Q & A For Speakers

Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions we receive from speakers:

–> Don’t see your question?

How long have you been in the speaker industry?

We’ve been in the speaking industry for 15 years as a Speakers Bureau.

Are there any fees to join?

No – never. No legitimate Speakers Bureau charges speakers to join their Bureau. We do have some websites that allow speakers to pay for advertising their services. However, those websites are for speakers who are not on our Active Speaker Roster.

What is your commission?

For all bookings over $10,000 we receive 25% of the gross speaker fee – not including travel expenses.

For bookings under $10,000, we refer them out for 15% – paid to us by the speaker should they book the engagement.

What information will you want from me?

Here’s what we’ll need:

  • A one sheet
  • Photo
  • Your topics, no more than 5 please
  • Your Bureau friendly video in YouTube format
  • Your commissionable rates – and any discount rates if you offer them for local bookings
  • Any special requirements or travel requirements
  • Topic descriptions

Can I follow up with clients?

In most cases yes. Some of our clients specifically request that no speakers contact them – and we’ll simply let you know if one of our clients has made a request. For referral bookings, we want you to follow up with our client right away and do all you can to book the engagement.

What should I know about working with you?

Here are some things that especially help us:

  • We are not exclusive – so you can work with other bureaus in addition to us.
  • We specialize in speakers, trainers and sports figures nation wide.
  • Most of our clients have a budget between $2500 and $25,000. Occasionally we receive requests for speakers in the ‘Over 25k’ range.
  • We refer all bookings under 10k to our Network of Referral speakers.
  • We’ve referred over $100,000 worth of bookings to certain speakers within a 1 year period.
  • Contact us by email rather than by phone – it really saves us time.
  • Sign our referral agreement BEFORE we start referring you bookings – it saves time.
  • Please note when it’s not appropriate for you to contact our client directly.
  • Email us after you present – and let us know how it went.
  • We remember and re-book speakers who call us with spin off bookings.
  • Let us know what you need and what we can do to help you be at your best when you’re presenting.

How many speakers do you represent?

We currently have over 2800 speakers on our active speaker roster.

However, we drop speakers from our roster almost every week because they are not responsive enough. Nothing is worse than having a client with money in hand, ready to book a speaker, ready to pay . . . only to have the speakers we select not get back to us for 3 or 4 days. Our client ends up wondering what’s taking so long and we end up losing the booking.

We’re constantly culling through our roster and weeding out the speakers who are either too busy or who simply don’t care enough to respond promptly – within 24 – 48 hours.

We’re always interested in adding new speakers to our roster. Any professional speaker consistently earning over $2,500 per speech is more than welcome to contact us at adminasb@comcast.net about getting on our speaker roster.

Who are your clients?

Our clients range from small local organizations and government groups to some of the largest organizations in the world. Microsoft has called us for speakers, and we’ve booked speakers for the US army. The largest budget request we’ve received was for a $50,000 speaker.

Who should I speak with in your office?

Ask for one of our account executives or simply ask our administrative coordinator to be directed to the right person.

How can I be one of your preferred speakers?

That’s easy!

  • Be professional, easy to work with and respectful to our staff.
  • Be highly responsive – call us back ASAP when we call about a booking – clients want answers FAST! We drop good speakers from our roster every week because they don’t respond fast enough. We simply replace them with a different speaker – who does!
  • Always let us know how the presentation went.
  • Have a GREAT 10 minute pitch for all your speeches.
  • If we refer a potential booking to you – and you close the gig – keep us informed via email and pay us our commission as soon as YOU are paid. Never make us keep calling you to know what’s going on with the booking or wait and wait to receive our commission.
  • Email us rather than call. We have to work on volume and it really saves us time.
  • Take us off your e-zine. We have 1800 speakers on our roster – we simply can’t be on that many e-zines. Instead, email us quarterly or so and let us know any updates.
  • Yes, we’ve referred over $100,000 of booking to a single speaker within a 1 year period. Who gets booked by us over and over again – and who gets all the best referrals we have? The speakers who respond quickly, are friendly to our staff and who do a great job for the client and then let us know how things went.

    And those who close more referrals because they are better at pitching their speeches to the clients we’ve referred to them – so they win more bookings for us . . . and for themselves.

Don’t see your question?

Please click on our contact us page and send us a note.