Episode 23- Handling Questions & Answers or Q&A.
Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. Welcome to episode twenty-three of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
In case you’re catching up, the last three episodes (twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two) had to do with presenting content via some choice on slide decks (PowerPoint, Prezi, Canva, etc) and the importance of script writing.
So what to do with this episode, twenty-three?
Since we’ve been covering content, let’s talk about the ubiquitous Q&A session, often held at the end for obvious reasons.
You know what you want to say and based on episode number twenty-two, you may have even written and practiced a script to ensure you are actually saying it.
But as you know, no matter how well we prepare, our guests will always think of something to ask. Usually.
Maybe they didn’t pay attention during part of your webinar or virtual meeting. They got a phone call and couldn’t watch for a bit. Yes, I’ve gotten questions that cover those situations. I love it when people ask in the chat feature and others answer the question for you!
Just as likely, especially due to the complexity of a given subject, it’s possible that one explanation just wasn’t enough. Maybe they just didn’t get it!
Pay attention to this! We often think we nailed something when talking about it- due to our familiarity with the subject, but some stares, furrowed brows or tilted heads may say otherwise.
Why pay attention? If you do many of the same webinars and continually see the same questions pop up, it’s time to modify your presentation. For some reason, your audiences just aren’t getting it.
This is what makes using a script on a zoom webinar tough. You’re so concentrating on the content that you can’t “read” the audience like you can when you’re live on stage. So also take that into consideration. And even if you don’t use a script, the people’s images may be so small as to not be able to track that well anyhow. To me, it’s one of the greatest drawbacks to virtual events.
What’s the answer there? I know in many of the sessions I do, we just tell people to enter their questions in the chat or (Q&A function of some of the webinar platforms) and tell them we’ll wait until the Q&A part to answer. Or we tell them to NOT enter the questions, just to hold them till the end. Then either way, we stay on-task and on-script until the end.
This option also has the added benefit of you answering the question before it’s offered. That happens too.
First considerations: If you have someone like a professional from TheWebinarGuy.com team moderating your webinar and gathering the questions, (and knowing in advance what’s coming) possibly telling attendees “We’ll get to that” or answering simple questions you’ve approved- that helps simplify your webinar. The point here is that a moderator can help you a lot on this.
If you’re running solo, or you don’t have a moderator, tell people that you’re running a “one man show” and can’t monitor the chat and you can’t track questions. Then don’t!
Let’s say you’ve presented your information and we’re now to the actual Q&A. Now that we’re there, let’s back up. This requires planning.
First of all, limit the time for Q&A. Tell people ahead that you’re limiting the Q&A to five minutes, or ten, or whatever. This helps your audience know what to expect. If you followed the advice from the last episode, you should know how long your presentation is within just a few minutes and plan accordingly. So if you have a twenty minute or so presentation, then plan a ten minute or so Q&A and tell people at the start that “Today’s webinar/presentation/training/whatever will be about thirty minutes- THEN STICK TO THAT. But what if people are really engaged and asking great questions? Your call, but it’s “Entertainment Law” to get off stage with the audience wanting more! Suggest they enroll again for the next one- offer a deal! If it’s a series, consider telling people, “Sorry we’re out of time, but we’ll answer more of these: On our blog; Our social media feed, or possibly (not recommended) at the beginning of the next session.
Now that you’ve managed that expectation, one choice is to just wing it. You start reading through chat and take the questions as they come. But another reason to use a moderator is while questions are being asked, they can also organize them and even collapse multiple similar questions into one better question instead of you parsing out answers as you read them- that can get repetitive.
Your moderator can also ignore repetitive, ignorant, or otherwise bothersome questions-because your moderator isn’t trying to read them ‘live’.
Answer questions concisely. Don’t blather on. This is another thing to practice! Keep your eye on the clock!!!
—-By the way, a quick commercial from our current sponsor TheWebinarGuy.com (me). I’ve mentioned utilizing a moderator or session manager several times in this post. Your moderator can also be your tech person, or depending on the complexity of the session, ONLY moderate chat and NOT do any of the tech. Whatever mode you choose, contact our team at the TheWebinarGuy.com and let’s chat about your needs and how we can help you manage your webinar, virtual summit, training sessions, product launches and more! Thanks!
Ok, so what happens if you get to Q&A and you get crickets? NO ONE has put a question in chat? They’re silently staring at you. There are no questions!
That does happen. I do many repetitive sessions for clients and two times in a row won’t get a single question. The next session, with the exact same content, I might get ten- You just don’t know.
First, if you feel it’s needed, have a handful of “canned” questions for your moderator to toss at you. “This is from a recent email…” might be a way to handle it. This may help get the Q&A going.
But if you feel you’ve done your job, people are smiling and nodding, thank them for their attention, announce any follow-up sessions, offers, etc, and get off the call!!
If you sit there, like you’re not gonna end the call until you get to answer a question, it’s just really bad theater. It sucks all the energy you’ve built -out of your webinar session. Honestly, give it ten, twenty seconds, then end the call.
If you can, record the call! For example, zoom sends you a transcript of the chat function. It will help you later to look at that and see what you may have missed.
I hope this has helped you think about how to better manage your Question & Answer period!
This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!
And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!