Getting the Most from a Speaker

By Andrea Gold
Copyright © 2008 by Andrea Gold. All Rights Protected.

Occasionally, a client will find the perfect speaker, except that their fees are too high. When this happens, there are a few alternatives available to afford the speaker.

Multiple Engagements: book the speaker for two or more bookings at a single meeting or at multiple meetings during the year. In order not to be taken advantage of, speakers will often require full payment for the first booking and a lower fee for subsequent bookings within a give time frame.
Sponsors: Often, members of an association will be willing to sponsor the speaker’s fee. The speaker could be made aware of this and mention the sponsor’s name during the presentation.
Multiple Presentations: since the speaker is already there for a presentation, you may also have the speaker offer a different program. Usually when the programs are in the same day, a discount is often possible. For instance, have the speaker be the opening speaker and then emcee the awards ceremony. Or the speaker could give two different presentations for your group on the same day. Another option would be to have the speaker give the opening speech and then give the closing presentation.
Invite another organization: when the perfect speaker’s fee is too high, you may consider inviting a non-competing organization to share the program. That way the other organization could then share the costs.
Product budget: most organizations have a budget for products. Many speakers are glad to sell their products to the organization to supplement a lower fee.
Barter: If your organization has a product or service that the speaker finds desirable, it is possible to make a trade.
Special fees: speakers sometimes have special fees for special circumstances, i.e. local fee, non-profit fee, educational fee, etc.

Identifying the Right Speaker

There are thousands of speakers in the world. It is a nearly impossible task for any organization to find the right speaker to meet all their requirements of topic, fee, and style. Even if you were to identify a few speakers that meet your requirements, you would have no way of judging which would be the best for your group.

For this reason, it is often wisest to use the talents of a speakers bureau. Their have access to thousands of speakers, trainers, celebrities, and entertainers. It is their job to know which speakers would be best for your group. Of course, you will see their demo presentations and also get their expert opinion.

Yet, there is reluctance for meeting planners to engage the services of speakers bureaus. They have been in the business of evaluating and recommending speakers to their corporate, association, and government agencies for decades. Using their services will save a meeting planner a lot of work.

There seems to be a misunderstanding that using a speakers bureau will be more expensive than booking a speaker directly. In truth, a speaker’s fee is the same, whether the speaker is booked directly or through the bureau. You see, it is the speaker that pays the bureau a commission out of his state fee.

Speakers want to receive bureau bookings because these are bookings they otherwise would not have. Bureaus are efficient marketing entities and bring business to speakers with no effort on their own.

Speakers Bureaus Offer Additional Benefits

Here are a few of the advantages of working with a speakers bureau for meeting planners include the following:

1. On the rare occasion when the speaker is unable to make his or her presentation due to illness or an accident, the bureau can quickly and easily get you a back-up speaker. For a meeting planner to find a new speaker at the last minute is difficult at best or even impossible.

2. When you are short of time and need to find the right speaker that is within your budget. Often, committees have a difficult time deciding the topics they wish to have addressed by a speaker. Bureaus have a lot of experience discussing a meeting planners unexpressed needs and then find the right speaker in their vast databases.

3. Bureau contracts with speakers often require limitations on the speaker to protect the client. The contract may have travel expense limitations, offensive language limitations, aggressive marketing of their products from the platform, and other conditions to protect the client.

4. If you have some difficulty contacting the speaker, receiving any material promised to you, the bureau will work to handle your problems. Remember that the bureau works for you and is committed to provide excellent support to insure a successful program.