So when I give a training, for instance, presentation skills, I make people come in front of the group and present themselves. And that goes rather well most of the time, until they come at the end of their presentation. And then they go like, “well, that’s about it”, and they disappear. So there’s no ending.
Let me give you some tips and tricks on how to end your presentation in a good way. First of all, get rid of some of these cliches sentences, like “thank you for your attention”, or “are there any questions?”, that’s not really an ending.
What you need to do is think about your key messages, the take home messages that you want your audience actually to remember, sum them up at the end of your presentation. And then you’ll have a good conclusion, a good ending.
What you can also do is, actually stop where you started, start with a strong statement, work your way through that presentation, and end with that same statement. That actually helps to get a good ending.
Now, those are tips and tricks on the content of your presentation, this is another thing you could do, make use of your information, your tone of voice, your pitch, to lay down the sentences at the end of your presentation. So the audience knows that you are actually coming to an end.
I’ll give you an example. If I say, “ladies and gentlemen, that was what I wanted to share with you”, then you can actually sense that I’m laying my sentence down. And also, at the end of your presentation, add a smile.
When you actually thank your audience, and you do it without a smile. They won’t feel any gratitude. They won’t feel that you’re sincere. So instead of saying, Thank you for your attention, just say thank you, and then they will know that your presentation has finished.
