What’s the Best Way to End It All?

Courtesy of Jonny Goldstein (flickr)

I realize, of course, that the title of this post is a touch morbid.

And, considering the scary uses to which Google gets put on a daily basis, I probably ought to change it.

But I won’t.

If you’re reading this article for any reason other than to learn how to create and deliver spectacular conclusions in your speeches, please hang in there. It gets better, I promise. As a matter of fact, just keep reading. If I bring a smile to your face, you have over 100 other articles here that can do the same!

How important is an effective conclusion?

As a speech writer, I focus about 80% of my time on crafting effective introductions and conclusions for speeches. And of THAT time, I spend about 60% of the time working on the conclusion.

In other words, if you’re spending $800 having me write your speech, about $384 is going toward your conclusion. That’s just a hair under half my effort!

Why is it so important?

The answer is very simple:

The last thing your audience hears is often the first thing they remember.

So, when you’re putting your speech together, you need to be very clear about what it is you want your audience to walk away with. That needs to be the basis of your conclusion and the focus of the speech that leads to the conclusion.

How to conclude a speech effectively

There are a few ways to conclude a speech effectively, depending on the circumstances and the subject matter:

The Summary – This is probably the standby, and it’s most often the best method there is. Basically, your conclusion consists of a quick review of the main points of your speech. This is especially effective for longer speeches (more than 10 minutes) where a number of points were highlighted and you want your audience to walk away remembering those points specifically. Remember, this must be handled with some flair, or it becomes a boring rehash of previous material.
The Unveiling – In some cases, the purpose of a speech is to lead up to a climactic unveiling. This works especially well in circumstances where the audience will be directly involved in using the item or service being unveiled, or where the unveiling is the introduction of the next speaker, a special guest or celebrity of some kind. In this case, the speech should be relatively short (5 minutes or less) and should be slowly ramping up to the climax, to end in wild applause as the person or product is unveiled.
The Thought-provoker – This works really well if your speech is on a heavy subject (global warming, a recent tragedy) because, while keeping the mood appropriate, it provides that little flair that sticks in the mind of the listener after you’ve left the stage. A great way to accomplish this is to pepper the speech with powerful statistics followed by questions as to their meaning, then end with a similar, but expanded question. (i.e. After noting a few examples of the effects of climate change on various places around the world, and what people in that area have or haven’t done about it, conclude with a shocking statistic or two about the local area. Then conclude with the open-ended “what are YOU going to do about it?” question.)

Of course, there are at least a dozen other more obscure and specialized methods that will work for various situations, but these “big three” cover a lot of ground and are worthy of review the next time you’re looking to “end it all”.

So tell me, have you ever had a speech conclusion fall flat? Ever manage to really nail it? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Justin P Lambert is a professional speech writer and content marketing specialist who focuses on the audience with every word he crafts. If you’re going to give a speech that could be important to your life and career, he can help you plan, write, polish and deliver it in the most effective way possible. If you liked this article, you may be interested in these other selections from the Public Speaking University series.

Six Lessons Business Bloggers Can Learn From Great Public Speakers (hubspot.com)
A 4-Step Guide to Producing Crowdsourced Video (hubspot.com)
42 Content Marketing Commandments (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
How the Art of Screenwriting Can Make You a Better Web Writer (copyblogger.com)
How to Improve Your Writing Skills by Analyzing Structure (menwithpens.ca)
The 7 Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing (copyblogger.com)
Why All Great Marketing Contains the Power of the Placebo Effect (copyblogger.com)
HubSpot TV – Getting Seen on Video with Guest @SteveGarfield (hubspot.com)
Marketing Headlines of the Week: Storytelling & Social Media (hubspot.com)

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