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The way that you end your speech will resonate with your audience long after your presentation has ended. By using advanced presentation skills when you close your speech, you can deliver a speech conclusion that will set you apart as an expert orator. Here are some quick tips to ensure that you hit them with a grand finale!

1. Don’t Quit; Close

Your entire speech is a journey that you are undertaking with your audience. Don’t leave them disappointed that you quit right before the culmination. Work the group to a conclusion that you come to together. If you have delivered your speech effectively, you should know exactly what they are thinking in that moment. Now you can engage them one last time by asking them for a response that will cause them to self-reflect and take action.

Some good endings to consider:

“Now that you know the problem, can we count on you to help with the solution?”

“How will your contributions help us get to our goal?”

“I ask you, are you up for the challenge?”

2. Preparation Is Key

Think of your speech like a Broadway performance. The actors don’t just step on stage opening night without any practice, do they? They have long rehearsals daily, they know every step they will make on stage, and they memorize the script inside and out. By the time performance night comes, they could run on autopilot. The same applies to your speech closing. You should know every nuance of your closing, including how much time it will take to deliver it with the biggest impact. Practice your closing until you can do it in your sleep.

3. Expect The Unexpected

Not everything goes according to plan, which is why you should be able to conclude from anywhere in your speech. Nothing is worse than getting the “5 minutes” signal and realizing that you still have 15 minutes left in your speech. Developing a transition from any segment of your talk to your wrap-up can save you from fumbling and trying to decide which information to include and leave out. Practice your transitions from any part of the speech so it flows smoothly.

4. Add A Final Touch

One of the advanced presentation skills that will set you apart could be including a succinct quote that summarizes your viewpoint, or even a piece of poetry to leave them in the mood you established. While touches like these aren’t vital, they add class and impact.

At a workshop recently I heard someone giving a talk which was really interesting and I took away some valuable points from it. So it got me thinking about what makes a good presentation. Now, I’ve designed a lot of PowerPoint presentations in my time but I’ve delivered very few of them. Like a lot of people, the thought of standing up in front of a group makes me nervous. However, others can stand up for an hour and speak off the cuff about their subject, and make it interesting and memorable. How do they do it? OK, there are a few people who are natural public speakers, but for most of us, it takes a lot of preparation to stand up and speak clearly and concisely about our subject.

So from my experience of both creating and listening to presentations, I’ve put together some tips of what I think can make or break a presentation.

Do

• Rehearse your speech and ideally get someone to listen to you or record yourself.
• Use humour and a personal story to open the presentation but be appropriate.
• Know the message you are trying to get across and stick to the key points.
• Keep the colour scheme simple and ensure the text is readable against the background.
• Have the same slide design throughout the whole presentation.
• Put your company branding and logo on the presentation to make it look professional and help build a relationship with your brand and the audience.
• Keep animations and transitions to a minimum so they don’t confuse and distract the audience.
• Use creative ways of presenting your information eg, pictures, charts, and animations which will grab people’s attention.

Don’t

• Speak without any preparation or notes unless you’ve done it successfully before.
• Start the presentation without checking that everyone can hear you.
• Don’t wander off the subject, and if you do, ensure the audience knows why and quickly come back to it.
• Use technical language, acronyms or jargon unless it is relevant for your audience.
• Read from a script – it can sound stilted and prevents you from making eye contact with the audience.
• Put everything you want to say on the PowerPoint slide and then just read it out.
• Overload the slide with too much graphics or animation. They should be used to make the message clearer not confuse the audience.
• Use different formatting and colour schemes on each slide.

Perhaps you have other tips to add to the list? However, it’s important to remember that a clearly delivered and well-designed presentation will promote you and your business professionally and effectively to your audience.

Often, I have seen people refuse to use a microphone when they’re presenting, whether at an office meeting, community event or industry conference. Yet, using a microphone correctly can make it easier for the audience to hear you and understand your message – which is the whole point of your presentation.

Here are the 5 reasons I hear for not using a microphone – and how you can overcome them.

1. You Don’t Think It’s Necessary
You may think, “my voice is powerful enough and I don’t need it,” but often, that is not the case. Realize that it may be difficult for the audience to hear you, given the size of the room and the amount of surrounding noise. Also, according to a 2009 study by the Better Hearing Institute, the number of Americans with hearing loss has grown to roughly 11 percent of the U.S. population – and six out of ten of them are below retirement age. So it is likely that there are people in your audience with some level of hearing difficulty.

2. You Aren’t Used to Hearing Your Own Voice
The more you listen to your own voice, the more comfortable you will get listening to it. Almost every computer and smartphone has an audio recorder, so use it to record yourself and play it back, so you can get used to how you sound.

3. You Don’t Realize It Can Protect Your Voice
Most people don’t project well without a microphone (unless you have been trained in singing or acting). So you end up shouting when you try to project, which can leave you with a sore throat, laryngitis or vocal cord damage.

4. You Don’t Know How to Use a Microphone
This concern is legitimate and can easily be addressed by practicing with the microphone. Ask the AV staff or a techie friend to help. You want to find out things such as: where to clip the microphone or how to hold it; who will control the volume; how to avoid ear-splitting feedback (don’t point the microphone at the speakers) and where to get an extra battery. Then get in the room ahead of time and practice using it.

5. You Think It’s Too Formal
You may think that using a microphone is only for professional speakers on a stage in front of thousands of people and that it would be arrogant to use it in a smaller setting. Not at all. Used well, a microphone can demonstrate that you’re a smart and respectful presenter who cares enough about your audience to use every tool at your disposal to ensure they can hear and understand your presentation.