In a June 27th blog post partly on ten things he’d learned about making presentations Harold described three types of people who will ask questions after a presentation, and then gave advice on how you should respond:
"A) The guy who wasn't paying attention, but should have been. You will know him by his asking you something you went over in detail five minutes earlier. Answer his question.
B) The guy who wants to look smarter than you. You will know him by his asking you a barely related, highly technical and rather esoteric question. He does not care about your presentation. Tell him that you do not know the answer to his question, but that you will look it up and get back to him about it. You will never hear from him again regarding the matter.
C) The guy who has a legitimate question. You will know him by his asking a question that can be answered quickly. It's very rare that his question will necessitate a response that will last for more than fifteen seconds."
His blog is titled Intellectual Dandyism, and it includes footnotes. (Item 9 on his list of things is the well known fictional Litany Against Fear, but that’s a story for another day).
In a previous post on June 27th, I mentioned that Stephen Boyd had advice on answering questions, The Presentation After the Presentation. You also can find more good advice from Nick Morgan and Andrew Dlugan.
The image came from here on Wikimedia Commons.
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