Should Speakers Pay to Speak?

A tough question and a misunderstood opportunity in my opinion. I am a professional speaker and stand by my fee but there are times when I will volunteer a bit of my time to speak for free either because I want to give back or because the audience is a good fit for me and there is value in offering a talk gratis. There are also times when I will pay to speak ?? Not often, it really has to be the right opportunity and meet my criteria to qualify, but some events do offer such a good ROI and I value them.

I've never come across an event that outright charges for speaking, it's usually a package deal that includes an exhibitor stand, inclusion in the brochure, pre-event marketing linking back to your business, etc. These opportunities should come out of your marketing budget and form part of your marketing plan because there is incredible value in having one of these packages at events that are a good match to your offering.

The reason people get tripped up with this is that they see it as 'paying to speak' rather than as a marketing opportunity. You do the maths, work out costs and ROI then decide if it's a good opportunity. For example, just to use round numbers for an easy illustration, if I invest ￡1,000 for a marketing package and can get ￡10,000 or ￡100,000 back - it's a no brainer, right? Speaking is a form of marketing, you need to do the numbers and decide what ROI you would like then plan how you achieve it. If you know what your target is then you can decide what exactly needs to happen to achieve it and can brief your team accordingly.

Last week I heard a speaker say that his aim is to have 20 conversations at each event he exhibits and speaks at. He is an international, highly paid speaker but he does pay to speak at some events too because he understands the value of the right opportunity.

Another reason why speakers get tripped up with the 'paying to speak' concept is when they either have nothing to sell off the back of the talk or simply don't know how to sell from the stage. Don't cringe, I said sell from the stage, not be one of the cringy people who only sell, sell, sell and offer no value. Selling from the stage is a skill on its own and can be done really well whilst blowing people away with the incredible value that you offer. Speakers who are clear on what they are offering and the value of doing business with them will get people buying then and there. I really admire people who can blow me away with their content and get me to buy their products or services afterwards, if they can get me to buy even though I know all the tactics behind the talk, then they really do have something of incredible value to offer.

At Women's Business Conference 6 Education Sets for only ￡3,000 each. If you understand the opportunity and have the right offering for our audience there is no reason why you can't get 550% + ROI. If your upsell is a book at ￡14.99 then probably not. If your upsell is a training course worth ￡3,500 then you only need to sell a handful to smash your targets, and the right course to the right audience could sell quite a few. So, why would you not invest in an Education Set I know millionaires who make their money in this way because it works!

Talks don't have to sell anything to be valuable, they are also great for new product launches and brand awareness - as long as you have something to put into people's hands with a clear call to action after your talk they are likely to engage with your business afterwards in some way.

Leon Street, a regular speak at Women's Business Club, says, "One of the biggest things that I take away from speaking at events is knowing the difference between speaking for free where you have the opportunity to deliver value to your audience first and then put out an offer to that audience. Or speaking at events where you know the audience fits your target in terms of whom you would like to attract as new clients. What I often see is established speakers who are very good at speaking but they don't understand how to sell or how to pitch the right offer because either they don't have the products that fit the audience or they haven't really thought about the audience that they are speaking to and what the offer be to meet their needs.

Usually what happens is when people get turned off paying to speak is when they see themselves as a motivator, inspirational speaker but what they've forgotten or probably aren't even aware of is the critical piece, and that is to know that the only way the audience can go to that next level with you is to be served by you and to be served by you beyond you speaking at an event would be to buy your products which could be books, workshops, events, etc. When a person starts to understand that speaking is a form of marketing and it's how many successful business owners grow and generate their business, it's a critical piece for people to actually consider before they turn away the opportunity to speak at an event.

What I like about the Women's Busines Conference is that they understand that it's an opportunity for their audience to be exposed to speakers who bring value and therefore speaking at the Women's Business Conference means that you will come across the right types of people who will buy your products from you, who will want to invest with you. It's a great organisation that cares about its speakers, who care about their audience and when you mix those two parts together it makes for a great result for both the audience and the speaker. That's why I recommend the event and will continue to support the event and will represent and speak at the Women's Business Conference. I recommend that you take a serious look at how it can help your business too."

Philippa Haynes commented on her recent experience, "Speaking at the Women's Business Conference last December was a very valuable brand-building exercise for Insight101. It put us on the map, enabled us to demonstrate thought leadership and essentially opened up other speaker opportunities as a result. People want to see you, get a feel for your business, start to trust you and I’d suggest that speaking at Women's Business Conference is the ideal way to achieve this."

Our audience includes mostly decision-makers who are either female business owners or employed corporate executives. Some of the types of talks that are always a hit are sales and marketing, HR and recruitment (including apprenticeships info), self-care and work-life balance, investing, etc. In a nutshell how to be more, how to have more and how to grow more!

We are looking for speakers for our December Women's Business Conference in various locations, see the first comment for more info.