Speech, Speech: Why–and How—to Hit the Speaking Circuit

Standing out from the crowd, regardless of your organization’s industry, is a huge challenge. One way to meet the challenge is to expose your company’s expertise to prospective customers by speaking at public forums.

Speaking at conferences, seminars, and other events held by independent event organizations, associations, professional and industry trade groups, and academic institutions and think tanks often results in new business, by providing increased awareness of the company in general and specific subject areas in particular to an audience of potential customers or clients. Presentations about industry trends or “how to” talks can make a large impact on the audience.

Attendees get to learn about a firm’s expertise firsthand and can interact directly with the speaker immediately before or after the presentation. An attendee asking for a business card can be the first step to obtaining a customer. If press is in attendance, there’s the opportunity for added exposure. And your company gains “advertising” by having its name and the executive speaker’s name published in the agenda of thousands of brochures and promotional announcements mailed or e-mailed by event organizers.

Here are eight steps to help you get your executives and managers out on the speaking circuit:

1. Decide which product or service area(s) you should be targeting for increased visibility. This can be an established line of business where the firm speaks from a position of strength and is known as a “go-to” company for a particular area. Conversely, presentations can cover an area that is just getting off the ground or at an early stage in its development and needs some fast exposure to let potential customers know about the newly offered products or services.

2. Get the right speaker on board. Proposed speakers should be experienced executives and, preferably, experienced speakers. Small and midsize organizations should nominate their CEO or other senior executive. Large organizations can also nominate staff at the director or manager level, depending on the criteria of the speaking opportunity. Make sure that there are executives in those areas committed to the idea of making public presentations. Some will resist the idea of taking time away from other business activities, so make sure that you have their full support.

3. Speak to the right audience. Thoroughly research the events for which representatives of your firm can be proposed as speakers, solo presenters, or panelists. There are so many events taking place on so many topics, frequently simultaneously, that you’ll need to choose diligently in order to maximize the time and expense associated with speaking.

4. Develop a proactive speaker placement program. It’s fine to evaluate unsolicited speaking opportunities. But having someone dedicated to the task who will aggressively identify opportunities, develop relationships with event organizers, and write and submit speaker proposals should lead to an increase in the frequency of speaking engagements and thus increased visibility for the executives participating and the firm as a whole.

5. Decide on the geographic area to target for speaking engagements. You can focus locally, regionally, nationally, or even internationally.

6. Create high-impact presentations. Audiences want to acquire actionable information that they can take back to their organizations. They don’t want to hear that your firm is the leading firm in this or that subject area. A solid, informative presentation that is purely educational and does not promote a product, a service, or a company will create instant credibility and negate the need for a sales pitch. A presentation that turns out to be a sales pitch will ensure low evaluations by the audience. The speaker who gives a sales pitch is duly noted and rarely invited back, often tainting the entire company in the eyes of the event organizer.

7. Learn the process for submitting a speaker proposal to the event organizer. Follow the format established by the organizer for writing a presentation abstract; submitting bios, speaker expertise, and previous speaking experience information; and of course, meeting the proposal deadline date. Make sure you tailor the abstract and the bio to each speaking opportunity so that they fit the objectives of the audience.

8. Follow up continuously and persistently with the event organizer. This will help your company stay above the noise, since you will often be competing with several other companies for the same speaking slot.

Once you’ve obtained a speaking engagement, be sure to maximize the opportunity by giving the presentation a longer shelf life. Always come armed with take-aways, including handouts. The handout could be a reproduced article written by the speaker or a white paper on the subject at hand; be sure that contact information is at the bottom of the handout so that people can follow up with the speaker.

You might also want to have a colleague attend with the speaker, to take advantage of the networking opportunities at an event. Press releases, either before or after a speaking engagement, can attract potential clients, especially when the release contains information that demonstrates the firm’s expertise in a particular area. And last but not least, bring business cards…lots of business cards.

Steve Markman is president of Markman Speaker Management (www.markmanspeaker.com), which helps corporate executives and professional service firms gain exposure via public speaking.