Dealing with Off Topic Questions

As a public speaker and trainer you will likely have faced the difficult task of answering questions that may be either outside of the scope of the seminar/course you are instructing.

An effective way to deal with questions that may be outside of the area you are presenting is to do the following:

• Thank the participant for their question. Let them know that it is an excellent question.
  
• Acknowledge that the question is one that others may have as well, but in order to stay on topic ...
  
• Suggest that you get together at a break or after the session to discuss this question in more detail.
  

I would say something like this:

"Thanks Mark. That is an excellent question about communication. Unfortunately due to time and topic constraints for this session, I am not able to address that question - why don't we get together after the session and discuss it in more detail?"

I have had great success with this method - I wish you luck incorporating this method of dealing with off-topic or difficult question in your presentation.