You're close to the finish line.  It's time to end with a bang.  The best way to do that is to give your audience something to do.  Now, this step is hard for some to contemplate, because it feels like you're about to lose control of the audience.

That's because you are about to lose control of the audience.  But only for a short time, and it's a good thing.  Why?  Because you've just forced normally active people to be passive for the better part of an hour, and it's time to let them absorb your message actively.  In this way, they'll better remember — and even act on — what you've been persuading them of for the hour.

What should you get them to do?  Ask them to do something that is the next (tiny) step toward buying into your message.  If you're a consultant, for example, and you've just been talking up the advantages of your 5-point system for transforming the supply chain, then get them to take a quick diagnostic (that you hand out) that will let them know how much work their own supply chain needs. 

Or, if you're saving the environment, ask people in the audience for a pledge to change one habit tomorrow that will improve their carbon footprints.

The best action step I ever saw was at a charitable event, where the speaker asked everyone to reach into their pockets and grab their loose change.  He said, "Now hold it out at arm's length."  Once everyone was doing so, he added, "Now, throw it on the floor." 

There were 5,000 people or more in the audience, and the sound was amazing.  What's more, the speaker had runners collect the money, and that audience raised literally thousands of dollars for world hunger in one or two moments.

It was a wonderful, vivid lesson in the power of abundant thinking, the message the speaker had just finished talking about. 

Do you get the idea?  Find something relevant, and connected closely to your message.  Ask yourself, what's the next thing I would want my audience to do, after the speech is over, say back at the office on the next working day?  Then, get them to do that, or a step toward that.  The point is that what people do they believe.  So if you get them to act, that will reinforce their belief in your message.

The step should be simple, it should only take a few minutes, and it must be relevant to your message. Beyond that, there aren't many rules.  You need to be prepared to put out the energy to make it happen, and to get people moving.  Especially if you haven't been interactive before in the presentation, it may take a few moments to get your audience up and moving.  You have to persuade them that you mean it, and it's for real.  If you do that with sufficient energy, the audience will respond.

You will see a huge burst of energy from the audience if you do this right.  Don't be frightened.  It's a good thing.  It's active people doing what they do best.

Then, you have to get their attention back, and close the speech, but I'll save that for next time.