Early Preparation of The Q&A Session

The question and answer period is actually A PART of your PRESENTATION, as such you should be well prepared to look good. It can be considered a presentation occurring AFTER your main presentation. Many times a great presentation is marred by a fumbling of the Q&A Session. It is also a great way to confirm message receipt and clarify. You can minimize misconceptions occurring and leave your audience in a positive state.

Tell Your Intention

• Tell your audience at the beginning that there will be a Q&A session after the presentation
• If you have a person introducing you, have them mention this.
• It will increase the odds that people will ask questions by telling them at the start

Priming the Audience “Pump”

• Begin the Q&A session positively with, “Who has the 1st Question?” Believe there will

be some questions!

• If there are no questions: Say, “A question I often get is...” then answer the question.

Then “Are there any other questions?”

• Priming the pump will motivate the audience to ask questions.
• Your presentation will lose momentum if there are no questions! Your job is to stimulate

the audience.

Repeat a Question

• Maintain eye contact with the person asking the question, repeat the question so everyone can hear it. This will also give you time to formulate an answer. Once you begin answering stop looking at the asker, look at the audience.
• By repeating the question you insure you understood the question perfectly.
• Everyone should hear the question and answer.
• DO NOT move to the person who asked the question, if you do, you disconnect from

the audience. Never disconnect from the audience.

• As you end the answer, look at the asker and see if the answer satisfied them.

Bottom Line it

• Don’t give another speech, don’t bore the audience, get to the point.
• Maybe only that one person is interested!
• If you can answer with a “yes” or “no”, do so! This will keep things moving.

Loaded Question

• One of the toughest questions is the loaded question. You must defuse the question first.
• Before answering a question like, “What are you doing with all the extra coin you are pocketing from gauging us on textbooks!”. First, defuse it. Say, “I understand your frustration with the recent price increase. I believe what you are asking is, “Why the sudden price increase?”. Then answer that question.
• You don’t argue with the audience. If you don’t defuse loaded questions you can get into bickering. If they are still unsatisfied, offer to talk off line after the presentation.

Comment Masked as a Question

• Sometimes an audience member wants some air time and makes a comment rather than asking a question. THIS PERSON DOES NOT HAVE A QUESTION!
• Pay attention to their speaking rate, as they take a breath to continue, interrupt, “Thanks for your comment. Next question?” Look at the other side of the room. The interrupted will not be sure whether you thought they were done or not.
• Never deprive the audience of the question period, you are in charge of the room!

Never Praise Questions

• Avoid the “that was a great/excellent/weird question!”. If you do and next person

doesn’t get that comment, you kill the group’s interest in asking.

• Make everyone feel good about asking questions, by saying, “thanks for the

question”.

Conclusion after the Q&A

• A good idea is to have the conclusion after the Q&A session, this allows time control.
• “Before I make my concluding remarks, does anyone have a question?”
• Doing this will allow a powerful ending rather than, “I guess I’m done!”

Maintain Control of the Session

• When opening to audience interaction the risk of losing control is there.
• Prepare logical answers to logical questions ahead of time
• Never be afraid to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll get back to you on that.”
• If the question is not relevant to your Q&A, be polite. “Actually, that question doesn’t

fit the context of our discussion.”

• Never lose your temper, even if someone is heckling or trying to make you look bad.