10 Types of Bookers Who are Trying to Book Speakers!

As someone who has been in the speaking industry for close to 30 years, I’ve seen it all when it comes to those who are actually booking speakers for their events.

For some time, I’ve been following what Maria Franzoni has been posting about the speaking industry, She worked for a major bureau for many years, and now has developed a powerful practice advising new and existing speakers about how to maximize their opportunities.

I was reading a post of hers the other day about the industry and wanted to get this off my chest – so I put together this list of the “10 Types of Bookers Who are Trying to Book Speakers.” There’s a little bit of snark in this, but a lot of truth. It’s a weird industry!

Here’s what I’ve seen: there are certain types of event professionals and meeting managers who are:

1. Body shoppers. They have a slot to fill. They don’t really care how they fill it; they are just trashing about looking for a speaker. Content, tone, message, topic – it doesn’t matter – they just need to fill the slot! Often, they are …
2. Fee limited. They want a BMW but have a Ford Focus budget. And so they will try to convince you that a keynote for them is good for your reputation. They are …
3. Profile sellers. They’ll tell you that you should do it for a low fee since it will be great for your profile (LOL) … but what they really are is someone who is a…
4. Big name booker without a fee. They have big goals but no money and so they will waste your time, and you know that they are …
5. Running on autopilot. They’re a meeting planner stuck in a rut, always looking for the ‘next big thing’ without giving any time to what they are really trying to accomplish, and so they are …
6. Hot Topic shoppers. Because they don’t have a content strategy, they just flail about looking for something new. Never mind it might be totally irrelevant to the audience, they need hot stuff! (!). Or maybe they are just…
7. Going through the motions. Because they know their CEO or some other senior executive is going to ignore their decision because they ‘have a friend who speaks’ or ‘they saw someone speak at a conference or ‘they know someone who will do the same thing for free.’ This means that in previous situations, they’ve been…
8. Burned and hurt. They’ve booked a big name before who gave them a formulaic keynote with no substance and their leadership team is pretty upset with the idea of booking an external speaker … or it might even be the case that they have…
9. No idea what they are doing. They’re an executive assistant, or a VP, or just someone on staff who has been told they have to go find a speaker for an upcoming meeting. They have no idea of what a speaker bureau is, no concept of fee structures, and really no clue where to start…. which increases the odds that they are the person who is…
10. Looking for real content to solve a business problem. These are the clients I love to work with. My home page tagline reads: “I help CEOs achieve their strategic objectives by aligning their organizations to a disruptive, accelerating future. It’s powerful leadership insight based on detailed, specific industry trends – delivered within a fast-paced keynote with a compelling motivational style!”

I love solving real problems for real clients who need real substance and real insight.

The rest? I’ll work with them, but often just laugh them off… or try to help them realize they can do so much more by working with a speaker who really cares and will help them accomplish great things.