Question #14: What Are World-Class Business Questions And Why Are They Important?

Answer: A world-class business question causes a paradigm shift in your life and in your thinking; in your life and in your mind, the inner and outer game. Let us explain.

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World-class business question

Let me give you a few world-class questions. For something to be world-class it had to have made me a lot of money, made my life easier and it had to have caused something in my life so I don’t make as many mistakes.

Remember, I test, fail and learn, but the fewer failures I have the more I know what to test. I go in the direction that’s enthusiastic, but it’s the right direction, it’s not the wrong direction enthusiastically, it’s the right direction. I’m singing the right note louder I’m not singing the wrong note louder.

Here are some world-class questions write these down.

What don’t I see?

That’s a four word question and it’s on my screen saver in my office.

When you’re enthusiastic about a strategic alliance or a project you better ask yourself that question. There is something you do not see and you’re so enthusiastic your enthusiasm is going to cause you to go broke unless you play Devil’s advocate and ask yourself this question.

How do I make money when people steal from me?

The only way this sounds like a world-class question is if we look at the opposite which is, it’s not a world-class question, but a common question. It’s not even national class it’s just a class.

How do I protect my content?

If you don’t have anything to sell that’s content specific ask yourself how do I protect my stuff from competitors and people who are going to cheat and steal it.

As an information marketer, which I am, many of my students will ask this question. How do I have a membership site so the content there is protected? How do I make it so people can’t read the eBooks? How do I have password protection, etc? Those are not world-class questions.

The world-class question is:
How do I make money when people steal my content?

Here’s how to do it.

If I have an affiliate link such as MarketersChoice.net and I put that into my content instead of 1ShoppingCart.com. 1ShoppingCart.com is the company that sells shopping carts and MarketersChoice.net is a reselling website for that company.

If I happen to have MarketersChoice.net and I put that into the tools and vendors section of something I’m teaching then even if I had my material stolen from me; a thief takes action in stealing, so a thief is going to take my advice.

In fact, what a compliment; the thief that’s stealing it from me wanted it so bad they had to steal it they couldn’t pay for it. That’s how bad they wanted it, but if they’re going to follow my advice won’t they follow my advice as to what tools to use?

If I make money from software whether I’m an affiliate or I own the software…if I’m an affiliate of AskDatabase.com, MarketersChoice.net, MarketingMakeoverGenerator.com, AudioGenerator.com, InstantVideoGenerator.com or InstantTelewebcast.com those are all for the Internet marketing space.

If I’m an affiliate for other software tools, which is what these are, then I would tell people steal my content please. Because if I’m making money on a monthly basis, even when someone steals from me, whether it’s a how-to course or teleseminar series that would cost everybody else $2500, I can still make $100 from them, because they had Audio Generator, Ask Database, Instant Telewebcast and all these other software tools.

For whatever business you’re in, chances are someone has an affiliate program that’s relevant and applicable to you. Ask yourself this world-class question. How do I make money when people steal from me? If you can’t answer it you don’t have a business.

Another great way is to have an assessment. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, if you carve wooden bears you can have an assessment on how to teach others how to carve wooden bears. If you do macramé you can have an assessment.

Have an assessment tool where you make money on it. Kathy Kolby has one with the Kolby Index. Marcus Buckingham has one with his strength finder. There are many different assessments online.

You can go to Google and type in “assessments” and you’ll see all the various assessments available.

Have an assessment, put it into your content and when people steal from you they will take the assessment and pay you a small amount that’s how you make money when people steal from you.

How is it more expensive for them to leave than to stay?

This is for people who have membership sites or consulting. I don’t know the answer to that question, but you do. Keep asking yourself that question that’s why it’s world-class, because it causes a paradigm shift.

This is for students, if you’re a student ask yourself this question right now, because chances are the thing that’s getting in your way of progress is new ideas.

Is this idea relevant to my business now?

If the answer is no put it in the someday maybe file. Don’t put it in the to-do file, because you probably have tons of ideas, but they’re irrelevant to your business right now. Maybe they’re too advanced or not enough, but ask yourself this question.

Is your mind swimming with new ideas and it’s getting in the way of progress. If it is, ask yourself that question every time you get a new idea. Don’t discard the idea record it. Write it down somewhere, but don’t focus on it, because it’ll take time away and it will zap your energy.

How can I improve that idea?

This is a great creative imitation question to ask it’s world-class. If you go to ClickBank.com, you’re in the same industry, same market niche as some of those other folks who have websites that are in the top 10 and you’re creatively imitating the top 10 ask yourself how can I plus it?

• How can I have better FAQ questions than their web page has? How can I have better bonuses than they do?
• How can I have better ethical bribes?
• How can I plus that idea?

How can I templatize my enterprise?

Let me explain. If you have to do an activity more than twice templatize it. If you have access to web templates, if you have access to email templates someone has already done the work for you. Do you know how much time, energy and money has gone into that?

Probably tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands, quite possibly millions in some cases, so you don’t have to spend millions of dollars to find out what someone else already knows. Creatively imitate them and ask yourself how can I templatize this enterprise?

If you do or find yourself doing something more than twice ask yourself that question.

Here’s another world-class question, and this has to do with joint ventures and strategic alliances.

What must happen so both sides feel they got the better end of the deal?

Why is that a world-class question? Because if you can figure out what the other side wants and they want it so badly they feel they got the better end of the deal and you feel you got the better end of the deal that’s called mutual benefit.

Here’s a great example. It’s a model that works it’s called the $20 affiliate call.

Many times when people are doing email campaigns online and this is in the online world, but it applies to the offline world as well, they will have an Opt-in page and will say here’s a link. It creates a cookie and you’ll get credit if someone buys; then it goes to an Opt-in page.

I personally don’t like that. It’s called stealing. Even if they never buy I just took someone from my list and put them on someone else’s list. True they’re still on my list, but they’re on someone else’s as well and a confused mind never buys.

An irritated mind never buys absolutely! You may be irritating, at the very least confusing them because now they’re in two autoresponder sequences and the more effective those marketers and promoters are the more you’ll confuse and irritate that mind, so I don’t like someone coming in just to a squeeze or Opt-in page.

I do sometimes, but not always. What I truly like is creating a strategic alliance where both sides feel they got the better end of the deal, so here’s what I do.

I have a $20 affiliate call. I give high content for two hours and it costs the recipient $20. The recipient is being mailed by one of my affiliate partners. My affiliate partner is getting paid $18 out of the $20 dollars; 90% commission there’s no Opt-in. They either pay $20 or they don’t, so isn’t that worth mailing for me.

If I’m going to pay you $18 out of the $20 and as a 90% commission, don’t you feel you got the better end of the deal? Why do I feel I have the better end of the deal? The two dollars I keep out of the $20 covers incidentals like the merchant fees and some customer service expenses, which is involved in every campaign that anyone does.

Now I have a lead that’s bought something and that $20 can turn into $2,000 if I do my job, so I’ve paid for that lead and rightly that lead is mine, but if I have 1,000 $20 leads that’s better than 10,000 free leads. The $20 affiliate call is a good example for this world-class question. If you’re the affiliate manager you pay someone else $18 of the $20 for one of your calls and that is a preview call, which leads to something else like a workshop, another event, software, a consumer product or even consulting service.

People are paying for it so they’re not tire kickers. You’re giving up $18 of the $20 and if they buy you have a choice to pay your affiliates an additional bonus and that’s a great deal.

Would I do that if I were the affiliate? You bet!

I would take $18 a lead, especially if I’m getting $18 a lead from prospects who have never purchased from me. If I can monetize prospects $18 and they’ve given me zero why wouldn’t I do that? Both sides feel they got the better end of the deal that’s why it’s a world-class question.

What did I just teach myself about myself?

This is a question to ask after you’ve had a heated debate with your spouse, with your kids, with an employee or a partner. Maybe you’re upset or you’re just pissed off and angry. Sit down, calm down and ask yourself this question.

You taught no one else, but yourself about something. Problem-action-result; there was a problem, you took action and there was a result. The result is either going to create progress or it’s going to cause regression so you’re coming backwards. You know when you’ve hit both of those. You know when you’ve moved forward or fallen back. By asking that question that’s progress, even if you went back that’s moving forward a few steps.

I’ll recap. World-class questions cause paradigm shifts.

• What don’t I see?
• How do I make money when my content is stolen?
• How can I make it more expensive for them to leave than to stay?
• Is this idea relevant to my business at this time?
• How can I improve upon or plus this idea?
• How can I templatize my enterprise? What must happen so both sides feel they got the better end of the deal?
• Does the other side feel they got the better end of the deal?
• What did I just teach myself about myself?

Those are world-class questions.