This is the quickest way to get (and keep!) your audience engaged

Did you know that the average four-year-old child can ask up to 300 questions a day?

Welcome to this issue of The Speakeasy. This week is Part 2 of how to use the secrets of Socrates to turbocharge your sales presentations.

(Here’s a link to Part 1: How to use examples to make your sales pitch unforgettable, in case you missed it.)

This week’s focus is the power of questions. It’s how I came across the above research statement from the University of Arizona. It made my head spin.

Now, when it comes to maths I tend to lean on the kind of logic that once lost me a tooth in a rollerblading incident (‘I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m gonna have a go at it anyway’), but I did some counting.

300 questions. That works out to one question every three minutes of an entire waking day.?

Factor in the time for answering and you’ve got yourself the outline of a full-time job (parents, I see you nodding!). JUST ANSWERING QUESTIONS.

The hours are long.?

The pay is lousy.?

And the boss is an irrational Demiurge with poor spoon control and zero respect for ‘work/life balance’ (it's not even in their vocabulary).?

‘Teach me EVERYTHING human! …. also please feed me.’’

The point I am making is that fielding questions is an emotionally and intellectually taxing activity. It requires us to be present. To draw on memories, to form new synaptic connections. Nobody can do that for eight hours a day, not even Debbie-do-it-all.

But it is precisely these characteristics that make asking questions a secret weapon you can add to your presentation. Use them sparingly and strategically and you can turn those attributes - a) remaining present b) drawing on memories and c) making new synaptic connections - into meaningful engagement.

As a presenter, a pitcher, a salesmaker, that is exactly what you want, especially if your product or service is relatively complex (software, for example).

(Which reminds me - I am creating an exclusive SaaS presentation community and I would love you to join it. The community's sole purpose is to make you a better presenter, persuader and negotiator of software solutions.?

If you would like to join, please sign up and you will immediately get exclusive content aimed at making you an elite presenter. Click here to join!)

Lesson 2: Why asking questions is so powerful

The first person on record to understand and formalise the power of repeated questioning (‘But why?’) was Big Ol’ Papa Philosophy, Socrates. It was the key to getting his students to engage their minds and challenge their held beliefs. By using these constant probes, he and his students revised our fundamental understanding of knowledge, and ourselves.

In some ways it’s surprising, given that it’s utilising a trait already in our genetic makeup - that indefatigable spirit of questioning inherent in us as children.

So how can we apply this to presenting??

5 benefits of asking questions in your presentation

When you ask a question, like Socrates, you are engaging your audience. You are asking them to do some thinking with you. When you do this you fire up the limbic brain. This promotes emotional and intellectual investment and makes what you are saying more memorable.

• Asking questions can help you build rapport and relationships with your audience.
• Fielding questions makes your audience emotionally invested in the message they are hearing.
• Answering questions improves information retention and makes you (and your solution) more memorable.
• Incorporating a question and answer format into your presentation gives you the opportunity to put more attention on the pain/focus points.
• Asking questions can help you challenge the assumptions of your audience and get them to see your point of view.

5 ways to work questions into your presentation

• At the start of your presentation, use the language of questioning to get your audience to engage. For example ‘When last did you…?’ Or ‘How old were you when…?’ Or ‘Where were you when you first realised…?’ These types of questions don’t require a direct answer but still get your audience to engage by placing themselves in the narrative.
• Ask rhetorical reflective questions (e.g. what would you do?) before you set the scene in which your product would be a solution. As with the above example, this places your audience inside the narrative.
• Do a poll that elicits answers you want to expand on. This is a simple way to direct the conversation in an organic way.
• Aim to ask a question every 3 - 5 min when speaking. It can be as simple as saying, ‘GGive me a thumbs up if this resonates with you?’ or asking someone in the boardroom a direct question and tell them you want an answer - be explicit.
• If you think your audience might have some outdated thought patterns, or are simply brand loyal to a product that isn’t servicing them the way yours can, you can use rhetorical questions to safely and softly begin to question the status quo. Questions such as ‘Why do we often believe the old way of doing things is the best way?’ Or ‘Why do humans tend to be sceptical of things that are new?’ This softer, more palatable form of persuasion can often get you much further than an aggressive or confrontational statement.

In case you missed it…

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