WorkWise: Local speaking for established business owners

By Mildred L. Culp
culp@workwise.net

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Some business owners with subject-matter expertise would like to be paid speakers without interrupting the progress of their businesses. Initial small-volume speaking at the local level might suffice. How do these hybrid speakers make it work?

Jeff Cannon owns an integrated communications firm in New York City, The Cannon Group, which assists clients in message and operational development. "Public speaking educates clients and brings good opportunities," he states. "It truly helps the companies we're working with." Last year's marketing of four to six hours per week led to six local engagements, largely about leadership and team building.

The staff at Webbed Marketing L.L.C., in Columbus, Ohio, an Internet marketing firm, markets local speaking about four to five hours per week, netting 35 local presentations in 2008, according to president William Balderaz. The only unpaid ones were at educational institutions, with an eye toward staffing needs.

William Balderaz

Anne Loehr of Anneloehr.com, in Washington, D.C., writes, speaks, coaches and consults on management and leadership. Averaging six to seven hours per week of marketing, she's been presenting about five workshops and one keynote per month. She favors 12-month training, including keynotes, individual training, and group workshops with individual coaching.

MARKETING OPTIONS

Various marketing venues lead to opportunities. Cannon says that "cold calling is one of the most important ways to get speaking engagements." He also uses e-mail, sometimes cold, and LinkedIn to reach businesses, business associations and non-profits. Balderaz blogs extensively, using Twitter and LinkedIn, and search engine optimization. He concedes that marketing might be easier for him than for others: "I'm in an area everyone wants to learn about but no one wants to speak about." Loehr uses a mixture of low- and high-tech vehicles: networking face-to-face, blogging and an e-mail list of fewer than 2,500 senior executives in her local area, to whom she sends articles.

Speakers disagree on whether to use a web site for this market. Loehr considers one essential. Cannon doesn't. "A web site is good if speaking is the only thing you want to do, but it can almost limit you," he observes. "Most sites turn a prospective client off by not having the right look when you're focusing on expertise. Most of my engagements have come from recommendations."

There are also differences about demos. Nashville's Christopher Bauer of Bauer Ethics Seminars, a national speaker, believes that if you have your desired number of local opportunities, "then it would seem that your marketing is already working for you without a demo." If you don't, a good demo "that showcases who you are, what your style is and how audiences respond to you" might help.

Loehr, the relatively high-volume local speaker, maintains, "Sales and marketing is all about relationships, which take six to 12 months to cultivate. By the time I get to ask, people know me. They also can come to my other training for free to see me in action. They know people who have worked with me. I wouldn't be able to do that working outside of D.C., but D.C. is a big enough market." She is just now developing a demo for cases in which some decision-makers for local companies aren't local and don't know her.

Then there's Cannon, who says, "Even today, I don't have a pat demo, (just) tapes of past speeches. The problem with a demo is that it may not be what the client is looking for. You may almost lock yourself into a speaking style that clients turn down." Instead, he creates opportunity by sending potential clients an outline, which reinforces his expertise.

"The initial phone call isn't so much selling . . . but learn(ing) their needs," he adds.