How do you end your story with a strong call to action or takeaway?

This is an under-rated aspect of pitch decks that deserves attention! The ending / final slide of a deck is the last thing that the audience will see and often this slide remains up while Q&A sessions go on, so it's important to make good use of it. Many pitch decks that I see end with a 'Thank you!' or simply contact details, which is a tragic waste of opportunity. Use this real estate to show an call to action and consider combining with an impactful image to so your audience knows just what to do next and leaves with a lasting impression.

Never, ever, not ever end with "Thank you!". That makes your audience think your interaction is over and that is the least you want. In fact, that's where your main act should begin.

Endings matter because they leave a lasting impression and shape the overall impact of a story or communication. A strong ending can reinforce key messages, evoke emotion, and prompt action. It provides closure and ensures that the audience walks away with a clear takeaway. Additionally, an effective ending can leave a memorable and meaningful impression, influencing how the audience perceives and remembers the content. Therefore, crafting impactful endings is essential for ensuring that the intended message resonates and drives the desired response.

The closing is the final and most crucial part of your pitch. It is where you summarize your main points, restate value proposition, and persuade the audience to take action. A strong closing should leave a lasting impression on the audience and make them want to learn more. Storytelling can evoke emotions, making it a powerful tool for creating a call-to-action. Crafting a compelling call-to-action via storytelling involves weaving a narrative that resonates, motivates, and guides the audience towards action.

Balancing the importance of endings with spontaneity involves understanding their impact while remaining adaptable. Recognize that a strong conclusion reinforces your message and leaves a lasting impression, but be ready to adjust based on the audience’s reactions and engagement levels.

During pitch trainings I see a lot of startup founders rather confused, because most of them associate CTA only with fundraising ask, i.e., "we are fundraising for 1M eur this spring". And they often ask - should I have a CTA if we are not fundraising. My approach is that it always makes sense to have a CTA. If audience listened to you, why not ask them something in return. Apart from fundraising your CTA could be "let's book a meeting" + a QR code for contacting you. "we are looking for mentors/customers/contacts in a field X". If you have a functional product, your CTA could be a special offer, discount code, opportunity to beta test it and you just have to figure out the easiest way for audience to contact you or start using it.

I think you should build up the story. Paint the picture! You are here now to raise X capital, what will you do with that money, whats your go-to-market strategy and what's the financial outcome in approximately 5 years. Then it is interesting, they are hooked and now it is time for your great ending. If you get the opportunity to pitch to investors don't ask them to be you customers or check out your product, or ask them to refer you to their friends - NO If you are pitching to investors - the CTA should always be that you want to raise money. Maybe not right now - but there will always be other rounds. Invite them to be part of your journey and tell them how they can be part of a great journey towards the even greater vision.

What is your Call-to-action? Say it aloud in 1 sentence. Listen to your response. How would that sound to someone who is listening to your pitch the first time? Let me make it simple. Your CTA is your goal for your pitch. What are you looking for the audience to do after listening to you? Even if it’s as simple as understanding tour sharing - that is a CTA. For startups, they’d ask for $ in return for equity. That’s a CTA. For client-facing executives, they’d ask for agreement on their proposal. That’s a CTA. So what is it that you wish for the audience to take action on after your pitch? Sum it up in a single sentence …

Crafting a compelling call to action involves using direct and specific language, action-oriented phrases, highlighting benefits, creating a sense of urgency, ensuring visibility, tailoring to the audience, and continuous testing for improvement. By being specific, using action-oriented language, and highlighting benefits, I can prompt immediate action and drive engagement effectively.

Think about what you want them to do. In your fantasies, they sign checks on the spot. The next best thing, they contact you for due diligence. So you might be tempted to say the Call to Action should be they reach out. Some variation of "Let's talk" is slightly better than thanking them for their time, but not by far. What you're after is the value they get out of talking with you. Answer that question and formulate a Call to Value based on it. If it sounds like you're after formulating a unique value prop, is because that's what the task actually is.

In the context of an investor pitch, the major takeaways you should ideally be leaving investors with are 1) what you / your solution do 2) what makes you a not-to-be-missed investment opportunity. These takeaways can be delivered 1) directly - as in, information provided through text, visuals, or your explained by you or 2) indirectly - for the investor audience to read between the lines, infer, notice, or otherwise figure out for themselves. Most pitches focus entirely on direct delivery of takeaways, but indirect delivery is extremely powerful. Indirect delivery is sometimes as easy as 'show, don't tell', but other times it takes an intimate understanding of your audience, storytelling techniques ,and meticulous planning to use well.

Your absolute takeaway is your unique value proposition. If you can land that, you win. Which in the context of the deck means you get a next conversation that paves the way for action.

Delivering a takeaway with spontaneity involves summarizing key points effectively while leaving room for genuine, impromptu insights. Ensure your main message is clear, but be ready to adapt your delivery based on the audience’s responses and questions, keeping it impactful and relevant.

Combining a CTA and a takeaway while staying spontaneous means preparing a cohesive, compelling conclusion that drives action and reinforces key points. Be flexible in your delivery, adapting to the audience’s reactions to maintain engagement and effectiveness.

Consider ending with a question relating to their pain point. And also consider 'if not this then what, and if not now then when'.

Write down all the important inferences you can make from your pitch, check if they all contribute to or strengthen your ending. If not, try to analyze 'why' of your story. Be smart about clearly stating what you have but don't give away all at once. Always keep something extra for your ending. In a good pitch, the ending always sticks with the reader. A short sentence of data fact strengthening your argument goes a long way; readers often quote the 'data' as they know it to be true and this builds the trust of reader at the end of the story. But of course, double-check your sources while doing that.

Testing your ending while being spontaneous involves rehearsing different conclusions and gathering feedback, but staying open to impromptu adjustments. Evaluate audience responses and be prepared to tweak your ending on the fly to ensure it resonates and achieves your desired impact.

Some of the winning pitched I helped craft made a lasting impact. And it was done with the final moments in front of audiences. Think of it this way - your audience may not be paying attention to you the entire time. They may have seen a few other pitches before yours. Or they're not getting what you're pitching. Make them feel it. How will people's lives be different with what you're offering? Where will be the biggest change that can be publicly seen? How will the typical world which we are all familiar with, look unfamiliar to us? In the simplest of words, the most concise way - your pitch ending is the beginning of a business conversation.

A few things I've found helpful are: -Be consistent with the intent of your story. -Always remember, you end will look a lot different than you've imagined as you'll keep gaining insights or more viewpoint throughout your writing and editing. -Don't panic if the end doesn't fit at first, revisit the structure of your story, note how its progression, then try to summarize smartly, adding something extra. This could be an example or experience (reassurance), adding rhetorical elements (eloquence), taking away what you've established above and explaining why it won't work out entirely (surprise element). -Give away less in first para of intro but more in the first para of conclusion (meaning you've given your clear opinion about the subject).

Improving your ending while maintaining spontaneity requires continuous refinement based on feedback and experience. Analyze what works and what doesn’t, and be ready to implement changes in real time, ensuring your conclusion is consistently strong and effective.

If I talk in terms of a SaaS landing page or lead funnel, I usually use Call to actions towards the end. If we want the potential customer to perform an action like filling a lead form to sign up, or call directly or engage via chat, we integrate more than CTA in the whole page.