The final part of a presentation, dedicated to questions and answers, can throw even experienced speakers off balance. This is because if they don’t handle it well, the audience will leave with an unpleasant feeling and doubts. So can you avoid this? First of all, realize that it’s up to the speaker to have the situation firmly in hand. The audience may ask unpleasant and unexpected questions, but the speaker always decides how he will answer. The speaker’s answers should be brief and direct and he should not mix answers from other presentations. The five following tips for handling questions and answers in presentations were published by the HR Communication website.
Do not end right after the questions
In most presentations, the Q&As only come at the end. But this can distract the audience from the main message of the entire presentation and allow them to leave while thinking about something totally marginal. So when the Q&A session ends, close the presentation with a brief summary of the most important ideas.
Prepare for the questions
Try talking to your audience even before the presentation and ask what about the given topic interests them most. You will soon see that approximately ten of the same questions will be repeated for each presentation. Always prepare several versions of the answer to each one of them and practice delivering the answers in a convincing fashion.
Repeat the questions
The speaker should repeat the questions that are asked so that everyone hears them. He should also paraphrase them in his own words in order to make sure he really understands them. That way you’ll get to the core issue and you won’t lose time responding to something marginal. If you do not know the answer, admit it. This gives you more credibility than if you make something up and this is later revealed. Instead promise that you will get the answer and communicate it later. You can also ask the audience directly whether somebody would like to answer.
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