One of the most common difficulties that you encounter in public speaking is a barrage of questions from a single or a few audience members.
Sometimes the people interrupting the presentation sincerely want answers to their questions.
Other times the questioner has a hostile motive. Usually, a hostile questioner does not want to attack you personally. Instead, the questioner wants to attack the material that you are presenting.
This is an important distinction; because the most effective way to attack the material that you are presenting is to draw you off topic into areas that you are not prepared to speak about.
Specific techniques for dealing with off-topic questions are covered later in this document.
For now, we will cover techniques for dealing with someone who continuously interrupts with on-topic questions.
If the questions are off-topic, you may want to use the techniques covered in this section with the ones for off-topic questions.
One-breath Answers
The least confrontational way of dealing with a constant stream of questions is to answer each question as briefly as possible. Limit your answers to one breath in length. And before stating your answer, ask yourself if this material will be covered later in your presentation.
If it will be, state only that the material will be covered later. Do not expand on your answer, because additional details will give the constant questioner additional opportunity. After giving your answer, launch directly into the next topic. Taking time to answer a constant stream of questions may not be your desired solution. However, if the questioner is an authority figure, you might feel obligated to answer the questions. Keeping your answers short minimizes the negative effect of the interruptions
