OVERVIEW
Master difficult situations
You should be prepared for the following challenges during your presentation:
- Take the objection seriously, otherwise you will lose your power of persuasion.
- When preparing, consider what objections are likely to come up and be prepared with counter-arguments.
- Be respectful of the objection and then present your counter-argument as the stronger one.
- Do not let the mood turn against you.
- Maintain your confident posture.
- Respond to the attack:
- With a clear factual argument—this removes the emotional edge from the situation.
- With a question (such as "what do you mean by that?")—thus you challenge the attacker to raise a justified objection.
Observe more closely and interpret the situation.
- An individual is simply not interested: Pay less attention to them and concentrate on those who are interested.
- Several people are no longer paying attention: Ask if they are having any trouble understanding.
- Several people are bored: Give them something to look forward to or provide a vivid example.
- Ask the people whispering with genuine concern: "Do you have a question about something we’ve covered?"
- Ask the person typing on their phone with genuine concern: "Has something urgent come up? It's not a problem if you need to step out to make a call."
- Give friendly instructions at the beginning of the presentation: There will be time for discussion at the end of the presentation, please put your mobile phones on silent.
EXERCISE
Prepare for objections
You should expect objections or critical questions in your next presentation. Prepare a confident response using the table below as a template.
| Possible objection | From … | My counterargument |
|---|---|---|