Thank The Audience?

Yes or No?

Should You Thank Your Audience?

Many speakers end their presentation with “Thank You”.

We advise against it.

So do Toastmasters, the Association of Speakers Clubs, many other organisations, and experienced speakers, such as executive coach, George Torok.

The argument is that it is a weak finish to a speech.

But could there be times when a ‘thank you’ is appropriate. Let’s take a look.

Two Types of Presentation

The answer to the Thank You question depends on the  type of speech or presentation.

What is the purpose of your speech? In simple terms, are you giving or taking?

If your objective is to inform, educate or entertain, you are a ‘giver’.

If you are selling, persuading, recruiting etc, you are a ‘taker’.

By deciding which category your presentation best fits, it will help you decide what approach to take with regard to thanking your audience, or not.

Imagine you have just given someone a present. You wouldn’t thank them, would you?

Now think about your upcoming presentation. You put hours into planning and preparing for it.

You are giving your audience lots of useful or interesting information – informing them.

Whatever your exact purpose, you are giving to them, aren’t you?

Therefore, you don’t need to thank your audience. They should be thanking you with their applause.

Say Thank You

Now, imagine you are delivering a sales presentation trying to persuade someone to buy something from your business.

The product or service you are selling is going to be helpful to them. Nevertheless, you should be grateful for the opportunity to present to them, and so thanking them would be appropriate.

Likewise if you are trying to encourage people to donate to the charity you represent, you will want to thank them for their interest, won’t you?

Say Thank You – The Right Way

When you deliver a speech or presentation, it’s important to structure your words for maximum impact.

Whether it’s appropriate to say ‘thank you’ or not, saying it to signal the end of your speech is weak. Do not do it!

You need a strong closing sentence or two to signal you have finished speaking and to highlight the key points of your presentation.

For example:

“Thank you for listening to my presentation. (Now slow down slightly and enunciate clearly …) I hope you can see that if you … (buy, subscribe, sign-up etc) … you will … (A, B, and most importantly, C).”

Rank A, B and C in rising order of importance. After mentioning benefit ‘A’, raise your voice slightly for ‘B’. And then up the volume again for ‘C’ – “and most importantly, you could double your profit!”

And then stand up straight, smile and look around the room before sitting down, or taking questions if appropriate.

That’s how to thank your audience!

This post was last updated 31st March 2026

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