What is an executive summary?
Is it really just a wrap-up of the contents of an entire report or proposal?
Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Before writing one, the first question relates to its purpose.
Every document has an overarching purpose and a writer must know the purpose in order to achieve it well. If you are responding to an RFP or proposing to sell services to a client, then the purpose of your document, and thus of your executive summary, is to persuade, even if you are also presenting lots of information.
So in these cases the executive summary is really intended to persuade the reader of the validity or desirability of the main points of the rest of the document. However, if you are writing an internal report to a trusted executive, then the purpose of the document might be simply to inform him or her of a situation or set of options and let the boss make the decision.
In the Worktalk Business Writing trainings, I explain that the Three Ps: purpose, person, and point, are like the DNA of a document. The executive summary should reflect this essential information, encapsulating the purpose, the reader’s needs and interests, and the main point in a way that grips the reader’s attention.
A few years ago, writing teacher John Clayton wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review Management Communication Letter. His comments are primarily focused on situations of selling or persuading. “Above all, the executive summary must demonstrate a clear understanding of the potential client’s needs.” If the summary is written to persuade, it should contain the likely benefits to the organization that will come from accepting your proposal.
In a comment that pertains to both persuasive and informative situations, Clayton adds, “A strong executive summary is crafted with the audience firmly in mind: busy executives interested in bottom-line deliverables, not details.” Executives are looking for key words, benefits, and price. Since the executive may only read the first couple of paragraphs, these sections should contain your most crucial information.
Clayton’s article goes on to note three key elements of a successful persuasive executive summary:
- Establish the need or problem. He quotes Tom Sant of Cincinnati-based Sant Corporation, who says, ‘You need to convince them that this is a problem worth doing something about. Your biggest competitor may be that they do nothing, that they spend this money on something else.
- Recommend the solution and explain its value. Be sure that you are unambiguous about what you will do and how it will benefit the organization.
- Provide substantiation. Give the key reasons why your company is the right company to deliver the solution. Keep the focus on the customer, not on your company. Sant recommends using the customer’s name three times as often as your company’s name.
In the remainder of the article, Clayton’s points again are relevant to both persuasive and informative summaries. He emphasizes the importance of using crisp, clear formatting, with bullets and headlines as appropriate. He adds that you should always get a fresh pair of eyes to look at the summary and make sure that it contains no errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation. He ends by reminding readers to keep the summary a summary; it should be only a few pages long.
In short, the executive summary should be carefully targeted to the purpose of the entire document and to the needs and nature of the busy executives who will read it. Your readers might only see the beginning of the summary, so make the opening count. Write clearly and keep a steadfast focus on the business situation and the ways your report or proposal will serve the goals of the business. Then you may be rewarded when executives read, and hopefully act on, the ideas you have presented.
© 2011 Elizabeth Danziger
Want to learn more about the Three Ps and the Worktalk writing trainings? Contact lizd@worktalk.com.