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Sometimes I wonder how US Presidents used to get around. Before the invention of the limousine, the private jet, or even the car, what exactly set the President’s mode of transportation apart from the mode of the regular citizen? Did George Washington and John Adams ride on a fully armored horse, complete, of course, with tinted windows? Did Thomas Jefferson and James Madison ride in a carriage as secret service agents ran beside, ready to receive any urgent telegrams warning them of trouble up ahead? However the Presidents used to get from place to place, the present Presidents travel in one major mode: a Presidential Limousine.

A Presidential Limousine has become virtually synonymous with the word “Armored Car,” in essence, it is a vehicle of hardcore protection. It is also quite a spectacular site to look at. Distinct and unlike any other automobile around, the Presidential Limousine is a car we’d all like to take for a drive. Unfortunately, prison gets in the way of that desire.

The recent 2006 Presidential Limousine is a handcrafted version of the Cadillac Deville Touring Sedan. It features leather interior, a foldaway desktop, an entertainment system, massaging cushions, and a communications panel. In other words, it will make all of the Toyota Camry’s and Honda Civics we drive feel very insecure about themselves; drops of wiper fluid will fall from their windshields when they think no one is looking.

When it comes to being armored, the Presidential Limousine can withstand all sorts of attacks. The outside of the car is five inches thick with ballistic armor, and is rumored to be able to sustain an attack from a grenade launcher. Not to be upstaged, the underside of the car is also protected. The windows don’t open at all and the doors don’t open without the engagement of an automatic system. The Presidential Limousine also contains a run-flat tire system, which allows to car to, quite simply, continue to run when a tire is flat (although at a slower pace). It is also sealed with a repellent that would keep it safe against chemical and biological warfare.

The Presidential Limousine always uses the call sign “Cadillac One.” Cadillac One goes wherever the President goes and is distinctive, branded with Presidential seals. On national and international trips, it is airlifted to the President’s destination. Cadillac One typically flies the US flag and the Presidential flag. However, when visiting a foreign nation, the flag of that country replaces the Presidential flag.

The Vice President also has a presidential limousine, or rather, a vice presidential limousine. It is similar to the President’s except it flies the Vice President flag and is branded with the Vice Presidential Seal. Like Cadillac One, the Vice Presidential Limousine also travels wherever the Vice President goes.

In the motorcade, the Presidential limo is followed closely by several other vehicles. These include an ambulance (filled with bags of blood of the President’s type), policeman, reporters, staff members, and a secret service vehicle that houses communications. All in all, the motorcade usually involves 35 vehicles for the President, and a lot of traffic for local citizens.

You’re ready!

You’ve got an idea you’re excited about and can’t wait to start implementing it.

You mapped out your schedule and put together all the necessary information for the plan to go with your idea.

You’d love to give it just one last once over, though – maybe a “presentation checklist” if you will.

This week I’ve put together for you a list of things that could help you feel even more confident (and in turn, more excited!) going into your sponsorship presentation.

That’s where I come in: to share the 5 elements that you’ll need to give a winning sponsorship presentation!

1. Make sure your idea is finished

If you’re not sure about some aspects of the project, it’s better to figure it out beforehand. The clearer your own project is in your head, the more confident you’ll be in answering any questions.

QUICK TIP: If you’re still feeling unclear about your idea, do more research or ask colleagues, family members or friends for clarification; a second opinion to make sure your idea is clear will help!

2. Find common ground with the prospect.

Everyone likes attention and nobody wants to feel like a faceless ATM. Do your research and get to know your prospect. Tailor your offer to their values and beliefs! It doesn’t mean you need to lose your individuality, of course.

The trick is to find a sponsor who shares your own views and beliefs. It will make sponsorship natural and logical. You don’t ask a tobacco company to sponsor an event for children. Give them a reason to work with you! After all, what’s better than a similar mission?

QUICK TIP: Make a list of your prospect’s values and interests and cross reference them with your own to feel confident in your common ground!

3. Promise less, do more

Don’t oversell yourself. Even if you do a good job, your sponsor might be disappointed simply because he was promised more. Try to give yourself some cushion to exceed expectations. If you do what you promised – good. If you do even more because you had the room to maneuver – even better!

QUICK TIP: Google other sponsorship proposals for your area of expertise and see what they’ve offered. This can help you to bring up new ideas so you can offer “a little extra”!

4. Simplify

When I plan a presentation, I always want to seem confident. I’m tempted to “facilitate the interface” instead of just “simplifying” it, or to “give assistance to the remainder of the users” instead of “helping the rest of them.” You get the picture?

It’s easy to get lost in the corporate lingo. The truth is, no normal person speaks it fluently. Drop the big words like ‘implement’ and ‘execute’, and you’ll see how strong and solid your speech is without all the clutter.

QUICK TIP: To make sure you’re making perfect sense, try giving your presentation to some friends – someone who knows little to nothing about the project. You don’t need to impress them, so just explain what you do and why and how. Do they understand you? Are they able to retell it correctly in their own words? If the answer is yes to both, then great job, you’re ready! If not, simplify a bit more and try again. You’ll get it right, for sure!

5. Illustrate.

A great final touch is to paint a broad strokes picture in your prospect’s mind. Use photos, schemes, or promo videos of your project. Give numbers: people attending, estimated quantities, places, and names. All these details will magically transform any abstract idea into the real deal.

To add to that, make sure you have ways for the public to learn about you and to see you make progress. If it’s an event, upload some behind-the-scenes photos. If it’s a product, show the process of how it’s being developed.

QUICK TIP: Use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – anything that fits you! We live in a world where if you don’t exist in the internet, you don’t exist at all, and visible progress helps paint a clearer picture of your idea.

All that’s pretty useful. But the most important, gravely serious, undeniably vital thing is: Be yourself. Know yourself and your project. The presentation will almost give itself if you go with your gut.

You can get sponsored!

It may take time and there might even be a few “no’s” along the way no matter how awesome your presentation is and how well you’ve done your research. I’ve been doing this for years, and I still hear “no” from time to time.

What matters is finding the right people to see your idea for the amazing opportunity it is.

Keep going, you’ve got this!

If you have a product then you should never just launch it without doing proper research. In this article I am going to discuss what you need to research before you think about launching your product.

Profitable

It goes without saying that you should never create a product let alone launch it unless you know there is demand for it. If you know that there are people who need and want your particular product then you have a rough idea that it should be successful.

Buyers

However, just because people want something doesn’t necessarily mean they are prepared to pay for it and therefore you also need to make sure that people are willing to spend money to get what you are offering.

A good way to find this out is to see if similar products to yours are already making money. If you visit any online book store and have a look at the nonfiction books on topics that are the same as your product, if you find that there are plenty of books and the people have added reviews then you know that people are actually spending money to find out about that topic.

Making sure that your product has the best chances of being profitable is absolutely critical.

Online Visibility

Once you are convinced that your product idea will be profitable you need to make sure that there are people online that you can get visibility to. In this article I am talking about launching your product online and therefore you need to make sure that your target market are already hanging out somewhere online.

You won’t sell anything unless you can get visibility to your offer and therefore you need to find out where your ideal customers are and begin to get involved wherever that is.

This might be in a forum, discussion group, article directory, on YouTube, wherever they are online you need to get involved.

Communication

Decide how you are going to communicate with your target market and if you’re going to build an email list where you can easily communicate with them. Offering a free gift that is related to your product idea is a good way for people to sign up to your email list. Not only are you offering something valuable to your potential subscribers you are also finding out if people actually want this information.

This is important because the more people you get to sign up to your list the more people you will be able to target your product to knowing that they are already interested in this particular topic. Therefore your free gift must be related to your actual product.

Once you have done this research and you know that your product is likely to be profitable and you already have a list of subscribers who have shown interest in your products topic then you can think about launching that specific product.