Whether you are a niche speaker or a generic speaker, in case you want to generate more leads from your speeches, then you need to deliver a keynote that is impactful as well as relevant for the audience you are speaking to. But, how do you make sure that the speech you are giving is appropriate and useful at the same time?
The answer is to do a pre-event call with the organisers well before the actual event date. Yes, that’s right. A detailed yet straightforward pre-event call can take you a few notches ahead from other speakers who are yet to use this fantastic tool to create a substantial impact with their speeches, every single time.
Let me ask you, do you do pre-event calls with clients before your final speech? If yes, what are the questions you ask your client? Is it helping you craft that perfect speech your clients are expecting?
Thanks to my work, I interact with many speakers from all over the world. Some are highly successful, and some are yet to be there. One of the things I find different between the successful speakers and the budding speakers is that the successful speakers swear by pre-event calls. They refuse to take up the assignments where the clients don’t have time or interest to get into a pre-event call. They are that serious about pre-event calls.
On the other hand, I don’t see many budding speakers utilising this fantastic tool to their benefit. I see, many Indian speakers undermining the potential of pre-event calls. Some are not even aware of what is a pre-event call is and how to utilise it in their favour. Hence, I thought of sharing how pre-event calls help me give a speech, that talks to the audience directly, inspires them and drives them towards action.
I have a detailed pre-event call questionnaire that I send out to the organisers. I encourage them to answer the questionnaire in as much as detail possible and send it to me. Once they reply with the filled questionnaire, I generally have a debriefing call with the organisers to tighten all the loose ends and to have a clear understanding of their needs.
This elaborate questionnaire has general questions like time, date, duration, format, of the event, more detail of the organisation I am addressing, the topics that are taboo for the organisation etc. It also has questions about more information of their audience, their demographic mix, age group, biggest challenges the audience is facing currently, the objective of my speech, the outcome they are looking from my keynote etc. And finally, it asks them to clarify if they have any specific expectation from me as a speaker, clarifications around technology and other logistical arrangements.
Recently I was virtually presenting at a large multinational company about Setback Leadership, addressing their entire women leadership team of India. As usual, we had a pre-event call with the organising committee. Very interestingly, I received a call from the organisers immediately after my keynote that the audience was profoundly impacted, and they got the perfect outcome they were looking for. The organiser was happy; the audience got inspired to act and, I was satisfied too!
That’s why I always suggest speakers do a pre-event call without fail. In fact, in the Speaking Niche Mastery Series Online Course, I share my pre-event call questionnaire with the participants. They get this ready-made questionnaire to help them with a jumpstart.
Would you like to know more about this pre-event questionnaire? Comment below to let me know.
