8 Steps to Speaking Engagements: Opportunities for Marketing, Business Development, and Thought Leadership

Posted on August 28th, 2007.

Today’s post is by Steve Markman courtesy of Rain Today.

Marketing and PR efforts should be in the forefront of your professional services firm, given today’s competitive climate and the uncertain economy. Standing out from the crowd, regardless of your organization’s industry, is a huge challenge. How can you meet this challenge?

Many organizations have recognized the value of holding seminars at which their executives make presentations. The problem with these seminars is that, more often than not, the attendees are existing customers, clients or individuals who are already familiar with the firm.

Companies need to expose their expertise to prospective clients and customers. What is a proven method of accomplishing this objective? Create enormous exposure by speaking at public forums – at conferences, seminars and forums held by independent event organizations, associations, professional and industry trade groups, and academic institutions and think tanks.

Speaking at public forums often produces the attainment of business, by providing increased awareness of the company in general and specific subject areas in particular, to an audience of potential customers or clients. Presentations about industry trends or “how-to” talks can make a large impact on the audience.

Speaking opportunities for professional services professionals represent a strong marketing, public relations, and business development tool for the following reasons:

- Attendees get to learn about a firm’s expertise firsthand and can interact directly with the speaker immediately before or after the presentation. An attendee asking for a business card can be the first step to obtaining a customer. The press in attendance also present opportunities for added exposure.

- Gaining increased visibility in vertical/industry sectors or broad-based areas that the firm has determined is in need of greater exposure.

- The company gains “advertising” by having its name and the speaker’s name published in the agenda of thousands of brochures and promotional announcements mailed or e-mailed by event organizers.

What should an organization be doing to get its executives and managers out on the speaking circuit? Take the following eight steps:

Decide which product or service area(s) the firm should be targeting for increased visibility. This can be an established line of business where the firm speaks from a position of strength and is known as a “go-to” firm for a particular area. Conversely, presentations can cover an area that is just getting off the ground or at an early stage in its development and needs some fast exposure to let potential customers know about the newly offered products or services.

Get the right speaker on board. Proposed speakers should be experienced executives and, preferably, experienced speakers. Make sure that there are executives in those areas committed to the idea of making public presentations. Some will resist the idea of taking time away from other business activities so make sure that you have their full support.

Speak to the right audience. Thoroughly research the events for which representatives of your firm can be proposed as speakers, as solo presenters or as panelists. There are so many events taking place on so many topics, frequently simultaneously, that you’ll need to choose diligently in order to maximize the time and expense associated with speaking. Identify speaking engagements whose audience represents the clients, customers and industries your organization wants to reach.

Develop a proactive speaker placement program. It’s fine to evaluate unsolicited speaking opportunities. However, having someone dedicated to the task who will aggressively identify opportunities, develop relationships with event organizers and write and submit speaker proposals, should lead to an increase in the frequency of speaking engagements and thus increased visibility for the executives participating and the firm as a whole. Seek out speaking opportunities with event organizers that would be open to having your firm submit speaker proposals, such as independent conference firms or trade show companies and industry associations.

Decide on the geographic area to target for speaking engagements — locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally. There are thousands of speaking opportunities held worldwide every year.

Create high-impact presentations. Audiences want to acquire actionable information they can take back to their organizations. They don’t want to hear that your firm is the leading firm in this or that subject area. A solid, informative presentation that is purely educational and does not promote a service or company will create instant credibility and obviate the need for a “sales pitch.” A presentation that turns out to be a sales pitch will ensure low evaluations by the audience and a one-way ticket home from the conference organizer. The speaker who gives a sales pitch is duly noted and rarely invited back, oftentimes tainting the entire company in the eyes of the event organizer. Create a presentation that offers information that adds value and is not the same run-of-the mill talk that is often given on that particular subject. Make your presentation stand out.

Learn the process for submitting a speaker proposal to the event organizer — follow the format established by the organizer for writing a presentation abstract, submitting bios and speaker expertise, previous speaking experience information, and, of course, meeting the proposal deadline date. Make sure you tailor the abstract and the bio to each speaking opportunity so that they fit the objectives of the audience.

Follow up continuously and persistently with the event organizer to help your company stay above the noise, since you will often be competing with several other companies for the same speaking slot. By staying in touch with the program organizer you’ll increase your chances of being selected to speak.

Even if speaking engagements are successfully attained, be sure to maximize the engagement by ensuring that the presentation has a shelf life. Always come armed with “take-aways”, including handouts. The handout could be a reproduced article written by the attorney speaker or a white paper on the subject at hand, always making sure that contact information is at the bottom of the handout so people can follow up with the speaker.

You might also want to have a colleague attend with the speaker, to take advantage of the networking opportunities at an event. Press releases, either before or after a speaking engagement can attract potential clients, especially when the release contains information that demonstrates the firm’s expertise in a particular area. And last but not least, bring business cards…lots of business cards.

By developing an effective speaker placement program you will have taken a big step in meeting your firm’s marketing, public relations, and business development objectives.

Steve Markman is President of Markman Speaker Management (MSM), a speaker placement firm established in 1994, serving professional service firms and corporate executives in a variety of fields.

Susan’s note: Speaker Services my business since ‘94 has an online directory that brings speakers and audiences together. Check us out how to get listed

Reminder: 3rd annual MediaSpeak Symposium is October 11,12 & 13. MediaSpeak Symposium is a yearly gathering of some of the finest media coaches in the country. As many of you know, media exposure is a critical element to your success both as a business leader, and also as an author.

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