Speaker - June 2009

Putting a fine point on the speaking industry
use your KPis

to know what measurable skills you teach. If you can’t show that your con-

tent will make a measurable difference, then the client probably won’t hire you.

Have you examined your material

to determine your KPIs? Do you know exactly what your audience will be able to do when you’ve finished your program? Can you measure the results?

In a challenging economy, business goes to speakers who can illustrate the results derived from their program. If you can show

the impact your content
w ill have on an organi-
z ation and its bottom
l ine, then you will have a
g reater chance of securing
i ts business.

Additionally, once y ou know your KPIs, y ou should work hard to continuously i mprove them. The greater the value y ou deliver, the more you are needed

b y your clients and the greater value y ou can ask for in return. The h igher your KPI value, the b etter positioned you are in t he market.

The good news is that this also applies in a booming economy. If you sell

yourself based on measurable results, you will have an advantage when the economy rebounds. You will be better positioned for

the inevitable downturns that speakers face from time to time.

One of the benefits of serving as NSA President has been

the opportunity to travel nationally and globally, and talk with speakers and clients about what works and

what doesn’t. On a recent trip through Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, the acronym KPI was pervasive. It stands for Key Performance Indicators.

In that part of the world, it is criti-

cal for speakers to convey their KPIs. Clients want to know the value of your presentation and what their employees will be able to do with your content. Specifically, they want

Clients want to
know the value of
your presentation
and what their
employees will be
able to do with
your content. They
want to know what
measurable skills
you teach.

Let’s carry this just a bit further. Besides being able to recognize and convey your KPIs to your clients, do you know what your business KPIs are? Which KPIs do you monitor daily to ensure you’re on the right track?

Do you need to make a certain num-
ber of marketing calls each day? Are
there a specific num-
ber of articles you
need to write each
month and distrib-
ute to publications
that could use your
insights? How many
blogs do you want to
track and participate
in? How many book-
ings do you set as a
weekly goal?
Usually, you can
track your business’s
success by consis-
tently applying a few

KPIs. Identify those indicators, and stay on top of them.

Ultimately, we should run our business the way our clients run theirs, based on measurable facts and data. Great decisions are not made in a vacuum. Get the information you need. Know and monitor your companies’ KPIs. And always work to increase the value you deliver to your clients.