How to deal with difficult
questions when giving a speech at an event
As you are caught off guard by a
series of tricky and complicated questions from the audience. Your
failure to answer them convincingly undoes much of the good work you had
carefully built up during your speech.
How did it all suddenly go so wrong?
Here are a few tips to help you deal
with difficult questions when giving a presentation.
1) When you’ve
finished preparing your presentation, sit with a blank sheet of paper and write
down and answer some easy questions you think you may be asked. Then
tackle some of the more difficult questions you can think of. Ask a
trusted friend or spouse to listen to your speech and get them to ask you some
other questions too. Importantly you should also ask them to give you
feedback on your answers to their questions.
2) Anticipating in
advance the mood of the audience is important. If you expect the
atmosphere to be tense or confrontational then allocate more time to preparing
the Q&A session.
3) Listen
carefully during the Q&A session for the hidden agenda question which can
often pop up. Don’t dismiss or brush off these questions. Listen
carefully and you will be able to answer both their initial query and address
the underlying problem.
4) From time to
time we are all asked questions we don’t know the answer to or even worse, are
asked questions we feel we ought to know the answer to, but don’t. It is
best in these circumstances to be honest and open, rather than bluff or
waffle. Perhaps a suitable response might be: “I don’t have that
information to hand right now, but if you leave your contact details with me, I
will send it through to you later today.”
5) Pause. Pausing
for a few seconds to consider your reply before leaping straight into an answer
may feel unnatural at first, but with practice it can give you the extra
seconds you need to formulate a coherent reply.
6) When the
Q&A session has finished ideally you should be the last person to leave the
room, giving you time to address any final concerns people may have on a
one-to-one basis.
Anthony Garvey For more http://www.b2bmarketing.net/blog/posts/2013/05/27/how-deal-difficult-questions-when-giving-speech-event
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