Gunfight at the Speaker’s Bureau Corral

The Internet lets small businesses create entirely new strategies and new business models to take on the Goliaths of the business world. Just ask Dan Sims at The Agency Speakers (www.theagencyspeakers.com). He’s taking on an entire industry with new strategies, new resources and a remarkably creative game plan.

Every once in a while we run across someone who is utilizing the vast resources of the Internet revolution without ever having attended one of our workshops. Amazing, but it does happen. Dan Sims is doing it at The Agency Speakers (theagencyspeakers.com) by jumping into the fray with some really big guys called “speaker’s bureaus.” These folks match speakers to companies and associations who need speakers – and they’ve had a virtual lock on the speaker matchmaking business for many years. However, instead of challenging them head on, he’s doing something at an even higher level – he’s developing partnerships – with the bureaus, and with others in the speaking industry, too.

Dan told us, “Some of the big-time talent agents are silly” (actually Dan used a word that starts with “a” and ends with “s” – but Sheryl’s four year old nephew doesn’t allow us to say those words, so we have substituted the word “silly”). “Some agents take on a superior attitude just because they work with wonderfully creative and talented people. Instead, we like to ‘Play BIG, but Play NICE ‘ and it’s turned into a competitive advantage.”

“I’m not anti-speaker’s bureau, by any means.” he told us. “They are actually an integral part of my own business model. However, traditional bureaus have built a business based on near-exclusive access to speakers’ contact information.” Today that once difficult to find contact information is now quickly available on anyone’s computer – and that changes the game.

“The smart bureaus have realized this fundamental shift and those that have not will not be around in four or five more years under their current model.”

Because of all this, Dan rethought the business of hooking speakers up with those who need speakers. He created a company based on a new model – not of hoarding information, but of getting the information out there and even “encouraging people to find our clients themselves, through whatever channel they choose… the Internet, our own company, the speakers themselves, the bureaus, etc.” What a concept!

His approach sounds so much like Glenn Reynold’s book, An Army of Davids, that it’s scary. Reynolds writes in his book:

“The secret of success in both business and politics in the twenty-first century, will involve figuring out a way to capitalize on the phenomenon of a lot of people doing what they want to do, rather than — as in previous centuries — figuring out ways to make lots of people do what you want them to.”

You don’t have to be a struggling speaker hoping for a look from a speaker’s bureau to appreciate that quote. It could almost be the rally cry of captive corporate workers everywhere (not to mention their customers).

Dan told us, in his typically understated way, that “technology helps.” Uh-huh.

To save money, he uses Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) for his phone service. Big savings. His company data resides not on his computers, but instead on servers in Canada. More savings.

But, he’s also saving money by putting the Internet to use in more creative ways. Just consider this one example (in his words):

When we decided to revamp our website in April of 2006, we wanted a low-cost, professional alternative. At the advice of my wife, Michelle, who had been using CraigsList.com for about a year to line up acting jobs, we submitted a VERY rough RFP to the our local Washington, DC CraigsList. Within 24 hours we had over 80 responses…. half of them from outside of the U.S.

Not only were we getting responses, but the responses were incredibly detailed – including video, references, portfolios, etc. After narrowing down our ‘wish list’ we picked twelve of the best responses (by the way we actually pulled our ad from CraigsList on the second day because we were overwhelmed with responses) and essentially pitted them against each other. We finally narrowed the list down to the three most competent vendors and simply created a reverse auction based on identical specs.

Ultimately, we picked a vendor located in California and had a great experience at an outstanding price. What an amazing process and how neat for a ‘little guy’ to have that much power in a process like this.

The power of Internet business resources like these have literally allowed Dan Sims to create a new business that can take on his bigger and slower moving competitors. Part of the reason he can now “mix it up with the big guys” is that he is able to take advantage of what can only be called lower “Internet margins.” And he’s doing quite well, thank you, even representing such celebrity speakers as Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Bonnie Blair and Jim Furyk.

But there’s more to it than that. Dan Sims’ business success is a perfect example of what can happen when you are willing to question the status quo, think outside the box, put some new tools to work for you and even build partnerships with some of your fiercest competitors. The new world of information access seems to be challenging some of the business world’s most accepted teachings, encouraging cooperation among competitors.

We’ve had debate on this site about whether Internet resources and strategies can be called powerful selling tools. For his part, Dan Sims would call them much more than powerful tools. He’d probably call them stealth missiles.

Or, as Tom Peters says, “The Internet changes everything.”