5 Powerful Ways to Close a Presentation

By Scott Schwertly on July 29, 2013 | 32 Comments

We live in a world of judges: You will be judged by each and every person during
your next presentation.

Sound intimidating? It should be. No one ever said giving presentations is easy. So,
how do you minimize the level of judgment that will be placed upon you?

For starters, you need to know how to open your presentation with confidence and
purpose. Last week, I offered up 5 Powerful Ways to Open a Presentation. This
week, I will help you with your close.

Your close is just as important as your open — it’s your lasting impression on your
audience, your final words of wisdom. Your open grabs people’s attention; your
close leaves them in awe. Here are five powerful ways to do that:

1. Circle Back Around

I love films that provide me with a sense of closure. One movie that comes to mind is
Mel Gibson’s film, Apocalypto, a tale about a warrior fleeing possible death from the
Mayans in the deep recesses of the jungle. What makes this movie beautiful is that it
starts with the cameras entering the jungle and ends with the camera exiting the
jungle, providing a complete sense of closure. As an audience member you
completely understand that the adventure is over for now.

2. Build Up to Something

Since we are taking some inspiration from Hollywood in this post, make sure you
take a lesson from M. Night Shyamalan, director of The Sixth Sense: Have a climatic
ending! Create that “I had no idea… ” experience.

3. Repeat the Important Stuff

Author Daniel Pink often states that presentations are all about brevity, levity and
repetition. I want to focus on the latter. If you are making a handful of significant
points throughout your talk, use your ending to remind your audience of those items.

4. Have a Call to Action

I have seen one too many presentations where the presenter never invites the
audience to do something with the new information that was just presented.
Audiences are always thinking – “What’s the next step?” Download a PDF? Buy a
book? Contact someone? The audience has just invested 30, 60, or 90 minutes
looking for a value-add, so make sure you provide purpose to your talk by creating a
compelling call to action.

5. Inspire

Every great journey begins with a single step. Unfortunately, most people aren’t
willing to even take that action. If you find it challenging to do any of the above, then
seek to create inspiration. Every human being loves a good “pick me up,” so if you
can encourage your audience to take that first step, you have added more benefit than
you can possibly imagine.

Are you going to be judged during your next presentation? Sure thing. Should you be
nervous? You bet. Are you going to look amazing embracing these principles? Oh
yeah…you’ve got this covered.

Scott Schwertly is the author of How to Be a Presentation God and CEO of Ethos3,

a Nashville, TN-based presentation boutique providing professional presentation
design and training for national and international clients, ranging from Fortune 500
companies to branded individuals like Guy Kawasaki.