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Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod for today's lesson on how to deal with the question and answer session at the end of a presentation.
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A presentation can be planned, organized, scripted, and rehearsed, but that's simply not possible with the questions you might get at the end of your presentation.
Sure, you can try to anticipate what people might ask, but you never really know.
They may refer to specific points in your presentation and challenge you on these points.
For this reason, you need the skills to handle whatever you're faced with, and sometimes that means overcoming doubt or resistance to your ideas.
You might have to use buffers to deal with tough questions and concede certain points to your audience.
You may also find yourself clarifying a point and paraphrasing your audience's questions.
In this lesson, we'll listen to the Q &A following a presentation by Nick, a sales director for a steel company.
Brian and Cindy are posing some difficult questions.
Nick and his boss, Max, are using several techniques for dealing with these questions.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
One, how does Nick respond at first when Brian asks a tough question about the survey results?
Two, Cindy begins to ask a question about retraining the salespeople.
What does Nick say to clarify what he meant?
Three, how does Nick deal with Cindy's question about measuring success?
Many thanks for your attention.
So now, I'm very interested in hearing your comments.
Well, thank you very much.
I'm sure we all agree that it's an interesting proposal.
Thank you. Now, going back to what you were saying about our product lacking a clear value proposition, you're saying that our salespeople are not successfully differentiating our product from the competitors.
Yes, that's right. They're not communicating to the customer the experience of using ColorMax.
Not just facts and figures, but what makes ColorMax different in terms the customer can relate to?
Then why would you say that our market surveys are ranking us 30 % ahead of the competition in the key values that we are promoting?
That's a fair question, Brian.
I know your team has worked very hard on the launch, and I've studied the latest survey results, but the proof is in the pudding.
We have to ask ourselves, why aren't we selling more steel?
So you just don't lend any credence to the survey?
That's not what I'm saying.
With such positive results, has it occurred to you that it might be just a little bit too early to make such a sweeping indictment of our training?
Nick, Brian, hold your horses.
I can see we're butting heads a little bit, and it's not productive.
Let's use the time we have left to sound out Nick's proposal.
Can I come in here?
Go ahead, Cindy. If we retrain all the salespeople… Sorry, hold on a sec, Cindy.
Perhaps that wasn't totally clear.
In the first phase, I'm just proposing we retrain the project engineers and key account managers, not the whole sales force, just the people with the greatest customer contact.
Alright, but it's still a lot of people.
Right, I can see what you're getting at.
However, I expect that with proper implementation, we can get the job done in a month.
But how do we measure success?
You mean how can we tell if it's working?
Yes, that's right. That's a good question.
I would expect to see a 5 % increase in order volume.
Now let's go through the dialogue again, and listen to how the question and answer session is managed.
At the beginning, we hear Nick invite people to comment or ask questions.
Note that in the related BEP 33C lesson, we covered different ways to open the Q &A following a presentation.
Many thanks for your attention.
So now, I'm very interested in hearing your comments.
Well, thank you very much.
I'm sure we all agree that it's an interesting proposal.
Thank you. Now, going back to what you were saying about our product lacking a clear value proposition.
Bryan wants to ask a question about the value proposition, or the basic reason why someone would pay money for a product.
This is a specific point from Nick's presentation.
So Bryan says, going back to what you were saying.
This is a way to be very specific when asking a question, but we can also use this technique when answering a question.
In this case, we might refer back to something we said ourselves in our presentation.
Let's try some more ways of referring back to an earlier point.
Let's go back to the topic of sales for a moment.
Now, I mentioned our hiring policy earlier.
I just wanted to add...
...to build on what I said before about proposal writing.
After referring back to something Nick said, Bryan continues by clarifying what Nick meant and asking a question.
Let's listen. You're saying that our salespeople are not successfully differentiating our product from the competitors.
Yes, that's right. They're not communicating to the customer the experience of using ColorMax, not just facts and figures, but what makes ColorMax different in terms the customer can relate to.
Then why would you say that our market surveys are ranking us 30 % ahead of the competition in the key values that we are promoting?
As you can hear, Bryan is challenging Nick's idea.
His question is about why their surveys put them ahead of the competition when the salespeople aren't doing a great job.
It's a tough question and one that Nick has to handle carefully.
Let's hear how he does that.
That's a fair question, Bryan.
I know your team has worked very hard on the launch and I've studied the latest survey results, but the proof is in the pudding.
We have to ask ourselves, why aren't we selling more steel?
Nick doesn't back down from his central point, explaining that the proof is in the pudding.
In other words, whatever the rankings say, they're not selling more steel.
But before Nick gives this rather direct explanation, he uses a buffer.
A buffer is something we say to soften a statement before we make a difficult point.
Nick used a couple of buffers.
First he said, that's a fair question, Bryan.
This shows he's open to the discussion.
And secondly, he says he knows Bryan's team has worked hard.
In these ways, Nick is providing a soft intro to his more direct statement about the fact that they're not selling more steel.
Let's practice some more examples of using a buffer.
Ah, yes, thanks for that question.
Well, that's a really interesting point.
Thanks for bringing that up.
Let me explain why.
I'm very glad you asked that.
As you can hear next, even with the buffer, Bryan is a bit upset.
So you just don't lend any credence to the survey?
That's not what I'm saying.
With such positive results, has it occurred to you that it might be just a little bit too early to make such a sweeping indictment of our training?
Nick, Bryan, hold your horses.
I can see we're butting heads a little bit, and it's not productive.
Let's use the time we have left to sound out Nick's proposal.
In this situation, Nick is fortunate that his boss Max will come to his defense and try to bring the level of conflict down.
He wants Bryan and the whole group to sound out or listen to Nick's proposal.
Once things have settled down, Cindy comes forward with a question.
Can I come in here?
Go ahead, Cindy. If we retrain all the salespeople...
Sorry, hold on a sec, Cindy.
Perhaps that wasn't totally clear.
As Cindy starts to ask her question, Nick sees that she has misunderstood something he said earlier.
She mentions retraining all the salespeople, but that's not what Nick actually said, so he interrupts her to clear it up.
Nick uses a few expressions in clearing up the misunderstanding.
He uses the word sorry in order to interrupt and hold on a sec to mean wait a moment.
Then he uses the expression, perhaps that wasn't totally clear.
You can hear the softening, perhaps, in this statement.
Many of the expressions we use in these situations contain softening language, such as not quite, and a little, and sorry.
Let's practice some of these expressions for clearing up a misunderstanding.
Actually, that's not quite what I meant.
There might be a little misunderstanding on this point.
Sorry, but that's not quite right.
Well, the truth is a little different, in fact.
Now let's listen as Nick explains what he actually meant when it comes to training.
In the first phase, I'm just proposing we retrain the project engineers and key account managers, not the whole sales force, just the people with the greatest customer contact.
Alright, but it's still a lot of people.
Right, I can see what you're getting at.
However, I expect that with proper implementation, we can get the job done in a month.
When people have concerns or doubts, you'll get a better response if you don't just dismiss those concerns.
Sometimes you have to tell people they're right, or at least that you understand what they're getting at, or what they mean.
This is what Nick does before saying that he still thinks it's possible to get it done.
What are some other ways we can concede a point when people have questions or doubts?
Let's run through some more examples.
Yes, that's actually a very good point.
I can certainly see why you'd say that.
Okay, I get it. Point taken.
That's completely fair.
Cindy has another question about the training implementation.
Let's listen. But how do we measure success?
You mean, how can we tell if it's working?
Cindy's question is about measuring success.
Nick isn't quite sure what she means, so before answering, he wants to clarify the question.
He does this by paraphrasing or restating the question using different words.
We can use paraphrasing to ensure we understand what someone is asking.
We can also use this as a way of buying a bit more time to answer a difficult question.
Let's practice some more examples of using paraphrasing to clarify a question.
Do you mean, what is the bigger purpose of the plan?
I think you're asking about the budget.
Is that right? Just to be clear, are you wondering about how many people are on staff?
By long term, do you mean over the next ten years?
Now let's listen to the end of the dialogue.
Yes, that's right. That's a good question.
I would expect to see a 5 % increase in order value.
As you can hear, once again Nick is using a buffer, saying that's a good question.
In general, it's a good idea to maintain a positive attitude like this throughout the Q &A.
If you start getting defensive when people ask tough questions, things will only get tougher.
Nick has done a good job of maintaining this positivity and attempting to be very clear.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you've just given a presentation about staffing and increasing sales.
You're now answering questions about your presentation.
You'll hear a cue from someone in the meeting, then I'll tell you how to respond.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each response.
Ready? Let's give it a go.
I'm curious about how we're going to attract new staff.
Start by saying to answer that you'd like to return to the topic of wages.
Answer. Well, to answer that, I'd like to return to the topic of wages.
Isn't that sales chart based on numbers from last year?
Respond with a buffer by saying, thanks for bringing that up, and let me explain why.
Answer. Thanks for bringing that up, and let me explain why.
Didn't we lose over 20 employees last year?
Clear up the misunderstanding by saying that the truth is it was just 12.
Answer. Actually, the truth is that it was just 12.
So I feel like the real reason for the decrease is increased competition.
Respond by conceding the point by noting that you can see why the person would say that.
Answer. I can certainly see why you would say that.
I wonder if increasing sales is all about promotion.
Respond by paraphrasing the question, and ask if the person means we should spend more on marketing.
Answer. Do you mean that we should spend more on marketing?
That's all for this lesson on handling the Q &A after a presentation.
We've learned how to refer to earlier points, use a buffer to deal with tough questions, and clear up misunderstandings.
We've also covered how to concede a point, and paraphrase to clarify a question.
For more practice, premium members can access the online quizzes and PDF transcripts for this and other lessons on the BEP website.
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Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
