How to Keep Your Speaking Gigs Flowing

You could be the best speaker in the world, but if you’re not consistently prospecting, you’ll have busy months followed by dead months. And dead months mean no income.

A lot of speakers rely on referrals, bureaus, or inbound enquiries. That’s great when it happens, but it’s not a strategy. The speakers who get booked consistently are the ones who build a habit of daily outreach.

This isn’t about selling. It’s about staying visible and making sure the right people know you exist. It’s about keeping conversations moving, following up properly, and making sure you never end up staring at an empty diary.

Make Prospecting a Daily Habit

To make prospecting work, you need structure. It’s not about scrambling to send a few emails when you remember. Block out time every day for focused prospecting and stick to it.

If you’re speaking at an event that day, your prospecting time can be replaced with live networking. Many speakers turn up, do their talk, then leave. That’s a wasted opportunity. There are people in the audience who could refer you, book you, or introduce you to someone who can. The best speakers use events to make connections, have conversations, and capture audience details.

And on the subject of capturing audience details - imagine if every time you spoke to 100 or 1,000 people, you collected their details. In a very short time, you’d have a valuable list of people who know your work. Then when you launch a book, an online course, or even your t-shirts with your mantra on them, you have an audience ready to hear about it and maybe even buy your products.

For the days you’re not speaking at an event, your daily prospecting session could include:

Respond to inbound emails
If someone has reached out about a potential booking, reply quickly. It sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how many speakers take too long to respond and lose the gig.  Don’t get distracted by other emails, focus solely on emails related to gigs in your prospecting time.

Clear your CRM tasks
Your CRM should be tracking every lead, enquiry, and follow-up. If you don’t have one, get one. A spreadsheet is better than nothing, but a CRM is much more efficient. It organises your pipeline into clear stages, making it easy to see what you need to work on. It tracks follow-ups automatically so nothing slips through the cracks, and it saves you time by centralising all your prospecting activities in one place. I love the fact that I can see all correspondence and notes relating to an individual in one place so I don’t miss anything.  So much quicker than searching in my email.  I’ve tried several CRMs in my time, the one I am currently using is my favourite because I could set it up myself and I can modify it myself, I haven’t had to bring in an external tech person.  That for me is important.  If you want to try it I have a 30 day free trial available for you, this is an affiliate link and gives you twice the free trial period https://aff.trypipedrive.com/30daysfree

Review current and lost enquiries
Check your open conversations and follow up with anyone who hasn’t responded. Also, look at lost enquiries. Just because someone said no before doesn’t mean they’ll say no forever. Maybe they booked someone else last time, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to hear from you again.  A little tip, when following up on a gig you lost put the name of the event in the subject line of your email, you’re more likely to get it opened.

Research
Take time to research potential clients, industry events, and companies that regularly book speakers. Look at past event line-ups, company reports, and industry news. The more you know, the more targeted your outreach will be.  On LinkedIn Sales Navigator is worth investing in, doesn’t have to be long term if you have a limited budget, just long enough to find the right people to connect with.

Reach out to new prospects
Once you’ve done your research, send a personalised message. Make it short, relevant, and focused on them, not you. If you can, mention something specific about their event or business. This isn’t about begging for a gig. It’s about starting a conversation.

Tips for Making This Work

Make this a daily habit. It’s not something you do when you feel like it. If you don’t have a pipeline of future gigs, you don’t have a speaking business.

• Do it at the same time each day so it becomes routine, like going to the gym
• Work without distractions so you get through it efficiently
• Do it five days a week – weekends are optional, but weekdays should be non-negotiable (unless you are at an event as I said earlier)
• Don’t stockpile hours – telling yourself that you’ll do five hours on Friday because you haven’t done anything for the week, doesn’t work.  Even if you can only do 15 minutes each day, do something every day.
• Track everything – if you’re not keeping records, you’re just throwing emails into the void

Consistency is Everything

If you’re not consistently reaching out, your business isn’t growing. Simple as that.

• It keeps your pipeline full so you always have gigs in the works
• It builds momentum so you don’t have to start from scratch every few months
• It helps you refine your approach over time

It’s easy to prospect when things are quiet, then you get busy and you stop, and before you know it, you’ve got nothing lined up. It’s a cycle you need to break.

Best Practices

• Commit to prospecting every day.
• Put it in your calendar. If it’s not scheduled, it won’t happen
• Stay engaged. This is your business, don’t outsource it completely
• Get an accountability partner if you struggle with discipline

If you want to build a sustainable speaking business, this is how to do it. A year from now, you’ll be glad you started today.  Thank me then.