Economic Storm
Target Real Buyers
Although today’s world economies are not the
best in history, they are pretty good ones if you
know how to market and creatively establish fees.
This is the time to raise fees and directly pursue
real buyers.
Our buyers are trade association executive
directors, and those executives who “own” and
sponsor meetings. There are catalysts and middlemen. (I can’t bring myself to say “middle people,”
which sounds like “middle earth” and requires a
Hobbit.) Our buyers are not bureaus and meeting
planners but if you believe they are, then you will
limit your options.
I love bureau heads who tell me that the client is theirs, not ours. We’re the talent, and there
would be no speaking without us. An insurance company can do business without insurance
agents, but the converse does not apply.
Focus on people who can directly authorize a
check for your value.
Unbundle Your Services
Speakers make the mistake of selling a commodity—themselves—for a time period. So there is a
fee for an hour’s keynote or a half-day of training.
Bureaus, you will note, demand a “fee schedule,”
which is silly and disastrous. The following exer-
