Fortune 500 executives are famous for referring to vendors in what they call ‘Tier Levels’. They take pride in only hiring “Tier 1 speakers”, which is another way of saying “the best of the best”. After all, they can afford it. When you’re spending five million dollars on a national convention, what difference does it make if the keynote speaker costs fifteen or twenty thousand dollars? They want the best and that’s who they hire. While most struggling speakers are worrying about building flashy websites and killer demo videos, Tier 1 speakers are almost always hired by referral.