I got a proposal to pay €10k–€30k to speak at a world-renowned pricing conference.
Should I?
That’s what Terrapinn’s World EPA Congress charges. It’s pharma’s big tent: 1,500+ attendees, 250 speakers, 10 stages. Serious production. But their audience? Market access execs from global drug companies. Sharp people with money to spend, yes, but not my people. I teach indie experts and founder-led agencies how to price their expertise, not how to get a cancer drug through NICE.
Still, for the sake of education, I ran the numbers.
– My average sale: € 5,000
– Conference outlay (speaking fee + travel + prep): ≈ €13 000
– Break-even: 2.6 clients
– Best-case lead capture: 50 warm leads
– Trade show conversion: ~2 % on average
So I spend €13k to earn €5k. That’s not “investment in brand.” That’s a complicated way to lose €8k while talking to the wrong room, and get a shiny logo for my webpage.
Yay.
Could I reuse the talk? Sure. Would the logo look good on my site? Probably. But if the room isn’t full of buyers, the ROI is pure fantasy.
Speaking generates leverage—but the question is: with what audience?
If they offer me the free slot, maybe I’ll go. I will ask. But if it’s pay-to-play, I’d rather use that budget to run a workshop series that lands three small expert businesses before lunch. I don’t need prestige that generates the wrong kind of leverage.