A few weeks ago, I spoke at a security conference as a
subject matter expert. While there, I was able to sell books and provide advice
and assistance. If you are a niche expert, chances are that’s someone will also
contact you to present; especially if you have a book, blog, or other product
identifying you as the go to person. In fact,
you might receive a letter with wording similar to the one that I received last
April.
“Dear __(fill in your name)___, we are contacting you to see
if you are available to present at __(name of upcoming event)_____ conference.
We thought it would be a good idea to present some information from your book _(your
book title)____.
Please let us know if you are available and how much you
would charge as compensation…”
Congratulations, you just made it to the big leagues. The two
critical steps are to negotiate the payment and knock the ball out of the park
with a grand slam presentation.
The last sentence “please let us know…how much you would
charge for compensation,” is the hardest to address. We all have an idea for
payment in mind, but just like a job interview, we can really stumble answering
this question; especially if it’s your first time at bat.
1.
There are several ways you can answer this
question and it depends on your situation:
a.
Will you travel to the event?-figure in ALL
expenses
b.
Will you need to spend the night?-figure in
sleeping and eating arrangements
c.
Will you have to take time off from your writing
or full time job?-figure in these expenses
The point is, you do not want to go broke on a business
endeavor. You don’t even want to break even. It’s important for your expenses, convenience
and profit to be included in payment. However, there are trade-offs that can
offset costs.
For example, I covered all bases with my last speaking
engagement with a direct bill and some compromises.
My last speaking engagement required a 750 mile round trip
and two overnights. Though I only spoke for an hour, I had to consider the
logistics cost for travel and missing two days of work. Since I presented to a
professional organization that supported government contracts, I asked for the
equivalent equal to government per diem, lodging rates and per mile driving reimbursement
(what the government would spend to put up employees in a hotel, feed them and
pay per mile to get them there).
Wow, all expense paid vacation to the beach. However, I still
had to figure in the cost of being off the job for two days. You can do this by
figuring how much you earn per hour and apply it to the amount of business
hours you will be out of the office. You might even consider the cost of
leaving your family behind and missing important events.
This is where I negotiated a value tradeoff. I was able to
get free booth space and permission to display and sell books at the event. Many
organizations charge vendors anywhere from $300 to $3500 to occupy booth space. Though reasonable for a vendor with a $3,000
product, but for a book seller, this is a lot of money. Where many vendors can
earn a profit with the sale of one product or service, authors and book sellers
would have to sell anywhere from 10 to 100 books to a potential audience of
less than a 500 attendees; that defies the odds. In reality, you can expect to
make a sale from 1-5 % of attendees based on sales statistics. If you’ve read
my book “Get Rich in a Niche”, you’d understand why I rarely ever pay for booth
space.
So, the booth space and other compensation provided the
win-win agreement I looked for. Here are other ideas you can negotiate to cover
expenses:
- · Ask organization to purchase a minimum number of books
- · Ask for free advertising in upcoming newsletters or on their website
- · Collect attendee names to include in your newsletter
2.
Knock the presentation out of the park. This
begins as soon as you accept terms. Now that you have their attention, get as
much information on their playbook as you can and engage with intended audience
regularly.
a.
What is the theme of the seminar-You can ensure
your presentation carries on not only the topic, but the setting. Our
conference featured an Olympic them. To support the theme, my presentation
featured Olympic art and photos as well as how to be a “World Class Security
Manger” while comparing the niche expert with an athlete in training. (By the
way, did you notice the baseball theme in this article?)
b.
What will the others be presenting-A colleague
contacted me as soon as he found out I was speaking. His main point was to let
me know what he was presenting, so that I would not present the same
information. In a small niche world, it’s not out of the realm of possibility
to present the same topic.
c.
Who will attend-This is important to determine
the technical level of the folks you are presenting to. The last thing you want
to present is something too far above or below their skill level. They pay good
money to learn something new, so keep information fresh. Instead of offering
the same old tired topic, how about presenting something they haven’t seen
before?
d.
Who are the other vendors-This is a good time to
get to know the other vendors and make alliances. I’ve sold books and
advertising space to other vendors. I made it my job to get to know them and
become and go from rookie to MVP among vendors.
e.
Add all attendees or event POCs to
newsletter-This not only allows you to introduce yourself, but ensure everyone
knows who you are prior to your arrival. Communicate continuously before during
and after the event.
f.
Attend any social events planned-The
organization that invited me to speak put up a world class social. Many members
were invited. I had a great time meeting attendees and members the night before
I presented. This both bolstered my confidence and game me the opportunity to
build my credibility as an expert.
If you are a niche expert, chances are that you’ll be
invited to teach or present at a seminar. If so, make sure you ask for proper
compensation and prepare a presentation that knocks their socks off. Congratulations,
you just made it to the big leagues, now prepare ahead of time to play well.
Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM
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