A rhetorical question is a question that you pose – pause for one or two seconds – and then you answer the question. (Sometimes you don’t answer. You simply let the thought hang to allow them thinking space.)
This is a powerful and dramatic technique to include in your presentations. Why? Because questions engage and if makes your presentation feel more conversational.
The audience doesn’t care who asked the question. Their brain registers a question and answer, like a normal conversation. That makes it feel more friendly and less like a lecture or sales pitch.
This technique can help you keep the audience better engaged throughout the presentation. Every time you pose a question, it engages them because questions engage better than statements. Statement after statement gets boring and annoying.
Immediately before delivering an important fact.
What is the real cost of this problem?
How long have we been trying to solve this challenge?
What are the most common mistakes?
Use those questions to create anticipation for the facts that follow. The rhetorical question sets up the interest in their mind to welcomes the facts.
Opening
You might open your presentation with a rhetorical question:
Would it surprise you to hear…
Did you know that…
Why did they make it so difficult…
Transitions
Use rhetorical questions as transitions between the parts of your presentation.
If you’re launching a new product, you might use these questions to move through your presentation:
What changes do we see in the marketplace?
What are the threats and opportunities?
How might we take advantage of these changes?
What direction are we moving?
What’s our next steps?
Write your presentation
A list of rhetorical questions is an easy and quick to outline a presentation. List three to ten questions that would take the audience through the thought process.
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