The top 3 mistakes that are made when hiring a Business Speaker are:

1. Hiring a ‘celebrity’ speaker.  If you want a celebrity who is an accomplished speaker, then you’ll be paying a celebrity price, e.g. you wont get much change out of £10k. You may get them for £5 if they’ve been out of the limelight for a while.  Pay less than this and your audience are in for a disappointment.

2. Hiring a niche speaker who only appeals to some of the audience (e.g. a sportsman who sends the women in the audience to sleep),  or has no bearing  in relation to your audiences wider business (e.g. they’ve never worked in business in a professional capacity and can’t offer first hand experience or anecdotes).  

3. Hiring a speaker with great content, but unimaginative delivery and poor engagement with the audience. E.g. lacks memorability and audience takeaways.  Websites without video of the speaker in action are a good clue that the content is stronger than the delivery is.

Hiring a Speaker strategy for a great event

If you’re booking a speaker for your event, think of your audience first. What will they enjoy, what kind of speaker will have the broadest appeal, what do we want our audience to take away from the event, etc.? And THEN start looking for your speaker.

Unfortunately, everyone from retired sports personalities to reality TV contestants are being wheeled out to business events for vanity purposes with little thought for the audience or the speakers ability to relate to them or even entertain within such a setting.  

I know of one client who hired a celebrity speaker . She was an ex “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” finalist.  Not only did she turn up less than sober, she only spoke for 20 of the 45mins she was hired for, clutching her glass the entire time before retaking her seat for any questions. It was a massive disappointment not only for the client who had paid a substantial sum to get her, but for the audience as they had to endure her painful attempt at drunken humour.

Rapport Unlimited offers a double guarantee when it comes to booking business speakers:

1. Engaging, thought provoking and funny
2. They talk about business based on practical experience at the top of industry

From our research and feedback over the past six years on Professional Speakers,  and first hand experience of attending and performing at  events in just about every industry, we find that these two elements are essential to the audience ,and the client ,for guaranteeing a great event . They are also the biggest complaints  from delegates when they aren’t achieved.  

We’re not just interpersonal experts

That’s where we are different. From high technology transfer to the latest Web 2.0 via video advances, to the R&D and pharmaceuticals, biotech, Human Resources, finance, accounting , acquisitions, business performance, to  consultancy – we are uniquely positioned to supply or put you in direct contact with entertaining, industry expert speakers.

Please call us on 08453 700 155 if you would like any help in selecting a speaker for some FREE no obligation advice. We do NOT do any hard-selling.