(The Elegant Art of Managing Questions and
Time)
You are in the midst of delivering a demo and things are going
well… Somebody asks a question and you
answer it, then start to return to your planned demo – but he asks a follow-up
question. You answer that in more
detail, since it required a deeper response.
Again you think he is satisfied, but he asks a further follow-up
question, which you proceed to answer in breathtaking depth, showing detailed
examples in your software and covering extensive whiteboard space with drawings
and text…
After several minutes you realize you are waaaay off track and “in
the weeds”. Except for the (low-ranking)
person who asked the questions, everyone else looks bored or confused.
Worse, you notice that the high-ranking members of the audience
somehow left the room while you were in your explanation. To add insult to injury, you are now short on
time as well!
How do we simultaneously encourage questions, yet make sure they
don’t take us off track?
Chaos
Controlled
The Swiss are very organized (understatement). In Basel, they celebrate Carnival (called “Fasnacht”),
in a typically Swiss way: “Now we will have chaos, and this is the way we will
organize it…” The chaos is carefully
scheduled to start and end at precise times.
You can march anywhere you want, as long as it is within the carefully
defined limits of the old town. And you
can wear any costume you want, as long as it is one of the 13 specifically
prescribed characters.
We can learn a thing or two from the Swiss, with regards to
demos. Yes, we want to encourage
questions and make things as interactive as possible – but we need to manage the
process as well.
There are three types of questions we might expect to receive in a
demo:
- Great
Questions – which we should answer right away.
- Good
Questions – which should be “parked” for later.
- Stupid
Questions – which should also be “parked” for later, but with a nuance…
Let’s take them in order…
Great
Questions
Great Questions make our hearts sing with joy (they do!). They are questions that lead directly to the
next point you want to make; they underscore the value; they are the questions
you want your customer to ask.
In Great Demo! Workshops, we teach the idea of having answers to
typical questions ready to go, but placed (in a virtual sense) behind your
back. You want your customer to ask these questions – and when they do so,
and do so at the right time, they are truly terrific – they are Great
Questions.
You’ll know your demo is going perfectly
when your customer asks the
question you want them to ask at that
moment.
You answer Great Questions crisply – one or two sentences – that’s
it!
Good
Questions
Most of the questions we receive in an otherwise well-prepared
demo are Good Questions. They are
earnest, honest and indicate interest from your audience – and they are the
very questions that can take your demo into the weeds.
How do we handle Good Questions?
Park them.
For example, early in the demo, someone asks, “What infrastructure
is required to install your software?” and you know the answer will likely
require some discussion and detail – and your audience includes high-ranking
executives, middle managers, end users and administrators.
You respond, “Thank you for that question. That deserves more development than I’d like
to invest right now… Let me capture it
here, on the whiteboard.” You right it
down and then ask, “Have I captured it correctly?”
Your customer indicates agreement.
You say, “Thanks, let’s plan to address this later in our session
or in the Q&A segment – is that acceptable to you?”
Your customer says, “Yes” – releasing you to continue your demo as
planned. Very elegant, very
professional.
This process works extremely well.
Why? Because your customer sees you capture his/her question,
removing the concern that you are simply dismissing the question (which can
happen if you only acknowledge it verbally or appear to write it down on a
paper pad to yourself).
You’ve essentially made an agreement with your audience that you
will address that question. Note that
the timing is now up to you. You could
address it later in the demo, during Q&A – or in a separate session over
the phone or web.
Just
Say “Yes”
Things are going well and someone asks, “Can it do xxx?” (“Can it
print?” is the example I often use in Great Demo! Workshops). Instead of simply answering, “Yes” – we dive
into our software to show how it is done, along with several options and
alternatives. We’ve taken what was possibly a Great Question and turned it into a
Good one…
Listen carefully to how people ask questions. When they ask, “Can it…?” you may only need
to respond “Yes” or “No”. You can test
to see if they want further
explanation by asking, “Is that sufficient or would you like to see it?” Most
often, your audience responds, “Nope – I’m good.”
When your audience asks, “How do I…?” it is more likely that they
need to see how it is done in your software.
Stupid
Questions
Stupid Questions come from two sources: truly stupid people and hostiles. Hostiles are the people who don’t like you,
they don’t like your company, they don’t like your product; they feel it is their
obligated duty to torture the vendor…
How do we handle hostiles?
Two approaches:
1. Sustained, small-arms, automatic
weapons fire. OK, kidding. (And that approach is likely only legal in
Texas and Alaska).
2. Treat their Stupid Questions in a
similar fashion to Good Questions. A hostile asks, “How come your software sucks so bad and costs so
much…?” (Note: clearly not
a Great
Question…).
You respond, “This requires more development than I’d like to
invest right now. I’m going to capture
it here on the whiteboard [along with all of the other questions]. We’ll plan to address it later on or during
the Q&A session.”
Important note: do not give the hostile the option to
respond. You want to close him/her
down.
Interestingly, we often see other members of the audience help you
manage the hostile – they may, in fact, ask the hostile to stop tormenting you,
when they see you are using a reasonable and rational process to manage the
session.
So the strategy is to treat Stupid Questions similarly to Good
Questions – queue them up on the Parking Lot for later.
Some
Subtleties
All questions from high-ranking people are Great Questions (even
if they are Stupid).
You can turn a Great Question into a Good Question by going too
deep with your answer. You are allowed
(encouraged, even) to park yourself in these cases…!
Teaser answers: you can
mitigate the potentially awkward feeling of parking a Good Question by offering
a brief, “teaser” answer – just a sentence or two before you complete parking
the question.
When parking hostile questions, consider one of two strategies:
1. Write it done verbatim for public
display. The advantage is that it shows
how stupid the question really was. The
disadvantage is that the audience will be looking at “Sucks so bad and costs so
much” for the duration of the session.
2. Paraphrase it by finding its central
issue. For example, translate “Sucks so
bad and costs so much” to “Quality and Value”.
Looks much better on a whiteboard…!
When should you address any Stupid Questions that you have
parked? That’s up to you. Interestingly, many hostiles leave the meeting before you get to the
parked questions…
Body language: there are likely
hundreds of books written on how to answer questions, many of which focus a
good portion of their guidance on body language. Here are a few suggestions harvested from
these tomes:
1. When listening to a question,
initially move towards the asker – and don’t move backwards, away from
him/her. That appears to the audience as
if you are running away!
2. When listening to a question, assume a
neutral body position (no folded arms, don’t jingle keys or change in your
pocket, don’t fidget with a “clicker”, pointer or your mouse).
3. When listening to a question, don’t
look at your watch (you can lose major elections this way).
More
Chaos Control
Who else can help you manage the chaos? Your sales counterpart (if present) has a
number of specific roles to play: He or
she should be prepared to “rescue” you by stepping in to help parse and park
questions. Sales people:
- Can help
to identify Great vs. Good/Stupid questions.
- Should
manage the Parking Lot, capturing questions for you.
- Should
help clarify questions (often by asking questions in return).
- Should
repeat questions when you are operating over the web. (Why? To
make sure you heard the question correctly and to give you a few extra seconds
to prepare an answer!)
Managing Questions and Time
There are three types of questions we can manage in a demo:
- Great
Questions – which we answer right away.
- Good
Questions – which we park for later.
- Stupid
Questions – which we also park for later, but without giving any choices…!
Managing questions in your demos
with this process will help make your demonstrations crisp, compelling and surprisingly effective.
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