A couple of days ago, I came across an excellent article written by an event planner. It was a how-to article outlining the steps an event planner should take when they’ve found a speaker they’d like to approach about speaking at their event. It was so good, I decided to reverse engineer it for speakers, as in, how can we use this information to our advantage before we approach someone about speaking at their event?
This first list is research you’d be doing anyway. Here, it’s just packaged into a short 5-item checklist you can refer to when you’re doing your research.
What are the 5 “W’s” of any speaking opportunity you’re considering? You know, the who, what, when, where, and why of any speaking opportunity you find.
Who will be in the audience? Are they a good match for your problem-solving expertise?
What’s the event about? Does it have a theme? Is it a recurring series? Is it a one-off speaking opportunity?
When does it take place? Does it fit into your calendar?
Where will it take place? In person? Virtually?
Why might it be a great fit for you?
Once you know the logistics work, this is when an event planner might start trying to sell you on the benefits of speaking at their event. Well, instead of letting a planner point out these four benefits to you, why not consider them on your own?
- People – Thinking beyond the people in your audience, this includes people you’re hoping to meet and/or interact with when you aren’t on stage. Are there mucky-mucks you want to meet? Are there people attending you’re hoping to impress with your signature talk? Is it a deal breaker if no one “important” is going to be in the audience?
- Purpose – What would your purpose be for speaking at this event? To spread the word about you? To continue to share your message with as many people as possible? To get more experience? There’s no right or wrong here, just be honest with yourself about what you really want from this speaking opportunity.
- Prestige – Sometimes thinking about how “prestigious” an event is will have someone saying “No” to an event without much prestige… an event that could have turned out spectacularly for them. Does this ring true in how you choose events you’d like to speak at?
- Perks – Perks are always nice. They’re a great bargaining point too, so you’ll want to get them all on the table before you say yes. What perks do you hope for/expect when you’re speaking at someone’s event? Will you be speaking for a fee, or for free? Will they pay for your gas, transportation, etc? Lunch? Will you get to meet and greet your audience? Can you collect people’s contact information? Can you make an offer?
Lastly, be prepared to provide a planner with good reasons to extend an invitation to you to speak at their event.
- Articulate how you are similar but also different from prior speakers they’ve brought in.
- Give them examples of how you’ve positively impacted other audiences.
- Share a few techniques you like to use to keep your audiences engaged.
- Let them know you understand the demographics and psychographics of their audience.
All that’s left to do now is to tell them that you’re ready to commit to their date, time, place, fee, etc., and how excited you are. When they agree (which is very likely because you’ve done your homework), get the planner to commit to YOU, in writing. Lock them in!
It may be an event planner’s job to “wrangle” speakers for their upcoming events, but ultimately, it’s up to us, as speakers, to figure out if an event is right for us from the start. These three lists are true speaker stress-busters because they help us decide which events we’re excited and prepared to say yes to, before the conversation even starts.