Are You Choosing the Best Speaker?
By Graham Davies

Good Guest Speakers are expensive – mainly because there are so few of them. Despite your many years of business experience, a speaker may be a commodity you have never even thought of purchasing before. But you must ask yourself: “How can I be sure he is worth the money I am paying?”

The only way to ensure that you get a positive answer to this question is to book a truly professional speaker.

There are hundreds of people who speak for money. Very few are genuinely professional. A professional speaker is someone who takes the business and craft of speaking very seriously. It is not someone who has stumbled into speaking for money because he is famous for something else.

Here are the questions you need to ask yourself:

“Am I attracted to this speaker because I have seen him on TV?”
Speaking and TV presenting are very different activities involving fundamentally different skills. A speaker does not have the safety net of an auto-cue, an ear-piece and on-site script writers. There are no re-takes or commercial breaks. He is on his own. What may have seemed amusing through a camera lens may have been artificially boosted by canned laughter. Remember that the “spontaneous” wit of “Have I Got News For You?” and “ Never Mind The Buzzcocks” has all been carefully rehearsed and then read off a tele-prompt. A speaker must be able to perform without the magical illusions of the TV studio.

“Am I attracted to this speaker because he is a famous businessman?”
Chief Executives earn their money by being good at running companies. They are not necessarily good speakers. Some are very poor indeed. (even if they have a knighthood). Many famous Captains of Industry are only capable of presenting a sequence of corporate clichés and tired anecdotes. Business credentials are not the same as speaking credentials.

“Am I attracted to this speaker because he is a famous sportsman?”
Professional sportsmen are remarkably focused. They impose a brutally Spartan regime on themselves, sometimes over a 20 year period. Without this focused commitment, they have no chance of success. But it is the same focus that often means that communication is a real challenge for them. Kicking a football or sailing a boat do not involve speaking to an audience. Several sporting speakers have successfully made the transition to paid speaking. Are you sure that their speaking skills are as focused as their sporting skills?

“Does he have a track record?”
Make sure that he has both a long term and a short term track record. By that I mean a sequence of recent engagements as well as engagements in past years. Ideally, you should have a speaker who has some years of experience combined with current popularity. Your chosen speaker should be able to list 20 blue-chip clients that he has spoken for within the last 12 months. Make certain that these were speaking engagements and not just personal appearances or making a corporate video.

“Does he have a good collection of testimonial letters?”
Actually, I mean a brilliant collection of testimonial letters. Clients are always very happy – and relieved – when a guest speaker performs well. They are usually very happy to express that gratitude in writing. Your speaker should have dozens of these letters that you can look at. Again, make sure that they refer to speaking engagements. Ask whether you can phone 3 recent clients for a frank chat. If the speaker is defensive about this, your alarm bells should start to ring. A truly professional speaker will be proud to give you access to previous ecstatic clients.

“Is there a video available?”
Yet again, I do mean a speaking video. An extract from his appearance on “Wogan” is no evidence that the speaker can captivate your salesforce. A video may be the whole of one speech or an edited showreel of the speaker in several live corporate presenting situations. An edited showreel is preferable because it shows:
1. Adaptability;
2. A track record;
3. That the speaker is doing well enough to afford several thousand pounds to create the showreel.

I do not recommend asking the speaker if you can go to another corporate event to see him in action. It is always awkward for the speaker to arrange this with the other client. Also, when he is performing, he should only have the needs of that client in his mind. He should not be thinking of “auditioning” to satisfy you and your company’s needs. A professional video is an excellent illustration of a speaker’s professionalism.

Booking a great speaker does not have to be a process which relies mainly on luck. Whether your potential choice is relatively unknown, famous, or infamous, you must check that he has:

An impressive client list;
Brilliant testimonials;
Outstanding video footage.

Only then will you have the evidence to decide in his favour. Otherwise, you will be guilty of leaving too much to chance.