How To Measure The Value of a Speaking Opportunity

About this video

Martell explains how to measure whether a speaking opportunity is worth a founder’s time, crediting the strategy and the Stage Value Index (SVI) concept largely to his friend Pete Vargas. He says he spoke for about four years without a strategy before quantifying everything. The five steps: (1) set goals before saying yes — ask about audience size, how many attended last year, and whether your ideal customer is in the audience, and name four ‘dream stages’; (2) capture leads by offering a valuable framework or worksheet through a unique, event-specific link so downloads are trackable back to that stage; (3) have a conversion tool behind the lead magnet — his is a conversation with a scale specialist offered on the thank-you page, and he lists free trials, demos and proof-of-concept deployments as other tools; (4) measure your SVI by tracking revenue directly attributed to the event within roughly 90 days and ranking your stages against each other, since smaller or less notable stages may outperform big ones; and (5) look for leverage, as he does by filming his Escape Velocity interview show in rooms at events he is already speaking at, plus customer meetings and connections with other speakers. He recommends putting the SVI on a weekly precision scorecard so the team can see speaking’s impact.

Key takeaways

• Before accepting a stage, set a goal: check audience size, prior attendance, and whether your ideal customer will be in the room, and keep a list of four dream stages.
• Capture leads from every stage with a valuable giveaway delivered through a unique per-event link so you can attribute downloads to that appearance.
• Install a conversion tool behind the lead magnet — a booked conversation, free trial, demo, or proof of concept — so the audience can become pipeline without a hard pitch.
• Compute a Stage Value Index from directly attributed revenue (tracked over about 90 days) and rank stages, so repeat invitations are decided by value, not prestige or audience size.
• Seek leverage from each trip — Martell films his Escape Velocity show at events he already attends, and suggests customer meetings and speaker connections as other leverage.

Episode details: published September 16, 2019 · 13:01 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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