If you are looking to grow your speaking business (and if you’re not, you might have stumbled onto the wrong blog), then you should be looking at what million-dollar speakers are doing. We’ve spent time asking them this question:
“What is the one thing you’ve done in the last year, tactically, that has made the biggest difference in your business?”
Their answers were always the same: Create Content, Deliver Content, and Close Deals. Most even mentioned how they actually only do those three things in all aspects of their lives, and have even realized the half hour they were doing laundry means they could’ve been making $30,000… so they created a system and learned to outsource that, too.
In order for you to ever turn anything over to anyone else in your speaking business, systems have to be in place.
How does a million-dollar speaker utilize systems?
These top speakers systemize selling, marketing and operations so they can focus on growing their expertise and reaching the people who can pay for it.
While most speakers feel like they should get their content onto social media outlets, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, we are learning more and more that social selling isn’t just posting on these sites, but instead looks like the actual marketing that we are producing and putting on these platforms. Since we no longer live in a day and age of traditional cold-calling, it’s vital to understand the importance of a multi-channel communication approach (which we’re addressing in an upcoming blog).
Hope is NOT a Strategy
If you speak at a conference just hoping that someone in the audience wants you to speak at their conference next, that’s using hope as a business strategy. Hoping does not generate predictable revenue.
Speakers have to move from hope to predictable processes in the way they approach their business and the results they generate. Using a methodical strategy can help drive business and revenue, which is why we recommend utilizing a Customer Relationship Management Software/Database to manage your systems for you.
What is a CRM?
A Customer Relationship Software/Database, or CRM for short, is something many speaker invest in but few utilize. A CRM is designed to handle both marketing and sales, booking events, and can facilitate tracking interactions, outbound calls and email templates.
Some experienced speakers have not invested in a CRM, and while they may be “successful” the research we have done shows they still experience feast-or-famine in their business.
What About Spreadsheets?
Spreadsheets are designed to track and report numbers, not to create tasks that build relationships. Customer Relationship Management Databases are designed to not only build relationships through creating tasks, but they allow speakers to build the strongest relationships possible with potential clients.
Do This Now
-With any speaking engagement, be sure to connect with your first point of contact on LinkedIn. This could be an association director, meeting planner, event coordinator or even the Director of Learning and Training.
-As part of your contract, require prospects offer 2-3 referrals upon successful completion of your talk (we’ve only had this turned down a few times in hundreds of gigs). When you follow up after the speaking engagement, have a list of a few names of people they can connect you with on LinkedIn – because you’ve already looked through their contacts for other potential prospects.l If they know these folks well, send them an email script to forward and ask for them to provide personal introductions. If they don’t know that connection well enough, ask if it’s okay if you mention them as a shared contact.
-Immediately following your speaking engagement, as everyone is still clapping, track down the lead decision maker and ask them to talk about the experience of having you speak to their people. You can make this video on your smartphone, tablet or even a handheld camera. Now you have a leverageable product to use in your future marketing efforts.
If you’re ready to begin building the systems that build speaking businesses, we’re offering a free speaker sales masterclass beginning soon: