The Secrets of Ending Well
A truly effective speaker
knows when to end-and how to end. A persuasive ending has two key
elements, a call to action and a reason to act. As the talk draws
to an end, be clear in telling your audience what they need to feel, think, or
do. And make certain that you link this call to action to a solid reason to
act, a reason that matters to them, not necessarily to you.
http://totalcommunicator.com/finales_article.html
Grand Finales
The Secrets of
Ending Well
First Lady Muriel Humphrey once told her husband, “Hubert, a speech doesn't
have to be eternal to be immortal.” This is good advice. A truly
effective speaker knows when to end—and how to end.
The Two Key Elements of an Effective
Close
A persuasive ending has two key elements, a call to action and a reason to act. At the end of a
persuasive talk, you need to request the funding, get agreement on the plan,
close the sale, push the new initiative, or request the donation.
Because the call to action represents the main purpose of your presentation,
make it concrete. Be clear in telling your audience what they need to feel,
think, or do. And make certain that you link this call to action to a solid
reason to act, a reason that matters to them, not necessarily to you.
Calls to action that begin with “I want you to…” are probably way off base.
People don’t care what speakers want. They care about what’s in it for them.
Convince people to act based on their own interests and needs.
So if you’re asking for money for your new initiative, don’t tell them how much
you need the money. Tell them how much they need the initiative.
Tell them how it will help the company. Leave a few bread crumbs that will help
them find the way to how it will help their individual careers. During the body
of your presentation, you will have already allayed their fears and addressed
any obstacles. You will have also pointed out the benefits of your plan. But at
the end, bring it all home by tying together the
benefits in a neat little package with the action. Make it clear how they will
benefit from helping your initiative, and tell them exactly how to help.
Here are some simple calls to action
linked to benefits that can serve as examples:
Approve this new program to increase revenue by 20%.
or
To increase revenue 20%, approve this new program.
This new infrastructure will not only meet our needs of today, but will lay the
foundation of our growth for the coming decade. We must fund this project
today.
If we vote today to support this program, Bithanisulum will be the first new
product in its class, first to market, and first in sales for at least three
years. However, if we wait any longer, we will miss our milestones, not be first
to market, and never reach our goals. Vote now to support this program.
Your check for $1000 will feed four children for four months. As you sit down
to this dinner, take comfort in the fact that you are not the only one who will
not go hungry. Sign your check now.
Killing this project today is the only way for us to avoid following our former
competitors out of this market and out of business.
Here are some excerpts from formal
speeches that contain solid examples of calls to action (in italics) linked to
reasons to take the action:
Dwight Morrow once said, “The world is divided into people who do things and
people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the first class.
There's far less competition.” Well, here's your opportunity to be first
class—to take action and make a difference. Donate
at least $50 today to breast cancer research. That small amount of money will help us help millions of women.
Benjamin Disraeli, a former and famous prime minister of
You do not need to deliver a dramatic conclusion to every talk, but you are
more likely to get what you want when you close effectively. Aim to have a
strong call to action linked to a clear benefit to your listeners. Look
carefully at the two examples above. In the first
example, the benefit is to “be first class,” “to make a difference.” In the
second example, the benefit is “success.”
Avoid wishy-washy endings or stale phrases that weaken your close. “I hope that
you will,” “I urge you to,” “I want you to,” all put the focus on you and
remove action from the reason to act. Phrases like “I believe,” “hopefully,”
“maybe you’ll consider” also cloud your close by adding uncertainty. If you
want a more gentle call to action, consider something along the lines of “The
data suggest that Option A will have the best results.”
Finally, make sure you stop talking. Don’t fall into the trap of the false
conclusion. If you say “In conclusion,” and then keep talking and talking, you
can watch people lose attention. Close succinctly. You'll chip away at your
overall effectiveness with each extra sentence you utter. As George Eliot once
remarked, “Blessed is the man who, having nothing
[more] to say, refrains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.”