They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today's Digital Consumer

I bought this book for myself, and when I finished it I ordered one for the owner of the company. He was just as excited about the philosophy as I was --- and we have since ordered copies for our other employees. This book makes you look at everything differently. We have become the go-to authority about longarm quilting machines, and have created a knowledge base on our web site to share our knowledge with our customers. Helping people to make a good purchasing decision is soooo much more fun than selling to people! Our relationships with our customers are open, honest, and better than ever. Great book, great author, great ideas --- truly original. Buy this book if you are ready to take action in your company. This is not the kind of book that will just sit on your shelf with the other sales books. This is one that you will read repeatedly, write in with a pen, color with a highlighter, and talk about all the time. It's not just a book --- it's a way of life.

"They Ask, You Answer" is a master class in inbound marketing. Marcus provides real-world examples and approachable step-by-step instructions that empower the reader to launch a content marketing program at their business, no matter what industry they're in. Some key themes of the book are educating consumers, building consumer trust, and how to align sales and marketing teams. As a marketing strategist at a B2B agency, I found the book extremely interesting and very thorough. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the power of inbound marketing.

They Ask You Answer provides a great guide for creating relevant content, earning trust, and speeding up sales cycles. Sheridan’s philosophy is simple: ask yourself the question, “What is my customer thinking?” Understanding their questions forms the basis for a content-driven strategy. This mindset generates powerful fuel for your Revenue Growth Engine. This book is packed with insights. Here are some of my favorite takeaways: Become the Teacher Education is the core of Sheridan’s philosophy. This makes sense. Buyers are not inclined to trust sales people and they have all kinds of defenses set up against marketing. However, people respect teachers. Sheridan became obsessed with this stance: “We approached each question with a ‘teacher’ mentality, without bias—our sole obsession was simply that of educating the reader.” This reminds me of Jay Abraham’s paradox of knowledge: the more you know about something, the more questions you have. The person (or company) you go to for answers is the one who educated you. Answer Prospect and Client Questions Buyers have questions. So do clients. The company and sales reps that answer these questions get attention. This is true for Inbound Marketing and Client Communication. It is also true for Outbound Selling and Client Management. The fuel for your Revenue Growth Engine is A Focused Message. Once you have a clear understanding of your Ideal Client, one of the best ways to focus your message is to answer the questions that your prospects and clients have. For Net-New business, this helps get you found online, builds trust, and sets up effective sales meetings with qualified prospects. Answering questions continues into the Cross-Selling phase, creating a smooth onboarding process and setting the stage for additional purchases. Address the Elephants In the Room “As buyers, although we want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly, we are mostly concerned with the ugly.” So true. We see this in our own propensity to search for reviews—specifically, negative reviews, when we are making a purchase. Smart companies address this head on. They are not afraid to talk about pricing, make comparisons to competitive offerings, and address concerns. Sheridan recommends that these questions be answered with a disarmament strategy. Since buyers in a low-trust world have their guards up, he recommends being disarming. For example, an article might begin by admitting that your offerings may not be the best choice for every buyer. Heresy? Maybe, but we cannot communicate until we have a basis of trust. Assignment Selling This is one of my favorite parts of the book. Sheridan shares his strategy to use educational content throughout the buying process. For example, before an appointment, he all but requires prospects to view a video addressing common questions and read with a guide educating buyers on their options. Not only does this filter out the riff-raff, when he arrives, he has trust and buyers are ready to roll. The result is shorter meetings, faster sales cycles, and increased close rates. A Practical Guide To Video Everyone talks about video, but few people give a roadmap for how to implement a video strategy. With 82% of internet traffic being video by 2022, Sheridan observes, “We are all media companies whether we like it or not.” Sheridan encourages companies to answer frequently asked prospect and client questions by video. He also recommends that client-facing employees record videos to build rapport and trust with prospects. Involve Your Sales Team If you want to understand your clients and prospects, talk to the people on the front lines. Your sales people get asked questions all day long. Document these questions and answer them online. Involve your sales team in creating written and video content to answer these questions. In Revenue Growth Engine, I recommend that marketing professionals spend significant time in the field with sales reps. Ride along to their meetings and have coffee afterward with the rep to debrief. All of this helps create A Focused Message which fuels the marketing and sales efforts of your engine, creating meaningful experiences for your ideal clients. Summary There is so much more in this book. The chapters are short, punchy, and actionable. Real-world case studies are sprinkled throughout the book, giving concrete examples about how you can implement the strategies.

Whereas social media is a sprawling mess, this is realistic and and measurable and therefore manageable. It sounds cliche but we can't afford not to do it.

Wonderful read. The principles and methods that Marcus shares are money in the bank. I just finished this book and have already started recording and writing educational pieces for our site and social pages.

I first saw Marcus speak a few years ago and was very motivated by his presentation. After reading his book, it helped provide the framework to get around so many of the challenges the insurance industry has with this concept. While it has taken some time to implement and deliver on these tasks, we're seeing a huge benefit already. I also listen back to the audiobook regularly for refreshers and highly suggest you do the same. While it feels like we have a ways to go, his thoughts serve as a great reminder and help put you in back in the shoes of a consumer. Definitely would recommend the hard copy and audiobook!

This book blew my mind! I have a small business that I am passionate about, but have never been as comfortable with marketing and sales as I am with providing my service. They Ask, You Answer states that you need to think like a customer and be a teacher to answer their questions and address concerns as honestly and unbiased as possible. Marcus Sheridan's personal story about how embracing They Ask, You Answer saved his business is fascinating! He gives other examples of companies that have used this philosophy with great success as well. The book is helpful to me and my one man show, but also goes into detail about how to implement actions for small, medium and large companies alike. I like how this edition of They Ask, You Answer goes into detail about how important video is for business. Then it goes into exactly how to begin making videos for your business even if you haven't done it before or had much success with video in the past. This book has helped inspire me to begin making helpful videos for potential customers and it has already helped with sales! In addition the the hardcover, I also got the audio version and hearing Marcus deliver the message was really enjoyable. Thank you Marcus Sheridan!

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