The How of Wow

Notes from The How of Wow by Tony Carlson

* According to Tony Carlson only 1 in 500 speeches is good enough to be remembered. To be among those remembered, Carlson says you need to give audiences insight, enlightenment, meaning, stimulation, wit, and entertainment.

* Emulate the greats and soon your own style will take over but with the power of the greats

* Few speakers ever rehearse enough. Every extra moment you have ought to go into rehearsing.

* Your opening line can be a shocker that lets the audience know you mean business. Don’t be afraid to say something that people already suspect, but noone will say except for you.

* Show your vulnerability early in the speech. I recall when Tom Peters said at an NSA convention. “It’s intimidating to think about speaking to a roomful of speakers.”

* Keynotes benefit by a strong start, a rising middle, that grows and grows until you feel a sense of catharsis, a climax of emotion that your audience enjoys.

Top Bureaus, Great Results

As a professional speaker, I have had the privilege of working with many outstanding bureaus. Among the many traits that excellent bureaus have in common, these seem to show up often: they return phone calls properly, keep advised as to the status of held dates, gather comprehensive background materials from the client, collect fees as originally negotiated, and have a well-developed follow-up procedure in practice.

Think of using speakers bureaus in this way: You use a lot of professional services in your organization and your life, including attorneys, accountants, bankers, computer consultants, and tax advisors. The essence of any good professional is that the price you pay for his or her services is more than justified by the benefits. As it turns out, dealing with speakers bureaus works exactly the same way.

Relying on Bureaus

Why Would You Want to Use a Speaker Bureau?
* because the agents are dedicated professionals and among the tops in the field.
* because they work with only the best speakers who do a consistently outstanding job at every speaking engagement.
* when they've been in business for at least 10 years and know how to serve meeting
planners effectively.
* because they are efficient, responsible, flexible, and stay highly attuned to your needs.
* when their bureau representative will meet with you on site at your location.

Save Time & Money

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE offers eight tips for corporate meeting planners to save time and money:

Tip #1. After every meeting and event, do an "after action analysis." Write down what went right, what went wrong, what you would do differently if you were planning the meeting today, and who the vendors were who made your life easier.

Tip #2. In hiring vendors, do not always go for the lowest price. Whoever you hire, it affects your image. Reliability and follow-through are more important than a lower bid. Everyone is downsizing and looking for new ways to cut costs, but a vendor at a lower price may not be the answer.

Tip #3. Learn to make other people heroes. Whether dealing with vendors or people in other departments of your own company, if the person works hard and well, write a note of thanks to them and send a copy to their boss.

Tip #4. Make sure your speaker knows the terms used in your associationi.e. these people use "clients" not "customers." Also, alert the speaker to particulars of his/her audience...for example, mention the women in the audience are members, not spouses. One professional speaker was not warned and spoke "down" to his audience, making them feel bad, and the meeting planner look bad.

Tip #5. If you do mailings before a meeting or convention, be sure to put the speaker on the mailing list. This way the speaker knows what else is going on at the meeting, what the various topics are, if the schedule has been revised, and if his/her speaking time has been changed and no one remembered to tell the speaker.

Tip #6. If you are expecting a speaker to arrive the night before an event, leave them a note asking them to let the meeting planner know they have actually arrived. If you know the speaker has in fact arrived, you will undoubtedly sleep better. Leave an emergency number where you can always be reached.

Tip #7. Don't save the best for the last. Often corporations take their top performers to a fancy resort for a meeting of several days. They have one important outside speaker and they want to send the employees back to work with a bang. You will get more value for your money if you schedule the speaker the first day instead of the last. At the end of the conference the employees may be tired, hungover, or worried about packing and making the plane.

Tip #8. Use E-mail. Get on-line with networks of meeting planners who can share their experiences. Find a group similar to yours and find out the names of the most successful speakers they have used and which vendors made their lives difficult or easy.

Call 800 634-3035 or email PFripp@Fripp.com to request other articles.

Follow the Introduction Verbatim

Many introducers offer an ad-hoc lines, which squelch a speaker’s planned opening. One of my introducers once added his own line to my introduction. It was his attempt at a joke. It was lame, fell flat, and went nowhere. It also conflicted with my intended opening line, and I had to quickly say something else.

Do your conference speakers a favor: tell your introducers in no uncertain terms not to improvise. I know of one meeting planner who asks, "Can you deliver this introduction as the speaker has requested?" If the introducer does not pledge to deliver the introduction free of these remarks, she suggests another introducer.

Speaker Ethics

Open up the National Speakers Association Directory and you'll see thousands of speakers, most eagerly awaiting the opportunity to work with you. Log onto any major search engine on the Internet, type in the word "speaker," and you'll get 100's of hits. It's not difficult to identify speakers on all topics, from all geographic locations, of either gender, in all shapes and sizes, and at varying prices.

Of the 11,500+ speakers in the profession today, however, how many have a well-developed, written ethics policy and operating procedures that succinctly define their working relationship with bureaus? The answer: less than one in ten.

A Working Model

The following 19 provisions, drawn from my own Code of Ethics and Operating Procedures can serve as a working model. You can use it to determine what to look for when adding another speaker to your line-up of speaking professionals, whom you feel confident in recommending to clients:

1. We will not take on any speaking engagement if we have any doubt that Jeff Davidson is less than the best speaker that the client could retain for the engagement. When we say yes to a lead that you provide, you can be assured that Jeff is qualified and capable, and intends to give a presentation that exceeds the client's specific needs.

Fees and Expenses
2. Our fees are consistent with what you would pay if you booked Jeff directly. We never raise client fees for bureau-generated engagements.

3. If you pre-arrange a quantity purchase of our products, we agree to offer you a 20% commission on the gross amount of products sold. We follow your directions regarding any product sales.

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