I stumbled into speaking at trade shows when I was asked to participate in a trade show for a franchisors. Various Franchises had exhibit tables and those who were thinking of buying a franchise were the attendees.
I was asked to do a breakout session for sales skills. It was right after I had developed my Street Smart Sales Training program. I prepared a 60 minute presentation and the handouts to go with it. Fortunately I was scheduled for the second day. That gave me the whole first day and the morning of the second day to talk with the attendees and gain more of an audience. My goal was to get enough people to attend so that I would be able to get enough leads to gain at least one client for private training. The fee for the breakout session was $5,000.
I decided to give away one of my business books and that was how I was able to collect business cards from everyone in the audience who wanted to participate. From the 35 who attended, I was able to pick up three new clients and charged $7,500 for a four hour training plus a 2-hour follow up session. Trade Shows are very lucrative! I found a resource a couple of years after that where Trade Shows are listed for as much as two years ahead. It’s TSNN.