Prentice Hall

Business



In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions...When It Counts
Jerry Weissman

ISBN-10: 0131855174
ISBN-13: 9780131855175

Publisher: PH Professional Business
Copyright: 2005
Format: Cloth; 216 pp
Published: 06/21/2005

Suggested retail price: $24.95
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 Jerry Weissman has made a career of coaching nearly 500 execs on their IPO roadshows, the most critical presentations of their lives. Now, he's written an indispensable guide to answering the toughest questions you'll ever face.  Using compelling examples from Presidential debates to stock analyst meetings, Weissman teaches how to respond with perfect assurance. Discover how to avoid the defensive, evasive, or  contentious answers that have destroyed political careers and ruin credibility. Learn to control your entire exchange with a hostile questioner: the question, answer, interactions with questioner and audience, timing, and above all, yourself. Whether an executive, politician, fundraiser, interviewee, teacher, student -- or even a family member at Thanksgiving dinner -- you're judged on how you handle these moments. Get this book: handle them brilliantly.

Answer even the toughest, most hostile questions brilliantly! Learn to take the floor, stay poised, and win your audience over every time.

  • The indispensable resource for everyone who presents: businesspeople, politicians, fundraisers, teachers, students, everyone!
  • The world's #1 presentation coach shows how to get ready and stay in control -- from start to finish!
  • Learn from dozens of compelling case studies... including moment-by-moment photos and commentary on the debate answer that destroyed a Presidency!

Introduction: Agility versus Force.

    Challenging Questions

    Martial Arts

    Effective Management Perceived

    Baptism under Fire

    Case Studies: Bill Clinton; David versus Goliath; Bruce Lee; David Bellet; Mike Wallace

1. The Critical Dynamics of Q&A.

    Defensive, Evasive, or Contentious

    Presenter Behavior/Audience Perception

    Case Studies: The Classic Bob Newhart Episode; Trent Lott on Black Entertainment Television; Pedro Martinez; The NAFTA Debate; Two Weeks of an IPO Road show

2. Effective Management Implemented.

    Worst Case Scenario

    Maximum Control in Groups

    The Q&A Cycle

    How to Lose Your Audience in Five Seconds Flat

3. You're Not listening!

    Case Studies: 1992, 2000, and 2004 U.S. Presidential Debates

4. Active Listening (Martial Art: Concentration).

    The Roman Column

    Sub-vocalization

    Visual Listening

    You Still Don't Understand

    Yards After Catch

    Case Study: 1992 U.S. Presidential Debate in Retrospect

5. Retake the Floor (Martial Art: Self-defense).

    Paraphrase

    Challenging Questions

    The Buffer

    Key Words

    The Double Buffer

    The Power of "You"

    The Triple Fail-Safe

    Case Study: Colin Powell

6. Provide the Answer (Martial Art: Balance).

    Quid Pro Quo

    Manage the Answer

    Anticipate

    Recognize the Universal Issues

    How to Handle Special Questions

    Guilty as Charged Questions

    Point B and WIIFY

    Topspin

    Media Sound Bites

    Case Studies: George W. Bush; John F. Kerry; George H. Bush Revisited

7. Topspin in Action (Martial Art: Agility).

    Michael Dukakis Misses a Free Kick

    The Evolution of George W. Bush

    Lloyd Bentsen Topspins

    Ronald Reagan Topspins

8. Preparation (Martial Art: Discipline).

    Lessons Learned

    Case Studies: John F. Kennedy versus Richard M. Nixon, Al Gore versus Ross Perot

9. The Art of War (Martial Art: Self-Control).

    The Art of Agility

    Force: 1992

    Agility: 1996

    Agility and Force: 2000

    Agility and Force: 2004

    The Critical Impact of Debates

    Lessons Learned

    Case Studies: Al Gore debates Dan Quayle, Jack Kemp, and George W. Bush; George W. Bush debates John F. Kerry; The Presidential Debates: 1960 through 2004

10. The Role Model.

    Complete Control

    Case Study: General Norman Schwarzkopf

Endnotes.

Acknowledgments.

Index.

JERRY WEISSMAN, the world's #1 corporate presentations coach, founded and leads Power Presentations, Ltd. in Foster City, CA. His private clients include executives at hundreds of the world's top companies, including Yahoo!, Intel, Cisco Systems, Intuit, Dolby Laboratories, and Microsoft.

Weissman coached Cisco's executives before their immensely successful IPO road show; afterward, the firm's chairman attributed at least two to three dollars of Cisco's offering price to Weissman's work. Since then, he has prepared executives for nearly 500 IPO road shows, helping them raise hundreds of billions of dollars.

Weissman is author of the global bestseller Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story (Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2003).

In this book, you'll find many examples of Q&A sessions and political debates in the public arena. The original videos of these sessions are available on a DVD that you can obtain by visiting www.powerltd.com.


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Jerry Weissman has made a career of coaching nearly 500 execs on their IPO roadshows, the most critical presentations of their lives. Now, he's written an indispensable guide to answering the toughest questions you'll ever face.  Using compelling examples from Presidential debates to stock analyst meetings, Weissman teaches how to respond with perfect assurance. Discover how to avoid the defensive, evasive, or  contentious answers that have destroyed political careers and ruin credibility. Learn to control your entire exchange with a hostile questioner: the question, answer, interactions with questioner and audience, timing, and above all, yourself. Whether an executive, politician, fundraiser, interviewee, teacher, student -- or even a family member at Thanksgiving dinner -- you're judged on how you handle these moments. Get this book: handle them brilliantly.

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