Posts Tagged ‘audience questions’

An audience member’s question can tap a huge reservoir of knowledge you have.

It’s a good feeling when it happens.  You have total confidence in your ability to answer.  You are definitely a subject matter expert on this one.

Be careful.

You don’t want to go on and on until you have delivered an answer that could stand by itself as a separate talk.  Such an over-long answer will discourage additional questions and, potentially, divert attention away from your main theme.

Give a concise answer and then, if you think it will be appreciated, offer to speak to this audience member later.  If you would like to discuss the research further, catch me after the meeting.  I’ve unearthed some studies that are quite interesting but would take us off our topic if I talked about them now.

When an audience member asks a question and you don’t know the answer, it’s okay to say you don’t know the answer.  Even if you are a subject matter expert, you can’t be expected to have every specific piece of information that might be requested.

Of course, you can’t just say you don’t know.  You need to include a promise that you will get back to the person with the requested information.  I don’t know the answer to that, but I will find out and get back to you.

In recent years I have noticed speakers putting a twist on this “get back to you” promise.  They ask the audience member to e-mail them with the question.  Would you do me a favor and e-mail that question to me.  I don’t want to forget it.

This e-mail request is transparently self-serving.  Instead of taking responsibility for the question, the speaker is pushing the responsibility back on to the audience member.  Clearly the hope is that the audience member will not follow through with an e-mail and the speaker can forget about it.

Do the right thing and maintain responsibility for the questions you get.  It’s okay to ask an audience member to write the question on the back of his or her business card (re: contact information), but you should follow through.

You’ve heard of customer service.  This is audience service.

Are you one of those speakers who only calms down fully when audience members start asking questions?

When all the attention is on you, and yours is the only voice in the room, your anxiety level is high.  When the questions start, and the situation becomes more conversational, your shoulders relax and your blood pressure goes down.

If this sounds familiar, avoid the standard questions-at–the-end presentation format whenever you can.  You need audience participation as early as possible.

Ideally, if the audience size is manageable, begin your talk by asking one or two questions of the audience and inviting a couple of comments.  This will enable you to start calming down immediately.

If, during your presentation, your nerves start to creep back up, engage the audience again. 

Follow this technique of engaging the audience whenever you need the calming effect and you will reap a bonus benefit.  You will get a reputation for being a highly interactive presenter.  No one ever needs to know that all that audience interaction is really nerve management.