Speaker Success Strategies

Branding and Positioning Strategies
By Randy Gage
Feb 6, 2003, 08:00

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Dear Colleague,

I had dinner with a speaker friend of mine the other night, when the subject of positioning and branding came up. I must say I can’t complain about his branding.

Because he doesn’t have any.

He developed his speaking business like most speakers do. He started out with a speech he kind of wanted to do. Along the way, someone asked him to do another one. Then another. And another...

Now he has five, or six, or seven speeches he does. Unless someone asks for a different one.

He likes to think that they are all related. I think he has been pulled in many different directions, and the market no longer knows how to perceive him.

I’m right. I win.

Not because I’m brilliant, insightful and smart. (Although I am certainly all of those things!) But because the market tells us so. Here’s what you’ve got to understand if you want to be successful as a speaker...

You can’t survive on doing speeches at $4,500, $5,500, or even $7,500. (Or God forbid, on less than this!) That model no longer works. The economy won’t permit it.

Forget about all the talk about the 9/11 slowdown. Let me give you a clue. That was two years ago! This is not a 9/11 slowdown, it is a recession caused by corporate deception, government overspending, airline mismanagement, foolish consumer debt, and about a dozen other things.

I could write a whole column on that subject, but that’s not the issue here. The point is that companies have cut back on travel budgets, training budgets, and the money they spend on meetings. And this has changed the way the speaking profession is conducted. Please read the next sentence carefully:

You will never last as a professional speaker if you build your business on the concept of getting individual speeches.

Speakers who have done this for years are now going broke. It’s a busted model that no longer works. The threats of terrorism, reduced travel and training budgets, and the dot-com economic meltdown have eviscerated that market. It’s gone, and it aint coming back anytime soon.

If you build your business on getting individual speeches, you will starve. The savvy speakers know how to position themselves as the definitive expert in their area of expertise, and create situations where prospects come to them. If you want to be successful today, you have to build your business model around the concept of a professional practice.

And the best foundation you can do for that is building a brand around who you are, and/or what you do. That means having being known in a defined area of expertise, and having your topics spin off from that.

This has been an issue with every speaker I have consulted with, and I’ve consulted with a lot. In every single case, I have had to pare down the number of speeches they offer. I believe you should have one area of expertise, and three...at max, four...speeches that spin off from that.

This is the foundation for brand building. Creating an impression in the mind of meeting planners for what you are about. I believe that you will see a serious shake up in the speaking business in the next year. (Which already started last year.) A lot of the speakers at the lower fee range will be forced out of the business, and back into the corporate world.

Because the first programs to get cancelled, and the first training budgets to get hacked are the ones at the lower fee schedules.

Read that last sentence again. Strange as it may seem, the $5,500 speeches are cancelled a lot quicker than the $20,000 ones. And the $25,000 training and consulting contracts are cancelled a lot quicker than the $1 million ones. Really.

The secret to becoming financially successful in today’s market is branding yourself as the definitive expert in your niche, and then exploiting that branding to build a professional practice.

But if you want all this to happen—you’ve got to understand one very simple, yet very profound truth...

You are not in the SPEAKING business. You are in the MARKETING business. Speaking is just one of the things you market. Or more correctly, speaking is just one of the ways you deliver the product you really market. Which is information. (Or if you are a humorist – entertainment.)

And you should be selling that information (or entertainment) in all the mediums that your market wants to buy it in. That means speeches, public seminars, consulting, coaching or mentoring programs, books, booklets, Special Reports, CD ROMs, videotapes, audiotapes, CDs, DVDs, and downloadable products on the Internet.

Think of your business as “Information Inc.” Build your business model as a conglomerate that sells information (or entertainment) via corporate and association speeches, public seminars, private consulting, individual coaching, and of course all the learning resources (the books, CDs, videos, etc.).

When you do this, you get the higher fees, and you have the cash flow to withstand market slowdowns. Or even RAISE your sales, as I am...

In fact, I’m having my best year ever! And 2003 is going to be simply off the chart!

I’m about to launch a lucrative new public seminar, my products are getting translated into a bunch of new languages, I spoke in over a dozen different countries in the last year or so (opening up vast new markets for my spin off products and businesses), my Internet-based coaching program now has students all over the world, and my calendar for the remainder of the year is looking meaty. Truth is, I have more advance business already on the books, than most speakers will even hope to do this year.

I want the same thing for you...

You’re either going to get serious and structure your business like a professional practice, or give up the ghost. I hope it is the former.

You’ve probably heard about my “Speakers Institute”. It’s a very special program that I’ve presented five times before. People from all over the world – from Korea to Canada, from Australia to Slovenia, and the USA to the U.K. – have participated.

And nearly every single person who has ever attended any of them will tell you that it was the most lucrative, powerful, and helpful training they have ever received in their business. And the one or two that wouldn’t are just plain stupid.

I am doing one more Institute only, coming up in March. It is the last one ever. So it is your final chance to take at least five years off your growth curve. I guarantee it will be worth at least another $250,000.00 in revenue for you this year—or I will pay you $5,000.00.

Please. If you are serious about speaking as a profession, clink the link below and get all the information you need to make a decision.

Value is not an issue. I’m backing it up with a $5,000-better-than-money-back guarantee.

Money is not an issue. I’ll finance your investment over one year, so you can pay me out of the extra money you make from what I teach you.

The only issue is whether you are serious about becoming (or staying) a professional speaker. Please click here for the complete details:
www.SpeakersInstitute.com

Next time, we’ll look at the differences between doing public seminars, versus corporate one, and conducting seminars versus giving keynote speeches. Have a great week!

-RG

P.S. We already have more than 25 people confirmed for the final Institute, and we send out more Pre-Event Study Materials every day. If you’re serious about attending, better register now, while we still have spaces!
www.SpeakersInstitute.com

© MMXI Randy Gage. All Rights Reserved.

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