How to answer unexpected questions: what, so what, now what

Picture it · 6 examples

• Example “Any thoughts on this?”

  The CEO turns to you in the all-hands Q&A. Nothing in your head for one second. Then: “The rollout slipped a week. Customers won’t notice; finance will. I’ll have revised numbers to Dan by Thursday.” Three sentences. She nods. You had no idea what you were going to say until the first word.

• Selling The curveball

  “What happens to our data if you go under?” What: “It is exported to you in full.” So what: “You are never locked in.” Now what: “It is in the contract, clause nine, and I’ll highlight it tonight.” The buyer’s head of IT relaxes.

• In the office “How’s it really going?”

  Your manager, unexpectedly, in the one-on-one. What: two weeks behind. So what: the launch date holds if we cut the import feature. Now what: I need your call on that by Friday. She gives it now.

• Hard conversation “Why are we over budget?”

  The board, no warning. What: contractor costs ran forty per cent over. So what: it bought a month, which the launch needed. Now what: it is capped from here, and here is the cap. Three sentences. Nobody asks for a fourth.

• Drinks & dinners “What did you make of the keynote?”

  At the conference dinner, six faces turn. What: it had one idea. So what: that idea would change how everyone here prices. Now what: I’m testing it next quarter. Two people ask to hear how it goes.

• On a call The client who rings with a question

  “Can you do it by the twelfth?” What: “Yes, without the custom reports.” So what: “You can go live on time and add the reports in May.” Now what: “I’ll confirm by email in an hour.” He says “Perfect.”

Picture it · 6 examples

• Example “The short answer is…”

  Asked something hard on the panel, you say “The short answer is…” and in the half-second it takes to say it, you have found the short answer. The audience heard a confident bridge. You heard yourself buying time. Both are true.

• Selling “There are two parts to that”

  The buyer asks why the price went up. “There are two parts to that.” You now have a structure and a second to think. Part one, part two. It sounds planned. It was not.

• In the office “Let me think about that properly”

  Said in the team meeting, followed by three seconds of silence. Nobody thinks you are stalling. They think you are thinking. Which you are.

• Hard conversation Pushed in the board meeting

  A director keeps pushing you. “Let me take that in two parts.” The push loses its momentum. You answer part one slowly. By part two, she has sat back.

• Drinks & dinners At drinks

  “Good question.” A pause. Then the answer. Two words that let you breathe, and nobody has ever minded hearing them.

• On a call On the phone

  The pause feels longer when they cannot see you. A bridge covers it: “The short answer is yes. The longer one is about timing.” Both halves land.

Picture it · 5 examples

• Example Answer the person

  In the Q&A you look at the man who asked, not the two hundred behind him. Your voice drops to conversation level. The answer is shorter and better. Afterwards someone says you “seemed so relaxed up there”. You were talking to one person.

• Selling Her team in the room

  The buyer asks the question. Her five colleagues watch. You answer her, by name, at a normal volume. The five relax with her. Performing for the five would have lost all six.

• In the office The exec table

  One director asks. You answer that director, then glance round once at the end. The table hears a conversation they were invited into, not a speech aimed at them.

• Drinks & dinners The toast

  Someone calls out a question during your toast. You answer them like it is just the two of you. The whole table laughs, because now it is a conversation and they are in it.

• On a call The question in the chat

  On the video all-hands, you read it and say the name: “Jess asks whether the dates move. Jess, they don’t.” Two hundred people watch you talk to one person, and feel talked to.

Picture it · 2 examples

• Example One sentence

  The CEO turns to you. “The rollout slipped a week.” The fact, in one sentence, first. Not the story of why, which she will ask for if she wants it. She does not. She wants the next two sentences, and you have them.

• Selling On the spot

  “Can you do it by the twelfth?” “Yes, without the custom reports.” The thing, plainly, before the explanation. The buyer says “Fine, what about the reports?” and now you are explaining to someone who already has his answer.

Picture it · 3 examples

• Example For them

  “Customers won’t notice; finance will.” Why it matters to the people in the room, not to you. The finance director, who had been looking at the agenda, looks at you. The so-what was about her.

• In the office Upward

  “It means the launch date holds.” That is the so-what your manager cares about, and you give it to her in six words. Not “it’s been a hard fortnight”, which is true and which she cannot do anything with.

• Drinks & dinners At the table

  “It would change how everyone here prices.” Six faces at the dinner, and now all six care about the keynote, because you told them why it was about them. The person who summarised the keynote before you got nods and no questions.

Picture it · 3 examples

• Example What happens next

  “Revised numbers to Dan by Thursday.” A person and a day, to the CEO, and the question is closed. She nods and moves on. Without the now-what, she would have asked “so what happens?”, and you would have been improvising again.

• On a call On the call

  “I’ll confirm by email in an hour.” Now what, with a time on it. The client stops worrying out loud and says “Perfect.” He had rung with a problem and he hangs up with an hour.

• Hard conversation In the board meeting

  “It’s capped from here, and here’s the cap.” The now-what is what turns the overspend from a problem into a plan. The director who asked the question writes down the cap and does not ask a fourth question.

Picture it · 3 examples

• Example The pause

  Asked something hard in the Q&A, you take one full second before you start. It feels like a cliff. To the two hundred people in the room it sounds like thought. The answer that follows is shorter and better for it.

• Selling The bridge

  The buyer asks why the price went up. The pause would have run too long, so you reach for the bridge: “Two parts to that.” It buys you one sentence of time, and by the end of it you have both parts.

• Drinks & dinners At drinks

  “What do you actually think of the merger?” “Good question.” A pause. Then one sentence. Nobody in the circle heard you buy time. They heard someone take the question seriously, and the man who asked it nods.

Picture it · 3 examples

• Example Say so

  “What’s the churn number for March?” “I don’t know. I’ll have it by Thursday.” Eight words to the exec table. More credible than four minutes of nearly knowing, which is what the person before you did. The CFO says “Thursday’s fine.”

• In the office The director’s question

  “I don’t have that number. Priya will. I’ll ask her today.” Nobody loses respect for a person who knows where the answer is. The director says “Good.” On Thursday you have the number, and she remembers that you said when.

• Selling The technical one

  “I’m not sure. I’ll get our engineer to answer that in writing tonight.” The buyer trusts the next thing you say more, not less, because you just showed him what you do when you do not know.