Marketing Research

Taking employees from their assigned tasks is a challenge at any time, particularly in the difficult economic environment of today.  Yet senior managers committed to meeting their strategic planning goals are doing just that.  They are providing a brief intermission from the hectic day to day for their employees by providing speech presentations on a wide array of topics related and unrelated to their job.

Many speakers are available to provide presentations that will inspire and encourage your employees to pitch in to help meet the company’s strategic planning goals.  It is not critical to find a speaker that will talk directly about your line of work.There are many presentations available that will complement what you do.Your staff will be challenged to think in new and creative ways which can often result in a positive increase to the bottom line. 

Here is a checklist of things to discuss with a potential speaker:

1.Nuts and Bolts. 

Communicate the exact date, time, and location up front when talking with potential speakers.  In addition, make sure to communicate from the start how long you would like the presentation to be.    This may all sound simplistic, but so often a manager gets well into the planning only to find out that the speaker is not available when needed, or can’t stay as long as required. 

  It will also help if you can give the speaker an estimate of attendees and details about the group they will be talking to.This is a big help to a speaker in aiming their speech to the group and will give your staff a more relevant function. 

2.Event Promotion.

Ask the speaker for a summary of their presentation in advance so that you can start building excitement among your employees.  Do this through email teasers, flyers and other forms of promotion.Offer food and other perks that will make it fun. Bottom line is to make sure the employees see the event as a benefit to them rather than something that management is making them do. 

3.         Compensation. 

If you have a budget available to pay a speaker you will be working with a larger selection.  Most speakers have a set rate for local and non-local venues.  Many also request travel reimbursement, or extra compensation for a longer presentation. 

Don’t worry if cost is a factor.Fees vary a lot, and speakers are often willing to adjust fees if you can offer other incentives.For many, the objective is less about the speaking income and more about gaining possible customers. 

Two typical forms of payment on a low budget are promoting the speaker’s products to the audience, or, even better, buying a copy of their book or product for each attendee. 

There are other ways to compensate a speaker on a low budget.  Open the event up to others in your industry or building to make a larger group.You could also obtain the names and contact information of everyone attending so that the speaker can perform their own follow up.Many speakers are grateful to receive a great testimonial and entre to similar groups that you know through your personal referral. 

It takes some effort and time to set up a speaker session your employees will enjoy and get value from, but it is a great way to build positive energy and increase commitment among your staff.It is all important to always stress the benefit of the experience on the employee, and that you as their manager are committed to their growth as a person.Your final reward will be the positive impact on the company’s bottom line.     

Marty Dickinson moved beyond his techno-fear of the Internet more than 14 years ago and has since launched more than 100 of his own websites while helping more than 300 clients to use the Internet to grow their businesses. Internet Marketing Speaker, business owner, and co-author of “Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies” (Wiley 2009), he enjoys inspiring other techno-phobic business owners, authors and speakers to move beyond their fear of the Internet to embrace its full potential.