Whether you are an accomplished professional who uses speaking to growth your business, or an early stage speaker, the question always is how do I get booked—or get MORE bookings.
I’m Jackie Lapin and I’m an expert on helping people get booked! Over the past years, I’ve booked more than 10,000 interviews and speaking engagements.
And I’ve been on many stages myself—just using the tactics I’m going to offer you now.
- First, develop a signature talk that really speaks to the problem you solve for your target audience. Know who you serve and how you can alleviate their pain.
- This addresses two issues—it will tell the booker exactly what you are offering that will improve the lives of his or her audience—the single most important criteria for booking you. And it will help you narrow down what speaking gigs you will submit yourself for.
- Next, make sure that you commit at least 3 hours per week to pursuing your speaking gigs. Make an appointment with yourself on your calendar, just as you would with a client or prospect. That way the week won’t slip by without you making contact with bookers. As I always say, if you can do the time, you can’t earn the dime!
- Next, you’ll need a few useful resources. The first is a powerful speaker one-sheet that addresses why you will be perfect for this audience and presents you as the professional you are! This should be well designed and speak to the problem you solve.
- You’ll also want to have a video of you presenting…Not something taken from your cell phone with bad lighting and sound! It should be professional quality. You will need 3 to 5 minutes that really shows the booker how impactful you are on stage and how you engage with the audience. You don’t want to use a glitzy speaker reel here, with lots of quick cuts. He or she wants to see the real you in action.
- Next, you will construct an emailed proposal letter. This should speak to why you –and your content–would be an ideal match for this audience. It should be no longer than about 5 paragraphs, and should draw attention to the attached speaker one-sheet, and feature the video link.
- Select the opportunities where you wish to speak, and research the speaker coordinator either online or by phone. A good idea is to start with local meetings, venues and associations, where you can get booked more easily and if you have an offer that resonates with the audience, attract clients and make a lot of money! If you don’t want to do this on your own and invest a ton of time, I have a great short cut to offer. It’s our SpeakerTunity Cities Regional Speaker Lead Directories, with 800-1500 speaker contacts just in your market alone! It saves you all the time and money, and gets right to the chase…the folks you should sent your proposal letter to! You can find them at SpeakerTunityCities.com. I created it for busy leaders and entrepreneurs just like you!
- Now once you send the proposal letter, you should follow up by phone. I always recommend the rule of 3…one email and two phone calls or two emails and one phone call. If you don’t receive a response try to reach the person on LinkedIn. If there is no response to that last attempt, just let it go on and move to pursue the next opportunity.
- Always be pleasant, even if you are being declined or the speaker booker isn’t returning your calls. Leave the way open for future conversations, rather than burning your bridges.
I’m Jackie Lapin, and I can’t wait to help you find the best speaking opportunities in your city, and across the country!