Involve the whole audience in your answer

Have you seen speakers who get involved with the person who has asked a question and ignore the rest of the audience? In some situations the questioner may try to “hook” the speaker with a difficult question. You can always tell if a speaker is “hooked” because he or she focuses only on the person who asked the question.

Employ the 25-75 % rule

Direct approximately 25 % of your eye contact to the person who asked the questions and approximately 75 % to the rest of the audience. (This is especially important in a hostile question-and-answer situation). Don’t ignore the person who asked the question or the rest of the audience. This will help you stay in command of the situation and keep the audience involved in your presentation.

Keep answers to the point

Don’t belabor an issue. Make your answer long enough to cover the subject but short enough to be interesting!

Dealing with hostile questions

Let’s face it, sometimes people in the audience are upset or angry and they are going to take it out on you. It is probably one of the most difficult situations speakers face. Here is a three-step process for dealing with tough situations:

Acknowledge feelings, fact, or both

For example, someone asks, “Why didn’t you succeed and go 40 % over budget?”.

Using this technique, you would begin your answer by saying something like, “Mike, it’s true, we did go over budget and I know you are upset about it.” Notice that this reply is non-defensive and avoids escalating the situation.

Respond with information

At this point explain what happened with the facts of the situation. “As some of you know, we had the opportunity to make a very large bid. In order to prepare the bid we had to purchase five new computer systems. I am happy to report that it was an excellent investment, albeit over budget, because we won the bid”.

Maintain position

At this point it is imperative that you restate your original position sentence. Finish with a strong statement of your stance on the issue. Something like, “Therefore, I maintain that we should have a 50% budget increase next year”.

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Use of direct and indirect questions

Direct questions

Two types of direct questions:

“Yes/No” – questions which begin with an auxiliary / a modal and require “yes” or “no” answers.

Do you find the option satisfactory? Is this really satisfactory?

Can the company take on a new development project at present? Will it cost too much?

Has the time for new development projects come? Were you with the company five years ago?

Question-word questions which begin with question words:

Who could put the company back on its feet? Which option would you recommend?

What would you suggest?

What is the point of taking capital away from the company? Where is the subsidiary located?

How are you going to return the loan?

How long will it take you to restructure the company?

Indirect questions

Word order in indirect questions: the subject of the question comes before the verb.

Could you tell me when you plan to reorganize the R&D department? I’d like to know how you are going to do it.

If or whether in indirect “yes/no” questions.

Normally both if and whether can be used. If is the more usual; whether can indicate that a choice is to be made.

Could you tell me if you plan to reorganize the section? I wonder whether you plan to do it alone or to merge with another company.

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N.B.

or not can be put immediately after whether, but not immediately after if.

I’m not clear from what you said whether or not you support the idea. I’d like to know whether or not you are going to diversify.

Questions from the audience

Open direct questions in a large audience

In a large audience open direct question-word questions (beginning with who, what, where, when, why, how) are suitable.

Polite requests in a smaller audience

Polite requests for information seem most appropriate for a smaller audience.

Formulas for requesting information

(graded on a scale from direct to tentative)

I’d like

to ask you...

to know...

Do you happen to know...

Perhaps you could tell me...

Could you possibly tell me...

Do you think you could tell me...

Would you mind telling me...

I wonder if you could tell me...

Do you think I could ask you...

I was wondering if you could tell me...

Tentative

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The speaker’s questions

Making sure the audience understands you

Checking at regular intervals that your talk is correctly understood by asking the following questions:

understand?

see what I mean?

myself clear?

Are you with me? So far, so good?

Asking questions to hold audience attention throughout a presentation

The presenter may need to ask questions for different reasons:

§to keep the audience alert;

§to know how the session is progressing;

§to stimulate / direct audience thinking;

§to gather additional information, etc.

Supposing we take on a new development project, what would we need to do next?

What does your experience tell us?

Has anyone encountered such difficulties? Has anyone any experience of...?

But what has it got to do with our problems? However, how will this affect our company? What else can we expect from the reorganisation? What drawbacks have you found?

What else is there to say on this problem?

That’s the difficulty. But what’s the way to cope with it?

Some of these questions may be actual, audience-oriented questions, others – simply rhetorical.

For actual questions it is advisable:

§to use a questioning tone;

§to leave a pause to get an answer from the audience.

For questions the speaker will answer it is advisable:

§to use a falling tone;

§to omit a pause after the question;

§to begin the question with after all, but, however;

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