After presentations, sometimes we get easy
softball questions. Often times, however,
we get pushback. People want to question
what we just said and they obviously
disagree just based upon the way they're
asking the question. And, it's
important to be able to handle these
disagreeable kinds of questions without
getting hostile back. Let's take a
deeper look at this.
Hello there friends. I'm Alex Lyon and
this is Communication Coach. I'm here to
help you increase your impact so you can
lead your teams to higher levels of
excellence. Oftentimes we get a little
bit of prickly questions when we give a
presentation. If we're asking for
something especially of the people who
are there, they're going to want to know
what's going on here. What are the real
costs? And so you'll get what you might
feel like are hostile questions or
disagreeable questions. And it's very
important that you maintain your
composure because if you don't you can
sound defensive and lose credibility and
oftentimes become much less persuasive
for the presentation that you just gave.
So here are a couple of tips. The first
tip is do not use their language. So if
they're saying something like, Well don't
you think the costs are ridiculously
high . . . You don't want to start your answer
by saying, No, I don't think the costs are
ridiculously high. Because now the words
costs are ridiculously high are coming
out of your mouth not just theirs. So do
not use their defensive disagreeable
hostile language. the second step is to
use what I call a cost-benefit analysis
style answers. The costs are where you
acknowledge in one short phrase the cost
that they're pointing at and then you
pivot and you give the benefits of your
case. The cost part sounds like this. I
hear your concerns . . . or the costs are real . . .
Another one will be I understand your
reservations . . . And then once you give that
part, you pivot to the benefits the case
that you want to make. And some sample
phrases sound like this. On balance I
believe . . . Another one would be when we
weigh all the options . . . A third example
is this is our best option moving
forward . . . And that's how those sound.
When you string them together, let's say
you would just ask don't you think the
costs are ridiculously high, you could
answer like this. I understand your
reservations. However, when we wait all
the options . . . And then you build your two
or three pointer affirmative
case for the proposal that you're
pitching. When we do this we avoid the
hostility in their language. We bring the
temperature down in the room so you can
have a nice composed discussion. And
you're going to come off that much more
credible and that much more persuasive.
Sometimes, by the way, they really are
bringing up good concerns that you need
to consider. I don't think you
should ever use this cost-benefit
analysis style answer to blow off what
they're saying because the costs are real
and you want to be serious about that.
This is not a [just] a good sounding way to
answer your question. You should have a
thorough analysis of the issues. Never
use it to blow somebody off and by the
way sometimes the costs are really high.
There's an old, there's a movie
called Argo. Great movie and they were
considering some really bad options. None
of them sounded good but they had to do
something and a line from that movie
is, This is the best bad option we have.
Oftentimes when you're facing issues,
you're facing problems and people are
pushing back. Really sometimes they are
bringing up actual costs that you need
to consider and have your eyes open as
you pitch. You don't want to build an
overly sunny case for something you
have to be in touch with both sides of
that scale. Question of the day. What are
your tips for handling questions where
people are pushing back on your
presentation, on your proposed? I'd love
to hear your comments below. So thanks.
God bless. And until next time, I hope you
get to use the tips in this video after
your very next presentation.