BEP 47: Business Presentations - Handling Questions
Topic :
Presentations
At some point in your presentation you will be expected to answer questions from your audience. They might have some important questions that need to be answered before they buy into your message. Handling their questions with authority can make the difference for you between a successful presentation and a waste of time. This is the opportunity for the audience to test your knowledge on the topic and commitment to your message.
To some people the question-and-answer session can be the most exciting part of the presentation. To others it can be their worst nightmare simply because they have to speak on the spot without notes. In fact, there are some presenters who purposely avoid the question-and-answer session all together.
In this podcast lesson, you’re going to listen to the final part of two business presentations. You decide whether the presenters handled the question and answer sessions with authority.
Presentations are an important aspect of working in a business environment. Since they give you an opportunity to showcase your abilities and thoughts, they should be planned well and organized in such a way that your main points are highlighted constantly. One of the best ways to do this is to end your presentation effectively. Remember, audiences tend to remember best what they hear last! An effective conclusion can help your listeners to quickly recollect your main points, and also set the stage for a discussion on the topic you have covered.
Here are some points to keep in mind for an effective conclusion to a presentation:
Always provide a brief summary of your main points (no more than two to three sentences).
Include recommendations for further research or exploration if possible.
End by checking with your audience if they need clarifications, or if they have any comments or questions.
You are now going to listen to a conversation with three participants. Tara is a language trainer at a large company. She has just completed a presentation on issues which need to be addressed by the company’s training department in the coming month. Alex and Rebecca are members of Tara’s team who ask her for clarifications.
The introduction to a presentation is a very important - perhaps the most important part of the presentation. This is the first impression that your audience have of you. You should concentrate on getting your introduction right. You should use the introduction to:
welcome your audience
introduce your subject
outline the structure of your presentation, and
give instructions about questions
Let’s now look at some useful language you could use for the four parts of an introduction.
We continue our series on presentations by looking at the language used to describe charts and the trends they show. First, listen to Tan present sales results for a manufacturing company. After the dialog, we’ll go through some of the key language and practice some useful phrases.
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Presentations
