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Prescription For Excellence
How To Negotiate Your Speaker Fee – Without Apology!
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I can recall attending my first speaking engagement – as an audience member back in the year 2000. I had the pleasure of receiving a double treat from the masters themselves, Les Brown, and Dr. Willie Jolley. Those speeches ignited my entrepreneurial flame to engage in this craft. I had no idea that while serving in the Army, I would be called upon for promotion ceremonies, retirement ceremonies, and sadly even memorial services. What was the common thread you ask? All were pro bono, I received no pay, it was considered collateral duty as a military servicemember. However, the experiences gained – priceless!
Ask the average person, and they’ll tell you their greatest fear is public speaking. Ask the average public speaker, and they’ll tell you their greatest fear is asking to get paid to speak. Many professionals would love to do more speaking at conferences and conventions. But when the invitation comes, they’re often paralyzed by money: Is it appropriate to ask for some? And if so, how much?
Contributing writer, Dorie Clark of the Harvard Business Review is a paid keynote speaker who delivers 30–50 talks per year. She’s also interviewed folks about how to build a paid speaking career for her book, Entrepreneurial You. Clark lists three principles that can help you determine how to price your services as a speaker.
First, it’s always worth inquiring about their budget. If you don’t ask, conference organizers are delighted to never bring up money at all and assume you’ll speak for free. Raising the issue forces them to admit it would be pro bono, or allows you to start a conversation about fees. For instance, you can email them: “Thanks for getting in touch about your conference. It sounds really interesting. Can you provide some additional information about the topic you’d be interested in having me address, who the attendees will be, and your speaker budget?”
Note that if you work for a corporation and your talk is related to your professional role, it’s rare that conference organizers will offer to pay you. It may not be fair — especially if other speakers are getting paid and you’re not — but it’s generally assumed that your company should be grateful for the additional exposure and that your talk is simply part of your job description, for which you’re already being compensated.
Second, ask the right questions about the event they’d like you to speak at. Your ability to name your price varies based on the type of event, and you’ll want to scale your expectations accordingly. Early on, ask the organizer questions like:
• Howmanypeopleareexpectedtoattendthetalk? • Ingeneral,whowilltheattendeesbe(title,levelofseniority)? • Wherewillitbelocated? • What’sthecontextoftheevent(conference,internalprofessionaldevelopment, client appreciation event)? • Willthisbeakeynotetalk(generally45–60minutes),orabreakoutsession?
These questions will help you determine how important the event is and will give you a sense of how much the organizers will value your participation. The more high-profile the event is — maybe it’s for hundreds of senior executives at a resort in Aspen, for instance — the more budget they’re likely to have available. Meanwhile, if it’s a “lunch and learn” for a dozen interns, then they may not be lying when they tell you they only have $500 to spend.
Here’s a rule of thumb for appropriate pricing: • Newbiespeakersmightearn$500–$2,500foratalk. • Beginningspeakers,orthosejustestablishingabrandwiththeirfirstbook,might earn $5,000–$10,000. • Thosewithseveralbooksandotherformsof“socialproof ”mightdraw $10,000–$20,000. • Thosewhoareverywell-knownintheirfield,suchasbest-sellingauthors, can bring in $20,000–$35,000 per talk.
Celebrities, of course, are in a different category altogether, and can command six- and even seven-figure speaking fees — but unfortunately, most of us don’t fall into that category.
Third, it’s worth determining the circumstances under which you’d be willing to speak for free. Early on, speaking for free is a perfectly reasonable strategy. You can practice your skills and hone your craft, and it exposes you to audiences that may want to hire you for further engagements. “In the early days, I spoke for leads,” recalls author John Jantsch, whom Clark profiled in her book. “I would go to whatever group asked me, if I thought there were prospects there, and I would give them a great educational experience. Undoubtedly, two or three people would come up and say, ‘Can we talk about me hiring you?’ To me, that was the payoff.” The way he looked at it, if he could drum up consulting business, it wasn’t a free speech at all. “That might have been a $100,000 speaking gig, with the right couple of engagements that came out of it.” continued on page 12 11
Even beyond experience and business leads, there are often other benefits if you think to inquire. You can ask the organization to film the talk, creating a great branding asset that may lead to other engagements.
Alternatively, they might provide a testimonial or a chance to travel to a desirable location; this year alone, For example if I’m scheduled to speak in Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Sidney, and Toronto (all places I’d be excited about post COVID-19).
Surprisingly, many places will cover your travel, even if they don’t pay a speaking fee. You might also agree to speak for free if it gives you the chance to talk to an audience you really care about or the opportunity to have a unique experience.
For example, I once gave a free talk for veterans at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which included a tour of the U.S. Navy base and a Hawaii brunch complete with musical artists performing local favorites
Now to the question you all have eager to ask:
How to Negotiate Your Speaking Fee
According to speaking bureau SpeakerHub, “You could simply ask them, but nine times out of ten, they will underquote. Instead, do your own research, and ballpark an appropriate figure.”
SpeakerHub advises that you check out how much they’re charging attendees and sponsors for the event and multiply it by their estimated attendance/sponsorship rate.
For example:
500 attendees at $300 each: $150,000
10 top-tier sponsors at $10,000 each: $100,000
15 middle-tier sponsors at $8,000 each: $120,000
20 low-tier advertisers at $5,000 each: $100,000
1. 2. 3.
4. Now add it all together to find the gross budget for the event: $470,000 Assume 50% of the budget will go toward the venue – $235,000 Then take another 50% out for additional costs, and you’re left with a $117,500 speaker budget. Now divide that by how many speakers they’ll have (let’s say they have 10 speakers), which means theoretically, they can pay $11,750 per speaker.
June 2020 marks a twenty-year side-hustle career for me as a speaker. I can tell you - paid speaking can be a lucrative and enjoyable activity. Naming your price can feel daunting, and money is difficult to talk about in general. However by following these principles and familiarizing yourself with industry norms, you can tap into an exciting new side hustle and start earning what you’re worth – without apology!
Email - jjwilliamsphd@gmail.com Cell - 301-806-8614 Webstore - ChasingTheEagle.com Twitter @jjwilliamsphd LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/james-j-williams
TOGETHER…WE’LL GET THOUGH THIS!
The opinions expressed here by Next Generation Speakers Magazine columnists are their own, not those of the magazine itself.
PRESCRIPTION FOR EXCELLENCE With Dr. James J. Williams SCHOLAR | AUTHOR | SPEAKER | VETERAN | SUCCESS EXPERT
