Help Me Hire YOU!
Speaker shares seven strategies for getting hired at full fees.
07/06/2025
Speaker shares seven strategies for getting hired at full fees.
Expert Hiring:
Specialize deeply, package clearly, and become indispensable.
I’ve been a full-time professional speaker, trainer, and consultant since 1992. During one particularly rocky period in my business, I went back on the “inside” as a conference producer and VP of product development for an information marketing firm.
That experience allowed me to view the speaking and training business—and a whole lot of professional speakers and consultants—from the customer’s perspective. And I instantly saw all the things I was doing wrong! I’m going to share with you everything I did wrong, so you can get it right. And this will help you get hired more easily, more often, and at your full fee.
Strategy 1: Decide who you are
Are you a negotiations expert, a customer service expert, or a sales expert? Focus your business on mastering one and only one topic. Specialize and stick with it. Don’t be afraid of labels. Labels are good! Corporate buyers buy labels. Label yourself early on and focus on getting expertise that is deep rather than broad in one area. Wannabes know 10 topics, one foot deep. Experts know one topic, 10 feet deep—and beyond!
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Strategy 2: Write a book (or several books)
Early on, I made the mistake of writing four books on four different topics. If you’re going to write four books, you should write four books on one topic. Decision makers like to see at least one flagship book in their arsenal.
Strategy 3: Write articles with substance
Corporate buyers need to see an expert’s thinking. Elite experts write articles conversationally. Write the way you speak - it connects more deeply with your readers. Make your articles actionable. Show your buyers good, meaty articles with lots of specifics and do-it-now tactics.
Don’t be stingy in sharing the ideas that you’ll share with their audiences if they hire you. In your articles, don’t just tell people what to think about your topic; show them what to do and how to do it.
Strategy 4: Create a niche on several levels:
- By topic (for example, leadership)
- By audience (for example, HR people, finance people, IT people)
- By industry (for example, banking, HVAC, healthcare)
- By level (senior execs, first-time supervisors, high school students)
- By method (three-day boot camp, 12-week program)
- By media (perhaps you’re known for THE book, THE YouTube channel, THE definitive industry research, or THE podcast in your particular area of expertise)
“Sales Success Secrets” isn’t nearly as good as “Overcoming the Stall: How to Shift Your Prospect Out of Neutral.” “How to Become a More Effective CFO” isn’t as good as “Seven CFO Negotiating Strategies for Vendor Contracts.” Tip: Use the word “for” to target a specific audience, such as “Presentation Skills for HR,” “Upselling for Customer Service Reps” and “Internet Marketing for Law Firms.”
This does two things for you: It makes your topics more specific and it identifies your target audience. What’s more, the more specific your topic, the less you can be compared with the sea of generalist jack-of-all-trades experts who are perceived (accurately) as commodities.
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"The expert in anything was once a beginner."
- Helen Hayes
Expert Hiring:
Specialize deeply, package clearly, and become indispensable.
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Yes, you can provide text passages or key points from the book so that I can use them in the analysis. If this is not possible, then you can simply provide a
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
Strategy 6: Offer depth with variety.
If you’re a project management expert, corporate buyers love to see “Project Management for CFOs,” “Project Management for Frontline Supervisors,” “Project Management for Residential Builders,” “Project Management Basics,” “Advanced Project Management,” “Project Management Tricks to Save Time and Money,” and so on.
Once they find someone who delivers great content and is easy to work with, they want to be able to plug that expert into all their different audiences at different levels, in different industries, and for different durations. You might be invited to present a 1-hour webinar, or a 90-minute general session, or a half-day pre-conference workshop. Material that fits a variety of formats and audiences makes you more flexible.
Strategy 7: Packaging counts.
Your packaging starts with your brand. Don’t be clever - be smart. Identify your expertise to corporate buyers quickly and clearly. This starts with your company name and brand. Don’t make me guess. Don’t use “Your Name & Associates,” or “Your Initials Consulting.”
Don’t be cute or clever. Overly clever names are a solution in search of a problem. Here are some good brands for professional experts because they clearly communicate your expertise: LegalWatch, Safety Priority, Your Part-Time Controller, ConstructionLeadership.com, Onpoint-Communications.com, and The Human Leadership Institute.
Bonus Strategy: Be coachable.
Buyers live with their audiences. They know what their audiences like, respond to, and value. Work with your buyer to customize, tailor, and tweak. Even a small miscalculation on your part makes you look out of touch with the audience’s reality.
Let buyers help you make the connection between your expertise and their audience’s needs. It will help you generate more leads, stronger audience feedback and land more spin-off business. If they offer you specific advice, listen because it will only make you better. Don’t let arrogance or complacency sabotage your success.
Make it stick.
Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Would you hire yourself? Think like a corporate executive or conference programs chair, and then do everything you can to become the expert you would be thrilled to hire! Get known, become an expert, get published, get on podcasts, get focused, get branded, get specific, get deep and, most important, get going on these strategies right now!
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Yes, you can provide text passages or key points from the book so that I can use them in the analysis. If this is not possible, then you can simply provide a
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
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