Handling Questions in Demos: Verbal Aikido

 

One of the key ideas of Aikido is to deflect your opponent’s 

energy and momentum or use it against them. 

The same idea can apply to demos!

 

 

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

– Winston Churchill

 

 

I was delivering a demo and halfway through the meeting 

a hostile audience member said, 

“How come your software sucks so bad and costs so much?” 

(This is verbatim!)

 

I responded, “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 the other questions. 

We’ll plan to address it later on during our Q&A session.”

 

This was acceptable to everyone, but I hesitated 

before adding it to the list. 

 

The classic method of “parking” the topic would be 

to write it as it was expressed. 

 

However, I didn’t want the audience staring at 

“How come your software sucks so bad and costs so much?” 

for the balance of the meeting. 

 

And a slightly distilled version like, 

“software sucks, costs so much” 

wouldn’t improve things.

 

I recalled a lesson I’d learned in a training session 

that discussed reducing prospects’ questions to their 

“Neutral Pillars,” which is a terrific method 

of capturing an idea with a positive spin.

 

I applied the Neutral Pillars approach and wrote down, 

“Quality and Value” on the whiteboard. 

Much better: a bit of verbal aikido!

 

 

Moral: Park hostile questions and use Neutral Pillars!

 

Discussion: Note that if I had written down 

the question verbatim or distilled it, the audience 

would be seeing that text the balance of the demo. 

 

Instead, I identified two relevant Neutral Pillars, 

translating “software sucks so bad” to “Quality,” 

and “costs so much” to “Value.”

 

These were the words the audience saw on 

the whiteboard Parking Lot for the balance of the meeting. 

Much better!

 

Want more bitesize engaging stories and lessons learned? 

See “Suspending Disbelief” https://tinyurl.com/yc7rsrmy 

 

And you’ll find more details on when and how 

to elegantly and effectively park questions in 

Chapter 8 “Managing Time and Questions” of Great Demo! here: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9SNKC2Y/