FRANCISCO SARAIVA

Pete Ryckman is a strategic messaging consultant and speechwriter for CEOs. His years of experience on the job make him one of the best speechwriters there is. Pete gave me the privilege recently, to ask him a few questions regarding his expertise as a speechwriter.

Q: If you were recruiting a speechwriter, what will you look for?

A: Successful speechwriters need four key skills. They must write for the ear. They need to write clearly and simply. They should write in the executive voice. And they’ve got to be able to create a detailed audience analysis.

* Writing for the ear: Every day, we read thousands of words in business communications, newspapers, books, and on the Web. They’re written for the eye — and that’s the way we receive them.

A speech is a completely different animal. It needs to be written for the ears of the audience. When the audience hears a speech, they’re using a different part of the brain. If the speech isn’t working as spoken communication, it isn’t working at all.

* Writing clearly and simply: Here’s a fundamental fact that influences how speeches are structured: the audience doesn’t have the script. Audience members have to make sense of the speaker’s ideas on the fly.

It’s as if they’re stringing together “idea beads” on a string — in real time. If the structure of the speech is too complex, it’s like giving the audience too many idea beads at one time. They’re going to drop some of them. And, in the process, they’re going to get confused. When audience members get overwhelmed or lost, they check out.

* Writing in the executive voice: Too many speeches are put together by content experts in the organization. Often, these speeches wind up being “a white paper on wheels.” They’re loaded with information. They have lots of facts and data. And, on paper, they make a pretty strong case.

But too often, the speaker never seems to take ownership of the content. That’s a big mistake. If the speaker isn’t taking ownership of the content, why should the audience?

Successful speakers vigorously communicate their ownership and belief in their content. They say, “I believe” — “I’m convinced” — “In my experience.”

* Creating a detailed audience analysis: I’m convinced that the root cause of the failure of many speeches lies in lack of understanding of the audience and the occasion.

The preparation of every speech needs to be based on a detailed audience analysis. Who is the audience? Why are they there? What do they think of the speaker and the speaker’s organization? What are they expecting the speaker to talk about? Is the audience friendly, neutral, apathetic, or hostile?

With a detailed audience analysis in hand, speech preparation becomes much easier. The speaker, speechwriter, visual developers, and PR people all have a much clearer idea of what the speech needs to do to be understood and believed by the audience.

Q: What are the significant challenges that the majority of your speechwriting clients have in common?

A: The CEOs I work with don’t have enough time in the day to handle all the problems that land on their desks. My job, as a speechwriter, is to add hours to the CEO’s week by being his or her representative in the speech development process.

I’m very proactive. For example, many times, with long-term clients, I arrive at the first client meeting with a very detailed audience analysis and a detailed outline of speech content.

The audience analysis information is gathered from conference and event organizers, in-company experts, and outside research (got to love the World Wide Web!). The audience analysis covers demographics, event details, a complete program agenda, and expectations of the audience members.

In this first meeting, after we’ve reviewed the audience analysis, I talk my way through the proposed content outline. It’s usually in traditional outline format or a graphical mind map.

There’s a significant amount of risk in jumping right to a detailed outline. In 24 years of CEO-level speechwriting — and more than 800 speeches — here’s how the outcomes breakdown. About a third of the time the client says, “Good start. Let’s add this, take out that, and emphasize this point.” A third of the time it’s, “Much of what you’ve got is usable but I want to organize it around a different big idea.” And a third of the time the client says, “Not even close. Forget this and start over. Here’s what I want to say.”

Overall, my “quick start” process works really well as a way to add value to the client’s time. By the end of the first meeting (usually about 30 minutes) both of us have a very clear idea of what happens next. Plus, the proactive speechwriter gets credit for pushing the project along and taking weight off the speaker’s shoulders.

Q: In your blog, Memo to C-Level Speakers you say that too many speeches are “over planned, overloaded, and over scripted.” What do you suggest as solutions for these problems?

A: A major CEO speech at a high-value event (such as a major customer conference, shareholders’ meeting, or analyst presentation) is a big deal. I’ve seen good scripts get over planned by corporate communications and PR people who want to stuff their entire “message framework” into the speech. This happens even though the result absolutely doesn’t work for the audience.

Speeches-by-committee are often overloaded with facts, statistics, examples, and data. They often have too many visuals with mind-boggling amounts of detail. Committees have a “This is what we want to say” attitude — with little or no regard to what the audience wants and needs to hear. The results are predictable. Audiences tune out — and the whole exercise becomes a waste of time and resources.

Speeches are often over scripted. When speakers are short of preparation time (almost always) they just read the script. Most of the time, this doesn’t work for the audience. When a speaker reads a speech — head down, plowing ahead — he or she is saying to the audience, “I’m up here suffering and you should be suffering too.”

One thing you can depend on is that audiences love good stories. Stories organize and illustrate big, complex ideas and make them memorable. But instead of reading a story, the speaker should just tell it, as if they’re having a conversation with a friend.

Let’s say the big idea of the speech is “globalization is here to stay.” The script can have a line in it like this: (Tell the “local engineering firm with worldwide-projects” story.)

The speaker tells this personal story in his or her own words. It doesn’t have to be smoothed, polished, and honed to perfection. In fact, a little “rough-around-the-edges” makes it more authentic.

But the moral of the story — the big idea of the speech — is scripted. “A lot of people mistakenly think that globalization isn’t a part of their business. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Right here in this city — just a few miles from this room — a local engineering firm now has projects that are 13 time zones away. A decade ago, virtually all of their projects were within a few hundred miles of here. Now, their world is the world.”

What are the lessons here? Successful speeches are custom tailored to fit each specific audience and occasion. The big ideas in these successful speeches are built around memorable, authentic stories. And these stories are supported by just enough facts, statistics, data, and visuals to make the stories believable.

Pete Ryckman is a veteran speechwriter with 24 years of experience writing at the CEO level. His blog, Memo to C-Level Speakers (http://memotospeakers.typepad.com) offers practical, nuts-and-bolts advice to management speakers. Pete also teaches a unique, 14-week course for communications professionals who want to advance their careers by learning the craft of speechwriting.