Okay. Maybe you do know the answer but you are uncomfortable with answer for one reason or another. Actually, there could be only two reasons, you could be uncomfortable. The information is confidential or it shows you in bed light. Now, if it shows you in bed light, that's criticism and we'll deal with that slightly later. If the information is confidential, if it's classified, what I suggest you say, is just say, "Well, I'm sorry. This information unfortunately is classified. It's confidential. Now, it might sound bad because people might not believe you, but that means that you have a trust issue and maybe you need to get back to the beginning of your presentation and work on building trust with them. I was doing a consulting project for an international insurance company and they came to me with this question, they say, "Well, you know what? Sometimes our clients ask us about this particular bit of information and we cannot disclose it because our partner bank doesn't allow us to disclose the information. So, we've decided that instead of just saying that this information is confidential, ask a question." General how sometimes banks cannot disclose certain information because it's confidential and the client says, "Well, yes I guess I do know. It's that information which worked I guess at the time." Overall as a strategy, do not have too many secrets because too much secrecy is just stifling problematic. Don't have any grey areas. It happened just a couple of days ago, I was coaching a client. He was supposed to tell a story about a failed startup which was like 80 years ago, way back. I've noticed that while he was telling the story during rehearsals, all the time he was doing this thing. You know what that means, right? That's disgusting. So, I asked him, "Well, what was that about?" It turned out that he wasn't quite sure that he could tell the story because it shows certain people in the team in bed light. So, what we need to do in this particular case, we need to get back to those people and ask for their permission to make sure that this information could be disclosed. So, please do not have grey areas. The information should be either closed or open. There shouldn't be that thick grey area. How much they make? An example of an uncomfortable question which people ask me once I think, to which I reply, "Well, I won't say because it will sound like I'm bragging, which isn't good. But you can find my prices on my website and I can give you my utilization statistics, you can do the math for yourself. It's not a secret. They never came back so, it just went away. Finally, criticism in disguise or sometimes without any disguise, just pure and simple criticism. Please do not dodge questions. You are not a politician. Politicians should probably do this but you shouldn't. This is about the group getting the most. Take the question openly, try to answer it as much as you can. Question number one, is that question you've received, is it about facts or opinions? If it's about facts, if people are attacking the facts, just stick to the facts. Just say, "No, we're sure." I mean, do check your links, do check your sources. You should be sure. But unless they can prove conclusively, in this very moment here and now that you are wrong, just stick to the facts and suggest follow-up of course, just suggest follow-up. When their conclusions are challenged, presenters should remain confident about their data or they shouldn't have presented it in the first place, says American National Health Institute. So, just stick to the facts. Now, if your opinions are challenged, that's a different problem. Please remember that direct questions require direct answers. So, if they ask you about your opinions, this can actually work to your advantage. If they ask you, did you know that the almost exact same article was published 10 years ago in that obscure journal? You can answer to the did you know part and the rest of the question will just disappear. You will say, "Yeah, I didn't know", and then it's just over, or you can say, "No I didn't know. Thanks for the information, I will check that article. Thank you." That's important. So, sometimes you can just answer to that first bit. Don't you think that, no I don't think that, or yeah, I do think that, thank you. When do you stop treating your customers like imbeciles? Sometimes people ask those kinds of questions because they're enraged. Because the other day I was and in that case you need to sympathize with the person, empathize I guess with the person. You need to feel their pain. I'm sorry you had this experience, we will investigate and get back to you soon. Is this a question about facts, or opinions? Well, we don't even know. I guess it's more of an opinion thing than the facts thing, but there's no way we can clarify this within the scope of this conversation. We'll get back to you, suggest the follow-up. Not everything needs to be solved here and now. "Do you think this is a good slide?" I was asked twice on two separate occasions about my own slides. So, what the person was actually trying to say, I don't quite like this slide. What do you think? Of course, this is my slides. So, I responded to that need behind the question. They wanted to know my opinion, and my opinion of course, is that the slide is awesome. What do you mean? I made this slide, I think it's great. Huge laughter from the weighers, the question goes away. Respond to the need not to the service. Is this the way you normally do seminars? A colleague of mine was asked after a demo seminar she did.The proper answer to that is well, more or less, yes. Is there a problem? Apparently there was a problem. It's just way to childish. Well, this is how we roll,this is how we do things here. We keep it light and fun. I'm sorry but if you're not happy with that, well, I guess you're not the target audience. So, answer the question what do I really think? How would I answer to a friend of mine? Sometimes that answer to a friend is not appropriate for the whole audience. You probably need to retrace it. But do answer to a friend not an enemy. They say it as a rule that you shouldn't use more than one font in your presentation. Somebody asked me after my seminar, "What do you think about that?" I was in that heckler consulting mode. I was actually trying to help. So, I asked him whether he could distinguish between new grotesque and humanist sans-serif, to which he said no. To which I say, well, yeah. I guess for you one typeface will be enough. After this whole thing was over, a friend of mine came to me and said, "You've really showed them." I was like, what did I show to whom? They said, "Well, there was this aggressive question and you really replied back, hit back hard." It didn't feel like I was hitting anyone seriously. Well, I mean for that guy maybe it did but not for me. I was in that consulting mode. I was genuinely trying to help the person, I was trying to make a good recommendation. Why does your software product suck so much? People get defensive when they hear questions like this. But in this particular case, the proper answer was, all truth is we don't develop it any longer and we'll we'll shut it down next year. Please call your manager when he decides to migrate, we will provide you with some consulting. We've actually sold some consulting. Was that you who failed that project? No, it wasn't me? Do you really want to know the story? They said, "No, I guess I'm fine." It just disappears. Sometimes they say yes and then you have to tell the story. Sometimes you don't know the story so you go, okay, the official story is this and that. What really happened never denotes. Once again, it just disappears. So, answer to an intention not just to the question. You can also answer with questions, try to find the real need behind the question. Try to clarify the question. I think as far as cooperative communication is concerned, this is like key. Finally, what we have to deal with sometimes is verbal flood. If the question is too long, I think you do need to interrupt. Try to interrupt people. I mean, I'm sorry, could you just get to the question. If for some reason you can not do this, answer the last question. Sometimes they ask you three or four questions at the same time, and then ask to repeat the previous questions. Sometimes just answering the last question is more than enough because everybody by that time has already forgotten what was there in the first place. Finally, I've read this advice somewhere. I've never tried it but sounds very reasonable. You can acknowledge the passion. You can say, "I see there's a lot going on here." On the overall, I would say that, that book will answer all your questions. Sounds reasonable, it might as well work. So, please do not dodge the question. This is not a boxing match. Cooperate with the audience, answer to friends, answer to the real need behind the question. Ninety nine percent of the time it will just make the question disappear. Seriously, this is not a war most of the time that is.
