How to Get Booked to Speak NEW RULES OF SPEAKING Think beyond the keynote: Meeting planners want different formats today. The days of ONLY doing the talking head speech are over. Offer other innovative formats of speaking such as o on-stage interviews o discussions o group masterminding o workshop labs; Your goal should be to hear, What else can you do? Unlike days past, you don t want to be asked to do it again in regards to your same speech. That s a one and done relationship. Eventually it runs out. You want to hear what else can you do so the one speech you deliver leads to a deeper, longer-term relationship, more projects with the same client, and more cash in your pocket! Professional speaker is a skill set it s not a job description. Be flexible in your delivery modes and methods. Above all else we are professional thinkers. Training is the MOST popular mode of delivery. This is true for live events as well as other flexible training offerings. Your goal should be to create a speaking and training empire. Training can include: o Video o On-site at the client s location o Assessments & tools online, in person, over the phone; o Licensing programs (Felicia is learning this VERY in-depth right now with her own coach!) Work using a new mental model: the golden triangle. However, I prefer to think of it as a cycle (See diagram on the following page). You can start at any point and each can lead to the other in any direction with all leading to income, cash, and profits for you. First can be speaking; however the only thing speaking can deliver is awareness; you can t change behavior or beliefs with a speech. If the audience wants more than awareness, they can do training, which leads to skills transfer. If they want even more, the output of consulting is behavior change. One should
lead to the other, to the other, to the other, around and around. Speaking= Awareness Content = Cash Consutling = Behavior Change Training = Skills Transfer Speaking leads to training leads to consulting leads to more speaking leads to on and on How to Set Up Your Speaking Business for Success: How to Do Market Research You need to discover: what is THEIR problem that you can solve? Gather data on the industry you want to target using Google to find info. Look for articles, blogs, verbatim quotes, videos clips, audio interviews to capture challenges and gaps in the industry and for the specific companies you are aiming to speak to. Then it s your job to come into the organization with credible solutions to pervasive, urgent, and expensive problems. Position yourself as an expert resource; as a true peer-level expert. The industry is NOT looking for professional speakers anymore, but looking for professional thinkers who speak, who consult, do seminars, workshops, facilitation, and coaching. It s about value and solutions, outcomes and benefits. GETTING PAST THE GATEKEEPERS ONE METHOD: Take off your speaker hat and put on the hat of a writer and journalist. Find publications that the target folks are reading; then write an article for that publication; great ways to get IN FRONT of those people, establish yourself as an expert and a peer. The article you write will feature your high-level target. As you connect with the high-level target, you will want to have a working title of the article you are working on. The title of article has to contain embedded compliment. Example for an innovation speaker might be a title like, How Smart Leaders at Top Companies Profit from Breakthrough Innovations. You re calling them smart, a leader, saying they work at a top company, and that they are innovative. They ll love you before you even pick up the phone.
Get the leader on the phone and keep it concise; you re only asking for 15 minutes. Ask these specific questions: o What s been the biggest factor in your success? o What obstacles and challenges are you still working on? o What is the best advice you ever heard? o What s the secret sauce you use that others miss? o What s the key practice or tactic you keep coming back to? o What does the next level of your success look like in this arena? This is the crystal ball question. Then as you arrive at min 14:30, say, When we set up our appointment, I asked for 15 minutes and I want to be respectful of your time. I have plenty of great info, but we can go on if you have time. This builds trust and relationships The interview isn t the point; but you should definitely DO IT. Don t make it be a rouse. The key however is all the follow up touch points including: o Immediate thank you email; o Written thank you note in mail; o Send finished article draft via email asking for feedback before publishing; o Send a link to the blog post that features them either on your site or in a key publication they will be reading; o Offer to stop by and give them a signed book of yours if you are local or going to be in the area; o Soon after send a different link, resource, etc. that would make sense based on the conversation you had. o By touch 8-9, you can say I ve been thinking about what you have coming up next with your XYZ issue. I think I have a few ideas and it might be a good idea to work together on a more formal basis. Would you like to talk about that? Then the door is easily opened. MYTH BUSTING TRUTHS: 1. MYTH: Paid professional speakers fill out RFPs. TRUTH: They are selected, hired and paid, no RFP required. Explanation: It s the no-fee or low-fee people filling out those forms. If you contact someone and they send you an RFP, respond with, Thank you so much, I appreciate the invitation to submit. Are your paid professional speakers filling out this form, or is this your non-paid spots? What would you like to see from me to be considered for one of your keynote paid spots. 2. MYTH: The secret to getting booked is speakers bureaus. TRUTH: Speakers bureaus are only booking well-established, celebrity, and proven speakers. Even then, bureaus only represent 20-30%. 3. MYTH: You can hire a speaker agent to sell for you. TRUTH: We HAVE to know how to sell ourselves. AND You can hire someone to do your research, find the contacts names and information, write your initial emails (if you lack in that
area and don t have access to a template), set the appointment, and even, once you create a system, send follow-up messages from your email account as you. But you ll need to be the one on the phone making the connections and building your own relationships. You can t outsource relationship-building if you re doing it right! 4. MYTH: Prospects don t want to talk to you. TRUTH: If you call or email with a highly relevant program that solves a specific problem, meeting planners are HAPPY to hear from you. Everyone appreciates value. 5. MYTH: Every audience is a good fit for your message. TRUTH: There is always someone who needs your message more urgently than others and will value it more highly find THEM. 3 BIG CHALLENGES FOR SPEAKERS 1. How to powerfully brand your speech your speech titles, consistent focused content, and an irresistible package. 2. How to precisely target your most relevant your best business for repeatability and referability. 3. How to easily connect with the highest probably prospects who look at you as a partner, not a peddler. TAPPING INTO YOUR CLIENTS WANTS, NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS Today s buyers want these 7 things from their speakers 7 REASONS TO HIRE YOU 1. Expertise: real in-depth knowledge, specific, actionable takeaways, scripts; not theory or philosophy 2. Currency: up-to-the-minute current ideas and insight; they want info for future trends; being ahead of the curve 3. Relevance: for their audience and industry; directly stories, case studies, and industry specific content 4. Be easy to work with! Be responsive, fun, professional 5. Interaction: No lecture; mix it up; conversation, activities, 6. Experience: people who have DONE THINGS in the real world; we probably have these things but not talking about it. Real work experience from before speaking business; credibility items 7. Authenticity: the REAL you; not a jerk; keep it real; share mistakes and successes; This is what buyers want give it to them in your marketing. LANDMINES & MISTAKES MISTAKE: Having no idea who your prospects are. Test yourself: Which associations, companies and groups are you trying to speak for? If you do not have a list of 20 groups, associations, companies that you speak for, you don t know who
your prospects are. When you develop it, this list becomes your target group for networking (live and online), talking to speaker friends about; etc. MISTAKE: Not having a sales process. Random activity leads to random results. You need to proactively target, pursue, and reach out to companies that you want to do business with. MISTAKE: Sounding like an idiot when you call or email. Wasting their time and spending too much time talking about yourself is how to turn them off. Focus first on them, their needs, their members, audience, event and goals. LAUNCH AND RELAUNCH STRATEGIES AND TOOLS Give away your expertise for free. Strategy: put 80% of your content out there for the people who you want to serve the most. Use podcasts, teleseminars, webinars, cheat sheets, videos, blog posts, interviews. Your goal is to produce tangible sources of excellence that prove to the buyer that you are awesome. MONEY AND FEES: There is no such thing as a beginning speaker if you have years of professional experience in your area of expertise. Your minimum stated fee should be $5000 to be treated like a credible professional. Never have a fee discussion before the value discussion. This is like going into a job interview and talking about salary first. Never lower your fee without also taking something off the table. If a meeting planner says they want you but asks what you can do to lower your price, you ask, What would you like me to remove from the program we talked about? If you are not getting your fees, there is one of a combination of three reasons: o Have articulation problem o Have distinction problem o Have relevance problem