The online edition of MPI’s June 2009 One+ magazine includes an article about how meeting and event professionals can manage speaker costs in the current economic climate: “Talk Ain’t Cheap: How to secure a speaker for your event with as little fiscal pain as possible.” Robert Farmer, author of the article, writes:

For planners, the art becomes how to contain speaker costs. Indeed, there are methods in which savvy planners can manage the cost of their keynotes, while also delivering a program about which their clients will surely be talking. The trick is to work with speakers and their agents to ensure both parties get what they need from the deal.

The article also includes insights from Sam Silverstein, president of the National Speakers Association, Marc Reede, president of Nationwide Speakers, and The Speakers Group’s own founder and president, Shawn Ellis. Ellis spoke of how some speakers are helping planners by discounting their fees, while others are doing so by adding value to their engagements:

“…I think the value-added element is what’s really occurring these days, and there is a wide range of ways in which that can play out. Speakers are offering everything from follow-up webinars along with their keynotes to doing breakout sessions and offering more in terms of takeaways.” [This is the essence of The Speakers Group's ROI Speakers initiative.]

While “adding value” doesn’t take money off the top of a speaker’s fee, it does have financial benefits to planners, which is discussed in the article as well our “Think Added Value” blog post here.

In the end, Farmer hits the nail on the head when he writes, “Cooperation among planners and speakers remains the key to success on both ends.” Read the full “Talk Ain’t Cheap” article on MPI’s web site here.

Posted under Book Review, Event Management, Planner Tips

photo credit: Wesley Fryer

So you’re booking speakers for your event and you find that your budget just won’t stretch as far as it used to. Maybe it’s because of cutbacks related to the economy. Maybe it’s because the speaker you want just had a #1 bestseller which caused a spike in demand and, as a result, keynote fees. Whatever the reason, it can be a frustrating predicament. What do you do?

There are two obvious approaches to your situation:

1. Try to negotiate a lower fee with speakers.
2. Shift your search to speakers whose fees are already in your budget range.

Both have spotty rates of success, though. As a better alternative, look for speakers who have made either temporary adjustments to their fee schedules in light of the challenges facing meeting planners today. For example, Vince Poscente, a best-selling author and one of the most popular motivational keynote speakers on the event circuit recently reduced his fee from $25,000 to $12,500 for an indefinite term. Also, Dr. Jackie Freiberg and Dr. Kevin Freiberg have offered “limited-time-only” (until May 31, 2009) discounts of 25-44% on their keynote fees. These instances are rare and not always well-publicized, but a speakers bureau partner can help you stay informed. If you are able to take advantage of these special deals, it’s a great way to meet your budget as well as your audience members’ high expectations.

While reducing your speaker expenditure is the most obvious way to address your budget constraints, it is not your only option. The other approach is to build additional value into your speaker engagement rather than just cut dollars off the top. “But I only have $X to spend. I can’t ignore that!” Of course not. But consider this:

Jackie Freiberg, mentioned above, has a keynote coming up with a corporate client and to increase the value of their engagement, she has taped six video segments that are being presented, one per month via internal webcast, to meeting attendees as a preview and teaser of coming attractions. The client finds that this adds to the educational value of the engagement and also helps to boost attendance at the meeting.

In that case, wouldn’t it make sense, then, for some other departments or budget line items to share in the cost of hiring Jackie? Perhaps the education department, or training and development, or HR, or marketing? Jackie didn’t charge any additional fee to tape her video segments, so whatever funds the other department/line item contributes represents a direct savings for you.

Similarly, Dr. Joseph Michelli also goes “beyond the keynote” to add value to his speaking engagements. Among the bonus services he offers:

• Customized marketing support, in the form of audio or video messages produced by Dr. Michelli
• Written customized articles for inclusion in websites, newsletters, etc. to pique interest in the keynote
• Complimentary resources for participants such as free weekly podcasts and quarterly newsletters
• Complimentary post-event webinar hosted by Dr. Michelli

So again, could you get some financial support from your event’s marketing budget for Joseph’s pre-event support? Would your communications department buy into the articles he could provide? Would your training department underwrite his post-event webinar?

Many speakers are capable of doing much more than just delivering a 60-minute keynote at your meeting. When you incorporate some of these value-adds – particularly those that extend beyond the boundaries of your meeting – into your engagement, not only do you get much more “bang for your buck,” but you also uncover multiple opportunities to maximize your buying power by partnering with others in your organization.

If you would like additional insight on how to create these high-value engagements, check out The Speakers Group’s ROI Speakers initiative. You’ll find a fun, five-minute video that demonstrates the power of an “ROI” engagement versus a “regular” engagement, and you can also read a free white paper/special report about how to maximize the value of your speaker bookings.

Posted under Motivational Speakers

Inspired by the cover story in this month’s issue of Meetings and Conventions magazine, titled “The Frugal Planner: 10 Ways to Save Big,” we thought we would chime in with some money-saving tips specifically related to booking speakers. One of the M&C article’s 10 cost-cutting tips already relates to booking speakers, but a few of the others can also be applied to saving money on speakers:

1. Attract sponsors. When the budget doesn’t allow you to secure the speaker you’re looking for, don’t give up hope before considering the possibility of sponsorships. If you’re going to have your entire audience in the same place at the same time – for the keynote speaker(s) – you have a great value proposition for potential session sponsors. Who wouldn’t love to have a captive audience looking at their logo on display behind the speaker for an hour, or have the opportunity to make a 30- or 60-second pitch just before introducing the featured speaker? (Here’s an article that outlines how a company can maximize the benefits of sponsoring a speaker’s session – you might want to adapt it for your “pitch” to prospective sponsors.)
2. Choose local speakers. This has long been an effective tactic for reducing the investment required for professional speakers. The M&C article cites a study by the National Speakers Association which found that the average cost of a keynote address is 25 percent less if the speaker doesn’t have to travel to the event. Not only do you potentially qualify for a discounted fee by booking a local or regional speaker, but you’ll also avoid or at least minimize the speaker’s reimbursable travel expenses. (Check out The Speakers Group’s local speaker directory to find speakers based near your next event.)
3. Be flexible with dates. You probably know how helpful this can be in negotiating with hotels and other venues, but did you know it also can have an impact on speaker fees? The Spring and Fall seasons are usually very busy times for speakers, but July-August and December-January can sometimes be a bit slow. It’s not a guarantee, but if you’re able to effectively host your program during an “off” month for speakers, you might find them more receptive to discounting their fee a bit to fit into your budget. And that’s not the only kind of date flexibility that can help you. If you can book a speaker around a date when he or she is already scheduled to appear in a nearby town, you’ll likely save money by having the travel expenses pro-rated between your organization and the other client. (In this kind of scenario, most speakers are not willing to offer the “piggy-back” client a discount on their actual fee, out of fairness to the original event host. But pro-rating expenses helps both clients.)
4. Condense the agenda. If you need your speaker to deliver multiple sessions, try to minimize the down-time between the sessions. Most speakers have keynote fees, half-day fees and full-day fees. If you have the speaker for a keynote in the morning and a breakout in the afternoon, you’re almost certain to qualify for their half-day or full-day fee. But if you can schedule the two (or more) sessions close together, allowing the speaker to keep a travel itinerary similar to what they would have if they were only doing a keynote, then you might have some bargaining power. Every speaker is different, but I have known speakers to do two sessions for the price of one if both are held within a four-hour block of time.
5. Reconsider value brands. The M&C article makes this suggestion for hotel bookings, but it applies to speakers, too. To use the recent Olympics as an example, demand for Michael Phelps is peaking right now – and rightfully so, given his amazing accomplishments. As the demand peaks, though, so does the appearance fee. If your budget doesn’t allow you to secure Michael, consider his relay teammate, Jason Lezak. Jason is also in high demand right now, but you might find him to be a greater value than Michael. Or as another alternative, consider Mark Spitz, the swimmer who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, which had been the record until Michael’s achievements this year. Not only does Mark have a more reasonable fee, but he’s been on the speaking circuit for years and has a great, polished message to share. Beyond just the Olympics, this same concept applies to booking the co-author of business books rather than the lead author, booking a certified leader of a program rather than creator of the program, etc. (For example, check out Robert Thompson who is certified to deliver the popular Leadership Challenge material at a fraction of the cost of Jim Kouzes or Barry Posner.)

At The Speakers Group, we will always help our clients “save every penny possible without sacrificing quality” – to quote the M&C article – when booking speakers. We’ll take the time to understand your objectives and put together a gameplan that will allow you to meet and exceed expectations while staying within your budget. Give us a call or send us an email anytime. We’re standing by to help you make your next event the best ever.

Posted under Planner Tips

One of our speakers, Jeff Davidson, just posted some helpful information on his blog for meeting planners who need to negotiate with speakers to stay within budget. Fee integrity is very important to speakers – and to speakers bureaus and meeting planners – but Jeff lists seven instances where speakers can legitimately justify reducing their fee for engagements. Among them:

I have personally helped clients secure speakers at discounted rates on various occasions for those exact reasons. Recently, for instance, we booked a speaker to address several departments within a company over the course of a year for 25% less than it would have cost for each department to book him individually. And it wasn’t too long ago that we booked a speaker to speak in one of those slow months – January – for more than 50% less than his standard fee.

As they say, “results may vary,” and some speakers are rock solid on their fees regardless of the situation, but it is important that planners don’t overlook the potentially “perfect” speaker candidate just because his or her fee happens to be above their budget ceiling. Read Jeff’s “Bargaining with Speakers” post on his Opening Keynote blog for the full list of seven ways you may be able to negotiate with your next speaker.

Posted under Planner Tips