Ask Regina Baker  /  Free for professional speakers

I don't care where they live. Can they do the job?

Ten questions that tell you whether the person handling your speaking business is support, or a bottleneck with a login.

10 questions  ·  About four minutes  ·  Scores itself

Send me the Liaison Test

Answer the ten, get your score, know exactly where your operation leaks.

Here's what this actually tests

Not effort. Not attitude. Not how long they've been with you. Two things only, because in this industry these are the two things that decide whether an inquiry turns into a contract.

Part One

Coverage

Meeting planners send inquiries during their business hours. Somebody has to be awake and reading them. That is the whole test, and it has nothing to do with anybody's zip code.

Part Two

Authority

Capable and authorized are two different things. If every date, every contract, and every fee question still routes back to you, you did not remove a bottleneck. You funded one.

Part Three

Representation

Can they say who you are, what you speak on, and why a client should book you over the other two on the list? This is the part nobody tests for, and it is the part that costs the most.

Task doers and communication liaisons are two different hires

Speakers shop for the cheaper one, then get frustrated when that person cannot do the more expensive one's job. That is not a support problem. That is a hiring decision showing its receipts.

You bought a pair of hands. The job needed a voice.

The savings on an hourly rate shows up on an invoice where you can see it. The cost of the reply that went out tomorrow instead of today never shows up anywhere, which is exactly why it keeps happening. You cannot count the inquiries you lost. You never knew they were in play.

One more thing, before you go score somebody

The score does not measure effort, loyalty, or how much you like the person. Plenty of good people score a three because nobody ever gave them the authority to score higher. Read the results as an assignment for you, not a verdict on them.

Who this is for

Take the test if

  • Client emails still land in your inbox no matter who you hired
  • You are attending calls you should not have to attend
  • Inquiries sit overnight before a human touches them
  • You are about to hire support and want a standard to hire against

Skip it if

  • You want permission to be mad at your assistant
  • You are looking for a reason to hire based on geography
  • You are not willing to write down what your person is allowed to decide

Who's asking

I'm Regina Baker. I build the backend of speaking businesses and I have been doing it since 2015, which is long enough to watch the same expensive mistake get made over and over by people who are excellent on stage and unstaffed off it.

I am not selling you a hire. I am giving you a standard. What you do with the score is your business.

Send me the Liaison Test

Free. Ten questions. Four minutes and you will know.

Get the test