Professionally Speaking...

Q & A in Presentations

Each time you make a presentation, you have a decision to make about how to handle questions. Will you take them throughout your remarks? Will you ask people to hold their questions until you have finished delivering your information? Will you announce a specific time for Q & A?

Q: Which option is best?

A: Although it depends somewhat on the format of your presentation, the size of the audience and the venue in which you're presenting, my bias is to welcome questions at anytime during your presentation. Questions demonstrate that the audience is engaged and stimulated by what you're saying. Why would you stifle that by doggedly sticking to a predetermined script?

Q: Won't questions throw me off track and potentially cause me to miss some of my key points?

A: If you are well prepared, have streamlined your content to one main point with a couple or three sub points and anticipated what questions the audience may ask, you likely won't be thrown off track. You can weave some of your points or supporting information into the answers you give and comfortably segue back to your planned outline. In most cases, a lively discussion with audience members will be more fulfilling and engaging for all as you will be meeting their needs for specific information.

Q: How do I handle a hostile question?

A: With respect. Acknowledge the questioner's difference of opinion or emotional reaction. Don't engage in argumentative dialogue or meet him on the emotional battlefield. If you think his opinion is representative of the majority of the audience, it might be best to open up the discussion and let others weigh in, although this will certainly depend on how comfortable you feel managing that interaction. If his opinion isn't representative, asking the audience to weigh in can take the "monkey" off your back and allow his peer group to suggest other perspectives. Another viable alternative is to invite the questioner to continue the discussion with you after the presentation.

Q: How do I keep the rest of the audience involved when one person asks a long-winded question?

A: Once you get the gist of the question, break in at an appropriate place and use your skills of paraphrasing and summarizing to concisely re-state the question. This ensures that the audience hears and understands the question. Then ask the audience what they think or what they'd do. This will involve others and spread the interaction among more people.

Q: What do I do if I don't know the answer to a question?

A: This is a big fear for many presenters. The best advice is to not bluff your way through what will end up being an inadequate response. Acknowledge that you don't know the answer but offer to find it out and get back to the questioner, put them in touch with someone who does know or refer them to resources where they can find the answer.

Q: How do I end a Q & A session, especially when many people still want to ask questions?

A: Never, ever let the Q & A session be the end to your presentation. Always take back the floor, even if it's only for a couple of minutes, and conclude your remarks with the key thing you want your audience to walk away with. Ask yourself, "What is the one thing I want people to remember from this presentation next week or next month?" Invite people who still have questions to come up and speak with you after the presentation or, if that's not feasible, offer to chat with them by phone or email.

Questions are the lifeblood of any presentation. Invite them, embrace them and worry when there aren't any.

What other techniques have you used to encourage and manage questions in your presentations?

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The Don't Miss This List, Edition 5

These lazy, languid, dog days of late summer provide the perfect opportunity to catch up on valuable presentation advice from some of my favorite bloggers. Read on for insights into better PowerPoint, better speaking and better preparation.

• Angela DeFinis has written a great post on The Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint Design, where she outlines the problems with PowerPoint slides and how to fix them. It fascinates me that in spite of the volume that has been written about bad PowerPoint and all the great suggestions for improvement, so, so many business presenters still refuse to change. An interesting comment on human behavior! Here are some of my suggestions for jump starting better PowerPoint practices.
  
  
• One thing that causes many presenters anxiety is worrying they won't be able to effectively handle audience questions and interruptions, particularly ones that are confrontational or argumentative. Ian Griffin, in How To Deal with a Hostile Audience tells us not to rely solely on logic, but to be conscious of the emotional concerns underlying a question.
  
  
• As only Seth (Godin) could explain: How To Make Graphs That Work. Advice that is simple, easy-to-use, provocative...and right on the money.
  
  
• Learn from the TV newscasters how to handle slips of the tongue in Lisa Braithwaite's Stumbles, Fumbles and Mumbles.
  
  
• You've often heard me extol the benefits of practicing and being prepared in this blog, so I'm happy to pass along a very critical checklist from Nick Morgan: 10 Points To Check Before You Speak.

PREVIOUS "DON'T MISS THIS" LISTS:

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 4

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 3

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 2

The Don't Miss This List, Edition 1

HANDLING TOUGH QUESTIONS

Answering tough questions in any presentation is a challenge. But doing it opposite a political opponent, surrounded by TV cameras, in front of a viewing audience of tens of millions...well, that's the pinnacle of challenging.

What can we learn from Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden's exchange last night in the Vice Presidential debate?

WHAT YOU WANT TO THINK TWICE ABOUT

One way to handle a tough question is to not answer the question directly. To Gwen Ifill's question about what each candidate's administration would not be able to do because of the economic crisis, both Palen and Biden offered instead what they would do, in effect not answering the question.

Upside is they each placed their key messages in front of the audience [again]. Downside is they appeared evasive or worse, clueless, suggesting that they would still be able to accomplish all their initiatives despite the meltdown on Wall Street.

Although this is a common technique in political presentations, I caution against avoiding direct answers in most business presentations. It runs the risk of alienating the questioner as well as others in the audience and makes the presenter seem evasive.

WHAT YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO DO

In answering questions, your demeanor and how you project can be as important as what you say. Here are some suggestions:

• Always be respectful of the questioner. Unless you are absolutely certain that the question is a joke or a blatant attempt to trip you up, give the questioner the benefit of the doubt and answer. [Check out Lisa Braithwaite's great advice, "When Audience Members Attack."] There is no surer way to alienate the questioner [and perhaps a significant portion of the audience] than by making fun of him or putting him down.

• Make eye contact with the questioner and actively listen while she is asking the question. Resist the temptation to use this time to prepare your answer. It will be very evident if you are not paying attention. In the debate, while Ifill was asking the questions, both Biden and Palin scribbled notes, clearly preparing the points they wanted to make. This may be appropriate when a question is complex or multi-part, but when you are specifically answering an individual [versus a TV audience], it is better to look at the person while she is speaking.

• Pause a moment before answering. If you rush into your answer, possibly before the questioner has finished speaking, it again is evident that you weren't really listening. You may actually give an incorrect answer because you made an assumption part way through the question that you knew what the questioner was asking. As James Humes says in Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln, "A deliberate pause before you talk adds weight and wisdom to both your actual answer and the audience's perception of it."

• Rephrase a long-winded or confusing question..."So what I hear you saying is..." This allows you to check that you understood the question properly and lets you articulate the question so the audience understands it.

• In the business presentation, a great technique is to redirect a question to the audience..."What do the rest of you think about that?"..."Who would like to share their experience with that situation?" This does a couple of things: it gives you a moment to get your thoughts together and it involves the audience.

• You've heard this one a million times, but it's worth repeating. Don't be afraid to say you don't know. Flubbing your way through an answer is obvious to the audience, doesn't satisfy the questioner and can seriously damage your credibility. Needless to say this is one technique we didn't see in the debate!

Although the majority of you likely will never have to stand on a stage answering tough questions in front of a national TV audience, sometimes those business audiences may seem as challenging.

Getting comfortable answering tough questions will help you meet that challenge. 

What are some techniques you've used to handle tough questions?

PRESENTATION = A TWO-WAY STREET

As presenters, it is very tempting to pontificate from center stage as the subject matter expert, inflicting slide after slide after slide on a passive audience. However, both you and your audience will be rewarded when you view your presentation as a two-way street...communication flowing both ways. 

According to Michael Moon, Creative Director of Duarte (the firm that helped create Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth), it's not about the slides, it's about the experience. [Listen to his tips on this podcast]

Making the audience an active participant in the presentation is one way of enhancing the experience.

QUESTIONS CREATE GIVE AND TAKE

Although every presentation may not lend itself to extensive dialogue with, or input from, the audience, you always have the option of asking your audience questions to engage them. In a large group, go for rhetorical questions or polling questions (ones asking the audience to vote by show of hands). In a smaller group, ask "real" questions where you actually wait for an answer.

Every time you use a questioning technique, your presentation becomes more of a give and take. Even an answer that is articulated only in the listener's head increases the level of involvement.  

Create more of a two-way street with your audience...let them participate...and you'll both get more out of the experience.

 

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

The presentation is drawing to a close, the salient points having been made, and the speaker concludes with, "Are there any questions?" Or the last slide (mercifully) appears and says, "Questions?"

This is the least effective, most dangerous way to end a presentation.

That final question may be too detailed, too basic or advanced for the majority of the audience, off topic, downright hostile or one you can't answer. Is that the last thing you want your audience to hear before they walk away?

WHAT IF YOU ASK THE QUESTION?

Now if your presentation ends with you asking a question of the audience, that's an entirely different matter. But make it a purposeful question, designed to encapsulate your message, be provocative or call the audience to action. Make it a question that will have the audience buzzing, long after they've left the room.