Advice on Hiring a Professional Speaker

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3 Steps to Finding the Best Professional Speaker for Your Event

Terry Sumerlin is a professional motivational speaker who gives presentations nationally as The Barber-osopher. Here he uses his 10+ years of experience behind the microphone to help others find effective speakers for their meetings, conferences, conventions, retreats, and other events. Find out more about The Barber-osopher at this professional motivational speaker's website or read The Barber-osophy blog.

Make Sure You Share in the Applause 

Tips for Finding a Speaker That "Fits" Your Meeting or Event

Hiring a professional speaker for an event can subject you to praise or ridicule. If the speaker is interesting, engaging, witty and personable, you'll share in the applause. If they put the audience to sleep-or even worse, if they are irrelevant or insult the audience's intelligence-you may take the blame.

There are three steps involved in hiring a speaker for your event.

1. You need to decide what type of speaker and theme you need for your meeting. To help you with this, we suggest that you answer the four questions below.

2. You need to find a speaker that fits those requirements.

3. You need to work with the speaker to help him prepare for your event.

To get started, answer the four questions below. These will help give focus to your event and the kind of speaker that will provide the most value to your audience.

The Barber-osopher, professional motivational speaker 

A Sample of His Style

Look for videos like this one to get a sense of a speaker's style and delivery. A free DVD of a full-length speech is available through my website.

The Barberosopher--Humorous Motivational Speaker

Terry Sumerlin is the Barber-osopher. He uses humorous anecdotes from his life as the owner of a 50-year-old barbershop, and as a husband and father, to illustrate important principles for success in life and in business.

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curated content from YouTube

1. Who is the Audience? 

Who Must the Message Address?

Is the audience made up of professionals, managers, customer contact staff, administrative staff, sales staff, or a mix?

If the audience is made up of managers, a presentation on developing leadership skills and retaining staff might be welcomed. If the audience is primarily customer contact personnel, a presentation about making your company customer-focused might be appropriate. If the audience is in sales, a motivational speech might be in order. And, if you have an audience made up of employees at different levels and in different departments, you might want a presentation centering around teams and team-building. Finally, if the audience includes spouses and other family members, you may need a speaker that is mostly an entertainer.

Sometimes the type of business helps you determine the kind of speaker you need.

Is the business of the audience primarily B-to-B or B-to-C? Is it a high-tech or high-touch business? A retailer? A manufacturer? A distributorship? A product-oriented or service-oriented business?

Sometimes if all of the members of the audience are in the same business, an industry expert that also has good presentation skills would be a good choice. But, if that is not the case, you will need to find someone who can effectively present relevant business principles.

2. What is the Purpose of Your Event? 

How Can A Speaker Give Focus To Your Themes

One of the most important considerations in choosing a speaker is the purpose of the event.

If you hope to motivate attendees to greater effectiveness, you need a speaker with a motivational component.

Many events combine education and motivation. In that case, you might have subject-matter experts doing break-out sessions, and a keynote motivational speaker who can summarize themes and help make the audience more receptive to the educational presentations.

Some events are designed primarily to promote networking within an industry group. Then, you will want an interactive speaker that can warm-up the audience so that even the more introverted members of the audience will be inspired to meet and greet new people around them.

Beyond the general purpose of the event, you need to consider appropriate themes. Some examples might be:
"How to Thrive in a Changing Workplace"
"Give Your Best Every Day"
"Organizing Your Life for Greater Satisfaction"
"Building Relationships for Happiness and Success"

Choose your speaker on the basis of his or her demonstrated ability to effectively communicate the themes you have chosen and provide a "fit" with your event's purpose.

3. What Type of Presentation Do You Need? 

Subject Matter Expert, Celebrity, Entertainer, or Motivational Speaker

There are four types of presenters that give different kinds of speeches:
  • The Industry Expert. An industry expert has widely-acknowledged expertise in a particular subject matter of interest to the audience. In order for this kind of presentation to be successful, the speaker must also have excellent communication skills.
  • The Celebrity. A well-promoted celebrity can increase attendance and excitement for an event. As in the case of the industry expert, he or she must have speaking experience and skill. In addition, he or she should complement the general themes of the event.
  • The Entertainer. Some professional speakers' presentations are primarily entertainment. They may be comedians, magicians, musicians, jugglers, etc. They often incorporate themes into their presentations.
  • Other Professional Speakers. Many of these fall into the general category of "motivational speakers." They often encompass characteristics of the other categories. For example, speakers like Zig Ziglar have attained celebrity status. And others, while not comedians as such, use lots of humor to enliven their presentations.

4. What is Your Budget? 

The Best Are Not Always The Most Expensive

Speakers' fees range widely. You can probably find a reasonably good local speaker for around $1,000. Excellent speakers with experience and an ability to customize their presentation to your organization can be expected to command fees ranging from $3,500 to $20,000. Celebrities and others who have achieved a degree of fame may receive speaking fees of $100,000 or more. Expect to pay travel and hotel expenses in addition to the speakers' fee.

Remember, though, that the more expensive speaker is not always the best speaker. Review demonstration videos of all of the speakers on your short list. Videos showing speakers interacting with an audience will be of most help. If you spend some time on this kind of research, you may find an especially good speaker for your event that is among the less expensive ones.

How to Get the Most From a Professional Speaker 

Information and Dialog Will Help Them Deliver

If you have contracted with a good speaker, now is the time to work with him or her to ensure that they make a valuable contribution to your event.

The speaker needs to know:

1. The overall theme and/or purpose of the event. Hopefully, you have chosen the speaker in part because their own themes and expertise are a good fit, but the speaker can often further refine his or her presentation to make it even more relevant to your audience and event.
2. The number of people you expect and basic information about the venue. This is a good time to have a conversation about the set-up of the room and needed audiovisual equipment.
3. Whether his or her presence is desired at times outside of the presentation itself. For example, the speaker might be willing to stay after the presentation for a reception or luncheon, so that attendees can speak with him or her personally.
4. A few specifics about the organization, its challenges and opportunities. Many speakers like to drop the names of well-known members of the organization into their presentation. If there are issues affecting many in the audience, the speaker may be able to work those into his or her presentation. And, if the audience is local to a particular city or state, there may be some topic in the news that could become part of the presentation.

Have a conversation with your speaker. Allow time for him or her to ask questions and get a big-picture view of your event. When the day of the presentation arrives, you will be able to share in the speaker's success.

Resources When You Are Planning A Meeting 

How to Get the Most From a Speaker
Tips for working with Professional Speakers.
How To Hire The Right Type of Speaker
Advice on finding the right kind of speaker for your event.
How to Help A Speaker Prepare for Your Event
Suggested topics for your conversation with a professional speaker hired for your meeting.
How To Introduce a Speaker
If you've been tasked with introducing your speaker, here are some helpful suggestions for you.

Blog Posts from Google 

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Paul Ellul wrote

SpeakerMatch is the fastest way to get in touch with many qualified professional and expert speakers. You email them directly.

Reply Posted January 27, 2008

by The_Barber-osopher

I am Terry Sumerlin, a professional motivational speaker known as The Barber-osopher. I have traveled all over the country speaking at conferences and...

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