HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations (HBR Guide Series)

Make the Ending Powerful

Your ending should leave people with a heightened sense of what could be—and willingness to believe or do something new. Here’s where you describe how blissful their world will be when they adopt your ideas.

Let’s return to our Q3 example from “Craft the Beginning” and “Develop the Middle” in this section. You might wrap up your presentation along the lines of figure 3-3.

Many presentations simply end with a list of action items, but that isn’t exactly inspiring. You want the last thing you say to move your audience to tackle those items. You want people to feel ready to right the wrong, to conquer the problem.

By skillfully ...