Why hire a speechwriter?

Finally, the date’s been confirmed. The product or campaign launch, venue opening, or wedding – it’s in the calendar. Invites have been sent out to attendees. There’s no going back now.

A team of people is buzzing around making sure that everything is ready to go for the day: the app, the financial results, the restaurant, the wedding.

In fact, the more you think about it, there’s only one part that hasn’t been accounted for yet. You know you’ll need to give a speech. You don’t relish the prospect. Public speaking makes you queasy. The thought of all those people, looking at you expectantly… But you know it’s an important opportunity to reinforce your message: of strong earnings, of an exciting new hospitality future, or of your love for the happy couple.

You ask the event coordinator for a budget update. There is enough to hire one more person to help with the day – a speechwriter. You’ve never worked with one before, and you don’t exactly know what it would entail. Increasingly, you’re intrigued. But in order to get approval for the extra expenditure – and to satisfy your own questions – you’ll need to have a list of good reasons.

So why should you hire a speechwriter? And what is the extra value a good one can provide? Here are seven reasons why.

Send the audience home happy
Speechwriters are in the “winning hearts and minds” business. Once you strip away everything else, our job is to make an audience agree – passionately – with your message. And as much as we think we only need facts to be persuaded, evidence suggests that we need more: we need to believe.

A great speech can send your audience home with your message ringing in their ears: this company is worth investing in, I support this campaign and want to donate or volunteer, I really want to come back here.

If you can achieve that, you are well on the way to increasing sales, downloads, bookings, and donations. Everything that matters most to you.

Strive for more, don’t settle for less
You haven’t settled for less in any area of the event planning. The CFO has been over the earnings results to make sure they’re 100% correct. You’ve hired the best engineers to develop the app. The new restaurant’s food will be prepared by the best chefs. No expense has been spared in planning the wedding.

Speechwriting is a skill. That’s part of why the blank page can look so intimidating for the non-expert. If you’re building a house, you wouldn’t let the roof be built by an amateur. So why would your speech – potentially the most memorable part of your event – be any different? 

Gain a competitive advantage
It’s a jungle out there. Every new customer which your rival gains is one less for you. One more donation to another charity in the same field as you is probably one that you’ve missed out on. In a competitive landscape, you need to exploit every advantage you can.

When economists discuss the merits of free trade, they talk about something called comparative advantage. That concept basically means that every participating entity brings different skills to the table. I will never claim to know your work better than you already do. But as a professional speechwriter, experienced in the business of persuading an audience about a message, I can give you an advantage over the competition. 

A fresh perspective
No one is closer to your business or organisation than you. That means you bring unrivalled knowledge. But it also means that, sometimes, you miss the forest for the trees. The big message can, inadvertently, be forgotten.

Speechwriters don’t know your business or organisation. But we spend every day getting to grips with complex and unfamiliar issues. Don’t think of that lack of familiarity as a disadvantage. Think of it as an opportunity for a skilled outsider to look at what you do with fresh eyes and share their insights and advice. It could be the difference between the forest and the trees.

Bridge the gap between brain and pen
A metaphor I like to use is that good writing bridges the gap between our brain and our pen (or, in some cases, our mouth). Our brains know what we want to say. But somewhere in that short distance between brain and pen, what seemed so simple can become messy and unclear. 

By asking the right questions, and drilling down to the core of your message, a good speechwriter bridges that gap. We make sure that what flows from your pen, or comes out of your mouth, is as close as possible to the truth that resides in your brain. 

To reduce jargon and the potential for misunderstanding
The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once famously wrote, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”

Sometimes you can be too close to your own work. The danger of being so close is that sometimes, even without consciously realising it, you can use jargon or acronyms – which might fly over the head of an audience, or send them to sleep.

Speechwriters can’t afford to make those assumptions. We don’t know all the details. And we never assume that the audience does either. That’s why every good speechwriter uses only as much complicated language as they absolutely need, and not one word more. The result is a stronger, more persuasive, more memorable speech.

Ego/vanity
Hey, it’s nice to be important enough to need a speechwriter! Don’t ignore that feeling of pride.

There is so much that a good speechwriter can provide. Far from being a frivolous extra, they can be the essential final ingredient that brings everything together, delivers a return on investment, and transforms a good day into a truly memorable one.