Being bold in our offer

This week we revised the Join Us page of our website. That might not sound very exciting but it is to us. Because it was the result of a lot of learning over the last couple of years since we first wrote it. Time in which we have become increasingly confident in our offer, and the fact that it meets a clear need in the speaking industry today.

One of the founding principles of Pomona Partners is transparency. We want to be absolutely clear with every speaker who joins our community what they can expect from us, and critically, what we expect from them.

A Different Model

Our model is different from other agencies and bureaux. There’s nothing wrong with others’ models - we collaborate very happily with many other businesses in our sector! But when we launched this business we set out to do something different: To provide a clear path to greater success for all speakers, wherever they are in their career. To do so in a systematic way. And to provide all the speakers on our books with the tools and training to achieve that greater success.

Doing this takes investment. We have invested an enormous amount of time and money in creating our unique Talent Map, that helps speakers to understand where their weaknesses lie. And in the Training Library that helps them to address those development areas with clear advice, tips and frameworks. That library is growing every week with new articles and videos from our team, and from the panel of coaches that help our speakers to accelerate their development.

We invest time constantly in our curated speaker community, helping our members to connect with each other and share their successes, failures and learnings on our peer-to-peer events. We’ve invested in tools like the Feedback Engine that make it easier for our speakers to collect critical feedback - testimonials, ratings, photos and videos - from audiences, and connect with them after events. We’re bringing new tools and services to our speakers later in this year.

All this is on top of the marketing and representation that every speaker expects from their agent or bureau, and we think we do those things very, very well too. Our bespoke software platform now allows us to share more information with each speaker on the work we’re doing on their behalf. And information on how their success stacks up against the state of the market from our perspective. Again, all in the spirit of transparency.

Exchange of Value

Doing these things isn’t cheap. And the costs scale, at least in part, with every speaker on our books. Which means we need to ensure that we have a true, two-way relationship with every speaker. That we are contributing and so are they.

Our new Join Us page is now completely explicit about the nature of that relationship. It says what speakers can expect us to deliver. And precisely how much business we expect them to put through us in return. Or, in the case of our Performance tier, where speakers might not be putting many bookings through us, how much we will charge them for access to our tools, training, and services.

That relationship offer won’t be right for every speaker out there. But we think it’s telling that the clearer we have been about the offer, the more speakers we have seen applying to join our community.

If you’re on a professional speaking journey, and you’re not quite sure what the next steps might be, then maybe Pomona Partners is the right home for you. Whether you’re just starting out or an established and successful keynote, we believe we can help you navigate the next stages of growth.

Check out the Join Us page and see what you think.