A business speaker can be an incredibly powerful tool provided you are able to utilise the time you spend with them proactively. There are several tips you can follow that will help you to get the most out of investing in a speaker.

First, it is important to ensure that the speaker is going to address your needs. There may be a conference focusing on issues of economic growth for instance and the organisers want to hire a speaker for the event. It is not very productive for the organisers to hire a speaker whose expertise is leadership. There’s no denying that leadership skills are important in the business world, but a leadership speaker will not address prominent and current economic issues. Therefore it is vital that when choosing a speaker, only to choose from a selection of speakers who directly address the needs and expectations of the audience at hand. For example, Christopher Pissarides, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economics, would be an ideal speaker for such a conference. The speaker must personalise every address they make to the audience at hand. It is important that a speaker always investigates what their employer expects as a result of the speaker’s address and also who the audience will be and what they hope to gain from the speaker’s remarks and then the speaker must plan the best way of achieving the employer’s desired results and giving the audience what they want.

Sometimes employers are able to get speakers to assist them beyond just giving their primary address without the speakers charging an extra fee. For instance in addition to a keynote address a speaker might also be happy to give a breakout session within the fee they charge for the address. Speakers may agree to help out for no extra charge with a range of tasks such as moderating a panel, introducing other speakers at the event, in certain circumstances signing autographs and also with assisting employer representatives with their own addresses. For instance, a company may be hosting an event at which their hired speaker will talk but also at which the CEO will give a presentation. If the CEO is a nervous public speaker, the hired speaker may agree for no extra cost to coach the CEO to help them with their public speaking. Speakers are under no obligation to throw in extras for free so to speak; however even if they won’t do additional things for the employer for free, they may offer a reduction on what they would normally charge to carry out such tasks since the employer has already agreed to pay them their asking rate for the initial task.

Hiring famous speakers is an excellent way to gain event sponsorship. As an example, a business may be interested in hiring Christopher Pissarides to speak at their event. Since Christopher Pissarides is a world-renowned economist, sponsors will be more inclined to sponsor the event than if the company hired a speaker who was not as renowned.

Since Christopher Pissarides is the type of speaker that many people will want to hear, the sponsors know that a large number of people will attend the event and hence their brand will be visible to a wide audience. The prospect of a large audience makes it worthwhile for the sponsors to invest in the event.

The points that have been highlighted in this discussion are just some of the ways you can get the most out of your time with a business speaker.

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