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1.) Upgrade to First Class
Treat the Q&A segment as an important part of your formal presentation preparation. Give it the same status as you would the introduction, conclusion, primary messages, sound bites or any other portion of your talk. Rather than book passage for it in steerage, upgrade it to First Class status. There are tremendous opportunities here for driving your messages home with your audience. But there are important pitfalls as well, so treat the Q&A with appropriate respect.

2.) BYOQ!
How many times have you concluded a presentation, left time available at the end for questions and the audience sat and stared at you? You may have simply exhausted the subject in covering it so thoroughly, or there are so many holes left open they don’t know where to begin. Here’s an option: bring your own questions! Not only does this provide you with an opportunity to bring up points related to your presentation that you weren’t able to include earlier for time considerations, but it also enables you to use the material as a segue to again reinforce your primary messages. If anything, starting with your own question may just be the spark that gets the ball rolling.

3.) Watch out for Booby-traps
The Q&A is the most risk-filled portion of any presentation. It’s the segment you have the least amount of control over. While it’s often advisable to repeat a question aloud before your answer—especially when you feel not everyone may have heard it—do not repeat negative phrases or pejorative words used in the question. Rephrase when necessary and never repeat these terms in your answer. It only serves to reinforce impressions you want to avoid. Also, proceed only at your own peril when confronted with hypothetical, forced-choice alternatives contained in some questions as well as false information. Many answers can be prepared ahead of time, to an extent, when you know there are hot-button issues associated with your subject matter that will probably be raised. Preemption is often the most effective inoculation strategy!

4.) Control the Flow
Start out by looking directly at the questioner but bridge to including the entire audience for the majority of the time you spend answering. When you’re finished, do not return to the original questioner. It is also often helpful to use phrases like, “Let’s give someone else an opportunity” when you have a persistent individual insist on asking a series of follow-ups. Another technique is to explicitly limit the number of questions up front or emphasize to the audience that there is only time for “a few questions.” If a portion of a multi-part question would involve a lengthy answer (or you want more time to think about your response), handle the shorter answer and offer to go into more detail with the questioner on an individual basis after the program.

In the end, it's vital to always leave time for yourself to close with a short summary of the main points of your overall presentation. We could spend hours on this subject but these are probably the most significant overlooked areas. If you have any further questions about the subtle yet important art of handling Q&A effectively, contact us.