Webinar Wire

The Number One Killer of a Speaker’s Business

Posted by Lee Salz April 22 2010 12:23 PM EDT

This morning, an organization reached out to me and asked me to speak on sales compensation at their upcoming conference which draws about 100 people. After a brief discussion with the coordinator, I asked about their budget for speakers. Not only was there no budget, but I was expected to fly from Minneapolis to San Francisco and stay in a hotel on my nickel!  Was I being punked?

I wish I were. This was a real deal and not the first time that I’ve been asked to do something similar to this. After just writing the book Stop Speaking for Free! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with Webinars, it would have been a complete contradiction of my message to take on this gig. Living in Minnesota, I’m constantly reminded that people die of exposure. And, speaking only for exposure could kill your business.

Are there times when you should speak for free? Absolutely! However, it needs to be on your terms. You need to look at the opportunity and evaluate what the speaking gig can yield in future earnings.

Some questions to consider…

• Is this audience your target market?
• How many attendees are expected to attend the event?
• Will you receive an attendee contact list so you can follow-up?
• Can you sell products in the back of the room?
• Are there other ways that the conference can promote you and your firm?

In the last few years, I’ve spoken with hundreds of speakers and the major challenge they face is that they do not have a strategy addressing when they speak for-free versus when the dollars need to be placed on the table. Speakers work so hard to develop wonderful content, but quickly give it away to any requestor with fingers crossed … hoping that there will be future income that will result from the event. Not having a clearly defined strategy for when you speak for-free versus for-fee is the number one killer of a speaker’s business.

Take a look at your content and determine which components are best used to build your brand in the marketplace and grow your contact list. And, identify which content is your highest value offering that requires a significant ROI for you to provide it to someone.

It won’t take you long to develop your strategy, but it could be the best few minutes you invest in your business this year.

Visit StopSpeakingforFree.com to learn more.