Professional Speakers – What Do You Charge?

So how much do you charge? I recommend you create a menu of services. A limited menu, though, you don’t want to confuse the buyer with too many options.

As an example of a menu, you might offer your consulting services along with a keynote for one fee, simply a keynote for another fee, and possible a quick lunch and learn talk for a lower fee. So now you have a range from high end (consulting & keynote) to affordable (lunch and learn).

As long as you’re not going TOO low, you’ve just made yourself very flexible and easy to market.

If you have NO experience in professional speaking before a group, get your feet wet before you think about charging. Start offering your services to community groups and wait until you get great audience feedback before you put a fee to your services.

Once you consistently get good feedback (doesn’t really have to be great, that will build up as you gain experience), you’re ready to charge.

And of course, you’ll use that great feedback on your promotional material.

I recommend starting out at anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500 for a keynote. Much depends on your location and much also depends on the cost of living in your part of the country. The cost of living is high in major cities, so speakers who live in urban areas tend to charge more.

Where ever you live, once you get past the beginning stages, you should focus your marketing efforts on urban areas. You’ll get fewer objections to your fee.

Once you’ve become fairly credible and well established and have written an article or two – in other words – once you’re known as an expert in your field – it’s time to bump your fee up to $5,000 for a keynote. Travel expenses are extra.

This is where many speakers get stuck. There’s a real bottleneck at of speakers at the $5,000 level and so at this point, there’s a surplus of speakers to choose from and the competition is stiff – all the more reason for you to really stand out and offer something totally unique.

Here’s what I want for you. I want you to move up that ladder quickly and plan ahead for the time when you can name your own fee and no-one will object. You’ll then be in a rarified atmosphere with a small select group of speakers.

That’s where you want to be. I’ve worked with other speakers to plan a winning and unconventional strategy to get there, I can help you too. If you’re really serious about providing great value and making big money on the circuit, call me at 416-532-9886. I’ll tell you how I’ve worked with other speakers to dramatically increase their income.