How To Develop A Successful, Long-Term Career As A Professional Speaker (By Answering These 9 Questions)

By Jim Pancero, CSP, CPAE  |

How are you, as a professional speaker/trainer/consultant growing your speaking business? Most have no real plan or strategy for what they need to do to have a successful, and profitable long-term speaking career. What does your plan look like…and what are you doing each week to advance this master speaking plan?

What’s your plan to develop, promote and sell your long-term professional speaking career? I offer you the nine (9) key coaching questions I ask people wanting to advance their speaking career. The sooner you can do the work to find your best answers, the faster you’ll make money, find success, and most importantly, achieve longevity as a professional speaker.

1) Why do I need your ideas? What’s your expertise/topic (that others need)?

This really comes down to your buyers (and your audiences) wanting to know how you can help their business, their people, or them personally through the ideas you want to share (and that they haven’t heard before from others).

2) How will I know your ideas are proven and really work? What are your credentials/experiences that validate your expertise (so I want to listen to you)?

OK, so I like your ideas, now how (and why) can I take the risk to trust and try your ideas? What have you personally created, accomplished, or achieved in your career so that I can trust you have ideas that are proven to work?

Why would anyone hire you to talk on leadership when you’ve never personally managed anyone, or to believe you can help my sales team if you’ve never personally been a salesperson managing a territory? If you’ve never done the job you’re offering advice to, then you’re just talking as a reporter and not an expert. Success as a professional speaker is not based on the ideas you share but, on your ability to defend and prove your ideas when challenged.

This is why all the fake credentials you see in our industry are so damaging to our profession. How many “bestselling authors” only have the title because of holding that position on Amazon for 15 minutes and only selling 20 books a year? How many fellow speakers use the title “Dr” in front of their name when they were only given an honorary doctorate or got their doctorate from some un-accredited online university?

3) What’s your angle that makes your message/expertise unique?

Today there are only really a handful of major topic categories we can be speaking and training. How many speakers do you know who talk about motivation, sales, customer service or leadership?

Just having great ideas on your topic is not enough today. You also need to have some unique approach or hook to presenting your ideas. Every sales trainer today talks about “Sell value, not low price.” If you’re a sales trainer, you just can’t teach that idea, you’ll have to have some unique packaging, approach or positioning that makes your delivery of that message memorable…and bookable by your main meeting planner or executive hiring you to train or inspire their people.

4) Why do I really need (and be willing to pay for) your expertise/message/help?

Time to train people today is very constrained and limited, as are the training budgets available to pay your fees. Why are you and your topic the best choice for my very limited meeting time?

5) What’s your price/cost? How long will it take to receive a payback for your help?

The reality of competition in professional speaking is if you raise your fees, you change your competitors. Why are you a better value, and payback to my company, compared to the other speakers/trainers I could be choosing at the same fee you’re quoting?

6) How will you deliver your expertise/message so my team retains and utilizes your help?

Giving a great speech today is not enough, even for someone only delivering keynotes. The longer your ideas are retained by your audience, the more value and payback you’ll be supplying your buyer. What can you be doing to increase the stickability of your ideas?

7) How will you market and promote your expertise to increase your visibility, credibility, and marketability?

It really doesn’t matter how good you are or how great your ideas are…if you can’t promote yourself and increase your market visibility. How are you gaining the attention of your markets? This is why speaking to associations (to get in front of a lot of buyers) or actively posting on LinkedIn on a regular basis is so critical to a speaker’s success.

8) How will you position/negotiate your work agreement and pricing to win the business?

The reality of selling speaking and training services is you’ll likely need to occasionally offer special pricing or accept lower budgets to keep your speaking schedule full. Have you set your price so you’re a strong competitor in that market at that fee level? How strong are your selling and negotiation skills? Flexibility to your buyer, their needs, and their budget will be critical to your long-term success as a speaker.

9) How will you position your ability to continue/expand your help and training with this client (so you can do more than just give a speech)?

Keynoting tends to get the higher professional fees…but it’s also a tougher way to run a speaking business. With keynotes you can only sell the one talk. Very few keynoters are brought back to the same group year after year.

What can you be doing to offer a process of change to your buyers and their people? The most successful professional speakers tend to be offering a training process that incorporates their presentations, books, or video products and additional webinars. How can you sell a process vs. a one-time speaking event?

So, what’s your business plan to grow your market visibility, speaking engagements, and profitability?

Gaining long-term success as a professional speaker will come from your ability to answer, improve and maximize each of these nine questions. We know you’re good…now the only question is, are you ready to get even better so you can sell even more?

About Jim Pancero, Dallas TX – Jim has been a successful sales and sales leadership speaker, trainer, and consultant for over 40 years, helping distribution and equipment manufacturers in 80 different industries increase their competitive advantage as well as strengthen their sales leadership skills. He has delivered over 3,500 presentations, published three books on sales and sales leadership, and has posted over 1,000 sales or sales leadership videos on LinkedIn and YouTube.

Jim joined NSA in 1981, earned his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) in 1988 and was inducted into the CPAE – NSA Speaker Hall of Fame in 1997. He served six years on the NSA National board and served as 1997-1998 NSA National Treasurer. He has been involved in our NSA Foundation for over 20 years serving 5 years as Chair of the PSBF committee (Professional Speakers Benefit Fund) and five years as Chair of the NSA Foundation Board of Trustees. You can learn more about Jim at pancero.com and view his nature photography at photos.pancero.com.