Mastering the question-and-answer portion of any public-speaking appearance or presentation is critical to ensuring your audience walks away confident in your expertise, convinced of your main point and willing to accept your call to action. Ace the Q&A, and you are a winner. Fumble answering questions, and you may end up a loser.
That is why we are spending so much time on this portion of your presentation. We have already looked at how to prepare for Q&A in this blog post as well how to invite questions from the audience (here). We went over some practical tips on handling the questions, and looked at how to handle a rude or rambling questioner (here).
We went over some general tips on answering questions (here). Now we’ll discuss some more techniques on answering questions that can help establish you as an expert your presentation’s the subject matter. That, in turn, will increase your audience’s confidence in you and make them more open to persuasion.
Because, remember, your goal in the Q-and-A isn’t just to respond to what they ask. Your goal is to reinforce your main points and lead them to take whatever action you want.
Have Backup Material Ready
Remember how when we discussed putting together your presentation you needed to focus on primary information? Trim out all secondary and tertiary details to avoid a cascading effect? And remember when we talked about putting together PowerPoint slides I said to trim them down as much as possible (here)?
This is how you can use all that info that you compiled that didn’t make it into your main presentations.
Put together more detailed slides than the ones in the main presentation and have them in your deck. If someone wants you to drill down on something in your presentation, you can pull up the relevant slide showing the more-detailed information. That is an instant credibility boost. In fact, I have sat in presentations where that has happened. The interesting thing is that the questioner almost immediately and visibly relaxes, almost as if he were just testing the speaker to see if the speaker has done the homework.
Here’s an example of what I mean.
When we discussed PowerPoint, one of the examples we looked at involved the sales history of a particular product. I said you needed to decide the time periods you needed to show to make your point. Would weekly be good? Monthly? Yearly? If you need to make the point that the product’s sales have tripled in the past five years, showing annual sales is enough.
So you put together a nice clear slide a graph of five bars.
If you have time, though, you may want put together a separate slide showing monthly sales, and even weekly if you think it worthwhile. Keep them in our deck after your closing slide.
This way, during Q&A someone asks you whether sales had a steady growth over the five years or whether there were any slowdowns, you can pull up the monthly slides when you answer the question. This shows you had done the research and were prepared to discuss the topic in more detail.
Avoid “As I Already Said”
It is fairly common that someone will ask a question that seems to indicate that they weren’t paying attention during your main presentation, because you know you already gave that information. It is tempting to say something along the lines of “as I already said,” or “we already discussed that” when you start to answer the question. Some speakers inadvertently allow themselves to look annoyed or sound annoyed when asked about something they have already shared.
Don’t do any of that.
Saying something along those lines risks embarrassing the questioner, which is never a good idea if you are trying to persuade. It’s even a worse idea if the questioner is someone above you in the company. And giving any indication that you are annoyed can make you come across as a bully.
Instead, then the questioner in the same way you would do anybody else, keeping a neutral expression.
You can say “Let’s look more closely at…” when you begin your answer, showing to the people who were paying attention that you know you have covered the subject again without embarrassing the questioner. Then, if at all possible, use different language to repeat what you have already presented. And, if you can, add some more details so the other people listening gain from the answer as well.
In the next post we will discuss how to end the Q&A session in a way that helps you achieve your goal.
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