Finish Your Presentation with a Super Punch!

This post will help you to learn the 17 different approaches to end your presentation in a professional and impressive way!

Are you worried about the ending of your presentation? 

Do not worry. Here is the solution.

The ending of the presentation is as important as how you begin your presentation. 

If you have a strong beginning but at the end of your presentation you get weak, what will be the feeling of your audience? Definitely you will not get strong feedback from your audience.

That is going to happen for sure. That is why you must have to end your presentation effectively.

#1 Call to action

You must know why you are giving a presentation to the people? There must be a point or important information that you want to share. You also want your audience to take action after getting information from you.

To inspire your audience to do something with your information, you really need to end your presentation effectively. If you will start your presentation with negative motivation, you will make even more impact on the audience. Or sharing shocking news and quotes will also have an impact on the audience. But you should tell them how bad things they could get if they do not take action. Then end it with a positive motivation by explaining to them how good things could happen if they take an action. 

You can also highlight this call to action by using the designs of your PowerPoint slides.

#2 Skip the Q&A at the end of your presentation

Give time to the question and answer session in your presentation but you should not do it at the end of the presentation. Usually, the Q and A sessions take a bit longer time and the questions may arise not relevant to the topic. There is a possibility of getting a question that may leave a negative impact on you or the audience. You as a presenter always want to finish your presentation with a high note or you want to end it with a note of your choice. 

You can end your presentation with a fresh mood if you are not having questions at the end of the presentation and the audience will leave the set on time having positive feedback.

#3 End your presentation with a rhetorical Question

Ask a rhetorical question from your audience at the end of the presentation. It will compel your audience to think about your presentation for a long period after it is over. An interesting question can convey your message and build emotions in the audience and it also leads to go for action. As the CEO and entrepreneur, Ric Elias use to give a great example of his near-death experience when his presentation comes to its end. He usually uses four very powerful rhetorical questions.

#4 Conclude your speech with a story

Sharing stories is an influential presentation tool and through story sharing, you can precisely bookend your presentation.

An emotional story can influence your audience as emotional listeners have the ability to retain more information. An emotional story can be of different kinds. It can be a thought-provoking story, funny or sad. But definitely works best to engage your audience.

Linking the story with the beginning and the ending of the presentation is a good way to get the attention of the audience throughout the presentation 

#5 The power of 3 for your conclusion

Summaries can be super boring but these are important for the presentations having huge data.

To keep your summary short, interesting, and most importantly memorable, use the power of 3. It is a good method that has been tried and tested by the presenters for a long time. 

The following are the few popular examples of the rule of 3:

• • • Winston Churchill says “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
    • According to General Patton “Blood, sweat and tear.”
    • Julius Caesar says “I came, I saw and I conquered.”
    • “Just Do It” – Nike slogan

#6 Come full circle at the end of your presentation

At the end of the presentation you need to refer to your opening message, it will give your audience a sense of completion. It is the best way to summarize your message and bookend the presentation. You can use it at the starting of the presentation in different ways:

1. 1. 1. Start the presentation with a question and answer it at the end of the presentation
      2. Begin your presentation by telling a story by either referring to it or finish the story at the end.
      3. Show the Powerful pictures or quote’s slide again at the end, it will work best.

#7 Demonstrate your product

A rule of thumb is a principle that says just show, do not tell. Like the saying ‘actions speak louder than words.’ It is the best way to finish your presentation with a practical demonstration. It will not only work for the clarification of the message but will make the presentation memorable for your audience as well.

It can also be a good way to add some fun to your presentation. Just like Ian Guage did in his speech on the Ig Nobel awards.

#8 End with an either/or scenario

It is also a good way to give a choice to your audience at the end of the presentation. It is a way to encourage your audience to think and comment on your presentation. It can be linked with the first tip of the ending presentation in this post that is a call to action.

For instance, you can also finish the presentation by saying something including the lines like, “we can do this or we can do nothing. The choice is yours.”

#9 End your presentation on a high note

It is up to you which method you want to choose to end the presentation but do finish it with great energy. If you yourself will not show any enthusiasm or passion for your topic you are presenting, no one else will feel energetic.

If you end the presentation with great energy, it will lift up the mood. It is important especially for those presentations which are on difficult subjects or convey some bad news.

You definitely don’t want to see it happen that the audience is leaving the hall saying or thinking, ‘well that was really depressing’.

Even if you are sharing very dark data, you need to try to finish the presentation with hope and on a high note.

#10 A sound bite

Do you know what a sound bite is?

It is like a slogan, a sort of phrase that wants attention. It will prove best if you will convert your presentation’s message into a short and attractive phrase. 

If you shall condense the central message of your presentation into a few words, they will be tweet-able and memorable for your audiences. Here we have a few awesome examples of sound-bite to end your presentation:

• • • Steve Jobs says “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
    • Author Steven Johnson says that chance favors the connected mind.

#11 End with a provocative question

Have you ever been in a presentation where you have stopped listening and found yourself thinking about your lunch or dreaming about something before the end of the presentation?

You have to make sure, your audience is with you till the end of the presentation.  Raise questions that will jolt your audience to come out of their comfort zone and challenging their minds.

#12 Use the title close technique

It is one of the useful methods to finish your presentation. You will use your main title of the presentation as the closing words of your presentation.

It will form a bookend to your whole presentation and it will help your audience to come in a full circle.

Concentrate on the above tip about coming full circle.

#13 A quick presentation recap

It is one of the common methods that when you are giving a presentation to the audience, first tell them the method.

You will tell them what you are going to say to them, say it and then tell them what you have shared with them.

Though it seems repetitive you can use it as a general framework and keep your presentations to the point and short.

No matter how interesting your presentation is but you still need to remind your audience what you have covered. Anyhow, do not use boring phrases like “to sum up” or “in conclusion”. Don’t do it, you are giving a presentation not writing an essay.

You can end it with a question, Such as “where you will be using it?” or “Do you know what does it mean?” 

Your summary must be interesting instead of dull and boring. You have to make a final PowerPoint slide to summarize your important points. You can use it as a final slide and leave it on the screen as you will be closing the statement of your presentation.

#14 End with a powerful quote

You cannot improve what has been said already before. You can use a relevant quote from a historical event or a recent successful personality, it can make your message memorable and credible to your audience.

You will have to select a good quote but it should not be too long and it must sum up your message clearly or your main points of the presentation.

It is a good idea to present the quote visually as the closing slide on your presentation but you can deliver the quote verbally too.

#15 End with a strong visual image

Visual content attracts the attention of the audience as much of the human brain processes visual images. A theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku says that pictures, videos, and images help us understand the universe.

Visuals play an important role to deliver the hard and fast powerful message. Visuals can be of any kind. They can be used to shock the audience and for humor and also used as a metaphor to explain and show your message. Like you may have watched Barry Schwartz using it in a TED talk.

#16 Close with a clear cut ending

This is an important part.

It would be really uncomfortable for the audience if the presenter does not know how he is going to end the presentation; instead of a proper ending, he or she just ends it awkwardly.

The audience will be in a confused state and might be thinking, ‘has the presentation completed? Should we clap now?’

When your presentation comes to its ending point, you and your audience both should know the presentation has reached its final part. This should be very clear to your audience. Usage of some words or body expressions will make it clear that your presentation has been ended. For instance, ‘thank you’, a wave, a bow but let your audience know by giving a clear signal of the ending.

You can also finish your presentation by using a summary slide that completes the whole presentation and summarizes all the learning points and the key takeaways to your audience.

#17 End your presentation on time

Do not forget that time is really valuable.

You will impress your audience if you will end your presentation on time. Rather it would be even better if you end the presentation a few minutes earlier than the designed time frame.

You will be able to end the presentation on time if you have practiced the presentation many times before presenting it to the public and each time you have recorded the presentation according to the time duration. Do not add the thing you have not rehearsed before and just stick to the things you already have practiced before.

Now do not worry about the ending.

Did you learn to finish a Presentation in an elegant way?

So above described points are the 17 various methods that help you to end your presentation with a punch.

You should remember that the starting and the ending of your presentation show the bookmarks of your whole presentation. Both the parts of the presentation will leave an impact on the audience, whether the audience leaves with a strong and influential message or get involved at the beginning of your presentation by understanding your message. 

This is the reason you do prepare the ending of your presentation before going to the public and do not leave it to chance. 

You must use all the above-explained methods in your presentation and find out the most effective one. Surely it will work best for your presentation.