Guidance Document for calling companies

This guide has originally been prepared by Jakob Berg Jespersen (jakob@iscb.org) - Finance Chair 2015 & 2016

Getting sponsors is not always easy, and even with multiple emails and good personal/professional connections, it can be hard to get a deal.

Meeting in person with a representative is a great way to get in touch with the right people inside a company.

This is thought to be a support document to help the process of calling out companies, which can be great as we dont need to wait for a confrence to tak place, and it offers a more personal interaction than an email.

A call can either be made with or without having sent an email beforehand.

Before Calling

Thing to have handy

Having a document with this years sponsor offers is great, and knowing which other companies have purchased sponsorships may be a great card on your hand in the conversation.

Make sure you have a pen and a piece of paper to jot down the name on everybody you meet in the phone queue.

you may be forwarded through a couple of people along the journey, so being able to namedrop who forwarded you can potentially ease people down a bit.

Make sure you have familiarized yourself with the sponsor offerings and have an understanding of how the sponsorship will be carried out on the day itself. Each sponsorship should prefferably be walked throug together with the symposium committee, to avoid any misunderstandings.

example of logistics related to a sponsorship

A Travel Fellowship may for example be sold for USD 400 and go to a student. Often the company would like to know the name and affiliation of that student. If we are able to take a photo of the student at the conference itself this is a very nice gesture to the company. Things like theese are what keeps them comming back year after year to sponsor our event.

a different example is the option for a company to give a session for the entire crowd. This could eg be a workshop lasting 45 mins. This is a popular sponsorship, and should delicately be placed in the program agenda. Chances are that there is not time in the agenda for more than a single type of this sponsorship, as we usually have a lot on the schedule.