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Maximizing the Revenue from Your National Speakers. Who We Are:. Mike Butler, NaREIA board member, past president and current board member KREIA (Louisville), promoter
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Who We Are: • Mike Butler, NaREIA board member, past president and current board member KREIA (Louisville), promoter • Elmer Diaz, Past president and current board member of NaREIA, founder and past president of Brazos Valley REIA (College Station, Tx), past board member RICH Club in Houston • Vena Jones-Cox, Past president NaREIA, Past president REIAGC, Past president and current convention chair of OREIA, promoter
The #1 Thing to Remember: • You and your speakers are on the same side! You both want: • A good meeting resulting in • Maximum sales, • Maximum attendee satisfaction, and • Good feelings all around
The Speaker’s Role: Create a great product and pitch Communicate to you what he needs to sell it to your group Get his product to you Get himself to you Sell Have good follow-up systems to minimize or deal with complaints/returns etc. The Association’s Role: Have a great group Communicate the speaker’s needs to all involved committees/staff Market the speaker’s appearance Create the setup that the speaker needs Create an atmosphere that is friendly to selling speakers Provide back of the room sales support Have a good follow-up system to deal with returns to you, on-time payment, etc. But You MUST Accept Your Role in the Process!
In a recent poll of National Speakers Who Work with Associations, These Groups Were Consistently Named as the Best to Work with: • REAPS (Seattle) • CCIA (Chicago) • MIG (Memphis) • NOREIA (New Orleans)
In a recent poll of National Speakers Who Work with Associations, And These Groups Were Consistently Named as Too Awful to Deal With: • Drew will be naming names, for a small fee, in the back of the room following this presentation • If you worried for even one moment that your group might be on this list, there’s probably some room for improvement!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #5: Poor Physical Set-up • Projection cart/table too close to the front row or in the aisle • Bad mics and/or sound systems • No screen/bad projection surface • Inaccessible sales table • No place for speaker product in front of room • Clutter left in front of room
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #5: Poor Physical Set-up: Why it’s a problem • An audience who must struggle to see/hear becomes restive • An audience that can’t see/hear the pitch doesn’t buy • It throws the speaker off his game
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #5: Poor Physical Set-up: the solution • Assign a board member/staffer to create the ideal set-up for the speaker on site, and empower him to do whatever he must to make this happen • Make sure that this “speaker liason” corresponds with the speaker and has a copy of the contract prior to the meeting—communication is critical!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #4: Late Start Times • Associations that simply don’t leave the required 90-105 minutes in their schedule OR • Associations that have an adequate start time in the contract, but don’t stick to it
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #4: Late Start Times: Why it’s a problem • Most speakers have a carefully planned education/pitch mix that requires a certain period of time to complete effectively • A national speaker who speaks from 8-9 p.m. is going to sell, not teach, period • Most speakers now have powerpoint presentations, which cannot be shortened on 5 minute’s notice • Your members are going to start to leave by 9, no matter what
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #4: Late Start Times: The Solution • No matter when your “usual start time” is, plan for no later than 7:30 when a national speaker is on site! • If this is impossible, tell the speaker before signing the contract • Let the person running the meeting know how important this is!!!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #3: Lack of Marketing • Yes, group attendance is shrinking, but you CAN get extra attendees with extra marketing! • Many groups do no more marketing for a national speaker than they would for the local magistrate
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #3: Lack of Marketing: Why it’s a Problem: • Most speakers sell x% of the room, no matter how many are in that room. More people=more sales, period. • Without marketing, your attendees don’t know what to expect, and are unprepared to buy (or complain about having to buy) • Your MAIN responsibility as host is to put people in the room—that’s why you get part of the sales!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #3: Lack of Marketing: The Solutions • Use postcards, multiple email blasts, or even voice mail blasts to rouse interest • Many speakers have marketing pieces that they use that could be sent to your attendees • Don’t forget the “Ongoing marketing” of reminding your members that continuing education is important!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #2: Poor Sales Table Support • Not getting speaker product to sales table • Sales table in an inaccessible place • Lack of bodies to help with sales • Lack of TRAINED people to process sales • Association staff/volunteers killing sales (“It will be in the library next week; so-and-so’s course is better” etc) • Lack of basic supplies/resources (pens, clipboards, phone lines, all cc access)
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #2: Poor Sales Table Support: why it’s a problem • Members at the sales table are still talking themselves out of buying...don’t make it so easy for them! • Your staff or volunteers can and DO make (or lose) sales for your association • There’s NOTHING the speaker can do to overcome a bad sales table!
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #2: Poor Sales Table Support: the solution • Train a group of sales helpers to work the cc machines, expedite, etc • Do NOT put people with ulterior motives/bad attitudes behind your table • Create a box with all necessary items for the table…and don’t use it for anything else (include batteries)
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #1: Torpedoing Your Speakers Before They Ever Have a Chance to Try… • Making statements from the front of the room about how bad the market is • Making statements to the speaker about how poor the sales are at your group • Giving bad, incorrect, or unflattering introductions • Promoting other, cheaper, education prior to the speaker
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #1: Torpedoing Your Speakers Before They Ever Have a Chance to Try: the problem • Your members will ALWAYS believe you before they believe an out-of-town speaker • It’s easy to get “into a speaker’s head” and throw him off his stride
Top 5 Issues that Speakers Have With Associations #1: Torpedoing Your Speakers Before They Ever Have a Chance to Try: the solution • If you don’t believe in what a speaker has to offer, DON’T put him in front of your group • If you can’t control what your board members say, DON’T give them the mic! • If you have a competing event that you’re promoting, bring the speaker in another month
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories “One group forgot to tell me that their meeting had moved since we signed the contract, even though I’d spoken to them the week and the day before my appearance. Standing there at the wrong hotel in a strange city, the excuse I got was, ‘We just plumb forgot’.”
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories (from a female speaker who travels without an assistant) “The entire board of the group left before sales were over, leaving me to take orders and then haul boxes out of the room after the meeting.”
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories “I was promoted, marketed, and introduced as ‘The Queen of Rehab’.”
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories “For the entire meeting, the hotel’s speaker system buzzed loudly. All of the attendees looked like they were in pain. I finally just took off the mic and yelled at the audience of 275 for the last ½ hour. At the end of the meeting, the president said, ‘yeah, it’s always like that’.”
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories “While talking to one attendee at the sales table, I overheard another ask a volunteer behind the table whether or not my course covered short sales. The volunteer said, ‘no, and short sales don’t work anyway.’ If the volunteer had watched my presentation, he’d have known that I’m a short sale speaker, and that’s ALL my course covers.”
Top 10 Speaker Abuse Stories “I was leading buyers to the back table, continuing to pitch them, when the group leader cut my mic off, and announced that they were drawing their raffle. The entire group of buyers turned around checked their tickets, leaving me all alone at the sales table”
And the Winner Is… From an asset protection speaker: “Before my presentation, one of the board members got up and informed the room that ‘what these out of town gurus are teaching you about entities will get you put in jail here in ____. I’m a local attorney, and I’ll tell you the REAL deal this weekend for $99.’ I blanked for the first time in 15 years.’ But wait, there’s more…
And the Winner Is… From a subject-to speaker: “Before I went on, some lawyer from the group got up to promote a $99 seminar by telling the people that the out-of-town gurus didn’t know what they were talking about when it came to land trusts. Since my strategy relies heavily on land trusts, I think I sold 2 courses that night.”
