Q and A session – where should you put them in your talks?

This vlog is about the best place for your Q and A session in your presentations.

Q and A – how to handle them in your presentations

 Here’s the summary if you don’t have the opportunity to watch the video.

Questions about your Q and A session

One of the questions that I often get asked is about Q and A, where to place it and how to handle it.

And they are two fantastic questions about questions.

Here we’re going to deal with where to put a Q and A session.

Where they’re usually placed

Convention typically says that a Q and A goes at the end of a talk. And that’s quite a good place to have them. It means that people have got the opportunity to ask you questions to make sure that they go away having fully understood what you have said.

There is a problem with them going at the end, which is either that you get this rather embarrassing silence at the end, when nobody asks any questions. And that means that that lovely, well crafted, energetic, engaging presentation sort of slides away to nothing.

So that is a bit of a problem.

And it also means especially if you’ve done maybe a complex or maybe technical type of presentation, that you’ve left it right to the very end for people to take make clarification. That might mean that they’ve not really understood what’s being said and they’re having to then go backwards and try and work it out.

So it’s not always the right place to put them at the end.

But if you do put them at the end, then where you place them in that conclusion is absolutely critical.

What other options are there?

Let’s just think about some alternatives.

If you are doing complex, technical type of presentations, you might choose to have a number of different question times dotted throughout your talk. If you’ve delivered a particular piece of information and you want to make sure that your audience has understood it, then you might introduce question and answer time, then and you’d probably preface it.

You’d probably prime it, sign post it by saying, “Before we move on to the next bit.

Do you have any questions on the bit that I’ve just covered?”

And then you’ll know that everybody’s on the same page. Everybody has same understanding before you move on to or add to their knowledge.

So that’s good for those of you who might deliver training or run seminars as well.

If you are going to have your Q and A at the end…

The other piece around where do you place Q and A is if you are going to use it at the end, just make sure it’s not the very last thing that you say. 

So I’ve talked about the power of a final thought in another vlog, and your Q and A should always go before your final thought.

You might need to sign post it or prime the audience by saying, “Before I leave you with my final thought,” or “before we finish fully for this afternoon, we’ve got time for some questions.”

And that way you’ve got a neat, contained Q and A session.

Followed by that statement, or those words that you want people to remember afterwards.

Create a strong finish

So they remember that, not necessarily any of the ad hoc and off the cuff answers that you might give in a Q and A.

I hope that’s helpful just to spark some ideas about where you might choose to put Q and A in to your talks.

If you’d like to know about ending your presentations with impact, this video explains them in more detail.

Have a go and let me know how you get on. And of course, if you need any help, please get in touch.