Tuesday, May 03, 2005
I Still Get A Thrill....
Well, maybe a thrill overstates the case.
Let's call it a little adrenaline rush, a charge....a pleasing moment.....it happens whenever I hear one of "my" lines quoted back to me in an evening news sound bite - or used at a different event in a different context.
It is a fact of life that freelance speech writers figuratively and metaphorically work in the back rooms of commerce and politics. Unlike their in- house counterparts, they will rarely get public acknowledgement of their efforts, so they better like the work for its own sake.
What's not to like?
You get to put words in other peoples' mouths.
You get to share in their professional passions.
You get to research all sorts of fascinating topics and by the time you are sick of any one subject, the job is over and the next assignment comes along.
And you often get to write the first articulation of public and corporate policy. And in so doing shape it. Now that is a thrill.
Racing to the Bottom....
Racing to the bottom.....
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Those of you who get my Fearless Freelancing newsletter read in the latest issue the comments I made about the dangers for freelance writers if their service can be commodified or commoditized. I have posted those comments on my BlogWrite blog site. The short story is that if your writing can be digitized - it can be outsourced. For the past decade this has worked to the freelancer's advantage. But now that the wired world has become more wired in a broadband sense - can anybody do what we do? (For a fascinating read on this topic I recommend to read Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat: A Short History of the Twenty-First Century.")
I do nothing but write speeches. And there is no doubt that even in a specialty niche like this - speeches can be commoditized. In fact they already have been. You can buy a pre-packaged 5 minute wedding speech on the Internet for $14.95
You can even find pretty good speech writers who will race to the bottom by offering cut rate services on their web sites.
They are quite mad.
If there is one thing speech clients don't appreciate is off-the-rack cheap.
Serious clients want personalized one-of-a-kind speeches that are unique to them. Price isn't their issue. It's time and substance. They want exclusivity and for that they are willing to pay a lot more money.
So make sure your services are so exclusive that no matter what the technology can do, no one can replicate what you offer. Then the digitizers and bottom feeders represent no threat to you at all.
Doing the Dance
Doing the Dance......
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If you are a freelance speech writer you have to market your services. This is a relatively simple task - although not necessarily an easy one. The simplicity lies in the fact that prospective clients usually want to know one thing. They want to know if they can trust you. Can they trust you not to put words in their mouths that will make them look foolish? Can they trust you with their personal secrets? Can they trust you to figure out internal politics without getting ensnared by them? Can they trust you to be absolutely reliable on matters of corporate confidentiality and privacy?
Well, ok - that's more than one thing. But they all involve trust. Clients are - after all - putting their professional lives in your hands.
That's why potential new clients - or their communications staff - rarely ask to see speech samples. Or ask you about your track record. If you have got in the front door, they have already checked out your credentials from other sources. But once they let you in, the real dance begins.
To trust you, they need to see the whites of your eyes. Literally. They want to meet you in person. Then it's a little bit like going on a blind date. You may get 20 minutes to make your pitch but in fact clients make up their minds within the first two minutes. And if you are at all intuitive, you too will know if you have made a connection very quickly. The rest is all after-play.
The irony is - if they hire - you will probably only get one more dance with them. It might be a long one as you discuss message and motive for the speech. But after that, the chances of you meeting with the speaker again until rehearsal - if at all - may be remote.
And when you competitively bid on speech work - as is usually the case when you go after long term contract work - then you will have to get used to the idea of often never getting to meet some of your clients who may be half a world away. For venues you will never see. For voices you may never hear.
It's a very interesting challenge. A subject for another day.
