‘Any questions?’ or ‘Thank you!’ ??

A presentation’s final slide usually says one of:

1. “Any questions?”
2. “Thank you”
3. “Summary”
4. Contact details
5. Legal disclaimer

And you can see the benefits in each:

1. You might get questions – interactivity, engagement etc
2. They feel thanked – a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling
3. You’ve reminded them of your main points
4. They can contact you if they want
5. They know NOT to rely on anything they’ve just heard!

All these might work.

But, after most presentations, we want our audience to DO something.

Which means we have to ask them to DO something.

And the best place to do that? On our final slide.

So, instead of the five mentioned above (where none asked the audience to DO anything), here are three better final slides…

Option #1 – when we know exactly what we want them to DO

Title your final slide something like “Our immediate next steps”…

…And then:

1. State the action you want them to take; and
2. Say what you’ll then do, as a result of them doing their action

This is much more likely to trigger action than you writing “Thank you for your kind attention”.

Option #2 – when we want the audience to choose to DO one of three options

Title your final slide “Our options for how we take things forward”…

…And then show them their three options.

Facilitate a discussion about the three, ensuring your audience chooses their preferred one while you’re with them.

Option #3 – when you want them to take an action, but aren’t sure what it is yet

Sometimes, we use our presentation to help agree on the subsequent action.

Which means that we can’t know what the action will be before the presentation.

Which means we can’t specify on the final slide what the Call To Action will be.

In which case, just write “Next actions?” on your final slide.

And then, have a chat, to agree what the next action(s) will be.

(This is often the easiest of all. Just replace “Any Questions?” with “Next actions?”)

I’m a big believer of being clear about next actions. Which is why we end every Tuesday Tip with…

…Action Point

In your next presentation, before you start presenting:

1. Be clear in your own mind what you want your audience to DO when you stop speaking
2. Write that DO on the final slide, using one of the three layouts above

You may choose to do this.

You may choose not to.

But you’re more likely to do it now that I ended this Tip with this Action Point (more than if I’d written “Thanks for reading – goodbye”).