Ten Questions to Ask a Speaker Agency Before You Sign

Before you sign with a speaker agency, you settle ten things: who pays it, what work it takes on, which figures it can back up, and what the price and the contract cover. A speaker agency for experts puts specialists on conference stages so that they win B2B clients there, and it works for you when you hire and pay it. Because very different business models hide behind the name, the answers in the first conversation shape months of cooperation. This article sets out the ten questions and explains each one, and it describes how you recognise a good answer.

Which questions should you ask a speaker agency?

Before you sign, ask a speaker agency these ten questions:

1. Who pays you, and how do you earn your money?
2. How did your last client's appearance come about?
3. Who writes the talk and the abstracts, and how much of my time do you need?
4. Who chooses the conferences, and by which criteria?
5. How many abstracts have you submitted, how many are decided, and how many were accepted?
6. What exactly do you promise me?
7. Who accompanies me to the stage after acceptance, and where does your work end?
8. What may I do with the talk and the abstracts when the cooperation ends?
9. What does the cooperation cost, and which services does it include?
10. How long does the contract run, how do I cancel, and what happens to submissions in progress?

The order follows their weight: the first two questions show whom the agency works for, the middle ones test its work and its evidence, and the last ones settle rights, price and term. The article how to find a speaker agency covers the other selection criteria, and the guide to speaker agencies gives an overview of services and models.

Questions about money and the route to the stage

Question 1: Who pays you, and how do you earn your money?

This question comes first because the answer shows whom the agency works for. A speaker bureau earns a commission on the fee the organiser pays for the speaker, according to the industry usually 20 to 30 per cent. A seller of speaking slots earns from the sale of the slot, and an agency for experts earns from the fee you pay as the client. A good answer names a model without detours and attaches a price to it. Anyone who replies "We will discuss that later" has either not thought the model through or would rather show it to you after you have signed.

Question 2: How did a client's last appearance come about?

Professional conferences fill a large part of their programme through a call for papers, which is the public announcement with which a conference collects talk proposals, and through invitations. There is also pay to speak, where the speaker pays the organiser for the slot, and that quickly costs €10,000 or more for a single speaking slot. If the agency names a call for papers or an invitation, it works towards a stage that a programme committee awarded on the merits of the content, and that carries weight with a professional audience. If it names a package of slot and price, you are looking at a bought stage. When such a purchase is worth considering is covered in do speakers have to pay for the stage.

Questions about the day-to-day work

Question 3: Who writes the talk and the abstracts, and how much of your time does the agency need?

A conference abstract is the short description of the planned talk that a programme committee reads, meaning the group that decides on the submissions at a conference. If the agency works with text blocks, the committee notices and the proposal loses its chance. If it expects you to supply drafts and check every submission, it hands back the working time you wanted to be rid of. A good answer describes a conversation at the start, in which your knowledge and your examples are gathered, followed by approvals with occasional queries.

Stage Starter takes this work off your hands: we find the right calls, write the submission and submit it in your name, follow up and support you all the way to the stage. You approve the talk and the abstracts once before the start, without every single submission landing back on your desk.

Question 4: Who chooses the conferences, and by which criteria?

The choice decides whether your future clients sit in the audience. An agency that earns only on success tends to pick conferences with a high chance of acceptance, whereas an agency with a fixed fee is independent of that and chooses by the benefit to your target audience. A good answer lets you hear criteria: who sits in the audience, which industry the conference addresses, where the deadline falls and whether a participation fee applies. Also ask at which conferences in your industry the agency has already submitted, because association and industry conferences often fill their programme by invitation, and there an agency writes to the organisers directly.

Which figures should a speaker agency share?

Question 5: How many abstracts are submitted, decided and accepted?

A speaker agency should give three figures, namely submitted, decided and accepted abstracts, and say where they come from. A decision can rest on rates, but it cannot rest on promises. We disclose ours: in our submissions for clients we reach up to 19 per cent per conference, while 5 per cent at most is typical in the market at this volume of submissions.

The gap between submitted and decided abstracts belongs to the answer, because many conferences reply only weeks or months after their call closes. In our case, 815 of 2,189 abstracts were still open on the cut-off date. Anyone who quotes you a rate without saying how many submissions are still pending is calculating with a denominator you cannot see.

Question 6: What exactly does the agency promise?

Only the programme committee of the conference decides whether a talk is accepted, which is why no agency can guarantee appearances. The agency steers the number of submissions, the quality of the abstracts and the choice of conferences, and a good answer describes that work. A fixed number of appearances per year or an advance payment for "guaranteed" slots belongs among the warning signs.

Questions about acceptance and rights

Question 7: Who accompanies you to the stage after acceptance?

Once a talk is accepted, the organisation begins: technology and slot are agreed with the organiser, as is the speaker agreement and your travel. A good answer from the agency names these stations and draws a clear line behind which your own work begins. With us, Stage Starter accompanies you to the stage, and you hold the conversations after the appearance yourself, because they concern your offer and your practice.

Question 8: What may you do with the talk and the abstracts after the contract ends?

Your knowledge sits in those texts, and you will want to keep using them for your own articles or at other conferences. A good answer is unambiguous and can be read in the contract, ideally as a sentence saying that you may keep using the texts developed after the cooperation ends. The talk and abstracts arise from your knowledge and for your name, so clarify in writing before you sign how you may use them after the cooperation ends. What else an agency contract should settle is covered in Contract with a speaker agency.

How much does a speaker agency cost, and how long does the contract run?

Question 9: What does the cooperation cost, and what is included?

At Stage Starter, a speaker agency for experts costs from €990 net per month for the whole operation, and a serious agency names its price in the first conversation. It also describes the work behind it, from conference research and abstracts through submission and follow-up to accompaniment onto the stage. Many offers leave open who bears the travel costs and what happens if a conference charges speakers a participation fee. Anyone who wants a written roadmap first begins with the Speaker Audit from €2,000 net, which is credited when you book the agency.

Question 10: How long does the contract run, and what happens to submissions in progress?

Results of submission work arrive with a delay, as the 815 open abstracts in the calculation above show, so a cooperation that expects appearances after the first month sets the wrong yardstick. It is good when the agency states term and cancellation before you sign and settles what happens to submissions that have not yet received a reply. This article provides an overview and does not constitute legal advice.

What the answers show

An answer with a figure and an example, or with a reference to the contract, is one an agency can give only if it has organised its work that way, and that is why the answers in the first conversation say more than any list of references. You get our own answers to all ten questions in a first conversation.