When working with clients, the dilemma of how to handle questions routinely comes up. Most often, speakers are concerned they’ll be asked a question they won’t be able to answer. But, as I’ve mentioned before, the best way to tackle that is to make sure your signature talk only includes content you’re confident talking—and answering questions—about.
After that, the quandary of questions becomes more about interaction, and the level of interaction you want to have with your audience while you’re speaking. Personally, I enjoy being as interactive as the audience wants, and let them know that right from the start. But there are plenty of speakers who prefer their audiences to hold their questions until the end.
Is there a best-practice or preferred method? Nope. Every speaker has to determine what their comfort level is when it comes to answering their audience’s questions. The way I see it, there are three options:
- Ask Me Anytime! Within the first few minutes of your talk, let your audience know you’re open to having an interactive discussion and are happy to answer their questions at any time.
- Take Advantage of Natural Breaks in Your Talk: This works well with signature talks long enough to include a pause between sections, points, steps, exercises, etc. Again, within the first few minutes, let your audience know you’ll be stopping at the end of each section to answer their questions.
- Ask Your Audience to Hold Their Questions Until the End: There are two great reasons for making this choice. The first is so you can structure your talk in a way that naturally answers their most logical questions, right when and where they’re most likely to be asked. The second is so you can maintain the rhythm, pace, and momentum of your signature talk without losing your place.
With each of these options, always make sure you’ve accounted for the amount of time it’s going to take to answer questions when you’re timing the length of your presentation. How?
- Come up with the Top 10 questions people might ask.
- Practice answering one question at a time until you’re comfortable.
- Practice answering that question once more, but this time, time yourself.
Once you know how much time it’s going to take you to answer each of your questions, you’ll be able to figure out how many questions you have time to answer—which is going to help you decide which question-answering strategy is going to fit within the time allotted.
Regardless of how you choose to answer your audience’s questions, don’t let that awkward moment of silence when no one has any more questions be the way your talk concludes. This is your talk. Wrap it up on your own terms. Provide a brief summary/conclusion to your talk, reiterate your offer, share a quote, or whatever. Give them the gift of a final minute or two with someone who sincerely cares about their success, and is here to support them on their journey towards that success.
5 Keys to be a Top-of-Mind Speaker
