Even the most polished executive speaker or the most committed career speechwriter sometimes has to wonder: What's it worth to the organization to be out there on the
podium?
Executive time is costly, and so is travel. Then there's the cost of preparing the speech or presentation, including audiovisual or video materials. What might seem like a low-
cost opportunity to reach a live audience (and media) can actually involve significant costs.
Tools and methods for determining a return on that investment can be found in a new Institute for Public Relations paper, "Measuring the Effectiveness of Speaker Programs." The
authors, Marianne Eisenmann (Chandler Chicco Agency) and Katie Paine (KDPaine & Partners), are members of the Commission on PR Measurement & Evaluation.
The starting point: set clear objectives. You have to know what you want to achieve in order to line up the right speaker, for the right event, with the right messages. Maybe a
speech is essentially a sales opportunity, with an audience full of potential customers or business partners. Maybe it's a chance to showcase your company's leadership in areas
crucial to corporate reputation.
A clear objective may be the difference between being able to say "our executives gave six speeches" versus "we accomplished all objectives by reaching 3,000 buyers in our
market, yielding 200 identified sales leads and trade media coverage that delivered our policy message to more than 30,000 managers in the retail industry."
Next, you need to know the audience you want and the audience you're getting. Conference organizers make a lot of claims. By asking pointed questions and reviewing attendance
lists from prior years, you can have more confidence that the likely audience is really a valued target for your organization. Before you accept is also the time to negotiate
access to attendee lists, including contact details, for follow up.
Look at how the event will be promoted and whether any media will attend. If your speaker has high visibility in the marketing materials, this can provide targeted exposure
long before the event takes place, and to a much wider audience than the event itself may draw. The same holds true for media coverage that includes an interview with or quote
from your executive.
Prepare the speech based on carefully considered key messages. A speech should not be a blatant sales pitch, but case studies and illustrations can showcase your organization
and a thoughtful executive.
Finally, collect audience feedback, perhaps by leaving a questionnaire on every chair with no more than six multiple-choice questions to determine whether the audience heard
and believed your messages. Invite attendees to leave business cards if they would like further information (about new research or a white paper mentioned in the speech, for
example).
Having gathered this kind of data and follow-up information, Eisenmann and Paine offer a variety of methods for calculating impact.
1. Cost per minute spent with a prospect allows comparison against other ways of reaching potential customers. E.g., if it costs a pharmaceutical company $300 to get a sales
person into a doctor's office for five minutes, that's 60 bucks a minute. If, instead, you have 60 minutes with an audience of 100 doctors, that might be more efficient (and you
have a much higher level spokesperson).
2. Opportunity to see/hear a key message is calculated by multiplying the number of key messages in the speech by the size of the audience. You can then divide the all-in costs
by opportunities to see/hear to derive another comparative efficiency measure.
3. Cost per opportunity to see/hear in media coverage. If your spokesperson gets quoted in The Wall Street Journal and the article contains a key message, that would mean
nearly two million opportunities to see/hear a key message.
4. Track new business inquiries by keeping a list of potential customers who have attended speaking programs, and review the results regularly with your sales/marketing
counterparts. You can't claim full credit, but you'll certainly demonstrate the role of speaker programs in reaching the right audiences with compelling business messages.
5. Intangible impact may be harder to measure, but it is real and important. Any prestigious event - where your executive is "in good company" in terms of other speakers and
attendees - can be used to raise the profile and reputation of your organization and demonstrate leadership in the field.
The authors conclude, "There is no silver bullet for measuring the effectiveness of speaking opportunities. However, these are important factors that will help you get it right
from the start."
CONTACT:
Frank Ovaitt is the president and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. He can be reached at [email protected].