I am a big believer in public speaking as a lead generation tool.  I do lots of it, and have gotten some great clients from it.  And you can, too, if you follow these five tips:

Make an offer they can’t refuse.  Don’t charge a fee or honorarium for your speaking services.  Instead, ask the sponsoring organization for a copy of the attendee list or request permission to add a few comments about your firm’s services and capabilities during your talk.

Provide great content.  Put some real meat on the bones of your presentation. Even if you feel like you are “giving something away for nothing”, the truth is that giving people the information they want and need will entice them even more to come to you as the expert to help them solve a problem or navigate a legal issue.  I always educate my audience about how they can actually do what we do – and find that most attorneys would rather have it done for them!

Tap into referral partners.  If you have a few referral partners you work with regularly and refer clients back and forth, offer to speak to a group of their clients on a legal topic of interest to them.  This helps you both while giving you exposure to a greater number of potential clients.

Make a plan for following up.  Before you speak, have a plan in place for following up with attendees.  If the sponsoring organization won’t share a contact list, then solicit contact information from the podium, offering attendees a copy of your presentation or a free report about the topic you just spoke about in exchange for their business cards.

Make it easy to contact you.  You’ll probably find that some people are reluctant to approach you after your presentation to discuss a potentially personal legal matter.  Make it easy for them to get in touch with you afterwards by having a pile of your business cards they can pick up as they leave, and have your contact information – phone and email – as a closing slide that stays up as you take questions at the end of your talk.