Handling Tough Questions

A friend twittered this great article on handling 7 types of tough questions during presentations. I encourage you to read it because it has a lot of great little tips, but the key take-aways are:

• Before answering a hostile, negative, or irrelevant question, identify the key issue then rephrase the question in terms of the key issue. By doing this you strip away all the charged language and bring the focus of the discussion back to the issues at hand.
• If someone asks a question that is a repeat of an earlier question, answer the question quickly but completely.
• Don’t try to remember each part when asked a multiple part question. Answer one of the parts, then return to the asker “You had another question?”
• If the question hits at an underlying flaw in your argument then
  1. Rephrase the question in terms of the key issue as above.
  2. Agree quickly with the point, but then change course and offer an answer.
  3. Supply evidence to support your answer
  4. Conclude positively.

It’s a good practice to always rephrase the questions during a Q&A session. If you’re in a large auditorium or there are listeners dialing in, then it allows the rest of the audience to hear the question and gives the speaker some time to formulate his thoughts. It also eats up time and can reduce the number of questions in a tough session.

Some practices I’d also recommend for dealing with tough Q&A sessions:

• Square-up your stance with a person who asks a hostile question. You don’t want to appear to be fearful or shrinking from the asker.
• Don’t be afraid to answer “I don’t know.” Just tell the asker that you’d be happy to get an answer for them if they follow up with you after the session. Of course, there are some questions you had better know the answer to, but nobody expects you to be omniscient. Additionally, if you’re going to answer “I don’t know,” it has to be your first answer to the question. Don’t try BSing an answer and then get hounded into admitting “I don’t know.”
• Often, your answer doesn’t have to be very good, you just have to have an answer. This speaks to the power of “because.” Use this tactic with caution, however, because it’s bordering on BSing.

Update: I’ve written more on handling tough questions.

Tagged as: influence, power of because, presentations, public speaking