This is the third video in the Presentation Foundation Series. In the first two videos in the Presentation Foundation Series, you learned two of the most important things that a presentation must do…Entertain and reward. In this week’s video, you’ll learn the third thing that a presentation must do…Create action.
Please check out the video or skip down to read more.

If YouTube is unavailable in your area, please click the following link to watch or right-click to download: Presentation Foundation Series – What a Presentation Must Do Video 3: Create Action

Video length 1:47 (Click CC for captions or read transcript below)

Special thanks again to Powtoon (http://www.powtoon.com) for making this video possible.

What do you mean “action”?

Now, when I say that your presentation must create action, I’m not talking about audience participation or stuff like that. What I’m talking about is what should happen at the end of your presentation.

When you end your presentation, be sure to give the audience some kind of action related to what you just talked about. The reason why is because as the presenter, you and your content need to lead your audience. From the beginning of your presentation to the end, you’ve hopefully done something to get the audience’s attention, entertained them and rewarded them, leading them through your presentation.

Here’s the thing

But if you just end the presentation after your Q&A, or conclusion, or whatever, your audience will feel somewhat lost, like they were expecting something but didn’t get it. Or they may leave wondering what they should do with what they’ve just learned from you. Even worse is if they leave and immediately forget what they just heard.

What to do

So to properly end your presentation and give your audience a sense of closure, be sure to end every presentation with some kind of call-to-action. This can be to contact you, or steps they should take to implement what you talked about… It just needs to be something your audience can actually do.

It has to feel doable to your audience. In other words, whatever your action is, it must be simple and easy to understand. You can’t tell them to do something they can’t, won’t, or don’t want to do. If necessary, outline the exact steps your audience should take to accomplish the action.

For another perspective on this topic, my buddy Craig Hadden at RemotePossibilities.Wordpress.com wrote a great article about action, too. Click the following link to see Craig’s article: Why present? JFK said it all…

There you go. You just learned the third most important thing that a presentation must do…Create action.

And here’s my call-to-action…

If you have any questions or comments about this topic, please leave them in the comments section below.

And please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel or sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a thing.

Thanks and talk to you next time.

Carl

Transcript:

In this video, you’ll learn the third thing that a presentation must do…Create action.

Now, when I say that your presentation must create action, I’m not talking about audience participation or stuff like that.

What I’m talking about is what should happen at the end of your presentation.

From the beginning of your presentation to the end, you’ve hopefully done something to get the audience’s attention, entertained them and rewarded them, leading them through your presentation.

But if you just end the presentation after your Q&A, or conclusion, or whatever, your audience will feel somewhat lost, like they were expecting something but didn’t get it.

Or they may leave wondering what they should do with what they’ve just learned from you.

Even worse is if they may leave and immediately forget what they just heard.

So to properly end your presentation and give your audience a sense of closure, be sure to end every presentation with some kind of call-to-action.

This can be to contact you, or steps they should take to implement what you talked about… It just needs to be something your audience can actually do.

It has to feel doable to your audience.

There you go. You just learned the third most important thing that a presentation must do…Create action.

And here’s my call-to-action…

If you have any questions or comments about this topic, please leave them in the comments section below.

And please be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel or visit my website at CarlKwan.com and sign up for my newsletter so you don’t miss a thing.

Thanks for watching and talk to you again soon.

Bye-bye.