
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: oh, we have this new position paper, we, and, and for one of the companies to say. We've been working on that too. I thought we were one of their partners and they
Elaine Acker: Yeah,
Bruce Rosenthal: called us.
Elaine Acker: Bruce, what do you wish people knew? It can either be about the association space or your business, or the book, or the book writing process. What do you wish people knew?
Bruce Rosenthal: I think what I wish people knew about sponsorship programs is that it is. Not about selling out to companies, it is not about endorsing products.
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: about coming together meeting the needs of members along with companies. That it is doable for associations of any size. So we've definitely worked with some large organizations that have had, several people on their corporate partnership staff.
Actually at the end of some of our consultation, some of those staff get promotions because of the increased responsibilities and visibility of their corporate partner program. But we also had a project a couple years [00:33:00] ago with, an organization that had five staff people. The executive director reached out to us. She said she would be our point person for the months that we would be working with the association to do the research and do all the pricing and analysis and rebuild their program and take it to market and. Initially, we actually said to her, we did not think she was the right person to take the lead as executive director of a small organization,
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: not have the time.
And we almost turned down the project and she said, no, I, I will be there. I will be on every biweekly call. I will give you guys every document you need. We will talk strategy throughout. And she did that and we. I about five months building the new program. They had previously just had a modest conference sponsorship program, and we created a year long corporate partner program at much higher price points and much higher value propositions for the companies. Within a few months, she sold three of the new yearlong corporate partnerships, which allowed her to hire that halftime person to [00:34:00] run the program because she recognized, as we thought initially, she didn't have time to run a corporate partner program as executive director. so we kind of finished the consultation and they given them all the tools and training and coaching and they were off on their own. And the executive director called my colleague and me a few months later and, and she said, can we, can we schedule a Zoom meeting? said, I got a problem. So we scheduled the Zoom meeting and we said, okay, how's it going? What's the problem? And she said. I'm sold out on corporate partnerships and we have companies that are knocking on the door and they wanna participate 'cause they've heard it's a good thing. And we said, good problem to have. And you're right, you can only sell so many because you have only have so much capacity to do because we're not just talking about, banners and, and logo placements or really talking about working with the companies. On joint initiatives and webinars and conference presentations, you can only handle so many. So, you know, keep a waiting list of the others [00:35:00] and ask people if
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: you know, wanna buy a bigger booth this year and next year you'll talk to 'em because you never know if there will be changes or at some point you may be able to grow the program and have a, couple more corporate partners. So, it is definitely doable.
It requires I think first off, the buy-in from the CEO or executive director and I have not seen a successful model. Which does not have that leadership buy-in. And, and
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: I look at sponsorship programs as, what I call an overarching goal. is not a standalone project where somebody can go in their office and make a lot of calls and bring in money and collect logos and put 'em on signs and be done with it. I can come up with a role for everybody on staff, whether it's seven staff or 70. And this is not a process that is for two associations because they do it very well with their annual meeting
Elaine Acker: Yeah.
Bruce Rosenthal: and for the better part of 12 months a year, every department has a role. And whether it's working on education programming or networking [00:36:00] meetings that are gonna be held during the conference or the logistics with the hotel or the conference center and all the audio visual and all the food and beverage or the marketing department or the finance department that's collecting. The registration fees or the membership database folks that are getting all this information in the database, the railway so we can get all the name badges printed out the railway. So there is a role for everybody on staff and in the associations where I've worked, when it has been up as many as 70 staff, about 68 of those staff are on site at the conference.
Elaine Acker: Mm-hmm.
Bruce Rosenthal: I think the only exceptions have been, you know, the one person that needed to stay there just to keep the lights on or issue the payroll and somebody who, personal reasons, couldn't travel that week or whatever. But I think the other characteristics of that all hands on deck, on site at the conference is that usually you do whatever the conference manager needs you to do if you're not
Elaine Acker: Right.
Bruce Rosenthal: So you may be the VP of whatever in charge of a program area and you're doing sessions [00:37:00] and meeting with the networking group and doing a presentation of the board, but the other hours you are doing whatever needs to be done. when we're talking about working with corporate partners. Where there could be a marketing component to their benefits or there could be a membership database component to them reaching out to a segment of members or an education role or meetings with the CEO. There are opportunities. Would a, a passive way to put it, but I think almost mandatory that every, every staff, be every staff department be committed, as part of their job, as in the same way they do for the annual conference. And often have a, a responsibility for contributing content to the website to be part of the partnership program.
Elaine Acker: having had a bit of a association background myself and worked with associations, I can attest that that is absolutely true, that, it is an all hands on deck situation at conference and that's a perfect [00:38:00] analogy for what happens whenever it's time to do a successful corporate sponsorship program.
So Bruce, I thank you for all of your insights today, and I will make sure that people know how to find your book. We're gonna put the link in the show notes, and we will also put your LinkedIn link in the show notes. So thanks so much. This is a perfect example of somebody deciding to share what they know, and it can literally transform a whole organization.
Bruce Rosenthal: Thanks Elaine.