In our previous post, we talked about the importance of determining what kind of event you’re planning and what you want to accomplish by hiring a motivational speaker.

Once you’ve determined your audience — a single team, a few departments or your whole organization — and the goal for the event, it’s time to start evaluating speakers.

Here are some tips.

Can The Speaker Reach Different Types of People?

A logistics expert or strategist might be a breath of fresh air to your accounting department, but your marketing people may be falling asleep 15 minutes into the presentation.

As you well know, the workplace and even departments are infused with a number of different personalities – the leaders and the pleasers, the innovative and the consistent, the logical and the dreamers – and the trick is to find a speaker who can reach ALL of these different individuals.

A wide strategy that can apply to multiple aspects of work and life is key here, but so is personality and experience. A good speaker is relatable to multiple personalities, which is the first step to getting your team to listen to what they have to say.

The Best Speakers:

• Engage: That means not being tied to the podium or reading off notes. A good speaker is conversational — he or she can teach without preaching, inform without boring.

• Move:  Part of engagement. Some speakers simply stay glued to a podium. If your speaker wants a wireless microphone so he can wander into the audience, you’ve got a winner.

• Tailor:  Most speakers have main talking points they deliver at each event but they don’t give the same speech over and over. The best speakers want to know who their audience is. They’ll want to craft their message to hit the mark and make the biggest impact.

• Continue the message:  Your speaker has their allotted time to connect with your audience. If the speaker’s message can be revisited via books or blogs they publish or through social media, your audience has opportunities to cement the message for the long term instead of it being forgotten a week later.

Does the Speaker Have a Proven Track Record?

This boils down to three words: Experience, experience, experience.

• Do your research to make sure the speaker you bring in has a history of making change.
• Are they more effective speaking to large or / or small crowds?
• Do they have a successful personal life that aligns with their strategies?

It’s one thing to “talk” about how to succeed, but it’s only effective if it’s coming from someone with a voice of authority on the subject.

Make sure your speaker of choice has the experience, personality and strategy to take your message of excellence to a new and refreshing level, and you’ll be on your way to building a motivated and more productive team.

Did you know you can book Joel Scrivner for a speaking engagement?

Click to learn more about Joel’s tremendous experience in inspiring audiences from the size of small boardrooms to auditoriums filled with thousands.

Can you remember a particularly compelling speaker? What made him or her so successful? Let us know in the comments section below!