Over the weekend, I attended a fund-raising event creatively themed, “Cops and Cowboys,” benefiting the Los Angeles Police Department.
One of the acts was a young gunslinger, Joey, who entertained the crowd with various John Wayne-style techniques of spinning, slinging, and juggling six shooters.
He opened his act by shooting an apple off the head of an unsuspecting audience member (don’t worry, he used rubber bullets). The stunt immediately wrangled the audience’s attention.
But, what stuck with me the most about the performance was Joey’s last stunt. He simultaneously rolled both pistols in his hands, flipped them over his shoulder, and caught them behind his back, all while blindfolded. It was an absolutely amazing stunt, if only he’d pulled it off. Sadly, he missed catching one of the pistols, which fell to the floor.
During the applause, my neighbor leaned over and whispered, “He should have ended with a sure thing!” Joey’s finale should have not only been impressive, it should have been a stunt he could nail one-hundred percent of the time. Did his half-baked ending overshadow the entire performance? No, but I believe it left the audience with mixed reviews.
Cognitive science suggests clients, contacts, and referral sources will remember us most based on their first and last impressions of us. It’s the finale or close of any interaction, presentation, or transaction that has the potential to leave a dynamic, lasting impression.
When presenting, begin with an engaging opening, like a client obstacle you were responsible for overcoming. Next, communicate three specific actions you took to overcome the obstacle. Finally, avoid the tendency to “wing” the ending by preparing a specific close. Relate how the client and/or business benefited from your representation.
In preparing for your next presentation, consider these words from Ronald Reagan, “…[public speaking] is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, you coast for awhile, and you have a hell of a closing.”
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