Reaching out to folks is scary – no doubt about it. You’re an interruption in their schedule. You’re time they didn’t plan on spending, and on an issue they didn’t have on their agendas for that day – hiring a speaker for their next event.
After thousands of sales calls, we’ve cracked the code on how to get speaking prospects to say ‘Tell me more.’
The problem is, it took thousands of calls to learn one simple rule that every salesperson knows:
Cold calling sucks.
So how do we ensure that we get the information we need to never cold call anyone and increase our chances of selling our speech or workshop?
It starts by understanding one simple thing about sales – nobody likes to be sold.
However, people love to buy.
What’t the difference? In the first scenario, someone is reaching out with what they think is valuable and convincing the prospect to think it’s valuable too. For speakers, that looks like, “I’m an awesome leadership/motivational/generational speaker, and I’d be great for your conference! When is the next one, and how much will you pay me?”
Of course, that’s assuming that the speaker is reaching out at all. For those that do, the effort is short-lived because they’re selling something they don’t know if this decision maker (the person who can buy the speech) actually needs.
(If you’re interested in what that sales conversation looks like, you’re going to want to sign up for our FREE Masterclass. Register HERE)
Then there’s buying. This is when someone has a challenge or a want/need, and they’re looking to scratch that itch. When we looked back at the more than quarter of a million dollars in speaking fees we generated last year, we realized many of those deals closed because we were at the right place when the buyer was feeling itchy.
We didn’t do that through convincing them they needed a speaker who was an expert in XYZ topic – we did it through sales intelligence.
What Is Sales Intelligence?
Sales intelligence is what makes the difference between a warm call and a cold call. It’s the difference between, “Do you hire keynote speakers?” and “I saw you brought in Shawn Rhodes last year as your keynote speaker for your November leadership conference – can I ask who is running that conference this year?”
By entering their world and showing them you’re a professional and know something about their event and their industry, you get their attention. To get from, “Who are you?” to “Tell me more!”, you’ll want to gather some other pieces of intelligence before getting on the phone or reaching out.
The Must-Haves Of Speaker Sales Intelligence
- Who Spoke There In The Past?: This information is publicly available on their past event’s websites and can be used to reverse-engineer a possible budget
- What challenges is their industry faced with that will be top-of-mind for their audience?: This can be found in industry/association newsletters and can be discovered by asking the decision maker what success looks like at their event
- When/where is their next event?: Don’t waste time pursuing an event when you’re already committed that day. Additionally, stepping in with this information gets you fast-tracked to the person with check-writing ability.
There are 6 other pieces of sales intelligence we gather before ever reaching out, and we’re giving them away. Click here to get you 9 prospect insights.