The whole point of giving a presentation is resolution. We deliver to persuade and convince, which means providing enough pathos, ethos, and logos to give the audience reason to arrive at a definitive viewpoint on an issue, plan, product, service or approach.
Even so-called “thought leadership” presentations—presentations that are supposed to frame the context of large, inherently nebulous topics—should at least resolve the way those topics should be viewed and discussed. We advance our world view when we present, no matter how large or small the stakes may be. Anytime you do that, you’re hoping to bring the audience around to sharing that same world view on the topic at hand.
As much as presenters overlook the importance of a solid, entertaining introduction when they develop presentations, the conclusion is often worse. Most devote one, maybe two slides to the part of the presentation that, more than any other part of the deck, actually nets a result. It’s like a door-to-door salesman stopping by your house, telling you about all of the amazing things his cleaning solution can do for you, and then walking away. We chase the love of our life down from time to time, but no one chases the salesman down. If you want resolution, you have to close.
Just to be clear, this goes far beyond selling. Well, actually, it’s all about selling because anytime you’re trying to persuade, that’s what you’re up to. When you set out to put together a presentation for any purpose, you have to start with the end in mind. One of the first questions we ask when we work with clients on presentation content is, “What do you want ‘them’ to do after the last slide?” Call you? Buy something? Behave differently? Eat right? Whatever it is, you’ll never draft a narrative that gets you there if you don’t know where ‘there’ actually is.
Great presenters are empathic, and when you draft your presentations you have to be able to remove yourself from your own experience and beliefs if you want to close successfully. Start with the end—what you want them to do—and then back up to consider what their frame of reference is, what their preconceptions may be, and what sort of information, emotion, and experience you need to provide in order to guide them to the end.
And then, of course, comes the best part: always close with confidence knowing you crafted the message to arrive right on schedule and in the right place.
Question: What do you want ‘them’ to do as soon as you’re done presenting?
