How to Avoid Wasting Money on a Speaker for Your Event

Just about every professional speaker should be able to engage and entertain your audience. But, if you want a lasting impact on the audience, follow these steps to avoid wasting money on a speaker for your event.

Both the speaker and the organizer share responsibility in creating a great experience for the audience.

Avoid Overlooking the Pre-Work

It’s easy to get excited about the event itself and picking a speaker, but don’t overlook the pre-work. The best speakers and organizers realize it’s really the pre-planning that makes or breaks the event.

Before starting the speaker selection process, think through what you hope to accomplish with the event:

• Are you looking for motivation, or action?

Do you want the audience to get new ideas and be pumped up, or do you want them to have actionable take away points?

In an industry conference, your goal might just be to share an interesting story that motivates people to attend next year. At a national sales meeting, your goals might be a bit more specific about revenue impact.

• How will you measure success?

Do you expect your team to engage 30% of existing clients on your new offering?  Are you looking to boost employee morale to improve retention and recruitment? How would you measure that?

If hosting a trade show, are you hoping to inspire a certain percentage of attendees to start promoting your new product or service? Be as specific as you can about measurable goals.

• Who is your audience, and what do you want them to do after the talk?
  

If you are hosting a meeting of professionals within your firm, how would you measure success six months from now?  Do you want them to be more comfortable asking for referrals?  Do you want them to be more confident in pricing instead of falling back on discounts? Think of the specific behaviors you want to change (attitude, skills, knowledge)?

Once you know the above information, use it during the speaker selection process. The right speaker will share a common view of what you hope to accomplish, how you will measure success, and what you want the audience to do after the talk.

Don’t Pay For What You Can Get For Free

Depending on the nature of your event, you may be able to get speakers at no cost. For example, you might be able to entice the CEO of a prominent company to speak because they want to reinforce their brand image. You may attract a politician or other celebrity who is dying to share their message with your audience.

I have several clients that are creative in funding a professional speaker for their event. They get a sponsor who either pays the speaker fee or is the book sponsor. For book sponsors, they often customize a dust jacket with the sponsor’s information on the jacket. This way, they get visibility at the event, and long after it.

In some cases, you can get a big draw with very little investment for a speaker. Be sure that you’ve seen the person speak before, and get a sense of their message. A bad speaker can be worse than not having one at all.

It’s About Your Audience, Not the Speaker

Be sure the message is designed to help the audience, not the speaker. Some of the most talented speakers I know will often sell from the stage. Their talk will share concepts that are based on products they want you to buy at the back of the room. If you don’t mind that approach, then you can often get those speakers for a nominal fee since most of their income comes from the cash register. Just be sure you manage expectations up front.

The Best Speakers are the Best Teachers

Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and Marcus Sheridan are speaking heroes of mine. Their formula is easy in concept, but requires planning, focus, and a commitment to the audience.

The best speakers teach valuable concepts through stories. They educate, inspire, entertain, engage, and challenge audiences. They encourage live questions from participants and leave attendees with actionable steps to put ideas to work in their own lives.

The next time you wonder if it is worth the investment, compare that investment to the value you expect to achieve when your goals are met. Remember that the right speaker will invest hours of advance work to ensure they deliver value for each and every minute on the stage to meet your goals. Don’t forget to plan for reinforcement if your goal is to change behavior. Even the best speaker will be challenged to change behaviors that have been formed by your audience over decades.

My favorite survey comment I received is “Every slide and every word had value. I had multiple, immediately applicable take-aways.”  For the professional speaker, that’s the goal.

It’s Your Turn

Describe a great or horrible speaker you experienced. What made them great or “not so much”. Please share the names of the great ones.

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