I read Seth Harris' article (MeetingNews, Nov. 16) titled "Planners Finding Speakers More Flexible" with great interest and felt strongly compelled to weigh in with a few opinions from the speaker's perspective and offer up some helpful tips to share with meeting pros on how to pull off stronger events in the future. To give a more balanced perspective, it's also worth noting that I also conduct and plan many events for my own speaking programs and with key consulting clients each year.
I see a large number of meeting planners being penny-wise and pound-foolish, as Benjamin Franklin supposedly called it, by pulling back on using professional speakers for three key reasons: tightened budgets, demands for customized versus general content and use of internal folks or industry-specific people who charge little or no fee. These three reasons are why meeting planners not only are pulling back on using professional speakers, but also cutting fees, according to my own direct experience with several meeting planners I speak to each week after five years in the business full-time and several hundred paid talks under my belt.
Here are three big-picture and long-range concerns I see within the meeting planner and speaker's bureau business:
• A lack of priority placed on the importance of getting a speaker who will hustle and market. The professional speaker who's going to be successful now and into the future will have to partner much closer with the meeting planner to build a buzz and get butts in seats. The speaker who can add greater value will, as an added bonus, make the meeting planner look like a hero, above and beyond just delivering a powerful keynote, general session or multiple breakouts.
• You get what you pay for. I'm picking up a lot of speaking dates because many meeting planners are catching heat for using boring (often free) speakers or the same old industry vets who tell ancient war stories of glory when the economy was booming. We survey our audiences and get a ton of feedback from our own sessions and the meeting planners we work with as well. Here are a few of the main hot buttons of interest that attendees are seeking with the featured speakers: engaging, motivational and street-smart content that can be used immediately to make it worth their time and travel costs to attend.
• Fear and apathy. I'm stunned at how many worn-down meeting planners who I communicate with are simply going through the motions and taking the path of least resistance, ranging from the cheapest rooms to the cheapest meals and, of course, buckling down to get the cheapest speaker. You can cut to the bone, but at some point you have to take stock or risk cutting off a limb or two.
I would like to offer up three points to strongly consider when seeking out a professional speaker who is not a big name/big fee player for your future events, including the ability to promote and market, be creative with compensation and add value above and beyond just the speaking fee.
The first area is the speaker's ability to help you promote and market the event.
• Does the speaker offer up or have such tools as press releases, marketing copy, or advance preview calls with potential audience members at their disposal?
• Do they have current and updated references and audience survey results they can provide?
• Are they industry outsiders who will bring fresh perspective, or someone in the industry who can draw people based on favorable word-of-mouth to increase the odds of success?
The second area to explore when managing risk or a super-tight budget is a combination of a flat fee and revenue share in which the speaker is paid a set amount for each attendee. In some situations, I've worked arrangements with meeting planners when certain criteria match my goals for a flat fee for each paid registration.
Under this type of scenario, it's in the speaker's best interest to assist you even more in marketing the event, as the number of people who show up determines the fee.
The third area to strongly consider is the speaker's willingness to add value above and beyond their fee. For example, are they willing to offer or include one of their books or audio or digital products to each attendee? How about a post-event conference call for attendees who are interested in follow-up questions or further clarification? Almost every speaker these days at various fee levels must be willing to negotiate fees and adjust their value proposition.
Meeting planners can increase their odds of pulling off successful meetings by securing speakers who can demonstrate that they can add value in pulling in and engaging audiences.
Originally published Feb. 15, 2010