Why speakers turn you down and what to do about it

Before I started an event tech company, I ran a business that produced commercial conferences. And before that, I ran a trade association that also depended heavily on global events – both for revenue and impact.

So, I know I’m stating the obvious when I say that securing top-tier speakers is the cornerstone of any successful B2B conference.

High-calibre speakers drive ticket sales, generate media interest and elevate the authority of your event.

But landing the best speakers is even more difficult now than it was in my day.

The business event landscape is saturated. Industry leaders, executives, and subject matter experts are fiercely protective of their time. If you are struggling to get your high-priority target speakers to sign on the dotted line, you are not alone.

To solve the problem, we first need to understand the modern friction points. Let’s look at exactly why the best speakers are turning you down, followed by a masterclass in how to pivot your acquisition strategy to secure a definitive ‘yes’.

Why the best speakers often say no

Back in the good old days, securing decent speakers used to just be a matter of covering travel expenses and offering them a stage. People wanted to speak at conferences. Back then there were far fewer events, and most people (whether executives, scientists or whatever) were under less pressure in their jobs.

Today, the mechanics of speaker acquisition have shifted dramatically.

Firstly, there are just too many speaking opportunities. The explosion of niche B2B events, digital summits, and hybrid conferences means that qualified speakers are inundated with invitations. A decade ago, a C-suite executive might have received two or three speaking invitations a quarter. Today, they likely receive that many in a week.

When supply (events) outstrips demand (the speaker’s available time), speakers become ruthlessly selective. If your event does not immediately stand out as a top-tier opportunity, your invitation goes straight to the archive folder.

The best speakers no longer speak just for exposure; they’re looking for a return on the time they’ll need to invest to join your event. That ROI might look like lead generation for their business, book sales, networking with other high-level executives, or media coverage.

Too many event managers fail to quantify and articulate this value up front. If your outreach email just says something like: ‘We would love to have you speak because of your expertise in … ’ you’ve totally missed the point – which is to tell them in clear terms what they’re going to get out of it.

Absent some kind of very close, personal connection with a speaker, if they can’t see a clear, tangible benefit to their personal brand or business, they’re going to pass.

Attracting great speakers is even more of an uphill struggle for less established events.

If you’re launching a new event or attempting to scale a smaller, regional summit, you’ll also have to bridge the credibility gap. Established legacy conferences have history, prestige, and guaranteed audience numbers.

Top speakers (and their teams) tend to be risk averse. They don’t want to spend hours preparing a presentation and traveling across the country only to end up addressing a half-empty room of low-level managers. Without a proven track record or a highly recognisable brand behind your event, convincing big hitters to take a gamble on you is incredibly difficult.

Lastly, there are the logistical and financial challenges.

If you’ve ever spoken at a conference, you’ll know the real cost is not just the hour spent on stage; it’s the days lost to travel and preparation. With corporate budgets tightening and a heightened focus on sustainability, executives are less inclined to spend two days in transit for a 45 minute keynote.

Added to this, inflation and global geopolitics have made travel, premium accommodation, and dining significantly more expensive and less appealing at the same time. If your event cannot fully cover these costs – or if you expect speakers to navigate complex reimbursement processes – you’re creating the kind of friction that successful, in-demand, high-earning experts simply will not tolerate.

These are just some of the reasons why it’s tough to sign up speakers these days.

Fortunately though, there are some approaches you can adopt that will re-balance the odds in your favour.

How to get speakers to say yes

The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me when it came to recruiting speakers in the super-competitive automotive industry, was to treat your speaker acquisition strategy exactly like a high-touch B2B sales pipeline.

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Replace the traditional ‘invitation letter’ with a ‘value proposition’

Years ago, I was talking with a very senior, very in-demand VP of research for one of the big global car manufacturers. He told me something that opened my eyes. He said that the most common mistake event managers make is making the pitch ‘all about the event’.

It’s an understandable instinct. Of course you want to sell them on how great the event’s going to be. But actually – just like a customer – this guy responded to pitches that were more about him: what he needed; how he was going to benefit.

Event managers need to stop selling the event and start selling the outcomes.

How do you do this?

The best place to start is to audit the speaker’s likely current goals. Before reaching out, research what they’re currently promoting. Are they launching a new software product? Are they actively hiring for their company? Are they trying to influence some regulations in their market? Or promote a research agenda? Do they have a new book coming out?

Tailor your pitch to show how your event directly supports their current commercial or professional objectives.

And try to avoid being vague.

Wherever possible, give them data-backed audience demographics that support these objectives. Don’t just say ‘you’ll have a great audience.’ Everyone says that, and everyone hopes it’s true! Give them hard data. Tell them exactly who will be in the room: ‘Our audience consists of 65% VP-level or higher decision-makers from the fintech sector, with average annual budgets exceeding £5M, at least half of whom are actively looking for cyber security partners’.

That kind of specificity moves the needle with serious people.

Another thing serious people like is efficiency. Their own marketing and PR people will be hassling them to provide content all the time. So offer exclusive media assets as outputs from your event. Promise (and deliver) high-quality video recordings of their session, professional photography, and written Q&As featured on your website. High-quality content they can leverage for their own marketing channels is a massive incentive to invest time joining your agenda.

De-risk the opportunity for the speaker

If you are running a newer event or something highly niche like a summit, you need to find ways to actively remove the perceived risk of signing up.

One of the best ways to do this is the good old ‘Anchor Speaker’ strategy.

Don’t attempt to go after all your hard-to-get speakers in one push (the ‘spray and pray’ gambit). Instead, put your energy and resources into securing one major industry heavyweight first. Offer them whatever it takes to get a yes. Once you have that anchor speaker locked in, you can use their name as social proof in your pitches to everyone else.

Being able to say ‘We are thrilled to have [Famous CEO] headlining our main stage, and we would love for you to join them’ is extremely potent.

Something else you can do to promote trust is to showcase confirmed attendee profiles. If you can’t boast past event numbers, you can at least boast about the quality of the people already registered. So, send a curated list of job titles and company names of confirmed attendees to prove to the target speaker that their ideal clients or peers will be sitting in the audience.

And think carefully about what you want to ask top-tier speakers to actually contribute on the day. High-level executives are busy. The thought of building a 40 slide presentation from scratch is daunting. So, it might be more realistic to offer these candidates something like a fireside chat, a moderated panel, or a live Q&A where they only need to show up and share their expertise without the burden of heavy preparation.

A leading scientist or research expert, on the other hand, likely has a grade one deck that they’re constantly maintaining and updating. They’re more likely to turn down an invitation that doesn’t afford the opportunity (and programme time) to delve deeply into their ideas and insights.

As ever, one size very rarely fits all.

Eliminate all logistical friction

The best speakers are used to being looked after. If you make the logistics difficult, they will pull out or decline future invites. Your goal should be to make their participation as effortless as possible.

One of our customers has what I think is a neat way of positioning this. They offer a ‘Speaker Concierge’, which basically means they assign a specific member of the event team to act as the dedicated point of contact for VIP speakers. This person handles everything: booking their preferred flights, coordinating ground transport, managing hotel bookings, and even ensuring their green room is stocked with their preferred refreshments.

Never underestimate the power of making business people feel just a tiny bit like Harry Styles for the day.

Don’t ask high-profile speakers to pay for their own flights, then claim them back from you later. Book and pay for everything up front. If you are operating on a tight budget, it’s usually better to have fewer, higher-quality speakers, and treat them like royalty, than to have a larger roster of mildly resentful, mid-tier speakers.

And respect their time on-site by creating a tight, efficient schedule. If they are only available to fly in, speak, and fly right back out, facilitate that. Don’t push them to attend networking dinners or full-day workshops unless they explicitly want to.

On the other hand, if you can figure out precisely who they would like to meet while they’re with you, do everything you can to make that happen.

Always think: what do they want?

The final thing I learned over the years – often from observing other event owners who were doing better than me – is: take the time to build relationships year-round. Don’t wait until you need to issue an invitation.

The best way to get a busy person to say yes to your event is to already have a relationship with them before you ask.

This is easier than it might seem. Make sure you engage with their content. Follow your target speakers on LinkedIn. Comment on their posts with insightful observations. Share their articles. When your invitation eventually lands in their inbox, your name should already be familiar to them.

Feature them on your platform before you reach out. Invite them to be a guest on your podcast, contribute a quote to your industry report, or feature in a blog post. Giving them exposure before asking them to do the heavy lifting of speaking at a live event builds immense goodwill.

Ask for advice, not just attendance. If you’re struggling to reach a highly guarded executive, reach out to ask for their thoughts on the event agenda or theme. People love having their expertise respected and they like sharing their opinions.

I often used to find that once someone had contributed to the conceptualisation of a conference I was planning, they were pretty much signed on to agree to speak at it.

Securing the best speakers for a B2B event in today’s world is no longer a matter of sending out mass email blasts and hoping for the best. It requires a strategic, empathetic, and highly personalised approach.

But by understanding the pressures on a speaker's time, clearly articulating the commercial and personal ROI, lowering the risks of participation, and removing all logistical friction, you can drastically increase your conversion rate for high-priority targets.

Remember: treat your speakers like your most valued customers. When you invest in their experience, they will invest their time, energy, and star power into making your event a success.