Frequently Asked Questions
See also: questions
about Fees
1. Why is there a membership fee to join your speaker
directory?
Our
experience has been that speakers don't like to pay
commissions if they don't have to. And sadly, there are
some speakers who will go to great lengths to get around
paying commissions on fees that were obtained by agents and
bureaus. And, truthfully, it's really difficult to
establish that a meeting planner found you on our web site
first than on yours. So we decided to "go with the flow"
and make it easier on everyone by eliminating commissions
altogether. It works for everyone.
Now speakers pay a straight membership fee of $99.00 per
year. So really, it's more
beneficial and profitable for speakers who want more,
and better paying engagements.
2.
Can you guarantee that I'll receive a certain number of
bookings at the fee I want?
No, because that is out of
our control. In fact your success is mostly up to you. How
much are you willing to invest in positioning and marketing
yourself as a fascinating expert so meeting planners want
you? Here are some things YOU can do to better your chances
of a good speaking fee and frequent bookings:
A. Hire a personal public relations firm
to position
you and make you visible and credible and help you build
a following. In order to be booked as a speaker, you
need to be a "draw" that will help meeting planners
increase attendance at their meeting or conference.
B. Increase your public speaking and performance skills by
using the additional services and member benefits that are available to
you.
C. Develop good promotional materials that meeting planners
want to see. We have a handbook of examples of appropriate speaker
documents you can use as a
template.
D. Join a bureau or build a web site
that allows you to post a significant amount of
information about yourself.
E. Start charging a fee or increase your fee to a
respectable amount. We have a report on setting and quoting
fees.
F. Develop professional looking speaking
contracts or agreement
letters. You can learn how to
construct your own agreement letters in our
online class,
3. Will you be calling meeting planners to book
me?
No. That is not what
speaker bureaus, agents or speaker directories do. It's not
what personal public relations firms do either. Bureaus
don't work for speakers, they work for meeting planners.
Bureau owners position the bureau so that meeting planners
come to the bureau when they need assistance finding the
right speaker. (When we were a speaker agency working for
speakers, speakers wanted us to act like a bureau... so we
went the directory route to give speakers what they
wanted.) It's our goal that meeting planners will be
calling you directly to book you.
4.
Will you be providing me with a private promotional
campaign?
No, private campaigns
start at several thousand dollars per month. You're not
going to get a personalized visibility campaign for $99 a
month. You can hire someone to provide a private campaign
to promote your expertise and help you generate paid
speaking, writiing and consulting assignments. As a new
member you will also have access to many marketing and
promotional ideas through the private discussion
group.
5. Why does the web site look so simple? You need some
splashy graphics.
There are two good reasons
why we keep the site simple:
A. The first reason is to appeal to meeting planners.
Meeting planners are in a hurry and want web sites that
give them the information they want, quickly and with no
fuss. They want to be able to print out the info about
speakers they want to consider, fast. Graphics slow them
down and waste ink.
B. The second reason is to appeal to you. Yes, we could
hire someone to create a fabulous looking web site. Then we
could charge you and other members higher fees for annual
membership. Wouldn't you prefer that we keep the fees
reasonable and use your money for promotion of the
directory instead of flash and glitz?
Besides if you want photos and graphics you can have them
on your speaker profile page on this site. Send them to me
- assuming you own the copyright - and I'll upload them.
6. Does "commission free" mean I have to speak for
free?
No, you can charge any
amount of fee you want. "Commission Free" means you don't
pay us (Andrea Reynolds) any extra fees (commissions) when
you are booked to speak.
7.
How much time do I have between signing up and getting my
information to you for posting on my
page?
No more
than a week. Here's why. One of the problems meeting
planners tell me about is how difficult it is getting
information from some speakers. (They hate that.) The most
professional speakers usually get all their material to us
within a few hours. Some even send it all to us before they
sign up! That's the kind of speaker that meeting planners
like. I've had some speakers not provide info for several
months despite constant requests. We aren't going to list
speakers who work against their own best interests.
8.
How many bureaus receive the publication?
I wasn't planning to
promote to bureaus, but rather to meeting planners. Bureaus
take 25-30% of your fees; that's counter-productive to
being a Commission-Free speaker. We do have access to a
list of bureaus and will send an invitation to visit our
directory. (It's not a publication... it's a web site.)
9.
Will you market me as a speaker for a percent of my
fees?
No.
What I do is promote the directory, and the speakers on it
benefit from the exposure.
I have written article after article explaining that I get
nothing for doing all the work, but people keep asking me
to act as a telemarketer for them. Meeting planners hate
that. I hate it. I spent 5 years doing that - because
speakers didn't want to hire my promotional services - and
every speaker and meeting planner bypassed me and I worked
full-time for free for 5 years with no credit and no pay.
There is no getting around this... trust me. Why do you
think I have opened a web site for speakers that is
commission-free?
I have to explain this at least twice a day 365 days a
year. (One woman keeps asking me to give her my speaker's
contract for free. Unbelievable.)
I will never be contacted by meeting planners. They will
contact
you.
Not me. They will not tell you they contacted you because
of my efforts. They will not tell me. Trust me. (Not their
fault.... they are doing 80 things at once and honestly
can't remember.) I will never make a dime by spending my
time contacting meeting planners on behalf of one speaker.
I learned that the hard way.
I was demonized in public when I tried to
privately
show a speaker
I had obtained a $1350 engagement for him. I had the phone
records to prove it, but instead of paying me the $337.50 I
earned, he flamed me publicly in front of over 2,800
speakers. It destroyed my credibility and professional
reputation. I'm still struggling to rebuild my reputation.
Because of all this I won't work on spec for another
speaker again.... but I still want to help speakers and
this is the best way I can do it that is win-win.
This is why I do a promotional campaign instead, to promote
this directory, every month. For greater understanding,
please refer to these articles:
ARTICLE http://www.commissionfreespeakers.com/12truths.html
ARTICLE http://www.commissionfreespeakers.com/roles.html
ARTICLE http://www.commissionfreespeakers.com/agency.html
What more do you need to
know in order to say yes to membership?
Please contact Andrea with any questions not
answered on our FAQ.