POSTED: July 4, 2020, by Towan Isom
Maybe you’ve been public speaking for a long time and want to maximize your earning potential, or maybe you’re just starting out. Either way, knowing what to charge for speaking engagements can be a challenge. And, it’s fairly easy and common for people to sell themselves short. While there is not one single price you should be charging, taking into account a few key questions will help you price engagements and receive what you deserve.
Your value plays into your pricing from two angles: how you want to be perceived and how others perceive you.
You want to be seen as an expert, therefore, you should price yourself to reflect that value. Any training you completed, and your public speaking skills increase your value beyond your subject matter expertise.
People will perceive your value, in part, by the number and types of speaking engagements you have done, and referrals and reputation. First-time speakers typically receive between $500-$2,500. A good starting point would be midrange: $1,500. However, if you have authored a book and have social proof or strong professional credentials, you could be looking at $10,000-$20,000, or more. Your value could also be driven by the timeliness and importance of your topic and content based on current events, developments, etc.
Consider a concept used in product sales and apply it to your pricing: the purchasing organization should get 10x more value out of the product than what they pay.
You cannot set fees in a vacuum. You have costs, such as business expenses, taxes, your salary, and perhaps more. Reverse engineer your engagement pricing, starting with the revenue you need (based on expenses). Take the necessary revenue and divide by the number of speaking engagements you anticipate to set your base rate. From there, you can offer add-ons that increase your revenue.
If working through a speaker’s bureau, make sure to account for their cut of your engagement fee and ensure that you charge enough that they deem their cut worthwhile. You may need to negotiate with them based on the type, size, frequency, and location of engagements.
The entity hiring you has a budget that you must uncover. One way to estimate their speaker budget is by looking at their revenue from attendees and sponsors. Estimate that 25% of revenue is allotted for keynote and breakout session speakers, though budgets vary per industry based on perceived value and economics. This is another area where you may need to negotiate, since some venues are expensive such as a theatre, hotel, or restaurant, while others are in-house space.
What if they ask you to speak for free? This might be acceptable in instances like: you are testing new content; the engagement would enable you to get additional clients at equal or greater value; they give you something else of equal value; or you simply are personally satisfied by speaking about the topic to that audience.
A tiered pricing structure with various packages, based on factors such as topic complexity and history, or content length and depth, allows clients to select features most suitable to their interests and budgets. A lower priced tier will help get your foot in the door and establish yourself, and will allow future opportunities to sell larger packages.
If you are speaking to a new-to-you audience and see potential sales or partnership opportunities, you can use the speaking engagement to expand your reach. As such, it’s reasonable to speak at a discount or even free of charge and consider it an investment in your sales and marketing, or business development, budget. Your return on investment will come with additional opportunities and business, so your expenses will be quickly offset.
We wish we could have given you a simple formula to price speaking engagements, that shows what every organization would find reasonable and pay. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that easy. The more you do it, however, the easier it will get to neither leave money on the table nor price yourself out of consideration.
Once you set baseline pricing you can tweak different packages and their pricing to maximize your value. As you gain more and more experience, your speaking fee will rise, as well.
Good luck! Don’t undersell yourself, and command the respect you deserve.
