Your Effective Close

Continuing the Over-The-Shoulder (OTS) series…

At this point in the process, we have outlined our logical and emotional narratives. The next step is to craft the ending and call to action for your talk.

This may seem counterintuitive, as starting with the beginning of the talk feels more natural. But actually, the Opening is the last part of the talk that we put together. I will explain why next week when we discuss the Opening.

We will focus on the ending, including a call to action (CTA).

Closing Loops

Your close should prioritise closing any open loops left from your talk. You don’t want any dangling storylines distracting your audience from your call to action. If you started telling any stories before switching, now is the time to round them all off.

Then, you want to bring the different threads of your talk together to a satisfying conclusion—the punchline of your talk, if you like. This is often referred to as ‘landing the plane’.

Call to Action

I strongly believe that all talks should include a call to action. While this is obvious with pitches or talks with a commercial purpose, it is less obvious for things like TEDx or motivational talks. However, I suggest that it is just as important with these talks for a psychological reason.

This is the sharp end of your talk. It is the point at which you are handing over the responsibility to the audience to take whatever action you suggest is necessary if they agree with the substance of your talk.

Being able to take action is empowering. Many activists make the mistake of not giving their audience a simple action they can take so that they feel that they can make a difference. Without this empowerment option, audiences can feel powerless and hopeless.

I have a concept I call the “ASK Path” which says that if you have an Audience Seeking Knowledge, then you owe it to them to make an Ask of them because it is only through taking some action that we truly learn. Absent of taking action on something, we have not really learned it.

For this reason alone, we should have a call to action at the end of our talk.

But often, you want a more specific outcome from your talk, which is what your call to action will be designed to achieve. This outcome will be a tactical one that works towards achieving your overall strategic outcome.

This is why we have already spent so much time focusing on our situation and getting clarity on our Strategic and Tactical outcomes. With this knowledge, we should have structured our audience journey to be consistent with the CTA and give us the desired outcome.

Ultimately, whatever the outcome you seek, your CTA must be supported by the journey you have taken your audience through to this point. The logical journey you have already worked on will overcome any logical objections they may have had and bring them to the place where they are ready for the CTA.

It is also important that the emotional journey takes you to a place where you are motivated to take action. That doesn’t mean the emotion must be ‘motivated’. It could be ‘gratitude’, 'inspired’ or ‘triumphant’.

But your CTA must satisfy all the strands and make action almost inevitable.

Anatomy of a Good CTA

So, let’s look at what makes a good CTA. As usual, there is never just one way to do things, but what I share here should give you a high probability of success.

The first part of your CTA reviews why the topic is important. Then, you should summarise the conclusions, looking at what doesn’t work and why. Pulling all these threads together, you should conclude that change is needed and that the status quo is unsustainable or undesirable.

Then, you want to hold up the promise—what could be—the positive change your talk has been pointing toward. Paint the picture, express the feeling, and refer back to key elements of your talk that can support this.

When you have hit that peak emotion, you want to empower your audience by letting them know that attaining this end state is something that they can make happen through their actions. By taking this simple action, they can bring this ultimate result closer to reality.

The CTA itself should be simple and clear.

There must be no possibility of confusion or anything that could lead to hesitation.

It should be obvious: “If I want this to happen because of these reasons that were covered, then I must take this specific action in this way”.

You may also need to explain how this action leads to the result. The link between the action and the result is often obvious, but many times it is not. If in doubt, explain the importance or impact of your audience taking this action. “If every one of you just did this, then the impact would be ____.”

Spicing up the CTA

There are a few things you can do to add some punch to your CTA by pointing out some of the additional benefits of their action. This might include referring to the increase in status they may achieve by taking the action.

You may refer to the psychology of their self-concept and suggest that this is the sort of action a certain type of person would take. If they identify that way, the urge for internal consistency with their self-concept may increase their likelihood of taking action.

You may refer to the social or community aspect of the call to action: “Most people who understand _______ and are ______ choose to _________.” This is somewhat of a combination of status and self-concept, but the number of others taking action influences it, so it is really social proof.

The most common element in the commercial call to action is ‘scarcity’, which highlights that only a limited number is available or that the offer is only valid for a limited time.

There is no doubt that scarcity works, but audiences have become jaded by being continuously bombarded with it. So, if you do employ this, you must have a believable reason and explanation for it.

A good example is to offer a bonus to the first xx people to purchase. It inherently makes sense that there are limited bonuses available.

Another technique that can be incorporated into the call to action is ‘reciprocation’. This works only if the audience feels you have given them great value.

The key is to balance the reciprocation. If they feel you have given them $100 of value and you lean on reciprocation for them to give you $1,000 back, it won’t work. But it probably will work if they feel you have given them $1,000 of value and are asking them for $100.

-Note: this is usually in addition to the value they will get by taking the offer if it is a product. If it is a different type of action, they will weigh the time it will take (and their valuation of their time) against the value you have already delivered.

Two other factors weighing in on your call to action are ‘likability’ and ‘authority’.

However, these are not included in the CTA itself; they will have been built up throughout your presentation.

Don’t discount the impact these will have, but highlighting them in the ending is usually a mistake. Instead, let this build in the talk and sit in the background while you go through your close.

Conclusion

Your close and call to action are the final act of your presentation. Everything else has been leading to this point. You must carefully craft your close to be as effective as possible. You want to end in a crescendo, not in a whimper.

Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section in which I explore a famous (or not-so-famous) quote and how it applies to the Compelling Communicator.

This quote jumped out at me this week because most of us believe this to be true, at least to some extent.

The problem is that although most of us believe this, we also believe it applies to others, not ourselves! We don’t change our minds because we are right, and they don’t change their minds because they are fools!

This is a common way of thinking, so common that we tend not to notice it unless it is pointed out. However, it is critical that you, as a speaker, are always aware of this mindset.

Whenever you speak on stage, whether it be a pitch, a lecture, a motivational speech, or even a stand-up routine, you are expanding the mental map of your audience. You are literally changing their minds.

Sometimes, this is a minor change that they can easily and willingly accept. Sometimes, it is a challenging new idea that you want to convey. Either way, you need to be aware that your audience is reluctant to change what they believe.

The more challenging your message is to their beliefs, the more humble you must be in delivering it. If you forcefully challenge your audience's fundamental beliefs, it will have the opposite effect you seek. They will mentally ‘dig in’ on their position.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I spent the weekend at a Mastermind boot camp learning all about masterminds, and I have a couple of meetings this week with potential partners to start one.

Recreationally:

Started book 6 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. 😀😻

What I am reading:

I was recommended and started reading The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest