Tag Archives: get clients

Three Strategies for Finding Your Ideal Speaking Opportunities

Today’s topic is finding ideal speaking opportunities. You’ve spoken at events in the past, but are looking to find the “perfect” event for your business. With thousands of events, both live and virtual, to choose from finding the “right” speaking opportunities can be difficult.

To help narrow down the choices, think about the end goal for the speaking engagement. For most speakers, that means connecting with new prospects and clients, and the events where they gather. Here are a few steps to help you select your ideal client and events.

1. Create Your Ideal Client Avatar

If you could fill a room with hundreds (or thousands) of your ideal client, who would that client be? If you’re scratching your head right now, here are a few questions to narrow this down: which of your current or past clients did you really enjoy working with? What was it about that client that made it fun – personality? Results? Sort though your current and past clients (going back about six months) and create a list of qualities you look for in a client.

Then gather data. Look at the demographics of your clients – what gender are they? What are are they? Where do they live? Do they have children? Also, consider psychographics including the clients’ values, beliefs, interests and lifestyle.

2. Find out where your ideal client spends time networking.

Once you’ve created a basic profile of your amazing client, determine where they hang out in large numbers. Associations are a great place to start. Most industries have a national association and many have chapter meetings in major cities. If your ideal prospects are small business owners consider BNI, National Association of Women Business Owners, and local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce or public library. If you’re unsure which organizations your clients are members of  – ask them. A quick email or phone call to your top clients will yield a list of groups for your to check out.

3. Attend the events.

Once you have a list of target associations and groups, attend their networking meetings. Most organizations host a monthly meeting and many will allow guests to attend. By attending the event you can find out how many people attend the events, get to know their members and build a relationship with the meeting organizers.

Once you’ve attended a few events and become familiar with the organization and its members you can create a list of your “ideal” speaking opportunities. This will give you a targeted list to focus on so you can book more engagements in less time.

Your assignment for this week:

Use the steps above to create a list of ideal speaking opportunities. Attend several networking events and start building key relationships.

How to Decide When to Speak for Free

One of the biggest benefits of speaking is getting paid to share your brilliance. However, if you are just starting out, speaking on a pro bono basis is a great way to get experience and hone your message.

Speaking for free doesn’t mean you have to accept every invitation that comes your way. You want to make sure it is a fit for you and your business. So, how can you be strategic about selecting unpaid engagements? Here are a few things to consider:

The Audience
 Who will be attending the event? If you opt to speak to a group, you want to make sure you are speaking in front of your ideal target audience, prospective clients or customers. Work with the event organizer to learn more about who attends the event – what industries are represented? How many people attend? If it is a monthly or annual event, the event organizers will have data they can share to help define the audience. Once you review this information you can determine if the event is a valuable investment for you.

The Organization
If you’re not familiar with the organization (and they are local) attend one of their events before agreeing to speak for the group. This is particularly helpful if the event has “open” registration, meaning attendees do not have to register for the event. Attending a program can help define who the audience is, how many people attend and what the venue. While at the event, network with the other participants to get their feedback on the organization, their events and the attendees.

Your experience
If you are a new speaker or you are working on a new presentation, speaking for free can be a great opportunity to practice your speaking skills. The more you speak, the more you will build your stage presence and improve your delivery. Likewise, if you are working on a new topic, speaking for free give you an opportunity to test out a message on a smaller scale to see what’s working and what’s not.

If you are speaking in front of a group of prospective clients, one or more of the prospects could chose to work with you privately, and become a paying client. Additionally, speaking to one group often leads to more speaking invitations. And some of those groups will have a speaking budget. So, speaking for “free”can lead to paying opportunities in the future.

Now it’s your turn. Do you speak for free? How has it helped you as a speaker or business owner?