Audiences who are involved in your talk can retain up to 90% of your message.
I witnessed the most remarkable use of questions while participating in Harv Ekar’sMillionaire Mind weekend years ago. He kept an audience of approximately 2,000 people alive, awake, aware, alert, engaged, involved, and active, primarily through the use of questions. FOR THREE DAYS! It was amazing. He did it by prompting the audience to respond to simple statements and questions. He is a master of audience invoLvement through questions.
Question Tips
Tom Antion, creator of the Wake ’em Up Speaker System, says, “Asking questions of the audience is a great way to force them into the thinking mode.” He offers excellent tips on audience involvement through questions.
• Open your presentation with an intriguing or outrageous question.
• Ask questions on material covered previously.
• Invite questions from the audience.
• Break the audience up into groups and ask each group to decide what one question they will ask that they think will be most beneficial to the entire audience if answered.
Audience Wake-up Calls
• After making a statement, ask, “Right?” and prompt the audience to respond. (Harve did this a lot)
- Frequently ask, “How many here have…?”
- Frequently ask, “Has anyone ever…?”
- After sharing an experience ask, “Has anyone here ever experienced this?”
- Frequently ask, “How many here have…?”
- • Frequently ask, “Has anyone ever…?”.
- • After sharing an experience ask, “Has anyone here ever experienced this?”
If You Want Lots of Questions
- At the beginning of your presentation, offer to take questions whenever they come up.
- Offer encouragement to questioners throughout your presentation, even to the point of saying something like, “I can’t believe no one has a question on…”
No Questions from the Audience
- Have some planted ahead of time with some members of your audience.
- Offer previously asked questions “One question that is frequently asked…”
Conclusion? Questions are Powerful
An adult learning facts study revealed that an audience remembers:
• 10% of what it reads
• 20% of what it hears
• 30% of what it sees
• 50% of what it sees and hears
• 70% of what it says
• 90% of what it says and does
An effective way to achieve this is audience involvement through questions.
