Tips To Negotiate Fees When Looking For Public Speakers For Hire In Washington DC

By Della Monroe


A lot of well known presenters usually charge high fees whenever they are invited for speaking engagements. This may put you off in case you were planning to invite one. Nevertheless, you can get public speakers for hire in Washington DC to reduce their prices if you use some tactics.

It is advisable to deal directly with the speaker. This is because if you deal with a bureau or an agent that is acting on their behalf, you will have to pay a commission to the agent or bureau, which will drive the costs up. Talk to the speaker and see if they would be willing to accept a lower fee. Some professionals may be willing to lower their fees if they are passionate about the subject that you want them to talk about.

Getting a speaker who lives in Washington, DC will cost half as much as bringing in someone from a different state or country. So look around and see if you can find a presenter from the area, who is good at what they do. The other solution is to take advantage of the opportunity to invite the presenter to your occasion when they are in town for other engagements. This will lower your costs as you will not have to cater for the expenses of flying them in and hosting them.

A number of corporations are usually willing to sponsor events. If you can get a sponsor to agree to pay your main speaker, you costs will extensively go down. The key is to find a sponsor as soon as possible and identify a speaker early. This means you should start organizing your event several weeks or even months ahead.

Most presenters make the bulk of their income from the materials they sell during events. You can get the presenter to come and speak for free if you will let them sell their products during the occasion. There is also the option of buying their materials, such as workbooks, for the audience in exchange for a lower speaking fee.

You can invite the same person to several events that you may having during different times of the year. This will make them more open to negotiating their fees. You can also get them to speak at several functions during the same event. This will eliminate the need of inviting other speakers.

Consider a barter trade with the professional. Ask them if there is anything that you have, which they would be willing to take in return for giving a keynote address. Some of the things you can suggest include advertising their services for free in your newsletters or websites or professionally endorsing their services.

Clearly explain to the presenter the expenses that you will cover and how many people you will cater for. This will prevent embarrassing situations in case the professional runs up a huge expense bill. Let them know the particular hotel they will stay in, mode of transportation and meals you have organized.




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