We’ve done a lot of negotiating at The Speakers Group this year. Wait, for speakers? I thought speakers weren’t supposed to negotiate. Something about fee integrity… Yes, speakers negotiate. The secret’s out.

With meeting budgets slashed, speakers, speakers bureaus and other vendors in the meetings industry have had to adapt to meet clients’ needs. And that’s what we’re here for, right? To meet our clients’ needs? Yep, that’s what we do. Sometimes the negotiation involves money; sometimes it involves services. It always involves increasing value. Creating win-win engagements.

What has negotiation meant to you this year? To your organization? To your meeting attendees?

Negotiation happens. The worst thing you can do is ignore it. The best thing you can do is prepare for it. If you – and your people – need help, look no further than Ed Brodow, author of Negotiation Boot Camp: How To Resolve Conflict, Satisfy Customers, and Make Better Deals, and creator of the number-one customized negotiation skills training seminar in the United States.

Here’s a tip from Ed appearing in today’s Forbes.com article titled “Nine Things You Didn’t Know You Could Negotiate“:

“You can negotiate anything. It’s all about confidence and realizing that nothing is set in stone.”

When companies (such as Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Seagate and many others) engage Ed to deliver his Negotiation Boot Camp seminar or a related keynote, sellers learn how to create satisfied customers at higher prices, buyers learn how to make better deals with vendors, and executives learn how to resolve conflict. The end result always looks something like this:

“Ed’s programs have received high marks from all our employees who have been participants (sixteen seminars). Everyone who talks to a customer and everyone who talks to a supplier needs to go to this one!” – Baker Hughes

Want to learn more about Ed Brodow and how he could contribute to your next meeting or conference? Contact us at The Speakers Group today and we’ll get you in touch with Ed to help you explore the possibilities.

Posted under Leadership Development, Organizational Excellence, Sales Management

Are you looking for a speaker who can help your meeting attendees get charged up every day? A speaker who can help your people focus more sharply than before? A speaker who can offer practical steps to greater health, balance and happiness? Consider Dr. Gregg Steinberg.

Dr. Steinberg – or Dr. Gregg, as he prefers – is a sports psychologist and world-renowned expert on human performance. He has appeared as a commentator for the hit show, Dancing with the Stars, as a sport psychology commentator for Fox News Channel during the 2008 Olympics, and as a guest commentator on The Golf Channel and CNN. Golf Digest magazine hails him as one of golf’s great masterminds. Also, Dr. Gregg has authored books on topics from golf psychology to parenting, and his newly released (June 2009) Full Throttle illustrates 122 ways to supercharge your energy and performance at work in the midst of life’s challenges.

Facing a continual barrage of tasks coupled with a tough economy, many people feel completely drained by day’s end. To stay ahead of the game, you need to capitalize on your energy so go full throttle when needed – not all the time, which is a surefire way to burn out. Based upon his years of research as well as his coaching experiences with professional athletes and top executives, Dr. Gregg has developed an energy management system comprised of six key emotional strengths. Individuals who learn to master these strengths will thrive on the inside, regardless of what is happening on the outside.

In his “Full Throttle” keynote presentation, Dr. Gregg focuses on five of the six key emotional strengths:

• Emotional Awareness: Learn how to go full throttle, then rethrottle, then full throttle, then rethrottle, etc.
• Emotional Bravado: Learn how to turn pressure into pleasure
• Emotional Connectedness: Learn how to “connect” with every moment and avoid distraction
• Emotional Preparedness: Learn how to go with your flow and identify your “signature strength”
• Emotional Balance: Understand why finding meaning and purpose boosts energy and happiness

Dr. Gregg shares examples of how high-caliber athletes and business professionals have improved performance through mastery of the five emotional strengths, and provides attendees with practical exercises to help them master their own emotions to:

• Get Focused for every meeting
• Develop greater balance in life
• Become more productive with less work
• Plug up all the energy drains
• Discover their inner flame of excellence
• Be able to overcome obstacles and adversity
• Be happier in their moments

Watch a video with excerpts of Dr. Gregg’s keynotes and media appearances on his profile page here.

Use the “Book a Speaker” form to learn more about booking Dr. Gregg for your next event.

Posted under Book Review, Motivational Speakers, Sales Management

Steve Farber, author of the national bestseller, The Radical Leap, has a highly anticipated new release due on bookshelves from Doubleday Business a week from today (Tuesday, March 3, 2009), titled Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership. Patrick Lencioni and Matthew Kelly co-wrote the foreword of the book. Pat, author of bestsellers such as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, says:

“I encourage you to set aside your pre-conceived notions of success and accomplishment and throw yourself whole-heartedly into the GTY [Greater Than Yourself] endeavor.”

And the endorsements continue from a “Who’s Who” of leading business authorities:

“GREATER THAN YOURSELF is a terrific – no, wonderful – idea. Steve is a tremendous writer and an original thinker.” – Tom Peters

“Raising someone up does not reduce your stature – in fact, it exalts you in ways you have to experience to believe. GREATER THAN YOURSELF shows how you can begin improving the world by giving of yourself. It’s a wonderful message wrapped in a highly entertaining, well-written story.” – Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level

“GREATER THAN YOURSELF is more than a good tale well told. It’s a path-breaking book that brings to life the ultimate leadership lesson – that the highest purpose of our work is the development of other leaders. It’s a gift for your mind and your spirit. I enthusiastically recommend it.”
- Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the bestselling book The Leadership Challenge, Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

You’re likely familiar with the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It’s a concept that can be found in almost every religion, society and as a basic tenet of personal relationships around the world. It’s timeless and universal. Yet, too often it’s checked at the door Monday through Friday, from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

With GREATER THAN YOURSELF, Farber brings the age old principle to the forefront of our every day working lives and careers. A leadership guru, Farber argues that it’s not enough for a leader to be a coach, mentor, talent scout, or cheerleader:

“Real leadership is an extreme act rooted in love and motivated by a desire to create a better world…Truly great leaders in life become so because they cause others to be greater than themselves.”

GREATER THAN YOURSELF is a powerful parable about how the best leaders help others to be more capable and successful than they are themselves. Farber illustrates the three principles of GREATER THAN YOURSELF and instructs how to put them into action. They include:

• Expand Yourself: Before you can improve others you must be able to improve yourself; it’s about broadening your competence, knowledge, experience and connection with people to help them do the same.

• Give Yourself: Knowledge is Power, but only if you’re willing to share it freely and generously

• Replicate Yourself: Teaching others to do exactly what you’ve done for them.

In conjunction with the book release, Farber has a new keynote presentation built on these same three principles, titled, “Greater Than Yourself: 3 Steps to Attaining the New Gold Standard of Leadership.” Ideal for current, next generation, and high-potential managers and leaders at all organizational levels, you can learn more about the presentation here, or contact us at The Speakers Group to discuss how you can maximize the impact of this relevant, empowering message by utilizing “Greater Than Yourself” as the theme for your next annual meeting or event.

Posted under Book Review, Leadership Development, Motivational Speakers, Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Sales Management, Speaker News, Speaker Recommendations

If you’re a meeting planner (or one who plans meetings, whether that’s your official title or not), you’ve likely noticed the buzz lately in defense of the value of meetings. (If not, check out KeepAmericaMeeting.org.)  There’s a great article on that theme in the February issue of Incentive magazine specifically related to incentive events (imagine that!).

“The Road to Recovery” addresses some of the challenges of planning an incentive program in the midst of a recession, and also offers some possible solutions to create a “well-planned, well-executed” event. If you plan such events, it’s worth a read. There was one quote in the article, though, that really jumped out at me:

“Ask what is it you need to get done this year. Are you still trying to engage loyal customers? Do you still need motivated, engaged and knowledgeable employees? These are not going away.”

- Fay Beauchine, Executive Vice President of Carlson Marketing

That, to me, says all that needs to be said about why meetings remain important – and dare I say even more important – in an economic crisis like we are facing now. Your employees, your sales force, your leaders, your customers – everyone connected to your organization – is challenged right now. What better way to encourage, educate and build synergy than through a meeting? (And better yet, a meeting with a dynamic, relevant, well-informed keynote speaker or workshop leader!)

Should you schedule meetings and speakers right now? If it’s a program packed with fluff and formalities, then absolutely not. But if it’s a program that is well thought out, on target, and well executed, how can you afford not to?

Posted under Leadership Development, Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Sales Management

With corporate and association meetings budgets feeling the pressure from current economic conditions, e-meetings/virtual meetings/online meetings/webinars are becoming much more appealing alternatives to traditional live meetings. If you find yourself trying to evaluate whether the online medium is right for your next event, we came across this free webinar that you might find helpful, produced by MeetingsNet:

Hear from Debi Scholar, PricewaterhouseCoopers, as the pioneer of combining virtual meetings in the same team with meeting planners and from Tim Stark, the director of online events at Penton Media, the largest independent B2B media company in the U.S., on why you should embrace e-meetings and learn about best practices for planning, building, and deploying a successful online event.

To view the free program, visit the event registration page here.

As an added note: Many professional speakers are now offering “virtual” delivery of their keynote programs and workshops, in an effort to better accommodate clients’ needs. This web-based session can be a standalone program, or it can integrate with your complete online meeting agenda. Professionals are in need of expert insights from speakers today more than ever, yet reduced budgets can make it difficult to proceed as scheduled with sales meetings, leadership retreats and other programs. In that case, consider scheduling an online session with a speaker to access the same valuable content while saving time and money compared to a live event. If that’s of interest, contact us at The Speakers Group and we would be happy to discuss specific solutions that may be a fit for you.

Posted under Event Management, Leadership Development, Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Sales Management