How To Be A Secret Weapon with Brian Palmer
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary:
Loyal customers are repeat customers and they surely help in keeping the business running. It doesn’t take a lot to gain loyal customers, but oftentimes in people’s desire to prioritize big fat sales over putting their customers’ need ahead of their own, what is essential is often missed out. Brian Palmer, Senior Vice President at National Speakers Bureau, shares how he has been referred to by his loyal customers as their “secret weapon.” He talks about important lessons that he picked up and learned in his journey where his father served as his guide and influence.
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Listen To The Episode Here
How To Be A Secret Weapon with Brian Palmer
Brian Palmer began working for National Speakers Bureau part-time in 1972. His father, John Palmer, founded the firm. He became full-time in 1980 and assumed the presidency in 1996. He’s held roles with some of the event industry’s most significant organizations and knows the meeting industry inside out. One of the most important things his clients, coworkers, family and friends know about him is that he sleeps well at night. He’s a man of his word who cares to help his clients succeed, and he’s equipped to do so. He and his violinist wife, Paula, have two children, Adam and Rachel. Brian is also an avid racing enthusiast who built his own car. Brian, welcome to the show.
Thanks, John. I’m glad to be here with you.
One of the things that resonate with me about your background and having the pleasure of getting to know and work with you is that you are a man of your word. I want to ask you to tell us about your own story of origin. Your father was a huge influence on you. Was it always assumed that you would be in the business and how did you learn integrity?
It wasn’t always assumed that I would be in the business. My dad was a musician. He was a bandleader and he traveled all over the country. He got tired of traveling. In some ways, the speaking business is on the fringes of the entertainment industry or was perhaps more so then. He started the company. I was good at licking envelopes, so he enlisted my help. I was in high school then. I began helping in the summers while I was in college. When I finished college, I started here full-time. My dad often spoke of how our customers are putting on these events. They spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to bring people together. They have a purpose for these gatherings. It’s that purpose which should drive the recommendations we make, not an obligation to fill somebody’s calendar. As expensive as a speaker can be, the most valuable component of that session is the cumulative time of everybody sitting in there and the objectives that the organization has in place. He said, “There’s no room for exaggeration or anything other than the audience and the organization’s objectives and have that be your sole guide. Always tell the truth about your recommendations and the speakers’ capabilities and you’ll be in business for a long time.” He was right.
That’s so valuable for people to take away whether you own your own business or work for someone else. One of the keys to success is this ability to build trust. That comes from what you described, which is a sense of putting someone else’s needs ahead of your own and delivering on what you say you’re going to do, which increases the trust and it keeps building from there. Would you say that’s been your experience?
It certainly has. One of the most satisfying components of the outgrowth of that are some of the men and women who have been customers for literally 40 years. I’ve been to a number of retirement parties, people that we’ve helped. People have said nice things along the way about how we were one of their secret weapons. It’s a powerful skill to be the person who always comes up with the excellent speakers that helped an event sing. There are a variety of components that go into that. Certainly, me doing the right thing and having a client’s objectives in mind is an important part of the longevity that many of our relationships have had.
[bctt tweet=”Avoid criteria creep.” username=”John_Livesay”]
We touched on a couple of things here that I find interesting. One, your father was a bandleader, you’re married to a professional musician and you used a word about making an event sing. Clearly, music and speaking have some similarities there about rhythm, what’s the melody and when you hear a good song or a good talk, there’s an emotional connection. Can you speak to how you see any similarities between music and the speaking industry?
If I might in a side, my wife and I, on our fourth date, she said to me, “By chance, did your dad go to Northwestern University?” I said, “Yes.” “Did he have a band when he was there?” I said, “Yes, he did.” She smiled broadly and said, “My dad played piano in your dad’s band in college.”
You were destined to be a couple, weren’t you?
Yeah, I think so. I could go on and on about stories about my wife. When a presentation connects with ideas that exist in the mind of the audience, when a presentation accounts for the objectives that an executive or an organization has for this meeting, there’s a certain symmetry that can take place there in the coming together or I’ll call it more of a harmony when it works well. It can often make a meeting sing, and a heart sing too. I also want to note that events certainly aren’t always designed as a key objective to make everybody feel good. People put on events to further some objective, whether it’s an organization or sales or recognition of a product. It’s not all that common that when we talk to people about their events, when we ask what they want to do, they want there to be some progress. They want there to be some learning. Often learning and progress as a key component of it or something that’s certainly present is a measure of discomfort.
Secret Weapon: Clients who book your talent have the purpose to bring people together. That purpose should drive the recommendations that you make and not just an obligation to fill your talent’s calendar.
Some of the best presentations often leave an audience quiet and thinking about what they might have to do to accommodate this new direction or this new path that the organization wants to take. While I pay a lot of attention to evaluations that audiences fill out for speakers, I’m usually most interested in what the event owners have to say about that speaker is delivering on, what they have. Usually, the higher-level executives have a higher-level set of objectives in mind. Sometimes lower-level people want everybody to be happy. A standing ovation can be and usually is a sign of a speaker that’s gone over well. Even when there’s a standing ovation, I want to listen to what the end-client has to say and perhaps whisper about how they felt about how the session went.
The other thing that you touched on that is a fascinating formula for people to take a look at their own lives and their own business, which is the integrity that you bring builds trust which equals loyalty. If I was to create a little formula of your success, Brian, that’s the formula I would come up with. I’m the Pitch Whisperer so I like to give people a one-sentence zingy memorable takeaway. Everyone can start looking at that saying, “If integrity plus trust equals loyalty, then that builds my bottom line because loyal customers are repeat customers and that saves you huge expense on marketing to get new business all the time. Loyal customers also give you referrals.” There’s a nice return on investment in addition to the feel-good, “They called me a secret weapon.” I wondered if you had a story of what you did for someone that made them want to call you their secret weapon.
There was one guy that retired. He was at four large financial services firms. I forget how we first came together, but he called and asked me about a speaker who I didn’t think was worthy of his meeting, someone who had a hit book that people loved, but he didn’t seem to care enough about the audience and the organization’s objectives. He was there essentially giving what I call a book report. That’s not what the client wanted. He called wanting that speaker. It would have been a nice fat sale. I dissuaded him from having that speaker. I recommended somebody who charged a good deal less. It went particularly well. That’s what led to my working with him in these four different roles. He’s the guy who referred to me as his secret weapon. He pretended that he didn’t tell other people about me, but he was a fantastic referrer. You could imagine somebody who’s in a senior role making that reference and referring to us that way, it was the genesis of a lot of wonderful opportunities.
[bctt tweet=”Be a secret weapon for your clients.” username=”John_Livesay”]
The takeaway here for everyone is when you put somebody else’s interests ahead of your own, the long-term benefits more than makeup for any short-term financial impact that might have. The fact that you were willing to recommend a more customized speaker at a lower fee than taking the higher fee commissions on a speaker that would have given a book report because it sounds boring. You could read the book out loud almost, that is what people say, “Now I trust you because you could have charged me more. I thought that’s what I even wanted. It wasn’t like you had to push me to buy this,” but you took the big picture, zoomed out and said, “I think you should go this route,” and that’s what built the trust which then built the loyalty that we talk about. That’s a great story for everyone to look at of all of that. This concept of who you say no to is as important as who you say yes to resonates with me.
That’s also a big-time saver. We’re not a retail store. We don’t have to serve everybody that walks in the door because a lot of people have needs that we can’t help where they have the expectations that I’m not going to be able to meet. Some of my biggest regrets in business were saying yes to things that I suspected weren’t a good fit and I spent a great deal of time trying to satisfy somebody who I originally suspected wasn’t going to pan out for them or for me. After sometimes weeks and months of effort, it turns out that initial impulse was right. I’ve gotten better and better, although I still make that mistake, I’ve gotten better at recognizing things that aren’t going to be a fit and saying no to people. Sometimes I’m wrong, but the net of that decision to avoid poor fits has probably served me well. I’m sure I’ve made a few mistakes, but it’s been positive.
This concept of when people call you a secret weapon, I had that happened to me with Gensler, a big architecture firm that hired me to come in and give a keynote talk on client relationships and developing stories that resonate. They weren’t just going in and giving book reports of their previous architecture work. I did a workshop to help them tell stories that would tug at people’s heartstrings and make them memorable compared to their competition. When the Co-CEO, Diane Hoskins, came up to me afterward and she said, “We’re going to have you speak to all the offices because you’re our secret weapon.” I’m like, “Okay.”
When you get that feedback, it’s because you’re giving such value. They see you’re solving a problem which is what I see in every industry, whether it’s technology or architecture or healthcare. It’s how do we stand out and not be seen as a commodity, therefore justify a higher premium price. Let’s zoom out into your world of speaking bureaus. How do you and did you create National Speakers Bureau brand that allowed you to differentiate yourself where people would want to work with you versus some of the other choices?
Secret Weapon: Be a strong believer of not just treating the customer well, but also treating the talent well.
I have to give my dad a lot of the credit. He had a lot of thoughts about entertainment and people who put on a good show and people who were good to work with behind the scenes. He was a strong believer in not just treating the customer well but also treating the talent well. He told the story more than once about pulling up to a venue on a bus and he said there were usually two types of venues. There was the one where the venue manager would come out and would welcome them and say, “Come on in, guys. We’ve got some cold drinks for you. I hope it’s okay but I ordered dinner. We’re going to make sure you guys are well-fed.” There were venues that when the bus would pull up, they’d come out. He’d wave the bus off and say, “Go park over there. We don’t want you in the venue until 8:00. If you have to use a bathroom, there’s a filling station right over there.” What place do you think the musicians would more eagerly play a little longer or be keener to play together better and play in tune better?
My dad would often talk about making sure that we treat the speakers well and treat them as the talent that they are. People became excited to do engagements for us and we got a lot of referrals from speakers because of that. They knew the client was going to be treated well and that the talent would be treated well and that would produce a better result. When I got out of college, my dad had been around at the founding of Meeting Professionals International. He had urged me to join the organization. I went to my first meeting. I was talking to everybody and I collected a fistful of business cards. I came back to the office. I held out that fistful of cards and I put it down on his desk. He looked at them. He took his trashcan and he pushed all the business cards into the trashcan. He said, “I don’t want you trying to collect business cards. I want you to go to those events to learn about the event business, to learn what’s of concern to meeting planners and meeting professionals because I want you to serve the industry and our customers better and then start worrying about getting business out of it.”
I remember he walked out of his office and I thought about it. I set myself on it on a different course, but I also went into his trashcan afterward. We were big supporters of the meeting industry. I was very involved in that association. I became President of the Chicago chapter and had a number of other roles. Setting out to learn about the role of the event owner and the event planner shaped the way that we operated, the offerings that we made and the ways that we went about recommending speakers, the contracting process and the very important execution or advancing of the actual engagements.
[bctt tweet=”Building trust is putting someone else’s needs ahead of your own and then delivering on what you say you’re going to deliver.” username=”John_Livesay”]
You’re also the contributing author of Professional Meeting Management and industry publications. What that tells me is that you understand the pain points or the problems at a deeper level than someone who’s not that involved where people are literally taking down their mask and being open and vulnerable with what they need. You’re hearing it firsthand so you can keep that in mind when you’re servicing them.
It’s hard to know exactly what influence all that industry work has contributed, but I think it has made a difference. It has made people in my company throughout the years more confident that we were doing the right things. It provided a bit of a fallback if something wasn’t going right and what’s at hand here. It helped us focus. It’s not about the sale. Somebody is paying all this money for the speaker to be there and all these people to be there, that has to be right. You don’t have a chance at 9:00 when that speaker is scheduled. He or she needs to have a bright, shining moment. If all the things that we did beforehand were focused on the wrong things, the odds are lower, that things would sing.
You made the decision to merge with the Premiere Speakers Bureau. Can you share with me some of the thoughts that went into that? A lot of people are often thinking, “I wonder if I should do that. Would I stay on if I did do that?” I bet there are some interesting stories there.
There are a lot of interesting stories for me, but the genesis of it was I came to work here right out of college. Other than jobs that I had in high school working at a gas station, painting houses and caddying when I was twelve, this is the only job that I’ve had. I’ve never been to a job interview. I always tell people that when they call and ask me for an interview advise. I’ve been here for 38 years. I don’t have retirement plans. I’m 61. I wanted to change. I gave thought to ways that I might be able to go about our business in a way that would be a change, but in a way that also would allow me to use my experience.
Secret Weapon: You go to business events not to collect business cards but to learn more so you can serve your industry’s customers better.
I looked around at the entities that existed in the marketplace, companies that went about their business in ways that I agreed with. I talked to Shawn Hanks at Premiere Speakers Bureau and relatively quickly, we came to a preliminary understanding. True to my expectations, the deal that we initially discussed and eventually worked out was very satisfying. It has allowed me to do what I enjoy and that is to listen to people’s objectives, make recommendations and provide them with the means on which to make a decision, have that speaker prepare and show up, do a great job and make event owners and most of the people in their audiences very happy. That’s rather simply the way I went about it. I thought about neither one of my kids is interested now coming into the business.
My kids are relatively young. One is still in college and one is a few years out of college. They like the business. I checked with them and neither one was interested now. I thought making this move would be helpful on the personal front and also in terms of the next chapter for me. I don’t have to worry as much about becoming 70 years old and wondering what I might be able to do with my business. That has been figured out. I’m enjoying working in a new entity, learning their perspective on the world and using their wonderful technology and their systems. There’s been a bunch of wonderful cross-pollination that I’ve found very satisfying. They’ve helped me and we’ve helped them. Premiere has always been impressed by the longevity of a lot of our relationships. They’re constantly asking questions how we did that. They’ve got a lot of long-term relationships too but they’ve been around 25 years. Our company’s been around 45 years. There’s a lot of experience there that’s coming together making a much stronger entity.
It sounds like there’s a great cultural fit. If there are lessons to be learned from both sides, which ultimately makes a great joint venture.
[bctt tweet=”Some of the best presentations often leave an audience quiet.” username=”John_Livesay”]
My boss, Shawn, is a wonderful guy. Do you know Shawn?
I do.
All my life I’ve read all sorts of books and articles about great bosses. I’ve got a great boss. I find myself wanting to be a good employee.
I’m sure he thinks of you as more than an employee and more of a partner. This show’s all about having a successful pitch, do you have any suggestions or can you share with us how you pitch a speaker that you’re representing?
Secret Weapon: We have two ears and one mouth so you can listen more. Listening is a key tool to make a persuasive pitch.
That all depends. I don’t have a standard pitch because it depends on the client and what they’re looking for, what their manner is. You can tell often when somebody wants you to be brief. You can tell when somebody wants a lot of details. Custom baking every pitch that we make I think is key. I don’t think sending somebody a bunch of links to spots on our website and saying, “Here are the speakers who I think would be right. Take a look,” that’s not very powerful. I don’t think recommending a lot of speakers for a particular slot is necessarily useful. Although sometimes people do want to take a look at a lot of speakers. There’s something that we call criteria creep, meaning people gave us criteria and we consider it and make recommendations. In the meantime, they’ve gone around the office or they’ve thought about this event, ask questions. That criteria might have evolved somehow.
I make sure that we in a proposal or a pitch that we reiterate what their criteria were so they’re considering my proposal in the context of the criteria we were given. It suggests to them that they were being listened to and it provides the rationale for these recommendations. You’ve probably heard this expression or this joke before. It’s a sign from God that we have two ears and one mouth. Doing a lot of listening is a key tool in making that pitch, one that is persuasive. Not just informative but persuasive because people don’t want to be informed. They want things to happen relatively fast. If you can discern how they want it and give it to them that way, find out what they’re going to do with it because sometimes a lot of speakers are hired by committees. There are some subtle ways that you might go about making your pitch to help that person that you’re dealing with more effectively pitch that speaker to the committee. You know hard it is for five or seven people to agree on one speaker?
The same thing ironically happens for the clients, whether it’s an architecture firm or a tech firm. There’s a committee of people that are deciding on their pitch. It’s no longer one decision maker. That requires everybody having a different skill set of getting committees to say yes. Is it having an inside champion convincing the other people, almost like a jury that you find works?
[bctt tweet=”You build a lot of credibility when you do a great job.” username=”John_Livesay”]
That can be a key tool but also coaching somebody to effectively manage the process. Often people call and they don’t have a bit of information about what the objective is for that session or the event. They just know they want a speaker. If you can give somebody the tools, coming up with a set of objectives and a process by which a speaker will be decided on. We’ve all been to meetings where somebody was good at that meeting. They knew how to run it. They knew how to listen. They knew how to manage a conversation. Doing that and helping people with that process can dramatically improve their ability to bring that decision to a close and produce success. Many of the readers might not be familiar with a gong show, but people sit around listening to a speaker with no basis for a decision, “Do I like this guy or not? No, let’s turn this off. Let’s look at the next preview video.” Helping people with a process and then allowing the pitch to be a fit into that process is one of the keys to making a pitch. It’s some pre-work and a lot of listening.
A lot of listening and avoiding criteria creep because the better you can get people to agree on the criteria and that it’s not changing, the closer they are to saying yes. Because once all those boxes are checked off on the criteria, it’s time to pull the trigger. Brian, I can’t thank you enough for sharing your worldwide wisdom with us. If people want to work with you to hire speakers, what website should they go to?
NationalSpeakers.com is our website. There are some very interesting people on there.
I’m honored to be one of them. I can’t thank you enough for being such a great guest.
Thank you, John.
Thank you.
Links Mentioned:
- Brian Palmer
- National Speakers Bureau
- Meeting Professionals International
- Professional Meeting Management
- Premiere Speakers Bureau
- NationalSpeakers.com
- Quantmre.com
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Sales Is a Team Sport
Posted by John Livesay in blog | 0 comments
The days of the lone salesperson going it alone and taking all the credit are over. Today is requires a team of people and not just people in the sales department to get a new sale.
When I interviewed Tim Sanders, author of Dealstorming, here is what he told me:
Dealstorming. Would you tell us that story of deal making and brainstorming from Yahoo days?
Absolutely. It actually traces all the way back to when I was at Broadcast.com. Basically, what happened is we got a new sales VP that came in. He had been with a variety of different startups that had gone from zero to a billion dollars. He knew that the problem for most of us is that we’re so underfunded in the startup. We’re just trying to do everything on our own.
He taught me in a meeting, “If you want to be successful, you’ve got to learn how to never go down alone.” That when you get stuck in a situation, say, trying to raise money, trying to make a sale, whatever. He says, “Build a team.”
What he taught me is the difference between a tall team and a wide team. A tall team is a team of people that work in line with each other all the time. In the business world, think of it like sales manager, salesperson, account coordinator. Those three, they work in a vertical line. A lot of times, that’s who’s collaborating to finish the sale.Those teams aren’t as successful as the wide variety of teams. For example, think of the account executive partnering with someone in the marketing department, partnering withsomeone in operations who actually delivers on the signed deal, and then partnering with someone in pricing, in the finance division.
That’s a wide team. Multiple disciplines coming together around an opportunity because they all have a stake in the outcome. The wide teams absolutely beat the tall teams in the market because when you bring together diversity, ideas bump into each other, perspectives collide together. That’s where innovation really happens.
When I went to Yahoo after the acquisition, I specialized in creating wide teams to conquer business development challenges. Whether it was trying to sell something, trying tobuy a company or look into an acquisition, trying to do partnerships.
We worked a lot on rapid problem solving because I believe that the speed in which we solve all those little problems that lead to the done deal is our only competitive advantage. Rapid, rapid, rapid problem solving is how companies stay great and get great.What can you do to build a team with rapid problem solving skills?To read more about selling, click here: https://johnlivesay.com/sales-keynote-speaker/
Critical Thinking + Listening = Success with Lisa Warren
Posted by John Livesay in podcast | 0 comments
Episode Summary:
Critical thinking and listening are two of the most important skills you’ll ever have in any kind of business. This is according to Lisa Warren, a partner at SpeakInc, which helps meeting planner clients identify and retain the brightest, most relevant speakers in the business. Lisa shares how she ended up working with speakers. She takes us through her journey and motivation and job transitions. Lisa enlightens us that along with business transactions, building a relationship is the key to be successful.
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Listen To The Episode Here
Critical Thinking + Listening = Success with Lisa Warren
Our guest is Lisa Warren, a partner at SpeakInc, which represents top speakers around the country. Lisa started her career as a sports marketer and went to law school. While being a speaking bureau representative, she’s now a partner at the firm. She said, “Critical thinking and listening are two of the most important skills you’ll ever have in any kind of business.” She explains how she wants to go out and, “be in the trenches with the clients to see firsthand what’s going on.” While she’s doing that, she’s also checking out new speakers to represent. Before joining SpeakInc in 1998, Lisa has held various positions in sports marketing and PR. She became a partner in 2000 and she’s a graduate of the University of Colorado and of Concord Law School. She enjoys reading, writing and running as opposed to reading, writing and arithmetic. Lisa, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on.
We had the opportunity to meet at a mutual friend’s event and I just loved your energy. You have this ability to smile and light up the room and make people feel instantly welcomed. Take us back as far as you want. It could be childhood, college or whatever when you started on this journey of becoming you and getting interested in communication.
My undergraduate work was at the University of Colorado. I’m a Colorado native now based in San Diego for about 25 years, but I was born and raised in Colorado. I went to CU Boulder and majored in journalism. At that point in my younger days, I desperately wanted to be an intrepid reporter. Back then, the newspaper was a big goal. It’s not so much the hot medium now, but I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Fast forward through my journey as a journalism student, I quickly realized that I wanted to pair my love of sports with my degree. I began working in the sports information department working with the media and writing media guides and so forth. Coming out of undergrad, I decided I wanted to work in sports. To make the long story short, it’s a very difficult business to work in, especially as a woman back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I had a wonderful opportunity to work with the University of Florida after I graduated. I was there when Emmitt Smith was there. I worked in that big-time college sports realm and did a lot of traveling and made very little money.
Critical Thinking And Listening: If you’re in your dream job traveling around and working with athletes, you will not mind not making a lot of money.
At the time, I didn’t need a lot of money. I’m traveling around and working with athletes. Media was a dream job and I had a lot of fun at that. That’s where I started off applying my journalism skills, doing a lot of writing and interacting with the media. At some point, I realized that I need to make some money here. I begrudgingly left the sports world and I ended up in San Diego working for a company which is now called Vistage. Back then it was called TEC, The Executive Committee. It’s an organization that works and operates on the theme of being lonely at the top. They organize meetings of small to medium sized company owners. They work in monthly meetings and I would book the speakers that would come in for these monthly meetings. The groups were comprised of leaders of different industries. They weren’t competitors so they felt free and open to speak about their business issues and come together monthly. It was a good opportunity for me to work with folks who were trying to better their companies and their organizations for their employees. That’s how I started off working with speakers.
That’s a great transition from working with athletes to working with top CEO people because there are a lot of similarities, discipline, focus, passion and personalities that come into play around all of that. Law school somehow happened in between there. What was the motivation there? That’s not something that you just see people casually doing.
I had been speaking for fifteen years before I decided to go back to school. I left Vistage at some point and came to SpeakInc. I started booking speakers and working with clients which I loved, but at the time, I just needed another challenge so I decided to go back to law school part-time. Fortunately, there’s a completely online law school, which at that point was Concord. It’s now owned by Purdue University. It’s a global law school. I was able to keep my full-time job at speaking and satisfy my need to engage my brain in a different realm and do law school part-time. It was a great and crazy journey.
[bctt tweet=”Listening skills and critical thinking are key. Get in the trenches with your clients.” username=”John_Livesay”]
Most people have relationship challenges during law school and the pressure that only one of the three of you is going to make it and all of that drama that goes with it. How have you used your law degree in contract negotiations for the kinds of speakers you’re doing?
That was one of the things that’s intriguing to me because I didn’t want to get out of the bureau business. I love what I do. I’m a partner with the company and have now been here for over twenty years. I wasn’t looking to leave, but I was looking for something that would challenge me and also compliment what I do every single day and that is negotiating contracts. That was super helpful. Law school is a great way of focusing your brain and you’ll think differently after going to law school.
I’ll never forget my sister coming out of law school and saying, “I don’t mean it in a pejorative sense.” I said, “What does that word mean?” She said, “Condescending.” I’m like, “Let me get this straight. You’ve used a condescending word that only lawyers use to say condescending and you don’t mean to be condescending?” We’re in a whole other world here.
You do talk a lot about reasonableness and whatever a person would think. There is lingo but it does sharpen your listening skills and your critical thinking. That can be applied in any business. Working with clients from all different industries in various levels and speakers who come from lots of different backgrounds helped me. It sharpens another tool in the toolkit.
I love that Maslow quote that if the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, you tend to go around looking for nails to hit. I use that in my keynote talks as it relates to selling. The only way you know how to sell and get someone to close a sale is one hammer. There’s a whole new skillset available. I wanted to double click on what you said, Lisa, about critical thinking because it’s so important in these times of disruption. Almost every industry that I’m speaking to is being disrupted from technology to healthcare you name it. I’m assuming that critical thinking is a key way to handle disruption for your business.
Critical Thinking And Listening: Working with clients from different industries in various levels and speakers from different background can sharpen another tool in your toolkit.
It’s dovetailing on what you were saying about the sale. This business like many businesses is very much relationship. It’s not transactional. We work with clients that we’ve worked with for twenty-plus years and we’re very proud of that, but it does take a lot of critical thinking. It takes creativity. You’ve got to be prepared to meet the various challenges that come up in creative ways. Especially when you’re working with a long-time client, things are going to come up and competitors are going to come into the view. If you’re not willing to be creative, think critically, and be innovative with the way you engage your clients, you’re going to be in trouble.
What are some of the things you’ve noticed in the last five years out of the twenty that are ways that require some innovation both from your position as well as the speakers that you bring in or expected to innovate in some ways.
There are a lot of factors. Technology always plays a role not just in the last five years but I remember ten or twelve years ago, everybody was worried about disintermediation. Now their clients can go directly to the internet and look for speakers directly. They’re like, “Our bureau’s going to go out of business.” Fortunately, that answer has been resounding, “No, there’s always going to be a place for bureaus who take good care of their clients, know their preferences, go above and beyond, negotiate on their behalf.” The internet and just the access to information can be overwhelming. Another challenge that we find is having worked with some of our clients for so many years. We’ve got to constantly be finding new and up and coming speakers, but they can’t be so new. We’re worried that 100% they’re going to deliver. That becomes a big challenge and it’s a good challenge to have because it means we’ve got clients that we’ve been working with fifteen to twenty years. We’ve just got to always be on the lookout for new and interesting people to put a put in front of them.
The innovation comes in two places is what I’m hearing you say. One, technology has provided some access that wasn’t previously available. It’s almost like a travel agent, “If I can book my own flights, do I need the travel agent?” Yet it’s still a human connection that needs to come through when a keynote speaker up in front of an audience. It needs to come through in relationships because the technology can be very impersonal. The other part of what you just said that I find so fascinating is, “Bring us new speakers but make sure they’ve got qualifications that you trust because we trust you. We can’t keep having the same speakers over and over again.” Your ability almost reminds me of what I see here in Los Angeles of what agents need to do.
[bctt tweet=”Law school is a great way of focusing your brain which makes you think differently.” username=”John_Livesay”]
We’re going to give somebody a role in a movie that’s never been in a movie before. They have a movie but they’ve never been the lead or wherever the criteria is that allows you to tap into talent. There are a lot of people that always want to take their business up to the next level who are our audience. We use the speaking as a metaphor for everyone, whether they want to be a speaker or are a speaker. The concepts of what you look for of the speakers that you decide are, worthy enough being on your platform and that you feel confident recommending. Let’s talk about how important a book is, for example, in terms of authority and credibility.
A book can be very important. There are a lot of clients who have been doing this for a long time. They’ll say to me, “Great, he’s got a book but a lot of people have a book. A lot of people have access to self-publishing. What else did we get?” One of the things I’m focusing on for 2019 was when I go out to visit clients, which we frequently do. We find it very important to get clients. We do so much over email and phone. We make it our business to get out and travel and see our clients as often as possible. Speakers are in the area that I can tack on a trip and go see a speaker that I haven’t seen live. I can report it back to my client having seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
It’s whole different energy. You see the people in the audience responding. It’s very different than a demo video.
I find that it’s hugely helpful and clients appreciate our ability to report from the field so I’m making a big push for that this 2019.
Critical Thinking And Listening: There’s always going to be a place for bureaus who take good care of their clients, know their preferences, go above and beyond, and negotiate on their behalf.
I’ve read and heard so many executives talk about the importance of getting out behind their desk. Let’s say if you’re Howard Schultz and you serve coffee at Starbucks or you’re at a factory. You own a business that has a factory making clothes or whatever and you’re hearing from your employees directly. My experience has been that, whoever can explain the problem the best is who the clients think has the best solution. What I hear you doing is going and hearing the clients tell you firsthand or watching it and say, “This is a problem. You’re a healthcare professional or you’re a tech company. I see the competition’s coming from you that hasn’t been there before.” Now, you’re pulling all your people together to handle this problem that you saw firsthand when you visited your factory or office. I now have a much clearer sense of who I’m going to recommend as a speaker because I’ve either watched their demo reel or heard from other people that have come in. They know exactly what to say to this audience to help them with this specific problem because you understand the problem at such a deeper level.
Even just small things like being at a client conference behind the scenes and seeing what the challenges are with the AV or how the speaker reacts and if something doesn’t go quite right, I call it being in the trenches with my client. Meeting planners have a tough job. It’s very visible. When things go right, they’re a hero, but when things go wrong, it’s the exact opposite. It cements the relationship when I’m onsite with the client and in the trenches. If the speaker does great, we’re both heroes. If he bombs, I’m right here with you in the trenches and we’re going to survive it together and have some lessons learned. They appreciate that.
Arthur Ashe has this great quote about, “The key to success is confidence and the key to confidence is preparation.” When I’ve given a keynote talk, I was down in San Diego speaking to KPBS when they needed to learn how to pitch to get funding, not for the network, but for a whole building. It was not the normal way of raising money and they needed to justify why they needed a new building and they didn’t know how to do it. Towards the last fifteen minutes of my presentation, their projector stopped working. I was so prepared and knew what the next slide was that I could keep going without the visuals. I’ve never had to do that before and you hope that your preparation will be there when you need it. I feel happy that I keep going in that situation because I was so prepared and knew my material so well.
It’s one of those things that a lot of people take for granted. It can happen and when it does, if you can’t roll with the punches, it’s going to be a big issue.
[bctt tweet=”Businesses are very much about relationships; it’s not transactional.” username=”John_Livesay”]
What tips do you have when you are approaching a new client and saying, “I know you’ve got all you these options of which speaker bureau to use. Here’s what we do and say that separates us so that you’re not seen us as a commodity?” Do you have pitch tips that you could share with us?
There are lots of wonderful bureaus and the separation between the top is tricky because, for the most part, we can all book the same speakers. It’s not a product consideration in terms of who owns the product. It’s not a pricing consideration because, for the most part, all the speakers are quoting the same fees. It is a bit tricky. One of the things that separate us from most bureaus is that we don’t have any exclusive speakers. We have no speakers under contract that we’re obligated to book a certain number of times. That frees us up to hone in on what the client’s objectives are for the meeting. We focus on their budget and the topics thereafter. We can, with a clear conscience, recommend the best speaker based on their parameters. We don’t have to push any particular speaker. That’s not the case for a lot of bureaus. That’s one thing that sets us apart. We also have been in the business for quite some time. We’re one of the oldest bureaus. In terms of our staff, the least tenured person has been here for over ten years so we’re not old. We’re just seasoned and wise.
Your president is a great guy and he clearly sets a culture that attracts and retains talent. It’s a key factor because of the costs for not creating loyalty at a company based on Millennials, in particular, known for not staying loyal. The fact that you create that culture and if that’s a problem that your clients are having, then you go, “I have a speaker that can speak on that. I know myself what we’re doing to keep loyalty at all.” You’re leading and keeping it together.
It’s a good culture. The other thing that we try to communicate with our clients is we’re very flexible and very creative. For example, I’ve got several clients for whom I have crafted custom contract. It’s just a huge time saver when they come to me and we book a speaker. They don’t have to go round and round with their legal team because I book them classes that we’ve decided in advance. I try to keep it stocked up.
Critical Thinking And Listening: Meeting planners have a tough job. When things go right, they’re a hero, but when things go wrong, it’s the exact opposite.
The traditional marketing tools they talk about and the four Ps and all that good stuff. That product and pricing and PR and packaging. You’re talking about the unique challenges in the speaking bureau world that as you said, the product’s the same. We all have access to almost all the same speakers and all the pricing. It’s not like we’re going in and saying, “We can get to that speaker for less.” That’s not how the industry works. You have to tap into this relationship integrity mindset. You describe the fact that you don’t have exclusive contracts and have an obligation to promote this person X number of times a year, almost like a quota and what that means to your clients.
That’s my favorite phrase to give people a benefit statement. They’re like, “If you don’t have exclusive speakers, I still don’t get why that’s important to me or why I should care.” You did it so beautifully when you said, “What that means to our clients is it frees us up to match their needs to their budget without any potential conflict of interest or a pressure to push things.” It’s almost like a financial planner that’s incentivized to push people into a mutual fund because they get a high commission. None of that is happening to you. I see now why you and speaking are so successful. It’s because of the trust and the willingness to be in the trenches and then this additional element of integrity that comes into play.
It’s what we had to do. It is tricky because we all need and want to get our message out there in a way that’s not pushy and not heavy handed. Having been doing this for so long and being able to get that message out at the right time with the right people without sounding like a big commercial.
There’s a level of confidence that comes with experience. Whether it’s an experienced speaker that can promise you as a potential bureau that would represent them or when they get on the phone for those shootouts. When it’s between you and somebody else, if they’re going to hire or invest in or buy a product or service or in this case, as a speaker by you, it’s not so much about the credentials. No one’s going, “What law school did you go to? How many books did you sell?” It’s about, “Do you understand our problems enough to give us a unique solution that’s going to change our business? Do we like you and do we trust you?” I talk about all of that all the time. If people trust you first, then they get to like you and then they get to know you. That’s the relationship building that you were talking about.
It takes us out of this old school way of selling. Even beyond the consultative selling, which has been popular now to a whole other level of, “Let me tell you a story of someone else I helped at their events.” Once that story starts happening and you can bring that to life like, “The last time I was in the trenches with my client, what I found was.” Then suddenly you have a new way of communicating with potential event planners on why they should pick you over somebody else that they go, “Lisa has empathy for what I do. She knows another person that’s facing the same challenges and she’s there for that person. Now I found my bureau.”
The relationships that we’ve built with the speakers we work with a lot is a huge piece of it. We find ourselves connecting with clients saying, “I’ve worked with a speaker and he raved about you. He’s worked with you for ten years.” That’s having other evangelists and we do the same for our speakers too. If you worked with someone multiple times and you know they’re going to do a good job, I’ve told my clients, “I can almost give you money.”
That’s that personal passion and connection, yet you’re still challenged with finding a new speaker that has experience. That’s a relationship building that requires, “Let me talk to some other speaking bureaus that maybe represent you. Let me speak to a client and beyond just the testimonial they wrote to build your own confidence level in your mind before you can get to hear them live yourself.” All of those are steps that allow people to get into your ecosystem. Are there any last thoughts or inspirations you want to leave us with before we say goodbye?
This is a great industry. It’s a pie. There are a lot of players but it is a big pie. It’s never a dull moment. I enjoy the chance to chat with you about it.
Thanks. What you’ve said reminds me of our mutual friend, Tim Sanders, who’s an amazing speaker and author. He was kind enough to write the foreword to my book and he talks about the importance of having an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset. I find that I gravitate towards people with the abundance mindset in business and in my personal life and we keep meeting more of each other. You build your tribe that way is how I liked it. If people are interested in finding out more about you, the website is SpeakInc.com. Lisa, thanks again for being such a great guest.
Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.
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