Mistakes You Don't Want to Make as a Public Speaker

Having booked over 2,000 paid speaking engagements mostly while being an independent contractor, I know when I’ve done what it really takes on a daily basis to secure paid speaking engagements and increase my income.

There are basically three kinds of work for a person in sales:

Productive – Making contact with organizations who hire speakers to determine if they are qualified leads for your speaker and taking whatever the next step is to make the sale; Researching an organization via the Internet or a periodical to gather the market intelligence to determine whether or not the prospect would be a probable candidate and need your expertise

Non-productive – This does not mean that the work itself it non-productive. It is an important element of following through with what needs to be done. But non-productive work is non-sales work…work that is administrative or clerical in nature, such as

assembling packages, posting and mailing them, sending reinforcing e-mails, checking with the warehouse to make sure all products are available for an engagements, making travel arrangements, making copies of documents, preparing and filing documents, etc.

Unproductive - Answering personal e-mails, refilling the water cooler, making coffee, cleaning the office kitchen, watering the plants, gossiping with others, continuing negative self-talk, talking with friends over the telephone or in the office, doing Internet searches for your favorite perfume… Do you recognize yourself yet?

You may have others to help you, or you may be doing the entire booking process by yourself. If you’re working alone, there are clearly days that have to be spent doing non-productive work and some of every day has to be spent doing non-productive work in order to get the packages out.

BUT…ultimately, the task that’s not related to a viral marketing internet campaign that’s going to produce the greatest results is making contact with buyers in your target market… actually calling a prospect and introducing your speaker.

Here are 12 ways to keep production down:

Operate without a daily system for contacting your prospective buyers.
Refuse to use and educate yourself about how to position and attract business utilizing Internet marketing such as opt-in strategies to build your database, increase and convert website traffic to build your brand.

Be inconsistent with all of your prospecting.
Keep waiting for your past clients & centers of influence to call you.
Refuse to articulate your expertise in a way that distinguishes you from other speakers.
Continue to NOT identify your target market and qualify your leads.
Wait for a bureau to call you.
Keep discussing your problems with co-workers or fellow speakers who cannot help you & making excuses rather than working on your solutions.
Not practice your sales scripts.
Spend more time on-line answering social emails.
Organize your desk drawers during the time you should be making contact with prospective and past clients.
Restock printed materials or assemble CD's and products and other administrative tasks that keep you from contacting the meeting planners.

Re-write the 12 phrases above to become pro-active and secure more paid speaking engagements.

Mary McKay is a booking strategist for experts, business leaders, public speakers, educators, top producers and cultural heroes who want to secure paid speaking engagements. She systematizes the booking process to uniquely position the speaker, optimize the appearance, generate referrals and enable more revenue potential through product sales.

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