6 Ways To End Your Presentation

The ending of your speech is one of the most important parts of the presentation. It is the part people remember. It is the information that people take home with them. Psychologists talk about the rule of recency and people remember the most recent information they have heard. Therefore, it is important that you “end strong”, or “nail your ending”, or leave them with a “memorable message”.

There are many ways in which you can end a speech and here are 6 ways that in my view work. And remember the end of your speech can determine the overall success or failure of your presentation. Your end creates great impact and decides what people will walk away with, what they will remember, and what they will do next.

1. End with a summary.

This is a classic way to end your speech. Simply summarise and reiterate your 3 or 4 key points in the presentation, ensuring that they have this roadmap locked away in their memories. Or repeat and restate your core message and why it is so important to adopt this message as you end your speech.

2.  End with a call to action.

This an ending where you ask the audience to do something, vote with their feet, write a letter of protest, eat 2 fruit and 5 veg every day, or whatever it is that you want them to do. This is your call to action. Many people in their presentations present lots of information, persuasive data but don’t actually ask the audience to do something or to change as a result of what they have presented. They just stop speaking and hope the audience gets the message. So have a strong and clear call to action at the end of your speech.

3. End by closing a loop

A loop is a tool that is used by great speakers and often comedians. It is also called layering of the story. So you tell a story or give some information that makes sense. Then later on you add another layer or another chapter that adds a new dimension or greater understanding and creates those light bulb moments for your audience. With your ending, you can add just one last chapter or one last loop that creates a big “aha moment” and brings everything that you have said into a big take-home message or call to action.

You may recall the movie “The sixth sense” where this young child could see and speak with dead people. Concerned about this he had to see a child psychologist help him work through it. The end twist, or the closing of the loop that made the whole film make sense, was when it was finally discovered that the child psychologist played by Bruce Willis was dead. So the whole movie he had been talking and working with a ghost psychologist. This is closing the loop.

4. End with a memorable statement or strong quote.

This is the art of closing your presentation with an attention grabber an amazing quote or some other amazing information that helps people remember the information or the message. I remember someone reminding us that we must conserve our fresh water and if you take a bucket of water as being the entire water available on planet earth and take an eyedropper and remove one drop from that bucket, that is the volume of available freshwater for humans to consume on this planet. I remember that so well and I will remember that for the rest of my life.

5. End with the benefits to the audience

In marketing, we are always taught to sell things based on benefits and not based on features. People buy the benefits. So, ask yourself, “what are the end benefits of someone adopting my way of thinking”? How will they gain by following your message? If you are a financial planner and your message to young people is that they should consider contributing to superannuation as soon as they can, rather than hold off until they are earning the big money, you would need to look at the benefits of this strategy to your audience. The benefits can be that they achieve their goals quicker, or it can be that they eliminate some form of pain or problem, quicker. 

6. Solve the problem

A classic speech structure that can be used is Problem – Cause – Solution. So you would open with the problem and if I stick with a financial theme, a well-known problem is that 90% of Australians are going to retire with less money than they need to enjoy a comfortable retirement. The cause is lack of planning, and delaying contributions to your superannuation, and paying all your other bills first, leaving no money for your savings, living beyond our means …… etc.  The solution to this problem is these 3 easy steps – 1, 2 and 3. If you do 1, 2 and 3 you can ensure that you are in the 10% who retire and have the lifestyle and the income they deserve. And end and summarise with the solution to the problem.