When you are ready to hire a professional speaker, there are two important considerations that you need to make: do you want a speaker that is purely for entertainment, or one that offers a real, valuable message? You will also need to figure out if you want to work directly with the speaker or through a speaker bureau.
Entertainment Speakers versus Content Speakers
There are a number of hybrid speakers that offer a bit of each of these styles; however, you will find you receive better quality when you choose one or the other. While the majority of professional speakers are lively and entertaining, they are not hired to be humorists and will not be having the audience cracking up. However, they will deliver information and content based on their specific level of expertise in a way that is engaging for the audience. If you are searching for financial speakers, chances are you will want to stick to professional speakers who deliver a valuable message, rather than excessive amounts of humor.
Direct Booking versus Speaker Bureau
The majority of speaker bureaus in America will work on a commission and the majority of bureaus that are in Europe will be working on an add-on basis. The American bureaus will take an average commission of 25 to 30 percent of the established fee set by speakers and in Europe they will add the amount of money that they want to make into the fee that has been established by the speaker. The main benefit offered by working with this type of bureau is that they will have access to a larger number of speakers, which can help to save you time having to search online to find the right person.
However, there is also a downside of working with a bureau, which is that they have the tendency to prefer some speakers over others and then push them no matter if they are right for your event or not.
Communication is Essential
In order to find the type of speaker that you really want, you will have to be able to communicate with them directly during the searching and hiring process. You need to be sure that you are honest with the speaker so that they know your expectations and the expectations of your audience. In many cases, poor communication will result in the speaker not being able to meet your expectations.
