THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT PARTS OF YOUR TALK
Open & Close Your Presentations With Purpose

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Jane Gooddall speak in Berkeley. There were several hundred people gathered that night to hear a speech by the Godmother of Chimpanzees. She walked out on stage, sat down on a stool and did something I will never forget:

She made a chimpanzee call – a loud, guttural, primal call that lasted over a minute! We were stunned. Every single person’s undivided attention was focused on the speaker who then proceeded to give a stirring talk about her life in the African wild.

If there are two parts of your talk that you must nail, it’s the opening and the close. People remember the last thing that you say the most, then the first and everything else falls somewhere in between.

I’ve seen people who didn’t say anything of substance during their talk, but because they opened and closed so well, I walked away with a feeling that I had just heard an important speech. And I’ve seen people who delivered strong presentations with great content, but because they meekly fizzled out at the end, I left feeling unimpressed.

If you can get the Open and the Close down, you are well on your way to speaking success.

Opening

How many times have you seen someone open his or her talk with the following?
“Thank you so much for having me; I’m very glad to be here today. My name is…” BO-ring! The first words out of your mouth help your audience member decide whether he or she is going to listen to the rest of your talk. This means that you had better grab their attention right away.

This is not to say that we must open with monkey calls. But we do need to spend some time thinking about what the first words (or sounds) will be that our audience is going to hear from us. Here are some ideas:

• Use an anecdote: I start almost every presentation with a short story. They are usually true and personal, and they get people involved right away. The funnier the story, the better. It has been proven that if a person is laughing with you, then they probably like you as well.
• Use a statistic: I once heard a Sales Manager from Coke open his talk by saying, “80 percent of the cola consumed worldwide is Coca-Cola” (or whatever the number was). The more shocking the statistic, the better. Think of some statistics about your industry or company and try one in the beginning of your next talk.
• Ask a question: This is a very effective way to get people involved and interacting right away.
• Use a quote: Try to use one we haven’t heard before that will set the stage for what you are about to tell us.
• Do something outrageous: Back to the chimp calls. The more you can surprise your audience, the better chance there is of getting their attention (no nudity here, please).

Closing

Here’s how you don’t want to close:
“Well, I think that’s it, unless anybody has any more questions…” Never fizzle out and never do your Q&A session last. Why not? Because you want the last words that they hear from you to be memorable, not, “Umm, I’m not really sure, but I can find that out for you…”

The close is what will be ringing in their ears as they walk out of your talk. There are three parts of your close to consider.

1. Summary: If your talk has been long enough to require it, go over the main points that you covered.
2. Call To Action: Spell out for them what you want them to do as a result of your talk (call you to set up an appointment, write their congressman, give you money…). Make this really easy and obvious.
3. Close: These are your final words, and this is one of the only parts of the talk that I don’t object to people memorizing.

So what should your final words be?

• Go back to the open: This technique helps to bring your talk full circle and makes you look like a skilled speaker. If you started with a story about falling out of a tree as a young lad, bring that in to your close (“… so I never have to feel like that boy that just fell out of the oak tree.”)
• Quote: There’s something about closing with a quote that helps you stick your close like May Lou Retton sticking her landing off the vault. Start collecting these so that you can pull them out when needed.
• Challenge them: Make them walk out of your talk inspired to do something as a result of it.

Once you write the body of your talk, then go back and write the open and close. Practice these over and over so that when you step to the mike, you know exactly how you are going to get your audience hooked.

Robert Graham


Robert Graham is the Principal of GrahamComm (www.grahamcomm.net), a consulting and training company that helps clients increase their sales and deliver outstanding presentations. He can be reached at 415-652-0763 or Robert@grahamcomm.net.

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