Pitch Yourself to Meeting Professionals – Part 1

Indirectly sell yourself as well as your products and services speaking is a highly effective way to generate nsew business for almost any type of small business. If you are able to share your knowledge about your expertise in an organized fashion, with confidence, you’ll indirectly sell yourself as well as your products and services.

When to Pitch
Summer and early Fall are great times to pitch your speaking services to professional organizations that begin their new membership calendars in September. Most professional organizations hold fewer meetings in the summer, since many members are traveling with family in the sunshine. However, organizations also survey their members during the summer about educational topics they’d like to learn about during the coming months.

How to Pitch
Email is a great way to pitch. First, research organizations whose members match your target audience demographics and then send a brief introduction (4 – 5 sentences) about yourself and your area of expertise and what your presentations can do to help their audience learn, do or become.
You can often find the contact person responsible for hiring/ scheduling speakers at the association’s website, on LinkedIn or send a general contact email and ask for the appropriate person’s information.
Either way, expect a delayed response. On average, I’ve found that most organizations respond within two to three business days. As an aside, the contact – fact finding activity can easily and affordably done by a virtual assistant or an intern.

In Part 2, we will explore the Initial Pitch Contents and what is most important when pitching to a meeting professional.

Please share with us what you have found successful in reaching out to organizations to book speaking opportunities.

Looking for guidance in finding great opportunities to speak? Check out Engaging Speakers and learn from successful speakers, who are willing to share their knowledge with you. Learn more https://engagingspeakers.com/

Gail Brown, Founder of Engaging Speakers, gail@engagingspeakers.com