Calls to action are vital to make in your internal and external business presentations because they are the key moments to persuade decision-makers to take action to support your case. If you don’t make a powerful call to action in each presentation, your results will fall short of their potential.
The most vital moments in your business presentations are at the start and finish. The first points in a presentation tend to be remembered comparatively well (primacy effect) and are transferred into longer-term memory.
Points at the end of the presentation are the most recent and therefore are likely to still remain in the short-term memory (recency effect). These are the most important of all because they are the points people are the most likely to remember and act upon. Therefore, the close in your business presentation is the key time to persuade them to make a decision to support your case.
All communication is now acknowledged by experts as influencing rather than merely informing, even if the intention is just to inform, like in a progress report. Communication – including presentations – always influences the minds of the audience. Therefore, make the most of the opportunity in every presentation to influence your audience to take action. At the end of your presentation, make a powerful call to action that prompts your audience to follow up on your words.
A call to action (CTA) is what it says, intended to persuade people to do what you ask them at the end of your presentation. It is intended to offer your audience a clear choice, a strong reason to act, such as making a decision or going away from the event to get something happening.
A call to action is a vital part of written material as well – in marketing emails, blogs, advertising and website content.
Here are four types of calls to action: change, stop, discourage, and continue:
Only use one type of CTA for each presentation. Otherwise, your message will get watered down. Therefore, assess your audience and decide which CTA applies best to them overall.
Points at the end of the presentation are the most recent and therefore are likely to still remain in the short-term memory (recency effect). These are the most important of all because they are the points people are the most likely to remember and act upon. Therefore, the close in your business presentation is the key time to persuade them to make a decision to support your case.
Typical business situations where a call to action is important:
Externally, you could make informal or formal presentations to any of the following stakeholders and decision-makers, asking for their supportive decisions:
All communication is now acknowledged by experts as influencing rather than merely informing, even if the intention is just to inform, like in a progress report. Communication – including presentations – always influences the minds of the audience. Therefore, make the most of the opportunity in every presentation to influence your audience to take action. At the end of your presentation, prompt your audience to follow up on your words.
A call to action (CTA) is what it says, intended to persuade people to do what you ask them at the end of your presentation. It is intended to offer your audience a clear choice, a strong reason to act, such as making a decision or going away from the event to get something happening.
A call to action is a vital part of written material as well – in marketing emails, blogs, advertising and website content.
There are four types of calls to action: adoption, discontinuance, deterrence, and continuance:
Only use one type of CTA for each presentation. Otherwise, your message will get watered down. Therefore, assess your audience and decide which CTA applies best to them overall.
Instead, deliver it, and tell your audience what will happen when they do act. Your CTA starts the benefits; your audience members want to know what will happen after they follow your request. This picture of the improved future will inspire people to act.
Therefore, the basic steps for adding an effective call to action to your conclusion are:
Decide on an overall clear objective in terms of what you want, and how to get it as a result of your presentation. Use a theme that helps to give your presentation a good, logical structure that climaxes with the CTA. But don’t hit your audience over the head by continually repeating a theme that is basically your call to action. The attendees will quickly get tired of such repetition.
Your call to action and your approach to delivering it may vary according to your audience and your speaking style. Although there is no set formula, these guidelines will increase the effectiveness of your call to action:
Keep your call to action tight and brief. The experts recommend articulating it in just 15 words. Use data wherever possible, which helps to keep it tight.
If you have been persuasive and your audience is emotionally invested, the best time for them to act is now. The longer it takes to initiate the action, the more likely your audience will lose motivation. So, an ideal CTA enables your audience to act immediately, perhaps even before they leave the room. If this isn’t feasible, then aim for actions that can reasonably be completed, or at least started, within hours or a day or two. Promptly follow up with the key individuals where you can. This will help you make a powerful call to action.
To help your audience act quickly, cut out as many perceived barriers as you can. For example, deal with the following questions about your audience:
A common psychological barrier is the perception that the suggested action is too big or too risky. This is a reasonable concern, and is often best handled by dividing the call to action into several smaller and less risky actions.
For instance, in advocating an organization-wide change program, you could make your CTA the starting point of the program – perhaps something like running a pilot or a trial, running it in a particular business unit, or initiating the first phase of it. If you are presenting to your executive committee, you could make the first point of action their formal approval of the change program and the proposed budget.
Always frame your call to action in the audience’s best interest. This might include playing to your audience’s FOMO (fear of missing out) if they don’t act. But generally you would emphasize the positive aspects of following up on your CTA.
Don’t fall into the trap of making the CTA about you. Making you, the speaker, happy is not going to be highly motivating for your audience. Avoid CTAs like these:
Instead, say:
Describe how their own business (and perhaps personal) lives will be improved (if you can show this) as well as the organization when they act. Get them to imagine a successful future. This approach will help you make a powerful call to action that produces results.
If the people you are presenting to have similar roles such as being in middle management, having a similar technical background, confronted by similar budget problems, dealing with related professional issues, or you are addressing staff in a particular business unit, make your call to action refer to things they have in common with each other.
If you have a relatively diverse audience, remember that audiences don’t act; individuals act. Rather than addressing the group as a whole, try focusing your call to action on aspects that each individual in your audience can relate to. If your goal is to have a new business initiative adopted, like an employee recognition program, each individual in the group, such as an executive committee, may play a different role in supporting this. Focus on that role. You can even mention their name or job title:
If the attending group is small, tailoring each CTA personally to each person would create a powerful impact.
Their action can be as simple as calling or emailing you for more information, signing up for your mailing list or buying your product. If you don’t tell people what to do, they are unlikely to do it. That call to action works better because it is specific (email tonight and call tomorrow), audience-focused (you’re concerned about that specific issue), and user-friendly (handouts are available in the back of the room).
If you’ve given a great presentation, your audience will want to know what to do next. So help them – make a powerful call to action so they can immediately take the best next steps.
Also, here’s my article on internal presentations – they are more vital to career prospects than most people realize.
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