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how to write the executive summary that wins more business let's look at how to do that and let's look at the kind of mistakes to avoid when the writing executive summary because I think for a lot of people getting started it's hard to tell the difference between the executive summary and the introduction you know where did it match where they overlap how to format things differently or approaches to take so we're going to cover all of that in this tutorial okay there's three kind of goals you have in the executive summary itself the first is to structure it in a logical manner what they meet what we mean here is that the the flow of the executive summaries I say it's a one-pager that it moves in a kind of coherent logical way from the start to the end however at the same time you need to make sure that at the very end of the summary that it bridges into the introduction in a logical way and we'll discuss how to do that soon the next thing is to be interesting and of course to build trust and credibility by interesting what we mean is that you know if you think of our executive summary is kind of like a like a pre-sales document for your business plan or for your report or for your proposal it needs to get the reader kind of you know enthusiastic about what you're talking about I do a lot of work with our proposal development and I often evaluating proposals by the way for the government and I often find that a lot of the executive summaries are are kind of almost border plays a very generic very flat they don't reflect any kind of enthusiasm for the writer and you know if you don't put the enthusiasm into into creating the documents than me as the evaluator is unlikely to feel much much interest in it the other thing to use to build trust and credibility and what we mean here is that this is your chance to to highlight that a person reading it that you have say our track record on something or you've some unique or different angle that makes what's coming next in the main documents worth their while to read so think of it as a kind of a pre-sales document a one-pager and you'd begin to get closer there now one way of looking at the difference between the executive summary and the introductions the executive summary starts big at the large kind of parts of your document and works down to smaller aspects of the document where the introduction starts small and then for the rest of the document it works out from there so they're both coming in different ways and you know in different tutorials on the side will will give you kind of different tactics different ways to to help you to write both of those so you're starting the executive from the bigger picture and working your way down and the introduction starts with the smaller things and then worked its way out okay the executive summary sells the main main document and again what that means is that if you think about it if you if you ripped out the executive summary just put it on the table and so does a kind of a standalone sales document that's really its purpose it's kind of to say to the the person reading it hey read this if it's efficiently interesting then go ahead and read my proposal of my grant application my studies this is my pre-sales document so to speak okay and who needs it when do I need to write it it covers a broad spectrum and for the most part we're going to talk about business development business planning proposal development technology but also applies to academic studies to environmental studies but essentially for what we're talking about its business planning how you frame the concept in your business plan and for grant applications and proposals where you want to justify the investment you're looking for so that's where we're kind of coming from here then as regards to reader I mean the term executive summary implies its executives but it's not really it's anybody in the decision-making role and that's really the way to think about it when you're writing the document or starts it's a summary think about how is this going to help the reader make a decision and sometimes that decision is simply too to push a further up the chain and kind of say to their superior hey I've read this application or this you know proposal I suggest we should discussed it with this guy we should talk to him bring him in whoever might be but again the key thing is that it's someone in a decision-making role I put in the term experts here and experts covers a broad spectrum and why I've said not technicals what I mean here is that this isn't a place to get into the nitty-gritty of Technology you don't want to try to show off very very technical terms that possibly exclude people it's okay to refer to them or to - to highlight something but be sensitive to the fact that in general the people reading it are probably more the people who are in control of the purse strings rather than making the decisions say - to buy something which comes next and the third point then is journalists they might be you say interested in your business plan or if you even and report something like that so you need to structure it so that they're also stimulated and interested to read the rest of your document okay right exactly summary after the main document what we mean here is that it's premature to write it at the start now I know it does come at the start for the document but really to think about it it's only when you've written your whole proposal or you've written the grant application and you understood you know so you understand it in depth then you have the kind of give the ammunition so to speak to go ahead and and to shape your executive summary it's very it's almost impossible to do the other way around you can but I think you're going to find you've created strange beasts and you'll probably end up revising it many times so wait leave the whole document written let aside let it says and then start writing your executive summary okay a few different tips now as it suggests you're going to summarize the key points here and what we mean is that if you think of your grant application or business plan having say five structures or sorry five main sections in it you try to murder that structure so that the person reading the executive can gonna go over the second paragraph is talking about the proposed solution or the methods that they've used and they can find that easily in the main document so don't be too smart don't try to you know create an e there's an accepted format for executive summaries and if you follow that you put the reader as you know will feel relaxed they'll be able to map what's in the summary - what's in the main document the next thing is don't copy the introduction and that really goes back to a lot of the arm proposal development work that I see where you know people are literally copying and pasting out of the introduction into the executive summary just to fill up the page and you know it smacks of laziness it also demonstrates that you you don't have the skills that are aware of it all - - to position your overall products your idea your concept in a way that citizen for the readers and the third point is - you know it isn't it isn't a place to make direct sales pitches however if you structure it in a certain way you stimulate the interests of the person to read the documents so indirectly it becomes own a mechanism for creating sales okay another guards murmuring the main document again what are those things that especially for for proposal development you know proposals often have a very fixed format about the way it should be structured and laid out and if you're applying to government documents it's best to to mirror that and accept a summary you don't need to say chapter one two and three and so forth but you know use the same formats the same headings so just a commonality between both of them okay and as always generation to us as you do here ISM if you're not interested in in what you're writing the person reading is reading once you're the same thing okay establish Authority that's the other thing I mean when you're writing it you're trying to say look you know we are the people who can build this product or we are the people who believe we've found a way to resolve this issue and you you know if you have people on board who are kind of experts in certain areas or who have experience in certain areas this is your chance to you to highlight that you don't need to you know give their CV informational so on and so forth but you do want to kind of you know highlight the things that you've done so that you know in other words you don't want to say that you have three people with PhDs on your team halfway through the document that the person will ever find it so if you have those on your team you're lucky enough to do that mention that in the executive summary in a certain way weave it into the narrative so look for ways to establish your authority look for ways to demonstrate you know you're worth talking to okay a few writing tips when we say avoid emotional language we meal you know what we're saying is it's avoid something overly salesy avoid kind of the typical cliches you find a lot of sales documents they kind of don't waffle that kind of creates all this you know kind of pollution basically in content the same wish with jargon and cliches you know you're trying to distill this down to one page you should really really really make a very lean very simple short sentences direct to the point things like jargon cliches all that stuff it all if you have if those are left in the executive summary it just shows the reader that you haven't made the effort to you consider there you know what they're looking for and you haven't looked for ways to to excite them basically as a guard standing over everything if you make a claim in the executive summary whatever that may be like for example you said their research studies have found something you need two quotas you need to show where the source for those research findings are you can't make wild claims did you can't substantiate so you can by the way but if you're challenged on them either you're in trouble and keep one idea per paragraph that's a really good way of structuring the summary so if you have five paragraphs in it one idea per per paragraph and that gives you a nice simple way for the reader to just scan through it and to identify the key points and move kind of down down the page so one idea of a paragraph don't mix things up subheadings are a nice way to break up the flow of the documents you don't want to have one large block of text where the reader you know it's a real struggle to try and pull out what the what are talking about use subheadings to break up the the presentation of documents or is a summary oh my gosh where does it go it goes after table of contents not before it and the idea is that it kind of it leads into the introduction so it's a one or a two pager and the idea is that you you want the reader you generate interest you begin to kind of you know highlight two or three points that you think will makes it worth their while to read it but then you have to find a way at the end of the DECA summary to link it or two bridges into the introductions so they're kind of there's a nice kind of connection from from one section to the other and it flows naturally I can tie the points that it's for decision-makers don't think of it exclusive in terms of people who are executives it's anybody who's going to be making a decision related to your documents okay how its structured let's try to provide some context and others what we mean by this is that if you're writing say for a grant application you know you can talk about why you're interested in this area or why you think now is the time to invest in this and that helps orient to read or what they kind of go oh oh now I get it the reasons are applying for this or the reader reasons where they want investment for this is because of this situation or this current kind of dilemma so orientating the reader gives them a kind of a center of gravity and to know from here on out now we're going to go down this road here other guards define the scope what's in what I mean is a if you're doing something of a scientific or technical nature you may want to state up front that what you're writing about a new report for example excludes certain areas like they're not within the parameters of your document explain the approach which means that if you're doing say your research or if you're doing some kind of like a marketing plan and you've done you know different ways to investigates a potential market explain how you got there explain the methodology explain the tools the system the audience and so on and then try to to distill it into like a very simple one or two sentences that the reader can get straight away and really the acid test of your executive summary is that the reader should be able to explain to someone else in one sentence what you're what you're writing about that's really what it comes down to the other thing then is like what are you recommending so if you're writing executive summary saying or in response to an RFP you have to say that you're recommending say this type of for example is some content management solution and the reason you're doing it you know the justification is that based on these findings you found these cost savings your experience so you have to stand over what you're recommending the final point is that it stands alone and what I mean is that your executive summary isn't part of the main document it isn't part of the report it's kind of you know it comes before isn't it in a sense that is prepended to the actual document itself and if you think in those terms you can't go wrong this is standalone documents one or two pages it's the sales document for the main main one and write it in those terms okay like I said earlier on it goes from the bigger picture down to the smaller points whereas the introduction that works all the way around exactly right independently of the main documents and you know I think that really helps you then later on when you're trying to separate in your mind what should go into the executive summary like if you imagine the main doc wasn't written fine now how could I distill it into one page what are two pages is fine the main thing is that after the person has read it can they make a decision that's really what comes down to so if you need two pages to try to influence them to try to persuade them to read the document to find any two pages and in some cases like I've seen documents that say three or four hundred pages like a very very large say United Nations reports and they often go to four or five pages because it has to you can capture it in one page so just use common sense really let's get into some writing tactics now other guards do document itself use short sentences try to connect the ideas together so there's you know just a natural flow from one idea to the next and you know you're trying to you're trying to generate interest with each one so don't don't don't repeat things be very very careful if you're if you're writing it in different drafts that you don't end up using the same phrases saying the first paragraph for the four to the third is easy to do it after you're stopping and starting so be careful that way be inclusive means that if you if you use very specific terminology feels very industry jargon that would be kind of that certain technical people would know by doing so you're excluding others yes so try to include people in in the conversation into dialogue and a service way to do that is use simple everyday ordinary English don't try to be smart short words and little flow and other guards watched at home in the sense don't be too buddy-buddy the people are talking to you you know they do have the authority to give you the yea or nay for what you're looking for so just be sensitive to that as well okay as regards the structure of the paragraphs use short strokes sorry short paragraphs to tree lines is fine one idea per paragraph and make it scannable and what I mean this is that you know the person reading it is probably in a hurry they're not gonna read it with the same intensity that you've written that so writers so that they can they can pull out and identify very very quickly at a glance what you're talking about and if you write it in the correct way you generate the enthusiasm then yes they'll go through the main document and begin to read it again don't be clever clever use the same fonts font families as the main report I'd recommend you use size twelve because the last thing you want is people having to strain to read the executive summary so you can possibly use even a larger font than the main document and the advantage of double spacing is that it just it increases the readability it makes it easier for D on the person's read it and if you feel that possibly the person reading it say are you know of a certain age profile you might want to be more forgiving larger font easy to read you know a lot how do you of course you know other guards the reviewing if you think about it if you get the executive summary wrong everything else you've written doesn't get a chance so you really really want to put you know much more time into writing it than then the one or two pages would seem to you know you think of requires and one way I go about you know making sure that if it reads well is that I printed out I read it aloud and try and pick up where it jars where it doesn't sound authentic where I feel that you know something isn't quite convincing or where I'll find I have to read it two or three times together I started by reading it aloud that's actually that comes true and again try to reduce the word calm keep cutting it back putting it back all the time but don't cut it back on so that's so tight that becomes also can abstract you're just trying to cut out the waffle trying to avoid repeating yourself and you're trying to remove things that you know that they already know as you said earlier on no one's gonna read your business plan if the executive summary isn't you know inspiring if doesn't encourages you to generate interest so you really have to work a lot arrived from another angle it's a bit like the you know the headline to a blog post or an article it really has to kind of capture the yin to readers interest and if you make the effort to do it right then you lead them into your your main document how to test that it works the way I do it is I try to print it out give it to someone who has nothing to do with the project you know give it to some and by the way don't give it to a friend because a friend will say it's great there's kind of going to keep you on side trying to find someone who's not included in the project ask them if possible to read it aloud if they'll meet you halfway and then kind of say to them well you know do you get it would you buy it does it sound interesting if they say yes it's fine can ask them can they explain it in like in one sentence what is it you're talking about but what's the one thing that comes through and if they can't you they got a problem I mean the other thing about the exact summer is that expect to write it at least three or four times you know right at once leave it alone come back again write it again and keep coming out in waves and ways and each time you do you just seal it down and it keeps proving so don't expect to do it right the first time give yourself at least two or three different goals to get it right several drafts look for ways to make it interesting but not too salesy making connections means you're trying to connect with the person reading it so you're trying to find something that you know triggers things emotionally then just kind of go oh that sounds interesting I could no I must look into that and one we can do that is that you can back it up with facts statistics things that demonstrate that you've really looked into this area here that you really are very knowledgeable and that you just something in your document whereby start something involving that if they don't read it then possibly they're missing out on something so all those little ways of kind of teasing them to read the main document you need to think about and revised in ways don't expect to write at once and then to rise get over was expected through several revisions and but it's worth the effort because if you get arrived then the person will read your business plan they will read your proposal or grant application and keep pushing towards the fitting and finishing line so that's pretty much it if that was of interest to you there's other videos on the website along the same kind of on the same area and we've a newsletter on the website it's all good stuff tweet like a subscribe it's all appreciated that's it that's the luck okay bye bye