Getting Booked by Cathleen Filmore
For Professional Speakers – Getting Booked (Part 1/3)
Well, here you are, all dressed up and nowhere to go. You have a whiz of a website, a well designed promotional page, a media kit, a three minute video, topics that are much needed in the market…..and now what? Here’s what. Now it’s down the business so many speakers avoid. Down to the business of actually getting the bookings.
Maybe the reason so many speakers avoid this part is that old fear of rejection. After all, the website and marketing materials and speeches get rave reviews. But picking up the phone and making calls to inquire about speaking engagements can be a little trickier. These people don’t know you, may well be inundated with calls and can often sound either a little irritated or impatient or worse still, speak in sound bites, saying that they’ll review the material and get back to you. Sure they will. Just don’t hold your breath. This is exactly what I experienced many years ago as a writer trying to get articles published. And I learned a lot about what not to do from that experience.
So here goes. Don’t hold your breath. Don’t allow your life experience to be in the hands of another person. They don’t care nearly as much as you do. Take control. Here are some innovative ways to get booked.
1. Book yourself. Put on your own event. And if you think that no one would come, take another look at the BIG PROMISE you’re making to the market. Clearly it’s not big enough or credible enough. Fix it. Infuse it with some passion.
2. Volunteer at events for meeting planners, join associations that your prospects belong to, write for the magazines they read, get an online following, join online groups that they’re part of and make sure you’re a real presence.
3. Find the markets that would be a good fit for you. Now find the sub markets of those markets. Let’s say your background is in the grocery industry. What subset of that industry is underserved by speakers (as opposed to saturated?). Go after that subset.
More to follow…… Cathleen Fillmore is owners of Speakers Gold bureau and a marketing consultant to speakers who want to make more money doing what they love.
She’s written five books, most recently The Six Figure Speaker available on Amazon.
To sign up for her ezine, go to http://www.speakersgold.com.
Take care Deepak