If you are producing a business event and are looking to hire a professional speaker, chances are you might be wondering what is the difference between a business speaker and any other type.
While some organizers may want to book a motivational speaker or keynote speaker, a business speaker might suit your needs better depending on what your goals are.
What is a business speaker?
A business speaker is someone who is thought of as a transformational leader, visionary, and innovator because they have a great deal of experience in running successful companies by pushing the boundaries of what is considered to be conventional.
They are CEO’s, Fortune 500 executives, investors, and experts who sit on the board of directors of major organizations because they are considered a leader in their industry.
They tend to be successful entrepreneurs themselves, often drawing from personal experience to teach their audience not only from their successes, but their failures as well.
Most of these individuals have a wide array experience not only in business, but in life as well giving them a wide range of knowledge and interests, which can be adapted to the current situation of your audience.
Business speakers have common characteristics. One of them is experience. Most of them have given their blood, sweat and tears in order to grow their company. That makes them relatable.
Another characteristic they share is having a unique message. Unique doesn’t have to be new, just a different take on something that is already known.
See also: What is a keynote speaker?
What does a business speaker do?
The role of a business speaker is to engage your audience by educating or inspiring them to take some form of action.
As storytellers, they can provide powerful insights and leadership strategies that will create compelling moments for the audience to get them to think in a new way.
The goal of their presentation is to deliver an experience through their information that can:
- Transform your organization – If you have been feeling stagnant or stuck, the expert can get you to think outside of the box and ignite breakthrough performance.
- Achieve specific objectives – If you are looking to implement a specific strategy, they can partner with you in a way where they can become a catalyst in helping you achieve your goals.
- Raise awareness – If you want to shed light on a specific topic, their presentation can do so.
- Develop more trust – If you want your staff to build more trust with each other their talk can lead to this result.
Most experts presentations usually follow this formula:
- They tell inspiring stories about their own experiences and summarize the key points in a manner that motivates your audience to change or move in a new direction
- They will use audience participation to make the event more interactive so that the information is learned through experience.
- They will use strong visual presentations to help illustrate their points so that your attendees have a better chance of retaining what was taught.
- They will talk about the latest trends and innovations ensuring that you and your audience are up to speed on where things are going in the industry so that you stay a step ahead.
See also: What does a keynote speaker do?
Topics covered by business speakers
Generally speaking, when hiring a business speaker, you will have two options:
A. You can book someone who will talk generically about growing a business
Or…
B. You can find a speaker who specializes in one aspect of a business
Here are some of the topics that business speakers cover:
- Growth
- Trends
- Innovation
- Inspirational
- Marketing
- Teamwork
- Performance
- Disruption
- Developing skills
- New insights
- Corporate culture
- Leadership development
- Customer experience
However, even if the presenter has to be more generic, they will tend to focus on their area of expertise.
For example, Ken Robinson is very likely to approach the topic of business from an educational perspective, since he has a background in education.
On the other hand, Robert Kiyosaki might want to focus on mindset and investing.
Gary Vee would probably focus more on branding, marketing, and social media.
Additionally, they provide actionable content, not just focusing on the theory and philosophy behind building a business. They are able to adapt their teaching to what is going on in the market today.
Benefits of a business speaker
There are many benefits that they can bring to your audience. For starters, they have the ability to make the complex simple. That is not to say that problems require simple solutions.
But what experts do is they simplify the message. They do the heavy-lifting of thinking about how to implement a solution and make it accessible to others.
Another benefit is that successful Business Speakers tend to be published Authors. That means that they have refined their ideas and teachings into written form. That makes them more effective.
Moreover, your audience will not only benefit from attending the talk, but also from the chance of being able to read that Speaker’s written work once the event is over. That will help reinforce the content in your attendees’ mind.
One final benefit is that effective leaders have a wide range of knowledge across many different industries. This diversity of knowledge is something the audience can really benefit from. This inter-section of information makes up creative thinking and novel ways to tackle a particular problem.
Business keynote speakers can add a lot of value to your event. Whether it is a session on sales, marketing or finances, the right presenter will be able to wow your audience and ensure the overall success of your event or conference.
How to find a business speaker
Finding a business speaker is not as simple as it may sound as there are going to be a wide range of variables you are going to need to address.
This is the reason why some prefer finding a speakers bureau to work with because it can make the process much easier.
You are not only going to need to manage all of the logistics, but you will also need to coordinate with the speaker on their presentation.
Therefore you need to decide on whether or not you want to try and manage everything directly with them versus working with their agency.
Go here to find a business speaker