“Phase One” of ROI Speakers was largely philosophical or strategic in nature — helping clients shift from agenda-based speaker bookings to results-based speaker bookings. In other words, encouraging clients to look at the desired end result — “to increase sales,” for example — and working backward to create a speaker engagement that would create the desired outcome.

To really move the performance needle, a keynote by even the best speaker is not enough. Once the initial message has been set forth, follow-up material — via something as simple as an article series or as complex as a year-long consulting engagement — is necessary. This has not always been the practice of meeting planners, though.

The newly introduced SixOnSelling initiative is the beginning of “Phase Two” of ROI Speakers — a more tangible application of the results-based philosophy. Exclusively serving corporate sales executives, SixOnSelling makes the content of six top thought leaders on selling and/or sales management available in a variety of formats to help these sales leaders achieve their sales objectives.

Trainers are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate results. For many, this begins with a productivity metric like “how many trainees did you reach?” The good news is that you don’t have to be a marketing genius to create compelling communications that improve Webinar attendance rates.

Join this live BNET Webcast, featuring Web Event Expert, Roger Courville, and author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook, to learn practical steps for successfully promoting your training programs.

When you attend this live webcast, you’ll discover:

• The three worst promotional mistakes and how to avoid them
• Four steps to create an invitation that compels action
• Where to promote your training session
• How to leverage social media without killing your day

Marketing for Trainers:
How to Promote Your Training Programs
Wednesday January 13th, 2010
2:00 PM ET | 11:00 AM PT | 19:00 GMT
Featuring: Roger Courville, Web Event Expert
Sponsor: Citrix Online+GoToMeeting

Register TODAY to participate on Wednesday January 13th, 2010!

Includes live Q&A!

Robert Thompson, author of The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable, has over three decades of executive coaching, speaking, and most importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, and he recently spoke with Shawn Ellis, founder of The Speakers Group and ROI Speakers, about his book and his views on leadership as “a moment-to-moment choice and not about title, tenure or position.” Listen to the audio below to hear Robert talk about:

• Whether or not any of The Offsite characters are based on real people
• Five myths of leadership, such as “leadership and management are the same” and “open door policies are always the best policy”
• Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
• The research that supports The Offsite and The Leadership Challenge
• Solutions offered by The Offsite and Robert’s speaking programs during these challenging times

Listen here:

And watch a preview video of Robert’s “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership” presentation here.

SPECIAL “STIMULUS SPECIAL” BONUS OFFER:

Meetings budgets are more restricted than ever, yet never have meetings been so valuable. In response, Robert is offering a significant discount on his speaking engagements — more than 50% off his standard rates — for all bookings confirmed between now and December 31, 2009. To learn more, submit an inquiry or call us at 615-526-6600 extension 105.

On November 10, MeetingsNet is holding a free webinar (sponsored by Cvent) that will look at strategies and tools that can help companies to track and report on their meetings data.

Presenters will:

• Explain the value of effective data management as a critical part of a strategic meetings management program
• Detail which meeting metrics can — and can’t — be effectively tracked
• Discuss strategies for enterprise-wide data gathering and management
• Review key processes and pitfalls around data management from a technology and operational standpoint

For more information or to register to this webinar, click here.

A new study by Oxford Economics USA illustrates how much companies stand to gain when workers travel for meetings, conventions, training or as an incentive for performance: the study found that for every dollar spent on business travel, companies realize $12.50 in incremental value and $3.80 in profits.

You can see the full results at http://meetingsmeanbusiness.com/value-meetings, or here is a full recap:

First-of-its-Kind Study Proves Business Travel Drives Revenue, Profit Growth

• For every dollar invested in business travel, Oxford Economics determined that businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.

• Curbing business travel has a negative impact on corporate profits. The average U.S. business would forfeit 15 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel. It would take over three years for profits to recover.

• Business travel includes sales trips, meetings, conventions and incentive trips.

• Executives cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, in the range of $15-$19.99 per dollar invested.

• Executives identified the average return on conference and trade show participation to be in the range of $4-$5.99 per dollar invested.

• Oxford Economics set out to enable businesses to make more informed decisions, particularly during challenging economic times.

Face-to-Face Interaction Strengthens American Business, Economy

• Both executives and business travelers estimate that 28 percent of current business would be lost without in-person meetings.

• Both executives and business travelers estimate that roughly 40 percent of their prospective customers are converted to new customers with an in-person meeting compared to 16 percent without such a meeting.

• More than half of business travelers stated that 5 to 20 percent of their company’s new customers were the result of trade show participation.

• 85 percent of corporate executives perceive Web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers, and 63 percent believe virtual meetings are less effective than in-person meetings with current customers.

U.S. Economy Depends on Business Travel

• U.S. business travel is responsible for $246 billion in spending and 2.3 million American jobs; $100 billion of this spending and nearly 1 million American jobs are linked directly to meetings and events.

• In the first six months of 2009, total business travel spending is down 11.9 percent, with a 4.4 percent decline in overall volume.

• A 10 percent increase in business travel spending will increase multi-factor productivity, and therefore U.S. GDP, by between 1.5 and 2.8 percent.

Meetings and Incentives Are Essential to Development of Human Capital

• Companies would need to increase an employee’s total base compensation by 8.5 percent in order to achieve the same effect of incentive travel, according to executives.

• The majority of corporate travelers identified internal company travel as key to professional development (66 percent), job performance (58 percent) and morale (56 percent).

• Internal meetings receive the highest marks, with 73 percent of executives indicating a significant impact on employee performance and 66 percent confirming the importance of travel to employee morale.

• Nearly 80 percent of executives indicate that incentive travel has a positive impact on employee morale and job satisfaction; more than 70 percent on employee performance.

Methodology

• The analysis was comprehensive, covering 14 economic sectors over a span of 13 years. Care was taken to control for other contributing factors to business growth and productivity.

• The findings were verified through a combination of three separate surveys of corporate executives and business travelers and a broad review of related research.

• The findings were also reviewed by Dr. Martin A. Asher, adjunct professor of finance at the Wharton School.

• This approach has been successfully used by Oxford Economics in previous analyses for European travel and has been documented in academic literature.

Why don’t managers use recognition more effectively with their staff?

How do you get managers on board with recognition practices?

Shawn Ellis, founder of The Speakers Group (parent of ROI Speakers), asked those questions and more of Dr. Bob Nelson, one of the leading authorities on the topic of employee recognition who has worked with nearly 100 hospitals and hospital systems. Listen here:

Bob is helping hospitals build cultures of recognition and engagement by conducting intensive full-day sessions — leadership training days — that involve the hospital’s executive team, all managers, and the HR department. The power-packed itinerary includes the following components:

Executive Briefing: A one-hour session, possibly over breakfast, with the hospital’s executive staff in which Bob offers a big picture view of the topic of recognition based on his research into what employees most want when it comes to recognition (almost all of which requires little or no money) and his experience with almost 100 hospitals and related healthcare organizations.

Leadership Training: Two or three 1.5- to 2-hour sessions on “The Rewards of Recognition: Creating a Culture of Recognition” for the hospital Directors and Managers (perhaps one session for Directors and two for Managers since multiple sessions makes it possible for all hospital leaders to attend one of the sessions). In these sessions Bob covers a Head (conceptual), Hands (skill/technique) and Heart (motivation) approach to show why recognition is so important today for employees and the success of the hospital, what it specifically looks like, and how busy managers can make it happen on a daily basis.

Recognition Task Force/Steering Team/Champion Network: One 1.5-hour session, possibly over lunch, with the hospital’s new or existing recognition team/network to discuss rollout challenges in creating a culture of recognition.

At the end of the day, Bob will have (1) shown hospital executives how to support and model recognition behaviors, (2) helped managers better understand what recognition means to their employees and how they can systematically provide that recognition on a daily basis, (3) helped to set up peer-to-peer recognition, and (4) provided the framework for an ongoing network of Recognition Champions throughout the hospital.

Here’s what some of Bob’s hospital and healthcare clients have had to say after working with him:

“Thank you again for your fantastic presentation last month. We had an all-time record turnout of nearly 500 managers! I’ve heard a lot of great feedback on your presentations from our management staff.” — Health Alliance, Cincinnati, OH

“The materials presented were very good. Bob gave us new, fresh ideas and strategies to raise motivation and productivity. He helped us to see the value of informal recognition.” — Genesis HealthCare Corporation, Kennett Square, PA

“Bob Nelson was easy to listen to. He gave us a ‘starter kit’ of practical ideas to take forward with little cost to the organization. The visuals were excellent, also. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation. It has motivated me personally to implement a stellar recognition program!” — Helix Health, Baltimore, MD

“Dr. Nelson is a very sincere, knowledgeable speaker. He made an already interesting topic phenomenal!” — Bert Fish Medical Center, New Smyrna Beach, FL

“Bob Nelson was a very energizing, entertaining, genuine speaker. He gave us lots of very specific, good, practical recognition ideas.” — Frederick Memorial Healthcare, Frederick, MD

To learn more about Bob, we invite you to view the following:

• Biography
• Presentation Summaries
• Sample Video
• Article: Beware These Employee Motivation Mistakes
• Q&A: How Can We Do A Better Job of Recognizing Employees?

To discuss how Dr. Bob Nelson can help your hospital, whether with a Leadership Training Day or a keynote or half-day session, contact us at The Speakers Group at (615) 526-6600. Bob has allowed us to offer special pricing on the half- and full-day sessions, and for a limited time, he is including a free copy of his newest book for each attendee at any of his sessions.

“As a professional speaker, I’m focusing my work on generating value for the meeting planners and their customers/clients/attendees — instead of just giving rousing talks and scoring high on event surveys. The best approach to create value is to look at myself as an expert who researches, writes, speaks and delivers after-event results.”

Tim outlined exactly how he’s doing that in a blog post today:

1. Interview the meeting planner and his/her stakeholders to determine the event’s business objective, audience profile, emotional needs and measurable metrics for success.
2. Do more interviews with extended stakeholders. Conduct research to connect my expertise with the business objectives of the meetings. Circle back with the meeting planner to compare notes.
3. Write a one-of-a-kind speech, based on the research. Choose a singular archetypal story to frame the talk, so it is easy for the audience to buy-in to its premise. MOST IMPORTANT: Include at least six action items for the audience that tie-in to the business objectives.
4. Show up at event early enough to conduct on-the-ground reconnaissance with meeting planners, execs, sponsors, attendees and vendors. Rehearse (conversationally) some bits and action items to gauge their ability to move people to action. Sleep on all of your findings.
5. Get up at least two hours prior to sound check time and tweak the speech. Rehearse the entire talk if possible, integrating the customized content. Remember: The attendees know their industry and jargon much better than you do!
6. Psyche yourself into a mental state backstage that “the only reason to give a speech is to change the world.” Right before you go on stage, review the key action items you MUST include for the talk to deliver measurable short-term business value. At a recent event, for example, I knew that reducing the load of cc’d and reply-to-all emails would save my client company money, and the IT director was a stakeholder for the event. I made sure to review my points regarding “less email is better”, and gave it some weight during the talk.
7. Offer your email address from the stage, so the audience can follow up or give your feedback. This is crucial, because much value is created away from the meeting planner’s purview (surveys, word of mouth).
8. Follow up with the meeting planner, if they desire, to share your insights, audience feedback and next steps. Offer up a podcast or PDF key takeaway points document as an after event deliverable.
9. Answer EVERY follow up email from audience members, stakeholders or meeting planners. Encourage action, document it whenever possible, and include all of your findings in a database to help at future events.

Sound like the kind of speaker you’re looking for? Contact us at The Speakers Group today to discuss how Tim Sanders can add value and ROI to your next meeting or event!

Sensational press coverage and threats of federal regulation are creating a paralyzing environment where companies around the globe are canceling meetings and events. But who pays the price for canceling meetings? All of us. Listen as Kevin Freiberg shares the REAL value and importance of why we need to keep meeting.

The article includes insights from The Speakers Group’s own Shawn Ellis as well as from Sam Silverstein, president of the National Speakers Association, and from Marc Reede of Nationwide Speakers. Highlights include:

• Negotiate Value Not Price
• Reasonable Offers Accepted
• Keynotes Still Key

Farmer writes, “Most planners agree that a dazzling keynote address is still one of the best ways to motivate attendees. Even as budgets are cut, it remains important not to shuffle the speaker out of the mix entirely. This is part of the overriding issue of the value of meetings in general.”

How do speakers respond?

“…speakers are answering by delivering more value rather than lowering fees,” Silverstein said. “So planners may not be directly negotiating fees, but they are negotiating budget. …we are trying to work together to build a bigger pie.”

Click here to read the full article on MPI’s web site.

Joseph Michelli at Starbucks

Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., is an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who has been described as “catching what is right in the world and playfully sparking people and businesses to grow toward the extraordinary.” In addition to writing best-selling books (such as The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary) about enduring business principles, he hosted an award-winning daily radio program in Colorado Springs, Colorado for over a decade.

Dr. Michelli transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices through keynote presentations that explore ways to develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the total customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their life.

To maximize the impact of the time that Dr. Michelli shares on the keynote stage, he customizes the experience for each client by offering the following:

• Early meeting to explore the possible fit between your needs and Dr. Michelli’s scope of presentations
• Partnering with you in the creation of the presentation title and development of key learning objectives
• Interviews/site visits with representatives of the your business or association to increase the personalization of Dr. Michelli’s messages to the common experience of those in the audience
• Customized marketing support, in the form of audio or video messages produced by Dr. Michelli
• Written customized articles for inclusion in websites, newsletters, etc. to pique interest in the keynote
• Participation in media interviews to support the event or create “buzz”
• Discounted pricing of Dr. Michelli’s books
• Book signings at the event
• Complimentary resources for participants such as free weekly podcasts and quarterly newsletters
• Complimentary post-event webinar hosted by Dr. Michelli
• Participation in post-event debriefing meetings with your event organizers
• Formal post-event assessment of the event planners rating the overall quality of The Michelli Experience

It all stems from Dr. Michelli’s belief that a keynote is “not an event, but a process.” How do clients respond?

“Dr. Michelli was incredibly dynamic, incorporating humor, irony, and experienced insight into his presentation to our attendees. He effectively tied a business improvement model into the healthcare arena, making the message all the more poignant by integrating his personal connection with our attendees’ line of work. Fabulous, informative, and captivating.” – Kate Shaughnessy, Member Relations Manager, Oncology Nursing Society

“Over the years I have enjoyed the privilege of hearing many top business and leadership speakers, including Joseph Michelli. Prior to hearing him speak, I had read his book “The Starbucks Experience” but hearing Joseph live was a special occasion. Joseph was phenomenal. His presentation was absolutely full of content and practical application. His style was humorous yet sobering and his personal story was the grand finale that makes him a true “Icon” in the speaker world today. I will seek out opportunities to hear Joseph again. He is truly one of the best business speakers available today.” – Mark Nichols, Chick-fil-A Franchisee

“The audience loved your energy, and the topic of ‘Sparking the Ultimate Association Member Experience’ was particularly relevant to our audience. We are now three weeks past the event and people are still talking about what a wonderful time they had.” – Mark Milory, Senior Director, ASAE & CenterU

Contact us today to discuss bringing “The Michelli Experience” to your organization!

More About Dr. Joseph Michelli

Dr. Michelli’s book, The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, published by McGraw-Hill, regularly achieved bestseller status on the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek Magazine, and USA Today lists. He has been featured on television programs such as The Glenn Beck Show and CNBC’s “On the Money” and has conducted hundreds of radio and print interviews.

Dr. Michelli’s other books include The New Gold Standard about service excellence at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace which was co-authored with the owner of the “World Famous” Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.