Frequently Asked Questions –
And, Answers from James Lorenzen

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Q:  What’s your most requested program?

A:  That’s easy!  In-Synch Selling.  The first time I did it was back in 1984 - it was called `Bottom-Line Selling' back then.  The first time was at a national convention in St. Louis where it was an immediate hit!  The meeting planner booked me for their next convention on the spot.  They wanted a ‘repeat’ performance – no changes. The attendees were business owners from all over the country who brought their sales forces with them to the next meeting, also in St. Louis.  After the repeat performance, I was immediately booked into the state associations within the same industry.  I went to Michigan, Arizona, Texas, New York, Florida, California.   That national group invited me back five more times – to do the same program!  Then, other nationals picked it up.  After that, other industries’ associations and companies heard about it.  Soon I was doing it everywhere!  It's still a big hit to this day.

Q:  Who is the program designed for?

A:  It was created for people who sell advertising to merchants.  But, it's been tailored for other industries - we've done it for Foster Grant, Hobie Cat, PIE Nationwide, and others.   Some concepts are universal, but there is tailoring.  You can’t do the same program for a consumer products company that you would for a company or group selling advertising.  At it’s core, though, is the diagnostic process.  The great thing about ISS is it offers an easy-to-learn, repeatable process for diagnosing your way to the sale.  It’s about thinking while you’re listening and having a roadmap that shows you how to proceed based on what you’re hearing.  It’s applicable to all sales and even dovetails with other sales training programs, which is unique all by itself.

Q:  How long is the program?

A:  It’s either a half-day or full-day program.   Most bookings in the publishing industry are for the full-day program, which has a lot more hands-on workshops and gets people involved more.   We've done very few half-days with this one.  The ones we've done have been in other industries.   I think that’s been the secret to the return engagements and the excitement.  Once people get involved with it, they think, “Hey!  I can do this!”  That not only breeds confidence; but they actually go out and start using it!

Q:  What other programs are popular?

A:  How To Small Business Create Advertising Strategy That Works is a popular one within the daily and weekly publishing industry.  It's a half-day program.  Associations book it for their members and pubications will book it either for their ad reps or for their advertisers, usually co-sponsoring with a local Chamber.    I'm really excited about our brand-new program:  How To Develop A High Performance Strategy.   It's a high-content, information-packed 3-hour condensation of a process that's usually done as a four day retreat or as a series of eight half-day sessions conducted over a four-month period and was developed with the help of our partners at The Center for Organizational Design and 360 Solutions.  I'm really proud of this one and I predict it will be a big hit with management audiences.

Q:  When you do a program, do you stay around or do you leave immediately after it’s over?

A:  It depends on two things.  1- The terms of the booking, and 2 - the date of the next scheduled event.    There’s no set formula.   If I’m booked for the full-day general session on Saturday, I’ll be flying in on Friday afternoon and leaving on Sunday morning.  Typically, I make myself available to the organization the entire time I’m there.  A half-day program booking usually means there’s another booking close to it, so time may be a little more restricted.  It also depends on the group.  There are some organizations I’ve worked for so often I know all the people and feel like I’m ‘coming home’ when I see them.  I’ll know that ahead of time, so I’ll try to keep the schedule a little looser, if at all possible.  Either way, as long as I'm there, I'm there to help in any way I can.

Q:  When we want to book a quality professional speaker, we sometimes find the speaker’s fee is beyond our budget!  Does that mean we can’t book that speaker?

A:  Not necessarily.    You can get creative!  Look for other ways to pay the fee!

1. Often a vendor at your meeting would be willing to sponsor all or part of the fee.   Maybe a second sponsor will pick up materials costs and/or the travel expenses.  Think about it!  The vendor's logo could be placed on materials and slides as sponsoring the event, which made it possible for the attendees to experience!  Sponsorships are a great way to reduce your costs and build prestiege for the sponsor. 
2. Look in other budgets.  You could use money from the training department’s or a marketing budget instead of from the convention budget.
3. Some speakers will allow you to pay installments on the excess amount of fee above your budgeted amount.   This depends on the speaker, of course, and his or her prior experience with the client.   If you've booked this speaker many times before, that makes a difference.
4. Focus on the difference.    Sometimes, the difference between the speaker you want and the one you can afford really isn't that great, when divided by the number of attendees you expect to have.  Again, you can use a combination of the first three suggestions (above) to get to the speaker you really want.  After all said and done, pick the speaker that's BEST for your group.  You may save a little on a lower priced speaker or pay a little more for a higher-priced one.  But, you can't go wrong by picking the BEST FIT.
5. Expand the booking contract.   If you're speaker's really good, people will want to see him again.  The speaker who does a great sales program will likely also have a great management program.  Often, if you book multiple engagements with a speaker, you can get a ‘quantity’ discount.  Let’s face it; a client who puts multiple dates on a speaker’s calendar is saving the speaker marketing costs – savings that can be passed on!   
6. Scale your speaker’s services!  Why book two or three speakers when one can often perform double-duty?  Save the extra preparation and travel/lodging expense of multiple speakers by increasing the number of presentations for this speaker.   Instead of hiring three speakers, have one speaker do a keynote, a breakout and a special private session for top performers or executives.    I’ve often conducted additional workshops and round-table sessions, in addition to the general sessions originally requested.  The extra services will cost less than a full fee and the travel cost doesn’t increase at all.   Travel money & time they would’ve spent on others can be applied to your favorite speaker without any extra outlays.
7. Consider an additional special event promotion!  You can also have the speaker do a special pre or post speech event for a separate registration fee. This produces extra revenues for your organization at no cost from the budget.   For example, some groups have sold a special pre-convention program separately for additional revenue.  If the program is on sales, for example, a pre-program event on hiring and training top performers could be a big draw!
8. Expand the scope of the speech.  Often you can video record and/or broadcast the speech for a small extra fee and sell the recordings to your attendees or the people who couldn’t attend, provided the speaker receives all reproduction rights for promotion or resale purposes, as well.  This can generate substantial additional revenue for your organization!

Q:  Are there additional ways we could offset the fees?

A:  Advance product sales is one way.   If the audience is large enough, you can offer a personalized version of the speakers' audio album with a 'Forward' written by the company or sponsor's CEO for each attendee.    Several companies and associations have taken this route with us and it’s worked out quite well.  Associations often find this approach a great  ‘perk’, which often results in increased attendance at their next conference!    

Here are a few more ideas:

1. Your speaker may be willing to schedule a special pre or post convention telephone or Internet conference with attendees and those who can’t attend, allowing them to talk directly with the speaker and get their questions addressed.    Send an e-book or audio or handout to those who log on.  Give them the chance to purchase some of the speaker’s materials at a special discounted price.
2. Your speaker may be willing to do an extra consulting event for a reduced fee at a flexible later date that fits their schedule.   Think of the various forms of impact the speaker can have, don’t just focus on the performance at the convention.
3. Some speakers like to sell products from the platform – I do not, but some do.   If your organization will make a special display of the speaker’s materials and allow for a commercial from the platform, many speakers may reduce their fee or offer the organization a percentage of the sales.   This offsets the fee paid, though it involves a bit of uncertainty.  Nobody knows how much product will sell onsite.  If there are concerns about the uncertainty, then set a no-less-than or not-to-exceed amount.  Also be sure your speaker doesn’t turn the speech into a commercial.   Again, I personally dislike doing commercials from the platform and try to avoid them – sometimes someone asks questions.

Q:  Do you negotiate or reduce your fees

As you can tell from my previous answers, there are many ways to make an engagement cost-effective for the program sponsor.   But, time is a commodity and it doesn't expand.  The days on the calendar are our inventory.  A typical speaking date takes at least twice as much time in preparation as you end-up seeing on the platform.   In addition, there's materials preparation and time spent on logistics.  That said, I think we've done a pretty good job of holding our fees down!   Actually, when you adjust for inflation, our fee structure really hasn't changed very much in the last twenty years!   I did do one free date back in 1984 for the Los Angeles Mayor's office as part of the 1984 Summer Olympics preparations for the business community.  It was a wonderful experience but it’s expensive to do those dates.

Q:  What If The Client Wants An Extra Speech Without Additional Fees?

A:  It's all about time.  Preparation and delivery are two components.  Extra speeches require more.  Easy concept.  That said, most speakers have a speech fee, half-day fee, and full day fee.

The speech fee typically includes all the costs of research, preparation, travel time, etc.   A second speech - depending on how varied the topic(s) to the same client audience may require less preparation, no extra travel time to be sure, and possibly minimal added research.  

Half-day fees reflect that. They are often dramatically less than two speech fees. Full day fees are similar, set with the initial hour carrying the main weight.   Ask anyone — if you work several hours for your employer how many of those hours do you expect to be paid for? They’ll say “All of them!” and rightly so.

So, an extra speech requires an extra fee.  However, the additional fee may not be that  much and there may be other forms of compensation to pay for the additional speech.   Product purchases, videotaping services, and printing services are all useful forms of compensation.  

Q:  Why should our organization pay First Class airfare when our executives fly coach?   

A:  That’s a valid question!  For me, it’s simple:  Clients want a strong, high-content, quality program.  They want me to arrive rested, not frazzled.  Secondly, if a flight is delayed, First Class passengers get prime consideration for alternate travel – a situation that just recently happened to me:  The airline missed their connection in Dallas and it was my first-class priority ticket that enabled me to get on an alternate flight, which was the only one left.  If I'd been in coach, I wouldn't have been on that flight and the meeting planner would have faced a difficult situation - no main speaker for a highly-publicized convention.   I would say actually arriving just might be an important consideration!   Finally, First Class passengers have an easier time changing schedules to accommodate another booking, which allows prorating travel charges for each program sponsor.

International first class is another subject.   I fly Business Class on international flights, as long as I don’t have to sleep on board.

Most people have a one or two-hour commute to work.   A speaker usually has to travel for five hours or more one way, not including airport time before and between flights.    A one-hour flight can take a speaker almost five hours (1-hour to the airport, 2-hour wait at the airport, 1-hour flight, plus an hour getting out of baggage claim, and taking transportation to a meeting site).   Now imagine three dates on three consecutive days!   Now, imagine doing this all year round!   That said, I will fly Business Class on flights under 500 miles if the flight is a direct one.

Q:  Our budget is tight not just because of speaker expenses; there are other costs, including give-away items we distribute to our attendees.

A:  I know.  I’ve received those things myself.  Meeting planners spend thousands of dollars at each meeting on specialty items in hopes of pleasing the recipients or building loyalty and gratitude.  Trouble is … it rarely works.

Less than 1% of conventions I’ve attended provided a copy of the speaker’s product to every attendee.   The other 99% probably should!  At least those ‘take-away’ items represent information they can actually use!   What impacts performance more:  Knowledge or another ballpoint pen or Frisbee?  They’d be better off with a DVD, CD, or something that impacts their lives.