Repeat the Question
For the most part at least, people who speak slower sound smarter. It’s like you get smart credits for taking the time to think through your words.
One technique I’ve noticed of the best interviewers (Tim Ferriss is great at this) is that they ask the question in the middle of a short preamble. That short time between the question and the end of the preamble gives the interviewee extra time to think through their answer. This shows the interviewers respect to the person being interviewed, and also gives us better answers, which is what we want after all.
Well, you can increase the quality of your answers too during any kind of interview, job or otherwise, by simply repeating the question.
We can still keep the conversation going, but with these techniques we can also give each other breathing space, which in theory should lead to better answers too.