It’s always a good idea to ask your audience for feedback after a presentation. This can come in the form of a Q & A session or a survey. But how you phrase your presentation feedback questions can affect your audience’s perception of you. It’s important to use positive language to increase positive feedback. This is a marketing trick that can be used in your presentation.
The Harvard Business Review says customers have been conditioned to focus on the problems in a company or product rather than what worked; therefore, customer develop a negative mindset when it comes to giving feedback. While it is important to hear a customer’s complaints, it should not risk hurting your reputation.
Marketing website Skyword wrote an article about a study that found the way companies ask for feedback can actually influence how customers feel. The study found that questions with positive wording made the customer think positively about the company. The customers were more likely to purchase a product again and more likely to spend more money. You can use this same strategy on your audience. Here are some tricks for how to get positive presentation feedback.
How to Get Positive Presentation Feedback Every Time
First, don’t ask, “where can we improve?” or “what did you not like about my presentation?” Instead, use what researchers in the Harvard Business Review article call, “open-ended positive solicitations.” Ask what they liked and the audience will begin to focus on the positives instead of the negative. This will change their overall view on their experience with your presentation. If you phrase your questions in a negative tone, this will only reinforce the audience’s negative perception.
Second, make sure your feedback questions match the tone of your presentation. If you are presenting on the “dangers of smoking cigarettes” for example, it’s best not to ask in a cheery tone, “So, what did you like about the presentation?” Instead, phrase your questions to have a serious, yet influential, approach. “How did my presentation affect you?” or “What did you learn about the dangers of cigarettes that you want to share with your loved ones?” are some examples for how to avoid mismatching your feedback questions with your presentation tone.
The most important aspect of getting positive feedback is giving an empowering presentation. If you don’t deliver a presentation with an emotional story and a strong call to action, then the open-ended positive solicitations will not get you the results you want. To create powerful presentation, make sure you follow the Rule of Three, incorporate a story, and have a creative design. The presentation experts at Ethos3 can help you achieve that with our content and design team, and presentation training. Once you have an influential presentation, you can confidently approach getting positive audience feedback.
Be more aware of how you ask your questions, or how questions are worded on a survey. If you want your audience to keep coming back to watch you speak, then make sure they have a positive perception of you. This will happen if you think cleverly on how to ask for feedback, and you deliver a memorable presentation.
For more ideas on presentation, check out these posts:
The Complete Guide to Creating a Captivating Professional Presentation
