Gathering Endorsements
You are a big risk.
You might not think that you are, but when an event coordinator is considering you as the speaker for their next event, you seem like a big risk.
Some of the questions that float through a coordinator’s head are, “Will she be doctrinally sound? Will she be professional? Will she interact with our women? Will she bring all that she’s promised?” I was a women’s ministry director before I became a speaker, so I speak with authority when I say that choosing a speaker makes a coordinator sweat!
One way that you can put event coordinators at ease is by providing endorsements from past events. These short statements should be used on bio sheets, websites or any other marketing pieces that you provide. Here are some things to consider as you gather endorsements:
- If you need 3-4 endorsements, ask 5-6 people to provide them. Choose the best from these.
- After each event, ask the coordinator to write an endorsement for you. Keep a collection so that you can choose the most inviting when developing new marketing.
- When asking someone to write an endorsement, tactfully encourage them to use vivid writing. Ask people who you know are great writers. One of my favorite endorsements came from my pastor who was also an amazing writer.
- Keep endorsements short. Even if the one provided is very long, you can choose key sentences. People are doing more skimming than reading these days, and they’ll skip an endorsement that looks too long.
Endorsements go a long way in reassuring coordinators of your past performance. Take a look at the NSSS endorsements (don’t you love that we also have pics of these folks?!) as examples.