Finish Strong!
I was cc’ed on an email from Coach Schmitt. Coach Schmitt is the Athletic Training coach at my daughter’s high school. My daughter is one of the trainers for the football team. His message to all of the trainers was, “Finish Strong!”
Normally, you would hear that kind of message to the football players…finish the play strong, finish the game strong! But Coach Schmitt was urging his trainers to finish the academic year strong. He wanted to remind them all to not take their eyes and focus off of finals. Summer vacation is just a couple of weeks away. It is easy to start thinking about the pool, the beach, sleeping in late. But he wants all of his trainers to stay academically eligible, so he reminded them to “Finish Strong” in the classroom, so they could be ready this summer to help the football team when practice starts.
Thanks for the great reminder, Schmitty!
But your advice works for all of us in the business and sales world too. Finish your day strong, finish your quarter strong, your year strong!
I just finished two days of working with a sales team on their sales presentations. Everyone loves to spend a lot of time creating and delivering a powerful opening introduction and attention grabber on the front end of their presentation. Something that wows the audience and gets their attention. It is very important to do that.
However, we need to spend just as much time and energy on the ending, our conclusion. This is the last thing the audience will remember. Finish your presentation strong by leaving a lasting memorable and repeatable finish. You want them talking about you, your product, and your company, when they talk about it at lunch or over coffee or in the post-presentation meeting.
Don’t end a great presentation that started off with a bang, with a wimpy ending. Remember what Coach Schmitt said, Finish Strong!