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The Bridging Technique
Some questions will enable you to get straight on to your own ground and some will call for a ‘bridge’, where you answer the question and move on to a ‘bridging theme’ before trotting out your prepared message.
Here is how the different approaches work. Say, for example, that one of your key messages (and supporting example) is to extol the benefits of your new brick laying tool (this is a genuine example):
Straight Answer:
Q. How good is this tool?
A. It’s so good that at a building exhibition last week a ten year old boy who’d never laid a brick in his life came on the stand and built a perfect wall as quickly as a professional.
Bridging
The ‘bridging’ technique involves moving from a question that you do not want to an answer that you do want. Politicians do it all the time - mostly very badly because they simply avoid the question. If you are going to bridge you must first be seen to answer the question - and then use the answer as a platform from which to launch your next message via a related theme. For example:
Q. How much profit do you make on each tool?
A. I’m only making a small margin because I want as many people as possible to be able to build walls like professionals. Do you know that only last week a ten year old boy who’d never laid a brick in his life came on the stand at a building exhibition and built a perfect wall as quickly as a professional?
Once you have the feel for getting your points across whatever the question, everything else is easy. Most interviewers just want to get the best out of you anyway, but if you do meet a hostile one here are some tricks to watch out for:
· Interrupting
· Asking multiple questions
· Introducing a question with a long, negative statement
· Pregnant silence
· Side-tracking
· Making incorrect statements
· Wrapping up with a negative
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