Chapter Five
The Q&A Cycle
[C]ontrolling in any other manner their destiny…1
The Monroe Doctrine
1823
■ Worst-Case Scenario ■
In his 1823 State of the Union Address, President James Monroe preemptively protected the Americas from European colonialism with what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine. Soldiers preemptively prepare for battle by conducting realistic maneuvers. Athletes prepare for competition by practicing with extra weights. Politicians prepare for debates by engaging in mock rehearsals. Salespeople prepare for resistance by learning to handle objections.
In preparing yourself to open the floor to questions, assume the worst-case scenario. Assume that every question you will be asked will have the ballistic intensity of a heat-seeking missile. If you can handle that caliber of ammunition, you can learn to handle any question.
To raise the bar even further, assume that all your Q&A sessions will be conducted in person with large audiences: the one-against-many dynamic. If you can survive those odds, you will be able to handle any question in any encounter: one-to-one, one-to-few, one-to-many, and one-to-virtual.
Of course, not every question you are asked will be a heat-seeking missile, and for those cases, you can keep the techniques you are about to learn in reserve. In the meantime, let’s look at how to handle the worst-case scenario with maximum control.
■ Maximum Control ■
In most large group settings, with an audience of 50 or more, the presenter usually has a microphone, and the audience does not, giving the presenter maximum control to deliver the full presentation uninterrupted. In this situation, the audience members usually hold their questions until the end.
In small group settings, the opposite is true; because of the informality and immediacy, audiences ask questions freely at any time during the presentation, which usually turns the presentation into a discussion. Nevertheless, the presenter must still maintain control. Let’s start with how you can exert control in a large group and then see how you can adjust for smaller groups, as appropriate.
At the end of your presentation, start the Q&A session by opening the floor to questions:
■ Open the Floor ■
Right up front, establish control by setting the ground rules for the session.
Manage the Time
Set the time parameters by making one of these statements as it relates to the particular circumstances:
We have time for a few questions.
I’ll be here for the rest of the afternoon to answer any questions.
We’ll take all your questions in the breakout session.
I don’t have time for questions because I’ve got to catch a flight but will be glad to respond to your questions via email.
Then, as you get closer to the end of your session, fulfill your forecast by starting a countdown: “Three more questions,” “Two more,” “One more,” or “Last question.”
Control the Traffic
In a carryover from grade school, most people in groups usually raise their hands when they want to speak. You can leverage that custom by raising your own hand when you start your Q&A session, implicitly inviting your audience members to raise theirs to be recognized. When you open the floor, raise your hand and say: “Who has a question?”
Usually, one or two hands go up. In virtual meetings, you might see a hand icon pop up. Or some audience members might launch into a question without raising their hands.
Of course, raising your hand is only appropriate in audiences with which you have a peer relationship. Do not expect prospective investors, venture capitalists, or members of the Board of Directors to raise their hands. In small groups, all this changes. The informality of small group sessions makes the exchange more casual and open.
Recognize the Questioner
Let’s say that at some point either during or after your presentation, you see three hands go up. Now you get to pick which person to recognize. Use an open hand and do not point. All too often, presenters or speakers point to indicate their selection. This is perfectly acceptable in a bakery but not in presentations.
To avoid the unconscious tendency to point in Q&A, exercise a simple arithmetic equation: one plus three. Extend your forefinger and roll out your other three fingers to create an open palm.
In presidential press conferences, tradition has it that the president addresses a few select reporters by name. You are not the president of the United States. You might be the president of your company, but you do not have the same privileges as POTUS. For instance, let’s say you know Anika, but you don’t know the man seated behind her. You recognize Anika first and call her by name. Then you recognize the man seated behind her and call him “Sir.” That man will feel like an outsider.
Consider the same circumstances but reverse the order. The first person you recognize is the man seated behind Anika, and you call him “Sir.” No problem. Then you recognize Anika and call her “Ma’am.” Because you know Anika, and Anika knows you know her, you will not offend her.
The rule of thumb is: If you know the name of every person in the room, call everyone by name. If you do not know the name of every person in the room, call no one by name. If you call the names of only selected people, you run the risk of implying favoritism at least and collusion at worst.
Now, having recognized one person, you are ready to yield the floor in the first step of a series of key inflection points known as the Q&A cycle.
■ The Q&A Cycle ■
Yield the Floor to a questioner.
Retake the Floor when the question is done.
Provide an Answer to the question.
Add Value beyond the answer.
Then you repeat the cycle with another questioner. Continue on to another questioner, and then another, and another, in a recurring series of interconnected arcs (see Figure 5.1).*
Figure 5.1 The Q&A Cycle
Moving forward, you’ll learn a comprehensive set of control techniques for each step of the cycle, along with examples of how to—and how not to—deploy them. At the end of the book, you’ll see the cycle again with a summary of all the techniques you will have learned in what will then become the Suasive Q&A Cycle.
Let’s begin with how to maintain control when you yield the floor.
* Readers of the first or second editions will note that in this edition I have reduced the cycle from five steps to four for the simple reason that “Open the Floor,” which was the first step, occurs only once.
■ Yield the Floor ■
Let’s say that you recognize the person in the middle of the room, and you Yield the Floor to that person. Your motor, which has been running at full speed during the entire presentation, suddenly screeches to a stop, and that person, whose motor has been idle during that entire time, suddenly lurches into motion.
All the energy in the room suddenly shifts—and anything can happen, as you’ll see in the next chapter.