← Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Episode 885: Shelling Out $5,000 for a Black-Tie Event, and Leads? Not a Single One
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I've never gotten a single listing from a logo on a banner in 22 years of real estate, not one. And neither has almost, almost any real estate agent I've talked to. Most agents just don't want to admit it that you talk to and you watch them spend so much money on these banners. The challenge is, yes, I know it's part of a larger play, the branding, but if you're just doing that one thing, it's not going to work. Yesterday we tore apart events, and today we're going to talk about sponsorships. And this one I want you to really pay attention to, because most agents are running this play exactly wrong. And the dollar amounts they're wasting is crazy because we're getting calls from the local school, we're getting calls from this community center, from this, and a lot of people are asking for our money to participate in just branding in our banners. And look, it goes much deeper than that, but at the same time, it's simple. I know, look, you write a check. Your logo goes on a banner for a jersey, a school program. You get a mention. You call it marketing agents running this on a monthly or weekly basis. It feels good because there's something that you can see visually, and it feels like you're actually doing something for the community. You think it's some way of supporting a cause, a local cause even. You get your name out there, and six months later you have nothing. So they convince themselves, agents, that maybe it's the next sponsorship they want to do and this one just didn't work. Or maybe, you know, the sponsorship doesn't work as a whole because that one thing itself, guess what? It's not going to do anything. And here's the distinction that a lot of people don't make clear to us when we start this. Sponsorships fall into two. Two completely different categories. Outside sponsorships and inside sponsorships. That's what I want you to separate them to. Most agents only run outside sponsorships. That's why they don't work. An outside sponsorship is when you write a check. Your logo goes on somewhere, and that's the extent of your involvement. Poof, you're done. Logo on a jersey, name on a program, banner at the event. And I see a lot of those, especially on baseball fields. You're outside the actual operation of the organization. You're a passive contributor. And by the way, if you want to take a look at how many other people are passive contributors, just open up that thing that you paid to be in or check out the wall or check out that gate on the baseball field. There are a whole bunch of other realtors on there. An inside sponsorship is fundamentally different. You write the check, but the check is the smallest part of what you're doing. You're on the planning committee. You're at the meetings. You know the executive director by name. You're one of the people who actually shape how the event runs or however this thing that you contributed is coming out or going out. You're inside the organization, not outside it. Here's what I want you to pay attention to. Where most agents fail, or most agents just don't want to hear it, outside sponsorships almost never produce business. So if that's your plan on doing just that, don't do it. You're wasting your money. Inside sponsorships consistently do. And the dollar amount of the sponsorship is almost irrelevant. Well, you know, in comparison, right? There's. There's a dollar amount you have to watch for, but it's almost irrelevant compared to the time you put alongside it. Let me give you a specific example of what this looks like in practice. You sponsor the local event. Let's call it the local theater annual gala. That's the best I could come up with right now. Outside version, you write a $5,000 check. Yes. That's how much they tried to pitch me. Say he. $5,000. We can do this. Your name goes in the program. You attend the gala in a tux, you smile, some pictures. You go home. That sponsorship produce. Exactly. Yes. How much? Nothing for your business. Surprise. The people who attend the gala don't remember which company was on page 14 of the program. Now, let's take a look at the inside version. Same $5,000 check, but you also join the host committee. You go to the planning meetings. Maybe they didn't ask you to come, but you're the one saying, hey, I'm available. I'd love to go. You spend three hours a month for six months sitting in the rooms with the artistic director, the executive director, and the wealthiest patrons that are part of this thing. You're known to them by name before the gala opens. You're the person who solved the seating chart problem in March. By the time the gala arrives, you've built relationships with 15 people who collectively know everyone in your market that you've been trying to reach this whole time. Same dollar amount, completely different outcome. Now, of course, same dollar amount, different time spent, because now this becomes a prospecting arm. This becomes your. Into the community you've been trying to get into. That's the important piece. The Strategic move with sponsorships is the whole key to this, right? And you find three to five organizations that you think match the audience you're trying to connect with. And you do that. That's the key. That's where you're like, you know what? This is geographically located. Where I want. This is demographically exactly who I want to reach. And you embed yourself into that world committees, board levels, right? And don't expand this to like I'm going to do it to seven or 10. It's not going to work. Charitable foundations, school auctions, art organizations, environmental groups in the coastal communities like mine, country club committees do extremely well. And once you commit, you commit for at least guess how long, Tristan? Six months? How about a year, Tristan? At least three years. This is a very long term play. These relationships, they mature in year two and beyond year one, you're the new person. They're barely getting to know you. Do I trust this guy? Is this guy for real? Is this person going to show up consistently? Now, year two, you're trusted. You're no longer that new person. How do I know? I've done this before. And you're three. If you've shown up this way, you're indispensable. Problem is, most agents quit even before one. Year one is over because nothing is producing yet. Because all we want is the lowest hanging fruit. And this has no lowest hanging fruit pretty quick. Which is why almost, almost nobody does this. And nobody does this long enough to see it actually win. Now you do see this in the luxury world. You do see this with people that have done this super long term, they commit to this, but it also takes a different personality to do this. So if this one doesn't fit, don't do it. But if you think, man, this makes sense, you've got to play the inside game, right? But only with specific conditions attached, right? Youth, sports and school fundraisers, a logo on the jersey play. But that's, remember, it's not just the logo on the jersey, it's what else are you going to be doing? This actually works for volume agents and family markets. If you're looking at the sports play. But remember, you have to show up to the games. You have to show up to all these and people. You'll see the parents. I've seen agents who do both of these. That's one, they put their logo and brand on a banner and their logo and brand on the jersey. But guess what? They show up to all the games. They show up, they bring food, they're, they're Just so helpful. They're. I feel like they're a parent. And then there's, there's the other people who just paid for the banner and that's it. It's different than knowing the parents. The parents will be like, oh, that's my kid over there. You integrate with the community. You're known as a parent first person, not an agent, business first person. Right. It's a completely different world when you play this. And I want you to understand that it takes a lot of commitment. I did this specifically with AYSO way back in the day with soccer. And I did it for my daughter and I did it for my son. But guess what? I thought to myself, I'm not going to do this right unless I become the coach. So that's going to force me to show up. And guess what? The first year I did this, at the end of that year, I had two transactions from parents from that little soccer team. And then I didn't see these parents for years. My daughter was six when I did that. My daughter's now 19. And in that process, I've had four transactions and I haven't talked to those parents. They reach out to me and when they see me in public, they still remember me. That's crazy. Now, I probably could have had more if I stayed in touch with them, but they reached out to me about multimillion dollar homes. So it takes a lot of commitment and don't do what I did, which is don't continue it. I would have totally loved to continue it, but I went all in at that time and you'll see completely different results. This isn't one dimensional. This is a recurring process. Sponsorship without participation is just donation. Donation without relationships is charity. Neither one builds your business. And I need business. Both of us need business. You listening and me. So just stop pretending that that's marketing, because it's not. So here's your action today. Audit your current sponsorships, if you have any, all of them. Make a list next to each one. Write down whether it's inside or outside. And hopefully some are inside. Chances are pretty high some of these are just going to be outside. You just paid money and did nothing with it. Inside means you're at the meetings, you know the people, you're shaping, how the organization runs. Outside means, remember just writing a check and you're leaving. Drop the outside ones unless you have a big plan. Take those dollars and direct them into something that is valuable along the audience you want to grow and the demographic you want to grow and make sure that you're committed to. If not, dump this whole thing and go to the dinners that we talked about yesterday. Go all in on Instagram, do something else. Just don't think that this sponsorship is going to work for you if you don't go all in on this. I would say start with 1. If you're into sports, do the sports. 1. If your children are at school, do the school. 1. If you are. If you have a business, local business, and I think we all do, maybe we do the Rotary and we're involved. We participate in all of those things that Rotary does weekly. And there's a lot of. Or maybe it's something else. Maybe it's the Chamber of Commerce. I don't know. Pick one. Don't just fund it and sponsor, but be part of the growth in it. Be part of the changes. Show up to the meetings. They'll see that you care. It just takes a while. I'm Tristan. This is your daily real estate. Please share this with somebody you think may need this, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.