The segment of a speech or presentation that gets the least attention from the speaker when they are preparing is …the closing.
This makes sense! The speaker has created material and practiced it, massaged their turns of phrase and designed gorgeous slides, for 98% of the presentation. They have great points! They are telling stories! Their charts look awesome! This thing is ready to go!
The final twenty seconds, when they are bringing the talk in for a landing, tells me everything about how a speaker prepared. Here is what I see most often (and I bet you do, too):
- The Fall Off A Cliff: Well, that’s about it. Thank you and I’ll take any questions now.
- The Doomed Call to Action: Thank you! As you can see, this slide has my website. Feel free to get in touch.
- The Repetitive Recapper: So, just to recap everything I said in the last thirty minutes…
In the Fall Off a Cliff, the presenter did not think at all about how they were going to conclude their talk. In fact, the fact that the talk was over kind of surprised them and they had to figure out what to say on the fly.
The Doomed Call to Action speaker got the advice to make sure the audience knows what the call to action is. However, instead of moving the audience to action with their words, this speaker expects the audience to take extra steps to go to their website. This is a way to finish a talk, but it’s a missed opportunity to motivate the people who have committed their time to listen.
The Repetitive Recapper was a diligent 5-paragraph essay writer in high school and college. They know that repetition is important (it is), but they miss a chance to land the main point of their talk in a new way at the end of their speech. Instead, they run the risk of making the audience check out by repeating what they’re already said in their presentation. Additionally, they might compound this by adding a Fall Off a Cliff to the very end of their talk.
What can you do instead? Think clearly about what you want to leave the audience with. Literally, what are the last words you want them to hear you say? What’s the impact you want to have? How do you want them to feel about what you presented? If someone were to ask them, right after they leave, what your talk was about, what do you hope they would say?
The closing of your speech doesn’t have to be elaborate. Pick up the key theme of your talk, and share a final quote, short story, or meaningful data point. Let it land. Look around. Say thank you (and mean it). Leave.
