Business Tip: What to say when someone asks you to speak for free

There are over 90,000 professional/trade associations in the United States – and they all want speakers at their meetings – typically free speakers. I have been on both ends of the pro bono speaking gig. I have been the person at the lectern giving the pro bono presentation and the poor schlub (AKA “Director of Programs”) who has to call people and ask them to deliver a free talk to their members in exchange for “exposure.”

I started my business as a professional organizer/productivity consultant in 2007. One of my early marketing ventures was to go on a pro bono speaking tour of my hometown: Chattanooga, Tennessee. I contacted every business association I could Google and offered to speak for free in exchange for exposure. If there were businesspeople present, I enthusiastically spent (many) hours preparing and delivering free talks on how to get organized at work. My assumption was that if I gave an excellent talk, then the participants would be motivated to work with me. I got rave reviews, rousing ovations, and a zillion handshakes and statements such as “I need you! You’d have a stroke if you saw my office.”

And then I stared at the phone and wondered why it didn’t ring.

I am not dissing business associations or their need for free speakers. As a Program Director of a business association, I once had to staff an entire 3-day conference with pro bono talks, and many speakers generously gave their time, on evenings and weekends even, to fill in the gaps in our conference agenda. Business associations are run by dedicated volunteers, and I have been helped by my memberships in them greatly.

But there is often a misunderstanding of who the benefactor is and who the beneficiary is.

One day, I fortunately had a conversation about pro bono speaking engagements with professional speaker Patty Kreamer. She introduced me to the concept of a “value-for-value trade.” Speakers provide a service of great value. They gatheryears of experience, education, failure, and success and deliver it via one entertaining and educational package to a roomful of people they do not know. Speaking is one of the most nerve-wracking but fulfilling things that I do. And, it is worth every penny that my clients pay me to do it.

So where does the “trade” come in? Since 2010 I have asked business associations who contact me requesting a pro bono talk to agree to help me publicize my business. The Program Director is given the following list and asked to select at least three things that they can do:

In four years, only one association has declined to participate in the value-for-value trade, and I declined to speak to that group. Since implementing the trade, my eNewsletter list has increased substantially, my website SEO has improved, and yes, I’ve gotten actual, paying, clients as a result of pro bono speaking.

To the association Program Directors of the world, I have this advice: please remember that you are asking someone to volunteer their time when you are asking them to give a pro bono talk. Yes, you offer them an opportunity for “exposure” but it is rare to procure a client as a result of a single exposure. There are sales statistics that show that it takes as many as five to twelve exposures before a sale is made. Your speakers are providing a valuable service to your association and to their business community. They are the benefactor. Your association is the beneficiary.