Your Next Audience Question Could Be Worth $10,000

It’s time to rethink your Q&A, my friend.

Why? 

Because your audience’s questions might just be worth more than your speaker’s fee.

I know it sounds crazy.  

But the many of the speakers who are constantly commanding higher and higher fees don’t get to that point simply by reinforcing their expertise every time a person asks a question. Instead, they get to the highest pricing tiers by treating every question they hear as valuable market intelligence.

A low earning speaker finishes their speech and then rushes off to the airport to catch the earliest flight home. A referable speaker – on the other hand – understands how those next five hours you spend at the venue can contain seeds of inspiration for their next fee increase.

Today, we’re going to look at why you should consider the hidden ROI in every question you get.

Turn Audience Questions Into Free Market Research

Building a speech that excites, inspires, challenges, and ultimately transforms your audience members is no easy task – as you well know.  It takes a great deal of time to develop your ideas and research the problem.

Traditional market research related to your speech could easily cost $10,000 – involving thousands of surveys and lots of time compiling the results.

(Phew… I'm exhausted just thinking about it.)

Instead of making that investment, think of every audience question at an event as an unmet need – not just for that specific person, but for the entire market or their industry.

For example, a CFO might ask you a question that results in a consulting opportunity for you if that’s what you do.  A manager might pose a query that indicates the potential to address a specific type of workshop.  Or, think of a CEO who raises an objection in the form of a question that reveals why your speech might not be as referable as you hoped.

Each of these questions is more than just something to be quickly answered – they are glimpses into how you can expand your business and improve your content.  

Not All Questions Are Created Equal

Keep in mind that each question you receive represents others in the audience who likely have the same concern.  There are probably ten other people who were wondering the same thing but not brave enough to ask.  

Or, they were curious but didn’t happen to bump into you in front of the coffee table to ask what you thought.  Each question represents a sort of compound value of question intelligence.

Then, there are different types of questions…  

Early questions you receive when your speech is just getting off the ground reveal the things you can fix to deliver higher ratings and more referability.

Deeper questions later on will help you identify missing content – the things you should think about carefully. When you add these ideas to your speech, you’ll invite more referrals and stageside leads.

Then there are pattern questions.  These are the questions that represent larger industry trends.  If ten different CEOs ask you a very similar question, that might be your next keynote!

All of these accumulated questions create intellectual property that you can build on over time.  When you systematize the gathered information, it will allow you to generate higher fees.

Each evolution builds on the previous insights you gathered.  You might address one particular question and realize it unlocks a whole new idea you had never considered.  That’s why you need to focus on accelerating the way you embrace these questions and keep building towards bigger and bigger opportunities.

Experts Defend. Visionaries Evolve.

The way I see it, there are “expert” speakers and “visionary” speakers…

Speakers who broadcast their expertise eventually plateau in the commodity marketplace.  Their knowledge is worth just as much as every other expert out there.

It’s a fair amount, but not the big bucks we all strive for.

These expert speakers get questions like this...

“I don’t understand how to do X, Y, and Z.  Can you please walk me through that again?”

A visionary speaker will let their ideas and content evolve through the questions they are asked.  They are able to reach the premium pricing model where they’re actually challenging the status quo.

As a visionary speaker, you see something other people don’t.  You are essentially integrating market responsiveness into the way you build your speech.

And guess what?

Meeting planners, event organizers, and executives are willing to pay premiums for speakers who are constantly learning – those who are actively seeking out new answers.  

That’s why you should use every conversation – every question – as an opportunity to increase your fees.  

Why Casual Conversations Create Premium Referrals

The questions you answer at an event don’t have to happen during the formal Q&A at the end of your speech…