Transcript of a live talk by TJ Walker offering practical guidance on how speakers should handle audience questions. Main recommendations: take questions during the presentation when feasible, use questions to engage and recalibrate content, allot explicit time for Q&A, politely defer long or off-topic questioners, and avoid barriers (e.g., written/tweeted questions) that reduce audience connection.
Chapters
So what's the best way to deal with questions during a presentation? What a lot of speakers do is something like this. Please hold all questions till the end of my presentation. I'm sorry, but I think that's a horrible approach. First of all, guess what? It's not your presentation. It is your audience's presentation. Now, I can't give you a one size fits all for every scenario. Certainly, if you're speaking to a thousand people and there's another speaker coming up in 20 minutes, you can't stop and answer a bunch of questions without it really messing up things. But for the typical person speaking to a group of colleagues in their own business or their own organization, or if it's a new business pitch in front of a prospect and they've blocked out an hour for you, and there's not a rigid time constraint, my recommendation is take their questions right now. Because here's the thing. If someone's asking you a question, they've already done a number of positive things that have helped you and that are good indications. If someone's asking a question of you, number one, it means they're paying attention. They're not immersed in their cell phone or daydreaming. Number two, they're trying to understand something at a deeper level. That's good. Number three, you have perhaps said something confusing and you jumped over something that's obvious to you because you're an expert on this, but maybe no one else understands it, so they're asking a question that maybe everyone else is thinking about. Number four, you're now hearing a different voice. That makes it more interesting. Many people would rather listen to their favorite band or a symphony rather than one singer or just one instrument. There's variety now, so when you put it all together, it's a good thing. It also shows you care about them and that you're focused on. Here's the next thing. If you're asked a question and you answer it, you now know that everything you're saying is incredibly interesting to this one person. Maybe it's interesting to the others, too. So it's a chance to recalibrate your speech. That's a good thing. Now, can someone go too far? Can you have one person who keeps on asking irrelevant questions that are bogging things down and no one else is caring? Yeah, it's possible. In that case, I would say, T.J. your questions are so important, I want to give you the time it really deserves. If you could meet me back by the exit sign when I'm finished, I'll Go into that in more detail and then proceed this way. You're not telling the person, ah, shut up with the stupid questions. You're being polite and you're telling the person, I will answer your question, but I'm not going to do it right now. Someone may ask you a question that relates to something you were going to talk about five minutes from now. Tough. Talk about it now. Now, it's possible that someone might ask you a question that deals with a highly complex matter that does. It doesn't make sense until you've laid the proper framework and you are getting there. In that case, and in that case only, I would say I'm going to answer that in a few minutes, but I need to go over a few other principles so that it makes sense, because that is where we're heading. And let the person know you are going to be responsive to them. The other big issue with questions is actually allot time for it. If you're given an hour, don't come in prepared to speak for an hour. Come in prepared to speak for 45 minutes. Give your audience time to ask questions. This way, you're showing them you respect them. You want this to be engaging, you want this to be interactive. Give them time for questions. Questions can be a huge asset to you as the speaker. We know when someone's asking a question, they're not falling asleep. Let's use that to our advantage. The other thing I would suggest, if let's say you're a more prominent celebrity or you're a bigger deal in your industry. One trend I see that I really do not like is the idea of asking people to write their questions down, pass them forward. A lot of people just don't like to write or for that matter, tweet your questions. We'll pull the best. It's another barrier between the audience and you. All things being equal, the fewer barriers, the more they'll feel connected to you. The more they'll like you, listen to you, focus on your message and remember it.
