One Audience, Many Roles – The Challenges of Navigating a Complex Audience

“You need to customize your keynote” is common advice for speakers, but customization starts with something much simpler: Who is actually going to be in the audience? It sounds obvious, but it is one of the most important questions a speaker can ask. A complex audience might include executives and administrative professionals, leaders and individual contributors, national sales leaders and frontline reps, or owners of small businesses alongside executives from billion-dollar organizations. You cannot get the message right if you don’t know who the message is for.

Even something seemingly straightforward like “customer experience” can mean different things depending on who’s listening. One attendee may immediately think about the external customer buying their product, while another may be responsible for serving internal customers within their own organization. Whenever content can reasonably be interpreted in two different ways, I think it’s important for a speaker to make that distinction. Sometimes it can be as simple as saying, “For those of you who lead teams…” and then later, “For the individual sales reps in the room…” The core lesson may be the same, but the application can be very different.

The best speakers dig deeper during their preparation call. “Tell me who’s in the audience” is usually just the beginning. They want to understand job functions, levels of responsibility, company sizes, challenges and how different groups might interpret the subject matter. A good speakers bureau agent should have already provided the speaker with a solid audience profile well before that call. The preparation call gives the meeting planner an opportunity to put that audience profile into their own words and gives the speaker the chance to ask follow-up questions.

Stories are particularly powerful when speaking to a complex audience. A speaker who tells stories about organizations of different sizes, people in different roles and challenges at different levels gives audience members more opportunities to see themselves in the message. Not every example has to apply perfectly to every person in the room. By varying the examples, however, you increase the likelihood that each attendee will eventually hear something and think, “This speaker is talking directly to me.” This is especially important for business speakers covering topics like leadership, sales, customer experience and strategy, where application can vary dramatically based on someone’s role.

Meeting planners and speakers both have a responsibility to make this happen. Whenever possible, I like to establish an audience profile early in the booking process and even include it in the speaker agreement. It may not be 100 percent descriptive at that point, but it creates a good starting point. Then, once the planning call takes place, typically about 30 days before the engagement, the speaker should have everything needed to properly tailor the presentation.

My advice to speakers is simple: Don’t build your slide deck before you know who you’re speaking to.