How should you handle questions from the audience during your presentation?

A well delivered and managed presentation can do wonders for our personal image, reputation and confidence. It can boost our chances of promotions and opportunities for leadership positions. However much we may have our presentation planned out and practiced, we cannot always predict what questions will arise from our audience and may be nervous about this unforeseen element. Questions can often be a cause for anxiety when presenting. Choose to enjoy questions and see them as engagement rather than obstacles.

As a regular presenter and a coach of those wishing to improve their presenting skills, there is an age old question that comes up….do we take questions during or after a presentation? We’ve all been in situations where a well planned and practiced presentation is de-railed by questions, causing it to stray off topic, overrun, be sabotaged or make us feel ignorant if we don’t know the answer. Conversely we have all sat in presentations where we were told questions would be taken at the end and find ourselves less engaged, or confused by content which a simple question at the time may have resolved. Even worse, where overrun didn’t allow for questions at the end!

The reality is, the success of both options is dependent more on your skills as a presenter and facilitator than about the options themselves. There are pros and cons to both. In this article we will discuss some simple techniques and skills you can develop to handle questions like a pro whether during or after, whoever your audience, whatever the question!

1. Consider the levels of understanding and your audience from the moment you start putting slides together. Launching into a complex presentation with multiple acronyms, language or topics that your audience is not familiar with is a sure way to cause confusion and will either result in overwhelming numbers of questions…or absolute silence as each person tries to work out if they’re the one that’s stupid. Your job is not to present, or be heard, but to be understood.
2. Does your audience know why they’re attending and what you want as a result of the presentation? If they don’t.….then the questions you receive could diverge in all manner of directions based on their interpretation of their role. Sadly I’ve often attended presentations where people have confided that they really don’t know why they’re attending or what their role is.
3. Engage with your audience and provide guidance for interaction. Seeing yourself as a presenter only, your concern may only be to deliver information one way. When we’re anxious or nervous we often do everything we can to avoid interaction. Choose to see your role is as a facilitator, meaning you choose to interact with your audience, even if it is reading subtle body language and adapting your style. As a facilitator it can be really useful to give your audience guidance on how you would like them to interact with you.
4. Ask delegates to raise a hand if they wish to ask something and to keep questions to topic. This may sound a little patronising, but it will encourage delegates to think first and avoids interruptions. It also means that you maintain complete control of the environment and can legitimately halt discussions that go ‘off topic’ or overrun. If no one at your organisation does this…then be brave..be the first...be in control…it works!
5. Have a process for managing questions you do not have an immediate answer to. Research your topic to pre empt obvious possible questions in advance. But, if you find yourself unable to answer, take confidence knowing you have a system for handling. Explain that if you do not know the answer to a question it will be added to a ‘car park’ and you will find out at a break. If you do this, make sure the question is written down and follow through on your promise.  Not knowing is OK, not finding out is unforgivable. Trying to bluff our way out of it, ignore the question entirely, or worse give incorrect information is one of the number one reasons presenters lose credibility. Once lost it’s difficult to recover.
6. Make it easy for the audience to hear and understand the question. Often when a question is asked, presenters respond directly to the questioner… ending up in a one to one conversation. In the meantime, the audience hasn’t heard or understood the question and feel disengaged by the one to one focus…this is when people start checking their phones! When you get a question, step back and choose your approach, a pause of several seconds is fine, it suggests thoughtful consideration. Rephrase and repeat the question to the audience in a way they will understand and loudly enough for them to hear. You gain valuable thinking time and ensure you are responding to the entire audience rather than one individual.
7. Listen to the whole question. Seems simple enough, but in our enthusiasm or fear, we may jump in and make assumptions. This frustrates the questioner and the audience.
8. If you don’t understand the question, then it’s likely the rest of the audience won’t. Ask for clarity before responding with what you hope is the right answer.
9. Keep a check on your time and factor in question time when planning. An easy way to do this, if using slides is to put a small ‘time check’ on each slide, just enough for you to see. This marker will tell you how ahead or behind you are and allow you to adjust response to questions accordingly.
10. Don’t get carried away with your own knowledge or sound of your own voice. Often when we ARE experts, we may feel we want to give a far greater response to a question than is actually necessary…YOU may be the one straying off topic in your enthusiasm or desire to look knowledgable. In almost all presenting situations, if you want people to remember…. less is more. Stick to the question, move on.

All of these approaches are focussed on taking questions DURING the presentation. If you do decide to take them at the end….there are a couple of great ways to manage this more effectively.

1. Factor in protected time at the end. So often this just doesn’t happen and the questions at the end are rushed, or there is time for only one or two.
2. Put post it notes and pens on all tables. Ask attendees to write questions down as they occur. This way they will not be forgotten.
3. At the end of the formal presentation ask attendees to come and stick the questions on the wall or flip chart  at the front and give group a short comfort break. During this time review the questions, group them into themes preparing to answer them when group gets back together. This approach has several great advantages. You get to consider your answer before responding, you can review and group questions with similar themes to gauge the understanding level of certain areas of the topic. You have time to re-phrase the questions when responding. Finally, having had a short break attendees will be re focussed for the final part of the session.

If you have an important presentation coming up. Practice question handling using these techniques in advance. So often we just practice the presentation and what we want to say. Ask a colleague to assist you by asking questions during your practice and ask for feedback at the end on what went well and what could be improved when it came to question handling.

The approaches above will move you from a presenter and purely deliverer to a facilitator. Moreover it will ensure that your presentations hit the mark and are understood rather than just heard. Enjoy using them and handling questions as a professional!

If you have any comments or suggestions for question handling I’d love to hear them in the comments section below. Thanks for reading.

How would you handle the question and answer session of a presentation?

What is the best way to prepare for questions from the audience during or after your presentation?