Live event masters and public speakers often encounter a common dilemma: how to earn from live speaking events. Lots of work and resources go towards organizing these, so you need to earn from them to cover your costs and make a profit. While it may seem difficult, if you are resourceful enough, you will find creative ways to make money and be lucrative. Let me share with you different strategies on how to earn money and clients from your live speaking events.

How to Earn and Have a Lucrative Live Speaking Event

1. Get High-Quality Attendees

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the success of their live event depends on the number of attendees they get. Having a packed seminar room is great. However, what you actually have to ask yourself is, “Do I have high-quality attendees?”

Personally, I determine these kinds of people mainly by their commitment. I like seeing how committed they are to actually getting a result. High-quality people show their commitment by willingly investing their time and money in your seminar.

Now you might be asking, “Ted, where do I find these high-quality people? How do I get them to come to my seminar?” The answer is offline marketing. That means if you haven’t yet, start attending local and national networking events. Through these, you will expand your network. In addition, build relationships with the organizers of these events and get yourself booked on their stages.

Getting a mix of attendees from different local and national networking events creates a high-quality room. In turn, this gives you better chances of success in earning from your live event.

Related: Live Events | How To Get High Quality People To Attend

2. Offer Incentives

Always remember that you need to have a purpose when you attend or speak at networking events. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to sell your live event to the people you meet.

If you’re attending a local or national networking event, handpick select people to build rapport with. You don’t actually need to talk to everyone in the room. As you interact, make sure that you connect with them. Further, before parting ways, book a free strategy session with them. Let them know what they can expect from it and how it will benefit them.

If they say yes, make sure that they are 100% committed to it by asking them for a definite schedule. Usually, by doing this, you will make them more hesitant to cancel. Later, in the strategy session, that’s where you sell them your live event.

If you don’t like this strategy, and if you are booked to speak on other stages, you can still find other ways to sell your live event. However, usually you will only have this opportunity when you waive your speaker’s fee.

Personally, if there are too many audience members to book strategy sessions with, I settle for offering incentives. What I do is either I give away free tickets to my live event, or I offer them at discounted prices. I don’t recommend that you do this often, though. After all, this might increase the likelihood of getting unqualified people in your live event.

3. Hold Paid Live Speaking Events

When people pay an upfront cost to attend your seminar, it means that they are interested. This helps you filter out those who are committed and high-quality.

Look at it this way: if people don’t invest something to be a part of your live event, they most likely won’t value it as much. Sure, they might come out of curiosity. However, you don’t want attendees who are only there to “check out” your event. You want high-quality attendees who are willing to invest in your programs.

It is a good thing to remember that your profit won’t come from your ticket sales alone. Still, your ticket prices should at least cover your overhead.

Focusing on a high-quality audience (even if that means your audience is smaller) will allow you to provide a more meaningful experience for them. When you build a deeper connection with these people, it will make them more inclined to invest in your programs.

4. Use The Staircase Model

As mentioned earlier, the bulk of your profit won’t come from your ticket sales. In actuality, the pros who understand how to earn make the bulk of their profit from the programs they sell at live events. You can do this too, all you need is three kinds of offers:

• Low-tier offer
• Mid-tier offer
• High-tier offer

You may have high-quality attendees who are interested in availing your programs. However, not all of them are ready to make big decisions yet, especially if it involves a large sum. This is where the marketing staircase model comes in.

When I shared how I created my product empire, I discussed elevating client purchase. This marketing tactic is anchored in the customer behavior assumption I mentioned above. You need to create products that cater to different purchase levels.

Low-tier products usually include basic online coaching programs that will give new clients a good idea of how you can serve them. Then, if they liked your basic programs, they can elevate their purchase to your mid-tier products. These are usually group coaching and membership subscription. Subscriptions are actually lucrative, because they generate consistent income for your business.

Once your clients are ready to make the big leap, they can enroll in your high-tier programs. These are the most comprehensive programs on your roster. High-tier products are often one-on-one coaching programs.

Still, to sell your products, you need to become effective in making your call to action. Read this article to know the seven steps how you can sell from the stage.

Related: How To Make A High End Offer At Your Workshops & Seminars

5. Use Your Asset

The great thing about being both a public speaker and a live events master is that you have your stage as your asset. You can offer your live event stage spot in exchange for another one. It’s a win-win situation, wherein you book speakers for your own seminar, and you also get to speak on another stage.

Moreover, when you get booked as a speaker, you have the opportunity to sell your live event to the audience. If you have this leverage, I highly recommend that you use it to its full advantage.

With the right marketing strategies and by maximizing your resources, you will discover different ways that answer the problem of how to earn from your live speaking events. Always remember that you don’t have to settle for a break-even situation. There will constantly be opportunities for you to monetize your programs and assets — so make the most out of them. I hope these strategies serve you!

Do you now understand how to earn? What do you still struggle with? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see how we can help you.

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