Ending a presentation with a summary is repetitive and uninspiring. Instead of recapping what you said, distill your entire talk into a single, specific action you want the audience to take or one question you want them to consider. This forces them to identify a personal takeaway and makes your message stick.
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Often, the final pitch is treated as a perfunctory last step after the "real" work of the sales cycle is done. This mindset leads to uninspired, slide-driven presentations that fail to engage the audience, wasting the opportunity to create a powerful closing moment.
When pitching for a speaking gig, don't lead with your personal history. Event planners care more about the value for their audience. Lead your pitch with the tangible takeaway or transformation the audience will experience. Use your personal story as the supporting evidence of why you're credible.
Host Rob Walling abandoned a talk idea based on 'hard thing' founder stories because it lacked an actionable takeaway. An effective talk must provide a path to action or deeper thinking, not just normalize struggles or entertain.
At the end of a call, ask to briefly review the 3-5 core problems discussed. This crystallizes the conversation and reminds the prospect of the seriousness of their issues right before you ask for a commitment. This makes them more likely to agree to a concrete next step because the value of solving their problem is top-of-mind.
When presenting to a CFO, brevity is critical. They think in summaries and bullet points, and a lengthy presentation is a sign of disrespect for their time. Your entire business case should be distilled into a single, powerful page to maintain their attention.
Structure your final presentation by calling out specific problems you learned from individual contributors by name. Then, immediately pivot to show how solving their problem directly contributes to the high-level business objective owned by the executive decision-maker. This makes every stakeholder feel heard and demonstrates their strategic value.
If you get flustered or forget your point while speaking, deploy a pre-planned 'back pocket question' to the audience. This tactic shifts the focus away from you, buys you time to regroup, and makes you appear engaging rather than disorganized. For example: 'How can we apply this to what's coming up next?'
To make workshops memorable, design them around active participation rather than passive listening. Facilitate live exercises, group problem-solving, or hands-on coaching. When attendees 'do' something and walk away with a tangible result, the lesson sticks far longer than a simple presentation.
When presenting a long list of actions, such as ten ways to improve a team, group them into three distinct, memorable categories. A coach successfully reframed ten tips into a three-step framework of 'alignment, process, and resilience,' making his advice more digestible and actionable for the audience.
If you sense the audience is disengaged, don't just push through your script. The best move is to pivot by stopping and asking direct questions. This turns a monologue into a dialogue, shows you value their input, and allows you to recalibrate your message on the fly to address what truly matters to them.