If You’ve Ever Googled a Client Before a Meeting, You’ve Already Done This
How strategic intelligence gives keynote speakers a systematic edge in booking, pricing, and positioning
Most keynote speakers are already doing competitive intelligence, but they may have never even heard of the term or call it that.
If you’ve ever looked up an event planner before a call, scanned a conference agenda to see what topics were trending, or asked a fellow speaker what they’re charging, you’ve been gathering intelligence. The difference between doing that occasionally and doing it systematically is the difference between hoping your business grows and knowing why it does.
This piece is about making that systematic: and it’s more relevant right now than it has ever been.
What strategic intelligence actually means for speakers
Competitive intelligence (strategic intelligence, market insights, market intelligence – whatever term feels comfortable to you) is simply this: the disciplined practice of gathering, analyzing, and acting on information about your market, your buyers, and your competitors. Yes, there are pedantic folks that care about which words you use: I am not one of them: I care that you understand the approaches and grow your business.
For speakers, normally there are three groups of people matter most:
- Event planners and buyers — the people who decide whether you’re on the stage
- Fellow speakers — not enemies, but potential collaborators that can give signals about positioning, pricing, and market appetite
- Your audiences — what they’re actually struggling with, not what you assume they need
Speakers who build systematic businesses pay close attention to all three.
A useful frame here is what I call the Pyramid of Understanding: a narrative-based approach to building a picture of the people who matter most to your business. It’s not about surveillance or stalking someone: it’s about developing genuine, structured insight into how decisions get made, what language resonates, and where the real opportunities sit. When you understand the humans in your market — not just the demographic data, but their priorities, pressures, and preferences, you stop guessing and start moving with intention.
Three places strategic intelligence gives speakers a real edge
1. Pricing
Most speakers price by feel, by what a colleague mentioned, or by what they charged last year. That’s not a strategy — it’s a guess with a dollar sign.
Strategic intelligence changes this. On the data side: what are comparable speakers charging for similar audiences and formats? Bureau listings, conference budgets, and publicly available fee ranges all give you brackets to work with. On the human side: what do your best clients actually value? What outcomes are they trying to achieve? That’s where value-based pricing becomes possible — and defensible. And yes, value-based pricing can be a great option for some conversations for speakers: it depends on your client.
If you know that a client’s conference generates $2M in new member revenue annually, your $15,000 keynote fee looks very different than if they think of you as a line item in an A/V budget. The intelligence opportunity there? You somehow established (likely from someone or from a publication) that they make $2M from the conference: useful insights like this differentiate you from taking anything you can get to positioning yourself to get what you deserve.
2. Pipeline
One of my speaker clients was preparing for a major tradeshow, both as an exhibitor and a speaker. Rather than showing up and hoping the right people wandered by, we used an intelligence approach: who was attending, what were their priorities, which conversations were worth having, and how should she structure her time to maximize meaningful connections.
The result was a prioritized target list, a set of check questions designed around what she was listening for to filter serious buyers versus those who should be directed to follow on social or buy a book; a clear sense of which “exits” different conversations should take. That turns what can be meandering conversations into a more systematic approach: it doesn’t mean it’s robotics, but you’re listening intently to find insights and opportunity.
Building a predictable speaking pipeline works the same way. Who are your top 25 target events (either corporate customers or broader public-facing opportunities)? What do you know about their planning cycles, their budgets, their past speakers? How often do they buy? What do they spend? What are their likely behaviours towards speakers?
What relationships do you need to build 18 months before you want to be on that stage? Answering those questions systematically is how consistent corporate bookings happen, not through random outreach and hope.
3. Positioning
This is where most speakers leave the most money on the table.
Scan the agendas of the top ten conferences in your industry over the last three years. Map how the topic mix has shifted. What’s rising? What’s being retired? What’s overcrowded with speakers saying nearly identical things? Here’s a spot that I see as very challenging for some speakers: you’re offering (at least on the surface) the same thing that a thousand others are. That’s hard to be known for, hard to be found in search, and unless you’re amazing and referrals are going perfectly, it’s going to be a tough slog.
Analysis tells you where to plant your flag, as well as what to avoid. If seven speakers are already doing “leadership in the age of AI” at a generic level, the opportunity isn’t to do it better: it might be that you need to do something adjacent that hasn’t been done yet: but you know who is best positioned to answer that? Your buyers… and if you’re not regularly talking to customers and prospects, you’re missing a key intelligence opportunity to inform your speaking topics.
Google Search Console and Google Trends can be underused tools here: heck, even your on-site search: what terms are you seeing? The queries bringing people to your website are real-time signals of what your market is searching for. For that matter? So is Reddit (for selected topics – it may or may not be relevant for you).
If people are finding you by accident for topics you don’t intend to own, that’s information. If the queries you want to own aren’t showing up at all, that’s also information. One of the current issues that I see? Big names are dominating AI search: that’s an opportunity for other speakers, though, because the big speakers are coasting on notoriety, not necessarily substance.
A simple starting framework
You don’t need a dedicated intelligence team, but you do need consistent habits.
Weekly:
- Scan two or three conference agendas in your target market
- Note any shifts in topic language or session framing
- Check what two or three peers are publishing or speaking about
Monthly:
- Have at least one conversation with an event planner, bureau contact, or past client specifically about what they’re seeing in the market (ideally, not as a part of a sales conversation, but if that’s the opportunity you have, ask it)
- Pull your top search queries and look for signals
- Ask: what’s changed in my market’s priorities since last month?
Quarterly:
- Do a pricing benchmark: are your fees still aligned with comparable speakers and the value you’re delivering?
- Revisit your positioning: is your core promise still the sharpest version of what you do?
- Map your pipeline: do you have the right relationships in motion for bookings 12-18 months out?
The goal isn’t to become an analyst. It’s to stop being surprised by things that were visible if you’d been paying attention.
The speakers who will win the next three years
The market is shifting faster than most speakers are tracking. Geopolitical instability is disrupting travel and event budgets. Topics that were safe and well-paid two years ago are under pressure. Corporate discretionary spending — which funds most keynote budgets — contracts before speakers feel it.
The speakers who will navigate this well are not necessarily the most talented ones. They’re the ones who understand their market systematically, reposition before they have to, and build pipelines with enough lead time to absorb disruption.
A consistent practice will help you build competitive advantage that will sustain and grow your business.
Want an intelligence lens on your speaking business?
If you’re curious what a strategic review of your positioning, pricing, and pipeline would actually surface — let’s find out together.
Or start with my free resource: How to Build a Predictable Speaking Pipeline.
Jonathan Dunnett is a Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellow and keynote speaker business development coach. He helps established speakers build strategic, relationship-driven pipelines using the same intelligence frameworks Fortune 500 companies use to win competitive deals.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I use competitive intelligence in my speaking business?
Using competitive intelligence in your speaking business means systematically gathering and analyzing information about your market, your buyers, and your competitors, rather than relying on gut feel or occasional research. Practically, it involves studying event agendas to spot topic trends, profiling event planners and decision-makers before outreach, benchmarking your pricing against comparable speakers, and building a regular habit of scanning what your market is asking for. Speakers who do this consistently stop guessing and start positioning with intention.
What are the best ways to market my speaking services?
The most effective way to market your speaking services is to combine intelligence-driven positioning with systematic relationship development. That means knowing exactly who your ideal client is, understanding where they gather, and showing up consistently in those spaces with a clear and differentiated message. Content that demonstrates your expertise, targeted outreach to event planners and bureaus, and strategic use of tools like Google Search Console and Google Trends to track what your market is searching for will outperform broad spray-and-pray marketing every time.
What are some frameworks for growing a speaking career?
One of the most effective frameworks for growing a speaking career is the Speaker Stool, which identifies four legs of a sustainable speaking business: bureaus, marketing, referrals, and strategic relationship development. Most speakers over-rely on one or two legs and wonder why their pipeline is unpredictable. Layering competitive intelligence methodology on top of this framework, using the Pyramid of Understanding to profile key decision-makers and scanning the market for topic trends, is what separates speakers with systematic growth from those dependent on luck and timing.
Who helps speakers with business development strategy?
Jonathan Dunnett is a Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellow and speaker business development strategist who helps established keynote speakers build systematic, intelligence-driven pipelines. His approach applies the same competitive intelligence frameworks used by Fortune 500 companies to speaker business development, covering positioning, pricing, stakeholder profiling, and relationship-driven outreach. He works with speakers who are already earning and want to grow more strategically, not speakers who are just getting started.
What is event intelligence for speakers?
Event intelligence for speakers is the practice of systematically gathering and using information about events, attendees, and organizers to maximize the value of every speaking engagement and conference appearance. It includes pre-event research on who will be in the room, profiling key targets before you arrive, developing check questions to quickly understand who you are talking to, and having a clear system for turning conversations into next steps. Speakers who apply event intelligence stop leaving relationships and opportunities on the table after every show.
Find experts in strategic planning for public speakers
Jonathan Dunnett is a Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellow specializing in strategic planning for keynote speakers. With nearly two decades of competitive intelligence experience, he helps established speakers build systematic approaches to positioning, pipeline development, and business growth. His methodology draws on the same strategic frameworks used by Fortune 500 companies, applied specifically to the business of professional speaking.