In this question originally answered on Quora.com, Rae Stonehouse shares why you should listen to your audience when you are speaking.

1. During your presentation,why shouldyou listento your audience?
For far too long,manypresentersbelievethatdeliveringapresentationisaone-wayprocess.The
presenterdeliversthe goodsandthe audience passivelyreceivesthem.
It may have beenthatwayonce upona time.Nowadays,audienceshave higherexpectationsof
presenters.Theyexpectthe presentationtobe interactive andtheyexpect tobe able to askquestions
of the presenter.
The basics of communicationisasfollows: Adeliversamessage to B. B receivesitandrespondsto A. If
B doesn’treceivethe messageinthe firstplace,communicationhasn’ttakenplace.If Bdoesreceive the
message butchoosesnotto respondto A, thencommunicationhasoccurredbut A doesnotreceive any
feedback.
Whenpresentingi.e.communicatingtoyouraudience,listening toyouraudience isonlyone of the
tasksthat you needtobe doing.
The most obviousreasontolistentoyouraudience,atleasttome,is to ensure theyare awake.Snoring
isa goodclue that yourpresentationandtopicaren’tas excitingasyouwouldbelieve.More thanone
audience membersnoringisevenamore startlingobservation.Notinmypresentationsof course …but
I have seenitmanytimesinothers.
As a presenteryouneedtolistentoyouraudience andperhapsdirectyourpresentationtomeetthe
audience’sneeds,notnecessarilyyours.
Dependingonthe structure of yourpresentationyoucanallow questionsasyouproceedthroughyour
material oryou can waituntil the end.There are advantagesanddisadvantagestoboth.If youallow
questionsthroughoutyourpresentationyouneedtoallow time forthe questions,youranswersand
additional dialogue.Thiscantake up time soyou likelyneedtoplanondeliveringlesscontentthanyou
mighthave expected.
On the otherhand,if you planfor questionsanddon’tgetthem, youmayfinishearlierthanyou
planned.Anotheroftenexperiencedproblemwhenallowingquestionsthroughoutthe programis
‘railroading.’ I’mnotsure of the originof the phrase but itmeansthat an audience memberhastaken
your presentationinadirectionthatyouhadn’tplannedorwantedto go in.
Waitingto answerquestionsuntil the end,whilepossiblyhelpingthe flow of yourperspective,canhave
a negative impact.If anaudience memberisfocussedonaparticularquestionfromearlierinyour
presentation,thentheyare notkeepinguptoyouin yourcurrent delivery.

2. As I said,listeningisonlyone taskthatyouneedto be doingas a presenter.MostNorthAmericanslikely
speakat a rate of 150 to 175 wordsa minute.We make speakfasterwhenwe are excitedbutwe risk
losingsome of ouraudience memberswhocan’tkeepuptous.
Or mindsworkat over1000 words a minute,orevenfaster.Atthe same time thatwe are listeningto
the audience anddeliveringourmaterial,we needtobe thinkingof manyotherthings.Examples:Does
the audience seemtobe gettingmymessage?Isthe roomtoo hotor cold?AmI boringthem?Have I
lostthem?Is there anybodythatseemsparticularlyexcitedaboutmytopicandpresentation?Ithink
youget the ideahere.
While youare presenting,youalso needtobe multitaskinginyourmind.Thisiswhere the feedback
comesin.You needtobe constantlyassessingyouraudience.Of course,asthe size of the audience
increases,itbecomesexponentiallydifficulttodoso.
Thanksfor the question!