ASK A KEYNOTE SPEAKER: SHOULD YOU JOIN A SPEAKERS BUREAU?

For professional speakers looking to take their careers to the next level, joining a speakers bureau can be an excellent strategy – but it’s not the right fit for everyone. Speakers bureaus act as non-exclusive or exclusive agents, landing paid speaking engagements for their talent rosters. However, the trade-off is typically handing over a commission of 20-30% from each booking.

So how do you determine if the benefits of being represented by a bureau outweigh the costs? Here are some key considerations:

Visibility and Access
Top-tier bureaus have long-standing relationships with major companies, associations, universities and other groups that book prominent speakers. Getting on their exclusive rosters instantly raises your visibility and access to these types of high-paying gigs that may be difficult to land individually.

Support Services
In addition to securing bookings, bureaus handle all the travel logistics, event prep, and other details for each engagement. This full-service administrative support allows you to focus solely on crafting and delivering knockout presentations.

Marketing Assistance
Reputable bureaus provide professional marketing tools like published videos, updated speaker reels, biographical materials, and other assets to effectively promote you to prospective clients. This can amplify your brand awareness.

Career Development
Many bureaus offer speaker coaching, training opportunities, and professional development resources to help evolve your skills and content for continued success.

While lucrative, the bureau model isn’t ideal for all speakers. Factors like speech fees, audience demand, existing client relationships, and long-term goals can impact whether joining a bureau makes sense financially and strategically.

It tends to work best for speakers who:
– Command higher fees (at least $10K+) that can absorb the commission
– Have broad audience appeal across multiple industries
– Want to pursue speaking as a lucrative full-time career
– Don’t have an extensive pre-existing client base or marketing engine
– Need the support services bureaus offer

For those earlier in their speaking journey or with very niche expertise, it may make more sense to continue building an audience and portfolio independently before seeking bureau representation.

Speakers should assess their current situation and future ambitions to determine if the exposure, support resources and career acceleration provided by joining a bureau’s roster is worth the share of revenue. Weigh the pros and cons carefully to decide if going the bureau route is the right next step.