You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Those are words I try to live by. How you present yourself and the quality of the service or product you offer can make or break you. Yes, we all make mistakes, but it’s difficult to get a customer to come back to give you a second chance. People forget about the importance of quality at times. Quality products usually last longer and are better than the discount knockoffs. Quality services are better than some discount place most of the time. A quality product, service, meal, etc. is something most of us want. There are times we can’t afford it, but we sure want it.
When you take someone out on a date or a client out to a business dinner, odds are you don’t go to McDonald’s. Why? You want to show them that you care about them enough to pay for a higher quality meal and not a $1 burger. The $1 burger and the $50 steak could both be described as food, but there is a difference in quality. If you take a client out to a cheap restaurant when you are trying to impress them, they’ll surely remember you, but not for the right reasons. If you are hungry and want a fast meal or want to take your children out to lunch, McDonalds might be an option you’d like. There is a time and place for it, but not a corporate lunch … unless you are the CEO of McDonald’s. 🙂
If you showed a 3 year old a photo of a rusty rowboat or a multimillion dollar yacht, they might call it a boat. Just like the burger and steak being called food, the quality of both types of boats are very different. There are some companies that think all speakers and
entertainers are all lumped into one group, one quality. Motivational Speakers and corporate entertainers can range from $200 to $200,000 or more for one presentation. Why? You probably guessed it by now … quality. How long they’ve been in the business, their list of credits, their level of celebrity and other factors determine their prices. Over the years I’ve been contacted corporate meeting and event planners that wasted their entire event budget on centerpieces, food, gifts, etc. and had very little left for the keynote speaker, motivational speaker or corporate entertainment. They needed someone of high quality for this event full of V.I.P.s, but didn’t have a high quality speaker / entertainer in their budget. A $200 – $2,000 speaker or entertainer probably isn’t your best bet when you want to impress or inspire your guests. Motivational Speakers, Corporate Entertainers and Keynote Speakers starting in the $6,500 – $12,500 range is where you start to get a quality presenter for top corporate events. The corporate event planner would call their top picks and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t lower their price by 90% or more because of their own mistake. Would a car dealer sell you a $30,000 car for $3,000 because that’s all you budgeted for a new car, but you wanted a top of the line automobile? No! Why is it OK to ask for a 90% discount on a service someone offers? When a speaker books a date at a huge discount that means they have to turn away other offers that come in at full price for that time slot.
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.”
– Henry Ford
In many cases the event is the only one you have a year to show your employees, customers, stockholders, etc. that you appreciate them, so you need quality. You also should want quality because it’s your name behind booking the venue, speaker, entertainment, selecting the food, etc. Your reputation is on the line. For those that realize the importance of quality the event is usually a success. If you don’t have a top quality speaker or entertainer in your budget, getting other companies you do business with to sponsor the speaker or entertainer at your event is a great option. Their company is mentioned in the program, a sign on stage or even by the presenter. Your guests know that that company went out of their way and paid to have a high quality motivational speaker or entertainer come in to inspire and entertain them. It’s also a tax write-off for that company. It’s a win-win situation.
We are starting to live in a Groupon mentality society. People think they can get everything last minute at a discount. Years ago events would book a year or more in advance and now I get calls a week or two before the event at times. There are times I’m open for the dates the client is interested in, but other times I’m not. If they called a month or year ahead, they’d have better luck securing the date. Putting off planning a corporate event never turns out well.
Speakers and entertainers usually have a set fee depending on location of the event, how long you need them for and other factors. Some clients think that they’ll get a discount since they don’t have a lot of guests attending. That’s not the case with all the professional speakers and 
entertainers I know. It’s like wanting a deal on a limousine rental because although it seats 12 people, you are the only one that’s going to be riding in it. You are paying for the time for the driver and they can’t rent that exact one out to others for that time slot. For a speaker it adds up to hours on the road, flight delays, getting the rental car or shuttle, setting up, sound check, conference calls with your committee, customizing the presentation, meet and greets after the appearance, etc. The hour presenting on stage, no matter how many people are sitting in front of me, is a small part of all the time spent on your event. There are times I’m away for from home for 72 hours or more for one 60 minute presentation. There are some speakers that sell products after their speech so if they don’t have a lot in attendance their profits aren’t as good. The number of people in attendance could affect their price quotes.
If you don’t have the budget for great entertainers or top motivational speakers it might be better just to skip it this year and try to budget a bit better next year. Spending your $400 speaker / entertainment budget on an iPad to raffle off during the event will at least make one of your guests very happy. Bringing in a $400 speaker or entertainer to motivate and entertain them will more than likely leave everyone disappointed.
Be sure to check the motivational speaker reviews, product reviews, etc. of whatever service or product you are buying. There are some entertainment agents, car dealers, etc. that will try to jack up the price and sell you something that is low quality for high quality prices. It’s like paying $200 for a $2 burger. They rip-off the client, the speaker and pocket the money. Just because they are charging high quality prices doesn’t mean they are quality. Buyer beware.
You don’t want to hire someone that isn’t quality because they could ruin your entire event. Usually the entertainment or speaker is the final thing or very first thing on the agenda. A horrible / cheap speaker or entertainer could set the tone for the entire event or leave everyone remembering how horrible they were and not the rest of your event. A week, a month or a year later people won’t remember what food you served, what the centerpieces looked like or what the DJ played, but they will remember if you had a great motivational speaker or entertainer or a bad one. The people that do hire cheap speakers and low-quality corporate entertainment for their events soon learn about the importance of quality.