Event organizers don’t exactly love cold outreach, but they don’t totally despise it either.
The truth is, it all comes down to how you do it.
Welcome back to Backstage: a behind-the-scenes look at what event organizers really think about speakers.
Andrew Davis
Here's another one from our series of interviews with organizers.
Today, we’re pulling back the curtain a little further. You’re about to hear directly from three very real (but very anonymous) event organizers. We’ll lovingly refer to them as Monica, Phoebe, and Rachel.
(And don’t worry… no Gunther, no Ugly Naked Guy, and definitely no Janice. Oh. My. Gawd.)
These conversations give us a rare peek inside the minds of the very people you’re trying to impress. If they weren’t anonymous, their inboxes would already be overflowing with… you guessed it… cold outreach.
The One Where Cold Outreach Gets a “Clean Sweep”
We learned so far that "Monica" is okay with cold outreach only if the speaker includes a budget range and is willing to negotiate.
We also learned that she’s not afraid to hold a grudge. If you have a particular fee in mind, it’s always a good idea to share that with your prospect before getting on a phone call. That way you can be sure you are both in the same ballpark before taking the trouble to connect.
“Don’t waste my time!”
Monica has hired a handful of speakers from cold outreach efforts, but ended up getting burned in the process.
“We hired [REDACTED] once, but he came across as such a prima donna and expected more from our little event than we could ever muster. I don’t have additional staff and hands to cater to a speaker’s every need. He just had too much going on and I would never hire him again. I think I just got taken in by the heavy selling they did in their constant cold outreach.”
Andrew Davis
Check your ego here.
Another tidbit shared by Monica has to do with rejection.
“Our company hosts six events of different types every year. Sometimes I’ll get a cold outreach from a speaker for one event. If it definitely has a personal touch and I know it’s not a spam blast email, I’ll respond by saying, ‘Thanks, but this isn’t a topic we’re covering.’
“Other times I reject them for another reason. Then, that same person who I rejected will reach out to the other events where I am also an organizer. At that point I’ll just block them and put their message in spam because they are just filling up my inbox with junk and that’s not a relationship I’m going to build.”
Monica also vented about speakers who assume that since they’ve spoken their once, they’ll be hired over and over again.
“Speakers generally assume that they’ll be able to come back even if they don’t have anything new to offer… even if they don’t have a new speech! They just want to come back at the next event and they do constant outreach about that. It gets really annoying!”
The bottom line for Monica is this:
- If she receives a mass email or a repetitive message where they are just pounding the same drum, the email goes straight to delete and spam.
- If she learns a speaker is hard to work with, even in the sales process, they are rejected quickly.
To wrap up our conversation, I asked Monica about the event she’s currently planning and where she found the two speakers. This is kind of interesting…
