Handling Questions from the Audience

00:00 So, how do you handle questions from an audience when giving a speech or presentation? First of all, you need to take the attitude of someone wants to ask you a question.

00:14 Great. That's fantastic.

00:16 Too many speakers take the attitude of, Oh, they might ask me something I don't know, or They're interrupting my presentation.

00:23 It's not your presentation, it's the audience's presentation.

00:27 So any time someone wants to ask you a question, that's generally a good thing.

00:31 It means A, they're listening to you.

00:34 B, they're trying to understand.

00:36 You see, there may be a hole in something you've said that other people are confused by and that if you answer this person's question, you'll help everyone.

00:45 D By definition, whatever you say next, an answer to their question is going to be interesting to that person right there.

00:54 So many good things happen when someone wants to ask questions.

00:58 Now. Sure, there are times if you're speaking to 5000 people, and you're given an exact 15-minute time limit, it's not practical to answer every question or even any question.

01:10 But for many of us in the business world, the political world, you've been asked to speak, there's 20, 30 people in the room and there's no strict, strict time limit.

01:22 I would have them ask questions right then.

01:24 I would not ask people to hold their questions to them.

01:28 They're going to forget.

01:30 It's frankly a lot more interesting to have this dialogue going on.

01:35 It shows people you can think on your feet, you're not rattled, and it shows you being completely responsive to your audience.

01:42 Well, why in the world wouldn't you want that? It's basically a softball thrown your way.

01:49 So I love it when someone asks questions.

01:52 It's variety for people's ears.

01:55 They can now hear two voices instead of just yours.

01:57 And that's not saying your voice is bad.

01:59 It's just more interesting to the audience.

02:03 And remember, it's not your presentation.

02:06 Maybe they're asking you about something that you're going to talk about 5 minutes from now. Change the order.

02:10 Unless it profoundly messes up everything you're doing, then you can politely tell them that you are going to talk about that in 5 minutes, and you ask for their indulgence.

02:22 But it's crucial that you act like you're happy to have questions that you want to answer them, and that you answer it fully without going on and on and on.

02:33 I would start answering the question by looking at the person who asked it, then look to other people in the room and then finish by looking at the person who asked the question Do that and your audience will reward you.