Conference season has officially started!

You’ll hear a lot of advice around public speaking and how to land speaking roles because it drives visibility to your brand. My advice today, however, is for the audience: How to Ask Questions.

Asking a question in a large audience can get you visibility, but if you say the wrong thing, your credibility can die in front of 150+ people. if you are a board member or an aspiring board member, or someone looking to get ahead in your career, take great care when standing up to ask a question – someone in the audience may want to speak to you after hearing you, or run the other way…

I attended a panel discussion recently and all the people who asked questions made these mistakes.

Here are the typical mistakes that people in the audience make when they put their hands up and ask the speaker a question:

– They use the opportunity to give a long sales pitch before asking a question. Everyone knows what you are doing, and it only creates some eye rolls . Stop giving a long sales pitch, just say your name, title and company, and get on with the question…

– They don’t ask a question – they just tell their own story. This is also instantly killing your reputation in a large group. “I don’t have a question, I just want to tell a story…”, the stories are rarely that interesting.

– They ask more than 1 question. This is confusing and generally speakers lose track of the first question and just answer the last one. Just ask  question at a time.

– Be concise. Showing 150+ people in a room that you like to talk in riddles is not a good look. Make sure you have a well-crafted question and avoid filler words so you sound poised.

And for the speakers…. Only 1 piece of advice. Never say “That was a great question!” – it comes across as patronizing, insincere and tells others that their question was not that good. Better response: “Thank you for the question” or “This is an important discussion point that you brought up…”

Good luck out there!