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- Speaking - From FREE to FEE
- by Lenny Laskowski
- © 1998 LJL Seminars
Many people often ask me what it takes to get people to "pay"
you to speak. Before an organization is willing to pay a speaker they need to feel there is
value in what the speaker has to say. Keep in mind speaking for free does NOT mean that you do
not offer something of value.
The goal of speaking before a group should not always be motivated by money. I can remember
situations during my career where I would have been willing to pay for the opportunity to
speak to a group. One thing that always occurs when you are speaking before a group, whether
being paid or not, is that you are making impressions to everyone in that group. The more
people that hear you speak, the more people there are who can refer you others who CAN pay
you.
Organizations such as Rotary, Elks, Lions, Moose, Chamber Of Commerce needs speakers all the
time. Several non profit organizations and associations have meetings every month and often
have trouble looking for speakers. Contact all your local associations and introduce yourself.
Many of the members of these associations have businesses of their own and often have the
ability and authority to "hire" speakers to speak within their own organizations.
The speaking business, and I emphasize the word "business" is a heavily referral
based business. Most people prefer to have a friend or colleague refer a speaker to them that
they have actually heard speak. The more people that hear you speak and are familiar with your
abilities and message the more people there are who can refer you to paying clients. Whether
you get paid to speak or speak for free you should focus on delivering your message to each
audience.
Most audiences have people who do have the ability to hire you or know someone else who can. I
can honestly trace paid speaking business to many of the free speaking engagements I have
performed. Over the years I have learned various methods and techniques that help me to
maximize these free speaking engagements.
Often these same organizations that do not have budgets for the speaker can offer other
"in kind" services that are worth more than your actual speaking fee. For example, I
have spoken for an organization who did not have a budget to pay speakers but did have the
resources (people & equipment) to professionally videotape my presentation. In the end
they provided me with an original recording along with several copies of the video of my
presentation. Had I hired someone to professionally videotape my presentation, it would have
cost me much more than my regular speaking fee.
Many speaking bureaus will not hire you until they have seen and heard you speak. They may
hire you if someone they know refers you but typically will still ask for a demo tape (audio
or video). Whenever I am speaking at an association meeting in a new city, I try to contact
the local speakers bureaus and let them know I will be speaking in the area. After getting
permission from the client who hired me, I offer the speakers bureau the opportunity to come
and hear me speak.
When you do speak to any organization, bring plenty of business cards. Have your name, address
and telephone number on all your handout materials. I also include my web address and e-mail
address as well. It still amazes me the people who have attended keynotes I have delivered 3
or 4 years ago contact me because they saved my handout. I have had people who have attended
one of my sessions give copies of my handouts to other people they know because they felt the
materials I provided were worth sharing. These people, just based on the handout, called me
and hired me to speak to their group.
Speaking to associations is a key part of my marketing efforts. Let me explain. The bulk of my
speaking services (about 60%) is providing "in house" workshops and seminars to the
corporate market. Another 25% is "keynote" speaking to associations and
organizations. Providing "one-on-one" coaching to executives and individuals
accounts for 10% and the remaining 5% is providing local continuing education seminars.
These four types of speaking provide a constant source of referral based leads for my
business. The percentages do vary from year to year. Some years I may spend 40% of my time
delivering keynotes, 20% coaching individuals and the balance of 40% is providing
"in-house" corporate programs. A lot will depend on associations. Most associations
will not hire the same speakers as they hired last year. If they do hire you again it may not
be until 3 years later because they like to have different speakers each year. On the other
hand there are associations that I have spoken to each year for the last 4 years, but I will
usually provide a different program.
Not all speakers can provide "in house" seminars and also provide keynote speeches.
The speaking skills involved for delivering a keynote and not the same as those skills
required to provide a "hands-on" workshop. The keynote speaker is usually hired to
entertain a group at some special function. That is not to say, that the keynote speaker does
not offer substance and education value, but the speaking delivery and approach of a keynoter
requires some different skill sets. This is important to understand from a marketing
perspective since the people you may be marketing to are different.
Corporations typically hire trainers and workshop leaders. They generally do not hire keynote
speakers for "in house" programs. They are looking for people who can provide some
type of training for their staff.
Associations generally hire keynote speakers, lunch time speakers and after dinner speakers
for one of their regular meetings or special annual meetings. Some associations will also
offer some special training seminars to their membership in conjunction with their event. The
speaker who can provide both a keynote and training session will often be hired because they
can meet the needs of the client for both speaking situations.
For example, in October of this year I will be providing three half day seminars for a client
as part of their annual conference. On the last day of their conference, I will also be
providing the lunch time keynote. Because I was already being paid my full fee for these three
seminars and needed to be there during lunch, I offered to provide the lunch time keynote at
no additional fee. This is a "win-win" situation for both of us.
Keep in mind, many of these association members also work for corporations who need "in
house" programs. Speaking at association meetings continues to generate leads and actual
work for me as an "in-house" trainer. I have even provided many FREE lunch-time 45
minute programs that have lead to multiple "in house" seminars. The condition of
providing the program FREE was to require that key decision makers attend these lunch time
programs and hear me speak, especially those people who have the authority to hire me. I also
make sure I am introduced to these people during the lunch time event and follow up with them
afterwards. This was the way I "broke into" the corporate market and established
some credibility as a corporate trainer. These corporate executives then referred my name to
other corporate executives, which in some case were either their next door neighbor of a
member of the same church they attended. As I mentioned earlier in this article, this is a
referral based business. In can trace many of my best paying clients back to some "pro
bono" speaking I provided either that year or a few years earlier.
Many of these associations will often provide you with the names & addresses of their
entire membership list. I also ask the person who hires me to provide me the names and
contacts of other people they know who they think may be interested in hiring me. I also ask
that they make the initial contact with these people. When I do call them, it is not a
"cold call" but a follow up call to the one initially made by the people who hired
me. I add the names of these people to my mailing list, especially the members who attended my
session and heard me speak. If you do offer to speak for free, ask that the person who hired
you provide some kind of press coverage and place an article in the local newspaper announcing
your speaking engagement. Always try to have them include a photograph of you as part of the
article. An article with a photograph always draws more attention. It also helps you establish
a "celebrity" status, at least in the local newspaper. Other executives, both
corporate and associations will read this article and may contact you just based on the
article. This article will more effective in attracting other business, than a classified ad
you would have paid a lot of money for.
You can even call the local newspapers and mention that you will be speaking in the area and
offer to write a short article about your topic that they could publish in the local
newspaper. The article should not be too promotional but offer some sound advice to the
typical client you would like to attract. Have them include your name, address and telephone
at the end of the article so people will be able to contact you. This also lets the newspaper
that you would be available as a good contact for future articles and believe me they will
contact you.
Another effective method is to become an active member of key associations who have the types
of business contacts that may be good for your business. Becoming an officer in the
association affords you the opportunity to become first known as a member of this association
and get to know the members personally. Through this professional association, the other
members become more familiar with your speaking services and what you have to offer. They are
then in a better position to either refer you to someone they know or even hire you for their
own company.
The moral of the story is to speak every where, even if for free. It works. The more people
know about you the more people there are who can tell others. Continually build your network
of business contacts and soon you will be asked to speak for your full fee. The key is to
learn how to "leverage" these FREE speaking engagements into generating PAID
speaking engagements.
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- Lenny Laskowski
- Lenny Laskowski is an international professional speaker and the author
of the book, No Sweat Presentations - The Painless Way to Successful Speaking and several
other publications. Lenny is also available for hire to speak to your organization,
college or association. Lenny also provides in-house seminars and workshops. Why not
contact Lenny today for your next function or event. Lenny can be found at his Web site, http://www.ljlseminars.com/ or can be contacted by
email at the following address: Sales@LJLSeminars.com.
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