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

Metadata

• Title: They Ask, You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer
• Author: Marcus Sheridan
• Book URL: https://amazon.com/dp/B07VVH94ZF?tag=malvaonlin-20
• Open in Kindle: kindle://book/?action=open&asin=B07VVH94ZF
• Last Updated on: Monday, January 27, 2025

Highlights & Notes

“I’m just a construction worker, but when I had a plan and we were working together, we could build a skyscraper. Now you’re master builders, just imagine what could happen if you did that. You could save the universe.” — Emmet Brickowoski, The Lego Movie

That day marked a new era for our little organization. We now saw ourselves as teachers, and understood that if we just listened well and were willing to answer, things would turn around.

It is time to disrupt the status quo and lead change. It is time to grow an organization that you can be proud of and that buyers trust. It is time to inspire growth in meaningful ways while protecting time and space for the ones you love the most.

There is a teacher within each of us. Ever since I can remember, I’ve believed that statement to be true. The beauty of teaching is that, at its core, its influence has no bounds.

Specifically, the line between “sales” and “marketing” has been completely blurred, if not totally erased.

Today, on average, 70 percent of the buying decision is made before a prospect talks to the company. Yep, 70 percent. In other words, before the sales pro ever enters the fray, 70 percent of the buying decision has already been made by the consumer. And if you’re thinking this is a business-to-consumer study (B2C), you’re wrong. In fact, originally, this was a business-to-business (B2B) study.

If this shift is true, which department of your organization has a greater impact on the actual sale? Is it the sales department or the marketing department? Yep, marketing.

Sales, in the past, was always viewed as the revenue driver. Marketing was the expense. But no longer are we able to say this.

The simple fact is, sales and marketing will never be the same, and the line between them will only become more and more blurred over time. And anything that you and I think must be sold face-to-face will eventually be sold online.

If one looks at the psychology of this response, the reason why 100 percent of people truly believe their businesses are different is because they want to feel special.

The fact is, every business has a single tie that binds them all together when it comes to consumers and buyers, and that is trust. And the companies that embrace this reality, and let go of the obsession that “we’re different” are often the ones doing incredible things in their space.

Inbound marketing Content marketing Social media marketing Digital marketing Blogging And many others

“Inbound marketing,” as I understood it, was simply the process of attracting (instead of chasing) customers. And “content marketing” was simply the act of teaching and problem solving to earn buyer trust.

• 2 cosas a hacer

It starts with an obsession: “What is my customer thinking?” And when I say “obsession,” I really mean that. It extends past “What are they thinking?” to “What are they searching, asking, feeling, and fearing?”

• Enfoque de marketing

When an organization embraces They Ask, You Answer, they believe it’s their duty to be the teacher, the go-to source within their particular industry. One that’s not afraid to answer any and every question the prospect or customer may have. For them, it’s a moral obligation to provide this level of education, regardless of whether the question is perceived as good, bad, or even ugly. Not only are they willing to address these things better than anyone in their space, but they also allow this to dictate the direction of their business as the future unfolds. Because they are so keenly in tune with what the marketplace is thinking, feeling, and asking, they see where their business model needs to go, evolve, and head toward.

Keep in mind, I’m not talking here about one- or two-sentence answers to questions. I’m talking about really answering the question with deep explanations. And we approached each question with a “teacher’s” mentality, without bias—our sole obsession was simply one of thoroughly educating the reader.

Whether it’s B2B or B2C, people want to feel like they’ve made an informed buying decision, and they certainly don’t want to make any mistakes.

It’s a digital paradox of sorts. As consumers, we expect to be fed great information. As businesses, we like to talk about ourselves and therefore don’t focus on what our prospects and customers are thinking about, worrying about, and asking about. The whole thing is contrary to the very nature of that which we call “building trust.”

Brainstorm every question you’ve ever been asked by a prospect or customer. Focus on their fears, issues, concerns, and worries. State them on paper exactly as the buyer would ask (or search) them, not the way you (as the business) would state them.

Note: If you struggle coming up with these questions, there’s a frank reason why—you’ve lost touch with your ideal customer or client.

Here are the facts about ostrich marketing (or ignoring the questions of your prospects and customers): In the digital age, the ostrich does not win. The ostrich does not engender trust. The ostrich does not get the phone call, the store visit, or the online purchase. The ostrich does not get anyone filling out contact forms on his or her website. The solution? Don’t be the ostrich. Do whatever it takes to earn their trust.

In fact, as previously mentioned, They Ask, You Answer is a business philosophy. It’s the willingness to be so focused on and obsessed with consumer questions, wants, desires, and needs that you’re willing to change and evolve your entire business model around these elements.

You see, most businesses and brands never like to admit there is anything wrong with their company, industry, or the way business is generally done. Instead, much like the ostrich, they simply convince themselves it’s business as usual—ultimately, ignoring needed change.

You see, in business, just talking about something isn’t enough. If you truly want to overcome concerns and make your point real, you need to show it. You must teach it. And you certainly must be willing to address it. In our digital and visual world, one thing is for certain: If you don’t show it, it doesn’t exist. Saying “We have great customer service” is likely said by everyone else in your industry. And if everyone is saying it, you can be assured it means nothing to the consumer—that is, until you show it.

You see, every industry is made up of two groups: those who listen to the consumer and act (They Ask, You Answer), and those who maintain the status quo. But time and time again, history has shown us that those who listen to the consumer and change their business models—regardless of what others may say—set the standard for their space. They become the rule makers. And the competition? Well, they become the rule followers.

Simply put, the greatest companies and modern-day rule makers are obsessed with consumer fear, and they allow that fear to dictate their entire business models. They do this because they know that if they are able to eliminate all fears and negative emotions from the buying process, the only emotion left to feel is trust. And trust, quite frankly, is really what this book (and being in business) is all about.

Just as we did with used cars, take a moment to brainstorm every single reason (fear, worry, question, concern) as to why someone would not buy from your company. What would hold them back? What would keep them from clicking “buy,” swiping their credit card, or writing that big check?

• Ejercicio

Once you’ve listed each of these fears or reasons for not buying, now comes the critical step: How many of these issues (fears, worries, concerns, questions, objections, and others) have already been addressed well (a few sentences don’t count) on your company website? How many have been addressed within your sales process?

• Ejercicio

In other words, the majority of companies never take the time to properly address the biggest fears of their buyers (and leave it to the face-to-face part of the sales process to overcome these objections), and it’s costing businesses millions of dollars each year. So the question is, is it possible for you to address, and even eliminate, all of those issues you wrote down? Find a way to do this, and you’ll likely revolutionize your industry and innovate in ways you previously had not imagined. But it all starts with an obsession with knowing their objections, and then being willing to do something about them.

Basically, there were five types of content subjects (or types of questions) that seemed to move the needle with readers more than anything else, ultimately rendering the greatest amount of traffic, conversions, leads, and sales. These five subjects were as follows: Pricing and costs Problems Versus and comparisons Reviews Best in class At the time, I didn’t realize that these five subjects weren’t at all specific to the swimming pool industry. Rather, these are the five main subjects consumers and businesses research the most whenever they’re getting ready to make a purchasing decision.

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But there is an interesting difference between how businesses and consumers approach The Big 5. As consumers, we often obsess over these five subjects when considering a purchase. As businesses, we generally ignore or even hide from these questions, hoping they’ll magically go away or, worst case, willing to address them only when we are face-to-face with the prospect or buyer. In other words, we’re experiencing a literal paradox of business strategy, while essentially not doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Furthermore, you’re thinking to yourself, “I’m the customer! It’s my money. And it’s my right to know.”

When you’re researching a company and their products and services, the moment you feel like anyone is hiding anything from you, all trust is lost.

And you continue to look until someone answers your original question. Whoever is willing to answer your question first, in most cases, is the one who will get the first phone call or contact. They’re also the one who will likely get your business. In other words, they are the one who has earned your trust.

As consumers, we expect answers. When we don’t get them, we become upset and leave. Our loyalty is to the honest and open teacher focused on our problems.

Regardless of company or culture, we have found there are three reasons businesses justify not discussing this subject on their websites: “Every solution is different. Our prices vary.” “If we discuss pricing on our website, our competitors will find out what we charge.” “If we show what we charge, we’ll scare customers away.”

“We’ll Scare Customers Away” Think about this one for a second. It’s as if you’re saying, “If I’m honest, people won’t want to do business with me.”

And, as consumers, where there are seeds of doubt, inaction and the inability to make a buying decision almost always occur.

Folks, discussing cost and price is not about affordability, it’s about psychology. It’s about trust. And believe it or not, every business (yours included) can do it, as we now explain.

In other words, as consumers and buyers, we at least like to have a sense of how much things cost before we spend hours upon hours dedicated to learning about that product, service, company, and so on.

And, of course, the reasons why they didn’t address it were the same reasons we discussed earlier: Each project is different and therefore costs vary. They didn’t want their competitors to see their pricing. They were afraid they’d scare prospects away if they honestly discussed pricing.

Fact is, web traffic doesn’t pay your bills, sales do. Luckily, the digital sales and marketing tools we used on our site allowed us to track how people were finding our company and what they were searching for when they found us.

But the funny thing is, we never specifically stated how much a fiberglass pool costs. We simply answered the question the best we could. We were honest. We openly discussed the industry as a whole. And in the process of doing that, my entire business and, ultimately, my life were altered dramatically. Fellow reader, this is the power of honesty, transparency, and seeing yourself as a teacher. But sadly, most businesses, especially in the B2B space, still don’t recognize this massive need to openly discuss the issue of pricing, budgets, money, and related topics on one’s website.

(If you’re looking to recruit great people, answer their questions about salary.)

Remember, it doesn’t necessarily matter what you specifically say in terms of the numbers. What matters is that you’re willing to teach your prospective customers what would drive the cost up or down and help them get a feel for the marketplace.

In almost every industry, consumers make poor buying decisions and purchase the “cheapest” products and services, not because they are solely price motivated, but rather because they don’t know any better. They haven’t been educated. No one has bothered to truly explain the good, the bad, and the ugly of the industry. And that, once again, is the fault of the business, not the consumer.

With specific pricing on their site, they spend less time dealing with prospects who never would have been a good fit in the first place and instead focus their energies on educated, ideal-fit prospects who aren’t just looking for the cheapest thing, but rather the best value.

My point to you and your business is this: When it comes to money, you cannot be the ostrich with your head in the sand.

Remember, I’m not suggesting you put a “price list” on your site. Rather, be willing to specifically address the main pricing questions you get. To do this effectively, complete the following activity: List all the major products and services you sell. Once this list is complete, identify the items and services that generate the most revenue and/or have the most opportunity for you as a company. Now, for each one of these, produce at least one article and video explaining the factors that dictate costs, what the buyer can expect to see in the industry, and where you fall as a company. Place this content on your company website. In fact, we strongly recommend to clients that they have a “pricing” tab on the home pages of their websites, and that the content funnel visitors to the articles and videos that address these core pricing questions. Immediately start using this content throughout your sales process (as we discuss later in the book).

• To do

In today’s world, few industries are as competitive as technology. In order to stand out in these types of businesses, companies often have to embrace new and creative ways of thinking and doing things, or watch as their businesses slowly fade into oblivion only to be replaced by the next guy who had the foresight to embrace the vision of the future.

After the workshop, Novak showed just how serious he was about this new philosophy by making it mandatory that every employee in the company contribute to the company’s content strategy. Each employee was tasked with writing at least one blog per quarter for a total of four blog posts per year.

For instance, one of the things we did was to change our contact form. Where it asks for them to give the size of their budget for their projects, we actually raised all of our values on them so that we could hone in a little closer to our ideal customers. We added additional questions as well. What it did was reduce the number of leads, but the quality of the leads kept getting better and better.

When we first started producing content, we had an intern we had brought on specifically to help curate, organize, edit, and make sure the publishing schedule was staying on track. And she was amazing and has continued to do really great things for us, so we promoted her to content marketing manager. She’s the one in charge for really keeping it going. It’s important to have a person in that type of role.

When companies truly understand the power of great content and the philosophy of They Ask, You Answer, they don’t just stop at using their content to attract visitors to their site, they continually repurpose their content at every step of the sales funnel.

It tends to be a very busy time, and when we’re responding to requests for proposals, we’ll use content created in our blogs to help us with proposals, because we’ve already thought about the questions and addressed the answers. Using content that we had already created previously as part of our proposals really helped us flesh them out and get them finished quicker.

When people buy, they worry more about what might go wrong than about what will go right. It’s true.

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As buyers, although we want to know the good, bad, and ugly, we are mostly concerned with the ugly.

How many of our competitors were addressing that question on their websites? Zero. Yet, how many consumers were wanting to know the answer to said question? Pretty much all of them.

Consumers are not dumb; nor are they ignorant.

If the marketplace believes (rightfully or not) that a product, service, brand, or other factor has problems—they’re very likely going to find out. As a business, you have a choice: You can allow the consumer to discover your elephant(s) themselves and in turn lose trust in you. Or the minute they walk in the front door (or the virtual front door), you can say, “Here’s our elephant. Do you have a problem with it?”

How many times over the years have prospective customers questioned you about any of the potential problems or issues they may experience with your products, services, or company? If they have asked you these types of questions, I guarantee you that thousands of others have searched those same issues online. I can also promise you that they are getting their answers from somewhere. Wouldn’t it be better if they were getting those answers from you?

To start, answer the following two (very related) questions: What does the competition say is a negative about the thing we sell? What do consumers and buyers see as the negatives of our products and services? (Is it that you’re the most expensive? Is your product only a good fit for certain applications?) Once you’ve completed this, ask yourself: “How can we address each of these honestly and transparently on our website and within our sales process to turn it into an advantage?”

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Approaching his website content with a unique blend of helpful information, bold transparency, and more than a dash of his own brand of humor, Misheloff has been successful not only in educating his clients and growing his business, but he’s been having a good time doing it, too.

When you’re not paying for the leads, you have to ask yourself: “Am I more interested in maximizing my profits, or my happiness?” And for me, the answer is, “I just want to do it the inbound way.” I don’t want to open an office, or have a large staff, or spend my day talking into a phone, or have to drive into work every day. I get to work from home in shorts and a T-shirt. I don’t have any stress; I don’t have anything to worry about. And not only that, but Misheloff, unlike many businesses, has always seen his size (or lack thereof) as a major advantage when embracing the digital consumer. Instead of all the red tape that typically comes with working for larger organizations, if he wants to talk about something, he talks about it. If he wants to get something done, he does it. Up to the present day, Misheloff continues to dominate his space as a one-man army, and his joy is palpable. You hear people saying how tough it is to make it on the internet, and that you have to be some mega corporation to be successful—it’s all crap! Just obsess over your customer. Figure out what they’re thinking, asking, and going through. Then have the guts to address it. This philosophy has made me who I am and offered me an extraordinary lifestyle in the process. An extraordinary lifestyle and an even more extraordinary example of what one person can do despite an incredibly competitive niche. All in a day’s work for Rob Misheloff.

Think about the last major purchase you made—were you looking only at one option or multiple? If you’re like most buyers, before you made the purchasing decision you researched multiple options, ultimately making your decision after stacking them up against each other and then choosing the one that you felt was best for your needs.

Again, companies were focused more on their own fears and inadequacies rather than on what buyers really wanted to know.

“Our biggest competition is concrete swimming pools. So, to deal with this problem, we’re not even going to discuss concrete pools on our website. And if we don’t discuss them on our website, no one will know they exist.”

We think if we ignore the problem (or question) that it will go away, but it doesn’t. And ignoring it only destroys trust.

Remember: Consumer ignorance is no longer a viable sales and marketing strategy.

Just because consumers might start out as ignorant (not informed), eventually they will become informed buyers. In fact, many will get to a place where they’re even more informed than the vendor or salesperson they’re dealing with. It’s a reality of the digital age. And because of this reality, we have to live and do business by a different standard. We must say to ourselves: “Let’s assume our prospects and customers know every single other possible solution, possible vendor, and possible competitor out there.”

Putting It into Action Write down every question you’ve ever received from a prospect or customer who was asking you to compare two or more things. This could include products, brands, methods, companies, and other subjects. It could also include your products and services or ones you don’t even sell. The key, though, is that you consider the many comparison-based questions that potential buyers and customers are asking (and searching) in your industry right now. Once you’ve made this list, address these questions honestly and transparently throughout your digital marketing efforts—be it with blog posts, videos, buying guides, webinars, and so on.

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Consumers do want to know what your business believes about these types of questions; otherwise, they wouldn’t ask you the question in the first place.

In a hostage situation, unless someone puts his weapons down, it’s almost impossible to communicate with him, much less earn his trust. But once he does put the weapon down, the process of negotiation (trust-building) can begin. It’s much the same with sales and marketing communication—in order to make progress and earn trust, especially when the buyer senses the business is biased, disarmament is a must. For example, if I were going to write an article comparing fiberglass and concrete swimming pools (as shown previously), I must first eliminate the elephant(s) in the room, and I would do this by: First stating that our company sells only fiberglass pools. Immediately admitting that fiberglass isn’t necessarily the best choice for everyone. Stating that concrete pools might, at times, be the better option. Explaining how the article (or video) takes an honest look at the pros and cons of each, allowing readers to decide the best choice for themselves.

• Todo importante

“This person truly does have my best interests at heart.” That is the essence of disarmament.

Let me again stress, though, that disarmament goes well beyond the things you say on your company website. Essentially, it’s the way we approach customer questions with our business, be it face-to-face, online, or in other situations.

The best response to disarm such a question is quite the opposite: Well, to be completely frank with you, we may not be the best choice for you. We have been talking about your needs and your situation and describing what we can bring to the table to address those needs. You have also done this with other companies. You’ve seen their prices and you’ve seen ours. That means that, by now, you probably have a pretty good feel for things. So the question is, Do you, based on what you’ve now heard, feel we are the best option for you? The answer that comes next will be dramatically more telling than any further pitch would ever be for the prospect. As buyers and consumers, we don’t want to be told what to do or what to buy. Rather, we want to think we’ve educated ourselves enough to arrive at an informed conclusion. The best sales teams and companies in the digital age understand and embrace this reality.

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As stated in the previous chapter, as consumers and buyers we love to compare. We love knowing whom everyone else loves, hates, and how they all stack up against each other. We’re also obsessed with reviews. Whether it’s a website like Yelp, Angie’s List, or even a print publication like Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, we are a society that cares about pecking order.

“Consumers want to see these types of ranking systems. And they certainly want to know the best swimming pool shapes and sizes for their needs. Therefore, if they want them, it’s my job to give it to them.”

Putting It into Action Highlight Others and Build Your Referral Network Contemplate ways to make reviews work for your company. Are there any “best of class” types of content you could produce in your industry? Remember, if you’ve ever been asked to compare two things, then the answer is very likely “Yes.” Also, consider all of the companies within your industry or a similar industry that could possibly be referral sources for your business. Find ways, assuming they’re respectable organizations with good track records, to highlight who they are, what they sell, and why they’re respected in the marketplace. The key here is that you see yourself as more than a subject matter expert within your industry, but as someone who sees outside of your small circle and therefore has an opinion, expertise, and knowledge of those subjects that matter most to the consumer.

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Have you ever had a prospect say: “We like you, and we expect we may do business with you, but in case we don’t, is there anyone else you might be willing to recommend?”

Furthermore, if someone starts reading that article, where is he or she? That’s right—he or she is already on my site.

Each year at River Pools and Spas, we meet with well over a hundred households in the Richmond area with respect to their in-ground swimming pool installation. And because so many folks know our thoughts and feelings on all things related to pool construction from this website, they often ask us, “Who are some of the other builders and competitors in the area?” Never one to shy away from being blatantly honest about the competition, here is a list of some of the companies that have a solid in-ground swimming pool building history in the Richmond area.

Many companies use every page of their website to try to convince viewers how superior and awesome they are. In reality, no one wants to hear (from you) that you’re awesome. Rather, what buyers want is to look at your works, judge them, and then make their own decisions on just how great your company really

Honesty and transparency are self-evident and, when done with the right intentions, have a profound influence on the business, brand, and bottom line.

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Let’s assume you went online today and searched for “Reviews Pla-Mor Pools Richmond, Virginia”—Pla-Mor is our biggest competitor in the Richmond area. Once you enter such a search query, one of the first results you’re going see is that article.

The reality is this: Consumer ignorance is no longer a viable sales and marketing strategy.

Putting It into Action Embrace Review-Based and “Best of ” Content Brainstorm the top competitors and companies in your space, and then take the time to write an article about the best companies in your field. Remember to stick to facts and stay away from opinions when discussing the competition on your own website. But the key here is your willingness to have the conversation and become the trusted source for your industry in the process.

• Ejercicio

How does a local appliance store maintain such longevity while many other businesses in their field have been forced to shutter their doors during periods of economic decline? They turned to their customers and started paying close attention to their habits, problems, and needs.

(This, by the way, is extremely common for businesses all over the world when they embrace an inbound culture with content marketing. Although they are producing content, they are still doing it in a biased, sales-based manner versus one that is solely focused on teaching, helping, and solving another’s problems.)

Sheinkopf didn’t just stop with a smarter approach to the type of content he was producing. He also made content production a companywide policy, going so far as to add mandatory content production into the employee handbook.

Some people are bad writers, I get that. But the other good part of getting everyone to blog is, theoretically if everyone is blogging and really trying, they’ll learn to get better. If you spend a month researching a topic, you’re going to know what you’re talking about on that subject. And if you know what you’re talking about, you should be able to explain it to others.

You want to talk ROI? What is my ROI? My investment is simple—it’s my time, it’s my team’s time. You put our salaries together and it’s still way under what we could have spent for advertising, and we still would have needed someone to maintain that anyway. Just by looking at a customer’s email address (that was attracted through our content marketing efforts) and connecting it to a purchase, we can say that it’s at least $10 million in sales a year. And that’s with zero advertising.

When others tell Sheinkopf that traditional advertising really does work, he has a few strong words on the subject. People have always quoted me as “anti-outbound,” but I’m not that at all. If you’re getting a return on your investment through radio, home-shows, television ads, then all the more power to you. Typically, when people say advertising works I say, “How do you measure it?” They say, “It’s impossible to measure.” Then how do you know it works? People don’t want advertising. They want to contact you when they’re ready to contact you. There’s a difference between me telling you I’m great and somebody reading something and saying, “Wow, that was great.” If you, the customer, says it, there’s a better shot at me earning your business. If I [were] to advertise saying “Shop at Yale because we have a sale” by buying an audience of 500,000, how many people in that audience are actually in the market to buy something? And of those people, how many are actually listening and not changing the channel or fast-forwarding? You’re paying $500,000 for 20 people … maybe. Where’s the ROI on that? It’s not measurable. Inbound, assuming you use the right tools, is measurable, and we’re going to stick with what works, and what we can measure.

By simply obsessing over customer questions and being willing to answer them better than anyone else in their space, they’ve climbed to the top of their industry. Once again, a digital David beats Goliath.

Well over 90 percent of the time, even though they’ve been taught or shown how to do it, businesses won’t embrace They Ask, You Answer. It makes me sad to say it, but it’s true. They have the knowledge, but they won’t use it for themselves. Why not? The reason is threefold: They’re thinking like business owners, not teachers. Teachers see the world differently. That’s just a fact. They come from a scarcity mentality and don’t believe there’s room on top for everybody. They are still holding on to the idea that they’re “different.”

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Let’s think about this statement. “I will scare customers away.” But are they even customers at all? No. Look at it like this: If your products and services start at $50,000,andthatpersonhasatruebudgetof$20,000, do you think he is magically going to come up with an extra $30,000 for your products and/ or services? In most cases, the answer is no. Instead of scaring the person, you’re going to educate him, which brings relief and saves time for all parties involved.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you know as well as I do that not everybody is a good fit for you. In fact, the most successful companies have a very clear understanding of the fact they aren’t a good fit for everyone and therefore embrace this reality instead of resisting it. The moment a business thinks it wants to work with everyone is the moment that business starts to become very, very unhappy. Conversely, one of the happiest moments in the life of any business is the moment that they realize what they are not, and who they are not a good fit for. In fact, if you think about all the “bad customers” you’ve had while in business who ended up not being a good fit for you, there’s a very good chance that you realized, before they became customers, that your gut was telling you, “This person or company is not a good fit for us.”

Therefore, even though it’s important for a business to know what they are, the happiest businesses in the world have a deep understanding of what they are not.

That’s right—the second most influential group that dictates what we do and do not talk about is made up of the bad fits. We allow those people, who will never become our customers, to dictate our ability to listen, communicate, teach, and help. And it’s a tragedy.

The Customer The only group that we should allow to dictate what we as businesses do and do not communicate to our customers (both online and off) is also the least influential group: the actual customer. Yes, the people who are giving us their trust, money, and even referrals are the ones we often overlook and ignore.

Figure 23.2 The Actual Customer When all is said and done, they are the only ones who truly matter. They are the ones who will keep your lights on. They are the ones who will allow you to live in financial peace. And no one else. Until the day your competition is paying your mortgage, and those bad fits who will never become your customers are funding your payroll, I urge you to consider focusing on the only group that truly matters.

This all happened simply because other sites and companies thought our content was useful and helpful enough to link to.

In conjunction with this, I’ll share a couple of other statistics about River Pools and Spas that may astound you. In 2007, when home values were inflated and anybody could get credit to buy a swimming pool, we did about $4millioninbusiness.Inordertodo$4 million in business, we had to spend about $250,000onouradvertisingandmarketingefforts.Incontrast,ifyoufast-forwardto2014—atimewhenmostswimmingpoolbuilderswerestilldramaticallydownfromthepre-recessiontimeperiod—wedidabout$5.5 million in business and spent roughly $20,000onadvertisingandmarketing.By2018,revenueexceeded$8 million.

But what I can do is look at how things are done with our installers (the real experts), ask them about what they’re doing, and explain it in a way so that the average person understands how it is done. Because I can distill the facts into simple-to-understand words that pool shoppers find helpful, they naturally think I am one of the foremost authorities in the world.

Someone once told me, “It’s dumb not to dumb it down.” At the time, I had no idea how right they were. Since that moment, I’ve seen again and again how, when it comes to great marketing and communication, the moment a business or brand tries to sound smart is generally the moment they start to look stupid. But when you don’t try to sound smart, and instead try to have open communication with your listener, that’s when the magic happens. For me, this is my singular goal and obsession as a professional speaker, marketer, and communicator. My point to you is this: Think like a teacher. Obsess not just over the questions, but the way you answer them. This approach will make all the difference.

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As businesses, we must generate a profit.

Let’s assume for a minute that you’re committed to making content marketing and the principles of They Ask, You Answer work within your organization. In order to make this happen, not only do the leadership and marketing teams have to be aligned in their vision, but the sales team must immediately get involved in the process.

1. Producing Content Forces Us to Understand the Buyers and the Way They Think If you’re going to be good at content marketing as an organization, you’d better be great at understanding exactly what prospects and customers are saying, thinking, feeling, and searching. You must know their pains, worries, issues, and desires. Simply put, you must be dialed in. In the marketing space, one might call this a “buyer persona.” But regardless of what it’s called, many organizations and sales teams never quite reach a point at which they are completely in tune with the way their customers and prospects think before, during, and after the buying process.

In sales, empathy is everything. When salespeople don’t have it, they generally aren’t very successful. And when they don’t have it with their content, it generally doesn’t work either.

Here at IMPACT, we’ve heard time and time again how our clients improved overall sales communication after their sales team became involved in the content production process.

As you might imagine, this is where content marketing and They Ask, You Answer come into play. Through in-house articles, videos, and so on, current and future employees will have a database of training content that will help them to learn the company doctrines and philosophies faster and more effectively, affecting the human resources side of the organization for years to come.

Assignment Selling It’s a crying shame just how silo-driven many organizations are. Marketing sticks with marketing, and sales sticks with sales. But the most successful companies understand that the two should be aligned, and sales should use the content produced by marketing throughout the sales process. The concept of using content intentionally to educate consumers and push them further down (or out of ) the sales funnel is what we at IMPACT call “assignment selling.”

5. Sales Teams Can Learn What Prospects and Customers Truly Care About Before They Enter the Sales Funnel With the plethora of advanced analytics and other tools available to sales teams today, there is absolutely no reason not to take advantage of deeper lead intelligence. For example, assuming a lead has filled out a contact form on your website, advanced analytics allow you to see every page that person has viewed on the site. It allows you to know how many times he or she has visited. It can also notify you every time that person returns to the website in the future. By looking at these analytics, a sales professional can start to piece together the “story” of the prospect long before the initial contact or phone conversation. This knowledge can be an absolute game-changer for a sales team.

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Fact is, great teaching (They Ask, You Answer) can be the ultimate “time giver” to a sales department.

Let me start by asking you a very important question: On average, how many pages of your website do you think someone would be willing to read before they do business with you?

We discovered that if someone read 30 or more pages of the website before the initial sales appointment, they would buy from us 80 percent of the time. By contrast, if they didn’t read 30 or more pages, the average closing rate in terms of appointment-to-sale was only 25 percent.

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You have to look at it like this: Every time someone consumes a piece of your content (video, article, podcast, and so on), the trust factor continues to rise. Throughout the process, they are essentially “self-qualifying.” Every piece of content that someone reads or watches becomes the equivalent of another meeting—or “date”—with that person. If you go on enough dates with someone, eventually, you’ll get “married.” Or you will break up. One way or another, over the course of 30 dates, you’re going to clearly discover whether or not you’re a good fit, and whether you want to continue forward with each other. The same thing is true with great content.

That being said, let’s say that you found out that all you had to do was get a prospect to consume 30 pieces of your content (articles, videos, and so on) and he or she would buy from you 80 percent of the time. If that were true, what would you do differently? How would you handle that information? And how would that change your sales numbers?

The process of actively using your content in the sales process is what I’ve dubbed “assignment selling.”

I define assignment selling as: The process of intentionally using information: Which you have created via text, video, or audio. That is educational about your products and/or services. With the purpose of resolving the major concerns and questions of prospects so they are dramatically more prepared for a sales appointment—or multiple sales appointments. I reference assignment selling as something necessary to do before and during the sales process.

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How does one overcome this ignorance on the part of potential buyers? How does a sales professional take a prospect from “uninformed” to “extremely educated?”

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The reason we have such an approach to selling is because our focus on teaching gives us the right to ask for commitments from prospects.

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First, the book I would be asking the prospect to read would not be filled with my words, and I would not have therefore earned the right—nor authority—to ask the prospect to read the book (or do the homework). Second, by producing content in the form of text or video and posting that content on your site and other platforms, you take on the role of teacher. And the moment your prospects see you more as a teacher versus a salesperson, the amount of respect they have for you dramatically escalates. Remember: The rights of a teacher are greater than those of the person who does not teach.

we should all be looking for ways to help our prospects become more educated before we talk with them the first time, and then we should continue to educate them throughout the sales process.

If becoming educated with respect to your products and services is not a variable in a prospect’s buying decision, it almost always means that person is basing a decision on what to buy solely on price. Unless your business model is one of being the lowest-priced option every time, the prospect is very likely not a good fit for you.

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When people don’t take the time to become well educated, they are most likely making their decision based solely on price, which generally means they’re not the best fit.

When it comes to success in business, the difference between happiness and frustration comes down to knowing who is, and who is not, a good fit for your organization.

In fact, if you think about how you buy things and how much research you do when you’re serious about what you’re buying, you’ll see that you are likely grossly underestimating people’s willingness to become comfortable with their buying decisions through the power of great, helpful information.

Content—assuming it is honest and transparent—is the greatest sales tool in the world today.

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Here are some truths about content, especially the content on your website, assuming it’s done right: Content can teach 1,000; 100,000; or even 1,000,000 people at a time. Its scope and reach have no limits. A salesperson, for the most part, can “teach” only those he or she is speaking in front of. Content never sleeps. It can work for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It doesn’t ask for holidays off. It doesn’t get sick. It simply keeps going. Content doesn’t need a commission and never asks for a raise. It won’t leave you for another company, and it will follow the rules and dictates you give it. A single piece of content can continue to work for you long after you’ve forgotten about it. (Heck, many of the articles we’ve discussed here for River Pools are several years old, yet they generate hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in revenue. Essentially, they are “evergreen.”)

That’s right, 95 customers, on average, were willing to read 105 pages of our website before they bought a swimming pool from our company.

What can one salesperson do with 800 additional hours in the year? The answers are obvious. He or she can: Spend a lot more time with qualified prospects and buyers. Spend more time networking and focusing on business development. And, most important, spend more time doing that which he or she loves—be it with family, friends, loved ones, hobbies, and so on. Frankly, that’s what it’s all about.

The moral of the story: It is not just about leads, traffic, and sales. It is not just about building your brand either. It is about giving your company, your staff, and your salespeople more time.

If you can give this incredible gift (of time) to your employees, then not only do employee morale and overall culture improve, but you are making a serious impact on the world in the process.

It’s at moments like this when it’s easy to see the incredible power of assignment selling. Using the principles of assignment selling, your email would consist of the following: Hello, Mr./Mrs. Jones, We met a few days ago and I gave you a proposal. During our meeting, you mentioned a couple of questions and concerns you had. In order to further help you with these concerns, I’ve attached to this email a video and an article that specifically address each. Please take a moment to give each a look, as I know they’ll help you with this important decision. And tomorrow I’ll give you a call so we can discuss. Sincerely, Salesperson

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So rather than writing a “Please-don’t-break-up-with-me” email, writing an email like the second one has two major benefits. First, it will remind your prospects that they actually have nothing to worry about. You are offering the best solution to their problems. It reaffirms your expertise related to their particular concerns. Second, it will force your prospects to respond in one of two ways: They may respond with a simple “Thank you, this is great! It is exactly what I needed.” When they respond in this manner, it is a clear sign that they are interested, and things are looking very positive in terms of your ability to do business with them. On the other hand, they may respond by telling you they are not interested, and you are not a good fit for them. Knowing that you are going to contact them to ask about the homework you have now given them forces them to tell you the truth.

Time is your greatest asset in business and in life, and a candid answer like “I’m not interested” or “Actually, we’ve decided to go a different direction” saves you precious time.

Because we have a very high number of leads coming into our system, we need to make sure that we’re working with good fits and not with bad fits. We want to make sure we’re dealing with informed and educated clients versus those who really have no clue as to what we are and the services we provide—people who haven’t done any research whatsoever.

Let’s talk about a couple of things you just read in that phone conversation that make it unique. First, you’ll notice how the communication is based on the principle that if the prospect does certain things, he or she will have a better experience. This is much more effective than saying, “Hey, Mr./Mrs. Jones, I really don’t know if you’re worth my time. In order to tell whether you are, please read this.” The second principle that you will notice is the principle of disarmament, which we discussed in an earlier chapter. Here is how we have used disarmament with our prospects: We have come right out and admitted that there is a chance that we will not be a good fit for them. We have allowed prospects to feel like they are in charge of identifying whether we are a good fit or not. But in reality, we are also identifying whether they are a good fit for us.

If they don’t want to take the time to educate themselves as to whether or not we’re a good fit, then they certainly won’t make the time investment. But this simply means they weren’t a good fit to begin with.

A few core principles remain consistent, namely: Every email sent out by your company’s sales team is a teaching opportunity. So stop sending out emails—especially emails of the sales variety—that do not include content that teaches the prospect or customer. It doesn’t make sense. If you are going to implement assignment selling and use content in your company’s sales process, the sales team must be informed and be aware of the content that is being produced.

Health Catalyst didn’t have to fight to have their voice heard, because there were no other voices. Rather than push their way onto the stage, Health Catalyst built the stage.

Our content team has grown. I have a core team, and I have a separate team that just writes “case studies.” The sales team particularly uses the case studies. I’ve also created a tool on our website called “My Folder.” This tool allows anyone (but the sales team uses it the most) to go onto our website, sort through whatever articles, case studies, or information they’re looking for to give to a client and put those things in the “My Folder” tool. The salesperson can then send any file they add to the folder to a client.

For the second phase of Health Catalyst’s marketing strategy, they began to implement regular live webinars for their clients, prospects, and anybody interested to attend their training sessions. All the webinars are free, and many have been recorded. Topics a potential client may be interested in are always available.

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But I knew that we had the thought leaders within our company. So we had a meeting and decided that our webinars would have a “content marketing mind-set,” which would be all about educating and teaching. We didn’t want to mention our company name much, if at all, because we try to teach principles and broaden the appeal of what we do.

Health Catalyst’s education-over-promotion approach to webinars has paid off in a remarkable way, with an average sign-up for webinars between 600 and 700 people and as many as 1,200 people attending a single session.

We were so committed to making it an analytics event and not a sponsored event that we asked everyone at the very end to vote on whether they thought it was a vendor event or an analytics event. Ninety-four percent of the people voted that we had kept our promise of making it about analytics and not Health Catalyst.

Our own president said, “In my 25 years in the healthcare field, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Our clients are coming, and they’re already educated. We walk into a meeting and they already know what we’re doing. They’ve read our stuff. They’ve already asked questions. Many of them are ready to buy by the time we have our first meeting.

The Health Catalyst story is the ultimate example of a B2B industry where, instead of saying, “Hospitals don’t find vendors on the internet,” the organization embraced the idea that an obsession with education and transparency—in all its forms—could have a dramatic impact on the brand and business. And boy, did it have an impact.

Many companies have tried content marketing and failed.

Buy-in from top to bottom: This is achieved through truly educating subject matter experts and key departments on the “what,” “how,” and “why” of content marketing. Insourcing: The process of utilizing company employees to produce content as part of their job descriptions. The content manager: Someone in the organization must own the effort and be fully dedicated to it (without distractions) to make it work. Using the right tools: Unless the right tools are used, it is extremely hard to calculate true return on investment (ROI) of the company’s content marketing efforts.

For the most part, unless the content producer (for the agency) is embedded in the company, it is very difficult for that agency to reflect you, your brand, your brand story, and the subject matter expertise your company has accurately. In many ways, your company’s content and story represent the soul of your business. This being the case, it can be quite difficult for someone else to accurately reflect this “soul.”

I hope you’re seeing the point here. The creative flexibility to simply produce great content, in all its forms, without the limitations of a contract or deliverable, is a powerful, powerful thing. Additionally, when a company is not dependent on an agency to “do the work,” the team will learn it for themselves. Although the learning curve can mean slower results at first, the end results are often dramatically greater. Finally, it’s critical that your company’s story and content be a true reflection of your sales messaging. This means, in a perfect world, that your sales team is very much involved in the selection and production of all of your company and brand content

Done right, when a prospect or customer contacts you, his or her first thought is: “Yes, this is exactly who I thought they were. What they are saying is exactly what I read and saw.”

Ultimately, the question of producing your own content versus having someone else do it for you is much like the principle of the artist. Not until the artist is holding his or her own paintbrush can he truly produce a masterpiece. The same is true for any company wanting to become a thought leader in the digital age.

You must do more, and you must do it better. Thus, owning your content effort, versus renting it out, can make all the difference.

The case studies and data my agency has on those clients who “owned” it versus those who “outsourced” it is empirical and incredibly clear — learning to do it in-house is the clearest path to exceptional results.

The process of using your existing employees and their knowledge about your services and products to produce educational content for the sales and marketing department — leading to better, buyer-centric content, more informed sales teams, and dramatically increased brand awareness.

In life, when people tell you they “don’t have time,” what they’re really trying to tell you, without actually telling you is: “That thing you just explained to me is not as important to me as it is to you.” In other words, they don’t see its value.

The Silos Must Be Eliminated Krista’s dilemma is shared by most people in marketing — they understand their products, services, and buyers, they just don’t understand them the same way sales or management does. Simply put, they are not (generally speaking) subject matter experts. After all, the sales teams (among others in the organization) hear the main prospect and customer questions. It’s also the sales team that is tasked with answering these questions. So if sales is on the front lines, why wouldn’t they be included in the part of the sales process that has the greatest impact on the sale? We keep telling marketing, “Go and produce this content. Get us lots of leads. Move prospects down the funnel.” But to expect them to do so is ridiculous and outrageously improbable.

What is this thing we call content marketing? How does it work (They Ask, You Answer)? Why is it so important that everybody in the company participate?

Everyone is a teacher, and everyone’s voice matters. When companies think this way, anything is possible. The marketing department changes. So does sales. Silos are eliminated. Culture and teamwork are enhanced.

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The Big 5 and how it drives consumer research around the world: Pricing and costs Problems Versus and comparisons Reviews Best in class

Therefore, marketing’s job (from this point forward) is to help employees (who deal with customers or are subject matter experts) produce content (and therefore earn trust).

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Who is the person in charge? (The title of this position varies, be it content manager, chief content officer, or other label.) How often will employees be asked to contribute content, and how often will they be required to meet with someone in marketing to produce said content? What are the different ways in which the employees will be able to contribute content — text, video, podcasts, etc.? What are the editorial guidelines for a typical blog post?

“What would prevent this culture of content marketing from working in our organization?”

But at the same time, to make it possible, it’s more than just having the right strategy or getting the buy-in of your sales team. Embracing content marketing and the philosophies of They Ask, You Answer is a big task, and unless someone owns it, it’s very likely not going to work. This “owner” can go by many names within an organization (especially based on how large the company is), such as: Chief content officer Content marketing manager Content manager Chief storyteller Brand journalist Inbound marketing manager And so on

Producing great content is a full-time job, and someone has to own it.

With most of our clients, regardless of the size of their businesses, a “successful” week of content marketing will look like this: At least three new pieces of content (text, video, or audio): 5–15 hours Company email marketing efforts: 1–3 hours Site analytics, SEO, and so on: 3–5 hours Social media engagement: 1–2 hours Premium content production (ebooks, white papers, webinars): 3–5 hours General website enhancements (new pages, call-to-action placement): 2–4 hours Continual education/training (learning tools like HubSpot, new apps): 3–5 hours Meeting with the sales team to discuss needed content, have training, and so on: 2–4 hours

They love to write. This one goes without saying, but it’s a big deal. And remember, writing online isn’t just about fancy words. It’s about clean communication, done in a way that just about any reader can understand the content. Remember, great writers and communicators (and teachers) don’t try to sound smart, which is never the goal of content marketing. Rather, they seek “communion,” and this quality makes them great.

Without question, this skill is non-negotiable. Plus, remember this key: You can always teach a great writer to be a good marketer, but you can’t always teach a good marketer to be a great writer.

They are skilled editors. When companies leverage their existing employees to produce text and video content, the initial product can be “rough.” But great content managers can take what is a 5 in terms of quality and make it a 9 or 10 —…

They have excellent interviewing skills. This is huge. Any legitimate organization is full of subject matter experts, but most of these same experts are not great writers and certainly not great content marketers. Because insourcing is so critical to success, a great content marketing manager understands how to sit down with subject matter experts (and vendors as…

They embrace social media and…

They have solid video editing skills. Video just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger (more about this later in the book). In fact, for many of our clients at IMPACT, video is way more important than text when producing a heavy amount of content while attempting to utilize employees — especially those persons in the sales department. In a perfect world, once a company is of any size, a full-time videographer will be hired to show the visual story of the company. But until that point, the content manager should…

They are extremely likeable. Do you remember the amazing success story of Krista Kotrla and Block Imaging? Among the many reasons Krista was so effective in exploding Block Imaging’s brand and bottom line, her likeability was a major factor. Her company’s employees love her. She brightens their day, she has…

They understand what makes people tick. Again, when one is using employees as sources of content, knowing how to motivate and inspire said employees is critical. This is exactly why the best content managers know how to push the right buttons to give their employees the…

They are organized and goal oriented. Content marketing needs to have order. This starts with a main editorial calendar and continues with newsletters, trainings, interviews, and so on. All of these…

They love analytics, numbers, and measurement. As I’ve worked closely with so many CEOs and marketers on their content marketing over the past few years, I keep seeing a simple trend: Those persons who…

They are continually thinking outside the box. Look around at some of the greatest content marketing examples and I’ll show you creativity and unique thinking every time. Fact is, the best ones in this industry aren’t looking for a set of rules or a road map that tells them exactly what they need to do next. Instead, they just get stuff done, however…

You might have potential candidates perform the following exercises during the vetting and hiring process: Ask them to turn a really poorly written rough draft into a nice article. Give them only an outline of an article and ask them to turn it into two full-blown articles. Give them a list of blog titles and have them write the interview questions they would use to interview an expert to complete the article. Give them a “question” that acts as the main subject of a video or blog post. Now, instead of you interviewing them, have them interview you (either in front of the camera or simply by taking notes), to get a full and thorough answer for the question. Once the interview is finished, give the candidate a short window (24 to 48 hours) to return with a completed blog post (or video) answering the question.

And finally, make note of their personal interests. Do they write for fun? Are they into producing their own videos? Do they consistently use social media as well? Do they have creative hobbies? Do you sense they are called to create and grow something of their own?

Remember, the tools and the strategy can be taught. The values, curiosity, and natural passion for both people and writing are critical to making all of this come together and ultimately to achieve greatness.

As we’ve established, They Ask, You Answer is a business philosophy that guides the sales and marketing approach of an organization through obsessive listening, teaching, and a desire to solve the problems of the marketplace. For this philosophy to work, a few things have to happen: There must be shared buy-in. Departments must be aligned. Everyone has to understand the underlying vision. Great, quality-driven content needs to be produced through text, audio, video, and other media.

You see, the fact is, as businesses, we must make money. And then we must turn a profit.

As they explained it to me in 2009, “inbound” marketing was essentially the opposite of old-school “outbound” marketing. It was about providing value (through information) to consumers online, leading them to come to you (inbound) versus the traditional method of bombarding consumers with interruption-based content like TV, radio, print advertising, and so on.

discuss the three major benefits we’ve encountered, benefits that every business must consider if they truly want to reach their online potential: The ability to measure ROI The ability to track lead behavior The ability to test your website

In 2015, we spent $12,000onpayperclick,whichequatedto11,657websitevisitors,437leads,33salesappointments,andsevencustomers.Thesesevencustomersgenerated$357,000 in total revenue, with a net profit of just under $100,000.

The key to remember here is that every lead has his or her own story — a story that writes itself as the lead engages your content, thus showing you what truly matters and what does not.

Too often, we look at a website and because we think “it looks right,” we think that it’s performing at its highest level. The reality is the best companies understand that just because something looks right doesn’t mean it is right, nor does it mean changes aren’t needed. By having a culture of testing within the digital side of your business, you’ll see again and again that the simplest changes in words, messaging, colors, and design matter — and therefore deserve your attention as a business.

“We put in a lot of work, but we know how much money it made. And it was well worth it.”

Video was becoming a fundamental part of the buying process, and almost no businesses seemed to know how to deal with the shift.

“Why not? Why couldn’t we be the first firm to truly ‘teach’ organizations how to embrace a culture of video in-house? This is obviously where the world is headed, and so what if no one else is doing it? It’s what’s needed. And it’s the right thing to do.”

Today, hundreds of clients around the globe have embraced the mindset of “We are all media companies.”

Even better, video is the ultimate expression of They Ask, You Answer. Buyers want it. And not only do they want it (as we’ll discuss later), but more and more prefer to learn visually over simply reading a textual explanation.

We should never let our personal opinions screw up smart business choices.

But let’s go back to this 82 percent statistic for a second. What percentage of your website, right now, is video-based? If you’re like most organizations I speak with, you’re likely in the range of 0 to 10 percent. This may make you feel as if there is no hope, but take comfort in the fact that, if you’re at 0 to 10 percent, your competitors are right there with you as well. There is no better time than right now to embrace video and visual selling, and all the benefits that will come from those efforts. But you cannot be passive.

When it comes to video, you must not be passive; it’s not an option.

The moment we acknowledge we’re a “media company,” we start making decisions much differently.

That’s right. Video is a sales initiative.

For example, the number one video we see companies invest in and create first is the “about us” video. “About us” videos may be nice, but when was the last time your sales team said: “I can’t wait to start using our new ‘about us’ video in my sales pitch!”

What sales is looking for, as you know, is content that will overcome prospect concerns, address common fears, and clearly answer buyer questions. If we were looking at this in terms of the traditional buyer’s funnel, we would focus on the types of videos that are aligned with the bottom of the funnel. What do buyers really want to know?

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This is why, ideally, your sales team should be saying, “I couldn’t come close to being as effective as I am if we weren’t producing this video content.”

“What are the questions you are commonly asked that tell you a prospect is clearly not ready to buy?”

But what would happen if, every time you had a sales call, not only did your prospect already know the answer to those too-common questions, but had seen it, heard it, and learned it from you? Yep, the sales appointment would be dramatically more productive. And not just more productive, but much shorter, too. Now, instead of spending so much time answering universal questions, you could address your prospect’s specific questions that are unique to their needs and circumstances. You also wouldn’t have to spend nearly as much time building relationships of trust on the front end of the appointment because it will have been established long before you shake the prospect’s hand. This is exactly why the 80 percent video is so imperative for sales success.

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Putting It into Action The 80 percent video process is simple: Brainstorm a list of the most important products and/or services your company offers. Eventually, you will create an 80 percent video for each. Have your sales team (or anyone who deals with a prospect) brainstorm the most common questions they hear on a typical sales call regarding that particular product or service. At a minimum, you should be able to come up with 10 questions. Once you’ve completed your brainstorming, narrow your list down to the top seven questions. These will constitute your core “80 percent.” (If you’re wondering whether or not you can choose more or less than seven, the answer is yes. We’ve simply found with our own clients that seven tends to be the most effective number.) Answer each question in an individual video. This video can — and generally should — be uploaded to your company’s YouTube page and utilized anywhere else that is potentially helpful to buyers on your website. Take these seven videos and combine them into one long video. This will be your 80 percent video. Immediately get this video into the hands of your sales team and integrate it into the sales process, with the core purpose being to have prospects view it before the initial appointment.

Answer the question as concisely, yet thoroughly, as possible.

Yes, you read that correctly. We want them to be concise in the way they communicate — to the point, clear, and incisive. But we also want them to be thorough enough to empower the prospect or buyer to say by the end, “Perfect. Now I understand.”

When it comes to optimal length of video, far and away the most significant factor is where the buyer is in the sales cycle.

How great is their fear of making the wrong decision? When we’re afraid to make a wrong decision, we will spend as much time as it takes to get comfortable with our buying choices. This is the reality of the digital age.

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Should one person or multiple people act as subject matter experts in an 80 percent video? The primary goal for any video you produce is that the communication be clear, effective, and helpful. If this means that you need to choose the one person on staff that is capable of this, then by all means, use that one person. That being said, in a perfect world, it often comes across as very impressive to the viewer when multiple subject matter experts from your company play a part in these videos. Again, it’s not a must, but it does make a difference.

What should a salesperson say to ensure that more prospects actually watch the video before a sales appointment? We talked about this in our chapter on assignment selling, but it’s too important not to mention again. Since the book was originally published, we’ve seen that most sales teams still struggle with properly using content (text, video, podcasts, and so on) in the sales process. Case in point, most salespeople invite prospects to watch video using incredibly weak language, as demonstrated in the following: “We have some excellent videos on our website. It would be great if you could watch a few of them before our next meeting.” That’s not effective. It’s a passive suggestion. Here is an ideal script that your sales team can follow: Salesperson: Mr. Jones, I know it’s important to you that when we meet to discuss [product/service] that we don’t waste any of your time. Not only that, I’m sure it’s safe to say you don’t want to make any mistakes along the way. To ensure you don’t make any of the common mistakes we see buyers make, we’ve created a video that addresses the top seven questions and concerns people just like you have when making this type of decision. By watching this video, you’ll save time and money and eliminate the stress of potential buying mistakes. Plus, our time together will be dramatically more productive and effective. Will you take the time to watch this video before our meeting on Friday?

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Can this video be used in customer service? Not only can you use 80 percent videos within your customer service department, but you absolutely should use them. Using video to quickly show customers how to fix or solve their customer service issues can save many thousands of dollars per year in unnecessary expenses. To do this, find the most common (80 percent) customer service issues you’re having with the major products and services that you offer. Then use these videos as part of your “purchase package” when on-boarding new customers.

Should these videos just be “talking head” style, or does there have to be more production value? Always remember, “some” is better than “none” when it comes to educational videos. In other words, a basic talking head video is much more effective than a robust, production-driven video that has never been published because it’s lost in production purgatory. That being said, over time, you will want to make improvements to your 80 percent video, especially when using b-roll (shots of the product or service, or even your people), to make it more visually clear, whatever you’re trying to explain to the viewer. But don’t be afraid to start basic and allow organic progress and growth from there.

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Great communication in any video, but especially in the 80 percent video, has a tone that sounds something like: “If you’re considering __________, we know you have questions. You may even have concerns. But you can stop worrying because that’s why we created this video. We want you to be informed. We also want you to be relaxed. So let’s address your concerns — and by the end of this video, you’ll likely have a much better understanding of the answers to the questions that have been on your mind.”

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The other major mistake companies make is that they don’t state questions as the buyer would but as they, the business, would. Let’s look at a quick example if you were selling a swimming pool. Bad: “Why getting a diving board is a bad idea.” Good: “Is getting a diving board right for me and my family?” Notice, the first one is biased, with a clearly stated opinion. The second is open and unbiased, written exactly as a potential buyer would articulate the question, if he or she were debating on a diving board for a swimming pool.

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Can the 80 percent video be used throughout the sales process, not just before the first appointment? Yes! One of the greatest benefits of this video type is its ability to influence other decision-makers who aren’t present for actual sales conversations. So often, sales are lost because the “messenger” — the individual who actually spoke with the salesperson — is unable to explain to the rest of the decision-makers the value of the product or service or address their core questions regarding the product.

One of the best and simplest ways to humanize your business is by creating what we refer to as a “bio” video for each of your team members — especially those who are customer facing. A bio video accomplishes two goals: It explains what the person does for the company or what he or she loves about his or her job. It also gives a little bit of personal information about what the person does when not at work. By mixing a bit of personal and professional in a short video — typically 90 to 120 seconds long — you now have the ability to introduce yourself much earlier in the sales process.

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By also placing a bio video in this signature — with a clear thumbnail image denoting it’s a video — you give your email recipients a chance to get to know you on a visual, and therefore human, level.

As we’ve helped implement these simple videos with sales teams around the world, we’ve consistently found an average of 25 to 30 additional views per month of the video when it’s integrated into an email signature. Think about that for a second — that’s 25 to 30 more people who now know your name, your face, your voice, and your story.

Who should be required within a company to have a bio video? What types of employees or positions?

Can employees produce these themselves on their phones, or does there need to be more of a production element involved? As always, we advocate that attempting to do (and learn) video is a good thing for any organization and its employees. That being said, if you have a choice to make the videos look and feel more professional, then of course you should do that.

When it comes to the traffic on most organizations’ websites, one of the most viewed sections is commonly what are considered “product” or “service” pages. The way these pages are designed, at least from a messaging standpoint, is often extremely flawed. Why? Because all these pages tend to do is espouse why the product or service is great, what it is, what it does, etc. But for those businesses that understand the way buyers actually think (embracing a They Ask, You Answer mindset), there is an essential second type of information this page must include, simply: Who is the product or service not for? Yes, you read that correctly — not for. Now, you may be wondering why. Think about it — the minute we are willing (as businesses) to say what we’re not is the precise moment we become dramatically more attractive to those for whom we are a good fit. Therein lies the key to a product or service fit video. It explains who the product is — and is not — a good fit for in the most honest and transparent way possible.

Good: You may be asking yourself, “Is a fiberglass pool a good fit for me?” Great question, and it’s an important one, too, as this is the type of decision you won’t be able to go back on once it’s in the ground. Like any type of swimming pool, fiberglass comes with a set of pros and cons. For example, because the pool shells don’t come wider than 16 feet or longer than 40 feet, there are clear size restrictions. Also, because the manufacturing process includes pre-designed “molds” to build the pool from, you can’t customize a pool’s shape, size, depth, etc. beyond what you see within our available models. But if you’re looking for a low-maintenance pool that’s smaller than 16-by-40 feet, less than 8 feet deep — and you are able to find a shape that fits your needs — fiberglass might be a great fit for you. Bad: You may be asking, “Why should I consider a fiberglass pool.” Well, the reasons are obvious. They are way less maintenance, you won’t have to replaster them or replace the liner, and they go in a lot faster than any other type of swimming pool.

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At IMPACT, we’ve found there are four major fears people experience when giving away their information online: They’re afraid the company will abuse their personal information (privacy). They’re afraid they’ll be spammed with multiple emails. They’re afraid they’ll be bombarded with phone calls from sales reps. They’re simply wondering, “What will this process look like if I fill out the form?”

“OK, so you may be sitting there right now thinking to yourself, ‘Should I really fill out this form? Are they going to spam me and call me to death? And what are they going to do with my information?’ If you’re asking yourself these questions, don’t worry. Here is the exact process you’ll experience with us once you enter your information …” Once you’ve completed this video, you must put a very visible title (or call-to-action) near the video that says something to the effect of, “See exactly what will happen if you fill out this form.”

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Users will see an average conversion lift of 80 percent for that particular form if they follow these principles.

Specifically, a video on cost and pricing should: Address all the factors that drive the cost of a product or service up or down. Discuss the marketplace — why comparable products or services are cheap or expensive, and so on. Talk about your product or service and why it costs what it costs. (This is where you need to explain your value proposition extremely well.)

Having experimented with this with dozens and dozens of our clients at IMPACT, I can tell you that, almost always, the more specific a company is willing to be in answering questions about cost and pricing, the greater the increase in trust, leads, and ultimately revenue.

The traditional hero’s journey has 12 parts. In the context of a customer journey video, however, this journey can be simplified into three main stages: Stage 1: Your customer has a problem — a need, stress, worry, concern, or issue. Stage 2: The journey is taken to fix the problem. (In most cases, this is the journey they go on with your company.) Stage 3: Where they are today. They were able to fix the problem with your help. (And everyone lived happily ever after.) The purpose of this video is for a viewer to watch it and say in his or her mind: “They’re just like me. They had the exact problem I have right now, and look how they were able to solve it.”

1. Should we have our customers sign a release when including them in a video? Yes, absolutely. In fact, this is a best practice with employees and customers alike.

When it comes to the claims we make, we generally take our clients through a powerful exercise: Brainstorm the claims you make as a company. (Typically, you’ll find them on your website, in your sales messaging, etc.) Next, ask yourself, “How many of our competitors make similar, if not the same, claims as the ones we have listed?” Finally, ask yourself, “How many of these claims have we visually proven (through video) and not just stated?”

What’s the difference between a “claims we make” video and an “about us” video? Frankly, an “about us” video, done the right way, will do exactly what a “claims we make” video does — visually prove what makes your company unique, special, and different. It will take viewers behind the scenes and allow them to get to know you on a level that makes them intuit something more genuine regarding your organization than the others they’ve looked at and dealt with.

2. Should employees be required to participate in a “claims we make” video? Our philosophy is that, unless the individual is in sales — therefore asking for money — don’t require the employee to be on camera.

As you can see, there are probably more than seven videos here. In fact, if you have a full-time videographer, there’s a good chance these videos will require at least a year’s worth of work. But I can assure you — their impact on sales and the sales team will be dramatic.

Studies have shown that fewer than 20 percent of sales emails are ever opened.

There are three major problems with the medium: First, too often, people don’t open their emails. Second, in many cases, if they do open them, they don’t actually read them. Finally, if someone does happen to open an email and read it, she may misunderstand its contents or the true intent behind it.

You and your team need to master three elements of a successful subject line: Personalization is absolute key. In a perfect world, not only do you mention the person’s name — or company, industry, etc. — but also mention that you made the video just for him or her. Use the word “video” in your subject line. By doing so, you will automatically increase open rates. Identify a clear purpose for the email and reason to open it. Being specific and focused regarding your email’s contents makes a significant difference.

• Imookrtante email subjects

Here is an example of a subject line my agency might use: Mike, I Made this Video for You Re: Website Pricing Or my swimming pool company: John and Mary, a quick video about your swimming pool shape

If there is a major announcement to be made to the team, it’s only to be done with video. Never text.

You must embrace two important realities: Someone must “own” your video production in-house — a videographer. Your team must clearly understand the what, how, and why of video, while also being willing to learn how to communicate on camera effectively.

Besides that, if you truly understand the incredible importance the videographer position will have on your sales and marketing numbers, you would never question whether or not this should be a full-time position.

In 10 years, the position “videographer” will be just as important and prominent to an organization’s success as a “sales manager” is today.

The person who fills this position will be the visual storyteller of the company. As such, he needs to be a great fit for the culture of your business. He will have frequent contact with other employees and, in certain scenarios, will have to give and receive criticism to develop the best content.

During the interview process, focus heavily on seeking out the following traits: Able to work with a team or on their own. Own the production process and do what it takes to make great content. Self-starting and treat the brand as if it were their own. Deal well with constructive criticism and are able to receive feedback easily. Have great communication skills and are able to interview and make people comfortable. Energetic and able to excite others on the team to be on camera. Look at the content from the eye of the viewer to create the best experience. Lifelong learners and eager to identify new learning opportunities. More often than not, assuming they have the video production skills, someone who is fun and energetic is going to be a great candidate for this role. Because many people within your organization might not particularly enjoy being in front of a camera (especially at first), their ability to inspire others is arguably as important as their ability to use the camera.

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Here is a quick list our company uses that should guide you in the proper direction for a hire: Potential Fields of Study Journalism Education Video production Graphic design Photography Technical Skills Proficient with video editing software (Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro are the most common) Experience with Adobe After Effects or Motion Experience with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator is a plus Can conduct research and purchase needed equipment Can operate and maintain proper levels and calibration of cameras, audio and video recorders, and other production equipment Embraces new technology, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), etc., as it happens Understands the importance of tracking video marketing metrics Creative Skills Proficient at storyboarding, scripting, and conceptualizing Understands basic and advanced composition techniques Understands the fundamentals of branding Detail-oriented and able to identify quality issues in audio and video others might miss Understands the basics of social media platforms, native social video, and content promotion through social channels Video Portfolio Has a YouTube, Instagram, or Vimeo channel Has a personal website with a portfolio These are just some ideas of how to gauge experience and skill level. However, know that not all videographer candidates are going to meet all of the criteria. Remember — your candidate must display traits that lend themselves to business storytelling and not just cinematic knowledge. Granted, this can be trained and taught, but don’t lose sight of the fact that just because someone is good at “making videos” doesn’t mean he or she is skilled at the art of producing sales and marketing videos.

Here are a few more questions you can ask during the interview and throughout the hiring process that will yield valuable insights into candidates’ capabilities as a videographer, as well as how successful they’ll be at your company: What’s your favorite part of video editing? What is your least favorite? What websites or resources do you use to learn new strategies and techniques and improve your skills? What don’t you like about the video production process? What are the most important steps in pre-production? Tell me about a time when your footage didn’t turn out as you had hoped. What did you learn? How did you fix it? Who are some of your favorite videographers, channels, or influencers? (If they don’t have any, this could be a sign they don’t love learning.) What makes a perfect visual story? What videos have you seen online that were poorly done? When you see someone doing something wrong on camera, how do you generally offer feedback? Can you provide specific examples of those instances? How, specifically, do you deal with someone who doesn’t feel comfortable on camera? What’s the toughest piece of feedback or criticism you’ve ever received for some of your work? Was it valid? (Self-awareness is essential for this position.) In your opinion, what makes a business video different from, say, a short film? From what you know about our company so far, what’s an important element of telling our story that’s missing? What do you feel are the most important videos our company could produce right now?

This assignment not only shows you the candidate’s video skills, but also tells you a lot about the person’s time management, creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills. Here’s what you should have them do: Have your candidates make a video explaining why they want the job. This will give you an idea of how effective they are at telling a story. Also, how they present themselves could give you an idea of how well they understand your brand. Give a certain timeframe to complete the video — between two and five days. This shows how well they perform under a time constraint, how fast they are able to turn content around, and how creative they can be under pressure. Have them develop a script or storyboard to accompany the video. This shows their creative process beyond the cameras and lights. Many times this is what they’ll be presenting when they start a new project. How prepared can they be? Allow them to be creative and think outside the scope of a traditional marketing video. Let them know that they are free to tell the story as they wish to tell it, so to be creative and have fun with it.

Think about that for a second. Why is it that most of us would say we’re good with people yet terrible on camera? It’s simply not possible, which is why the moment you and your co-workers start seeing the camera as a person — yes, I mean that — and not as a camera, everything starts to change.

This is what makes live TV special. The same holds true when you shoot video with your team. Your people need to understand that, regardless of what they say or how they say it, they must simply “keep going” — no matter what. This is true due to three realities: The moment people know they can stop while being recorded is the moment they will start stopping a lot more. Most mistakes we make on camera can be fixed by a videographer in post-production. By moving forward and finishing, you “work out the kinks” in what you’re attempting to say — like writing a first draft to an article — allowing it to be said better the second time. The “don’t stop” rule is something your sales team has followed for years. For example, when was the last time one of them was on a sales call with a prospect or customer and suddenly said, “Oops, I messed up what I was trying to say. Let’s just start the whole conversation over again”? Yep, sales professionals learn early on that they must keep going, regardless of what happens or what is said in the moment. This exact same mindset should be applied to video communication as well.

Start smiling three seconds before hitting the record button. Yes, three seconds. Why? First, because once the video starts, you want to be coming off of your smile, not going into it. This establishes an immediate tone of being warm, friendly, and trustworthy. Second, it’s much harder to be nervous when you’re smiling than when you’re not. If you don’t believe me, try. It works.

If sales professionals don’t use scripts when they’re face-to-face with prospects or customers, why would they use them on videos? Plus, the moment you (as a viewer) watch a video and realize someone is reading from a script is the moment you start to lose trust in that person and doubt his or her subject matter expertise.

Not all videos will come out as you hoped. Not everyone is going to be great on camera the first day. Not every video will take off as anticipated. But it will be worth it. So embrace the messy. Get through the learning curve, and when you come out on the other side, you’ll ultimately humanize and add soul to your business in a way you never realized would be possible. Having worked with so many companies on this, I know this is true. You, too, will experience it for yourself. “But I’m just not good on camera.”

Sometimes that does work out, but — for the most part — you should focus on finding folks who possess the writing and video production skills you don’t already have in-house. Time and again, we see that the best people to fill those critical content manager and videographer seats are those who are trained in journalism and videography. The industry knowledge will come naturally over time as they start to interview and perform research to create the content you need.

Mike brings up a great point here — often, your experts are almost too knowledgeable about the products and services they sell to create effective content around it for your potential buyers. Even with the best intentions, they’ll gloss over basic fundamentals and the core questions buyers are asking early in the purchasing process.

“Having someone on your team dedicated to producing content is invaluable. Many people work with agencies or outsource their content to freelancers. These people are never really going to understand your brand, your products, or services,” Mike told me. “Why would you not want someone fully invested in what you’ve built?” He continued, “When you’ve got someone on-hand to create your content, you have someone available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Someone who can jump into a meeting to take notes, to pick up and go on-site for a project to shoot video. Having those resources in-house is the most invaluable part of success.”

Sheffield Metals’ Thad Barnette shared Mike’s sentiment: “The amount of videos we’ve shot over the past year would be nearly impossible to get that volume from an outsourced video agency. The amount of time we spend with the sales team, leadership team, and going to industry trade shows would be unthinkable to have a video agency do.”

the sales team doesn’t just chase the leads marketing brings in — they help pitch the topics the marketing team develops content around as well as use the content in their sales process. Through working with their videographers, the sales team have become accustomed to using video in their day-to-day selling.

“We use what we call ‘digital handshakes’ for the salespeople to use in one-to-one emails,” Thad explained. “Our salespeople have shot over 150 of these types of videos alone.” These digital handshakes are short, custom videos the sales team shoots on their own introducing themselves via video to new prospects. So before a salesperson ever meets or speaks with a prospect in person, that prospect already knows what the salesperson looks and sounds like, and has a preview of who he or she is as a person. It’s a much more powerful way of making an introduction during the sales process.

“By the second year, we had covered the 101s and had a ton of content spread all over,” Mike shared. “We realized we had created enough material to not just put out a couple of ebooks, but that we could combine those materials into an online course that was something unique to our industry.” He continued, “We came up with the ‘overhead crane buying course’ for somebody who had never purchased an overhead crane before. We took our articles, videos, and ebooks and put everything into one curriculum that takes people on an easy-to-follow path. The course helps people through everything from putting their budgets together, getting bids on the project, to the design and fabrication process.”

The beauty of what Mazzella achieved with this course, however, is that it’s no longer just for the benefit of their potential buyers and customers. Now the entire staff is required to complete the course.

“When was the last time you actually communicated with any of your close friends over email as a way of exchanging information or planning something?” After a few moments of silence, I shook my head and laughed a little bit. “You know, Jon,” I said, “I don’t know. Longer than I would probably care to admit.” That was precisely his point.

We all now have this built-in expectation that communicating online should be easy, painless, and immediate, right? But that expectation now extends beyond our private lives. We now expect to be able to ask questions of companies about their products and services online, and have that same real-time, conversational experience we have when we’re asking our spouses, partners, and friends, “Hey, what’s the plan for dinner tonight?” More to the point, your buyers are still asking questions and wanting you to provide them with thorough, sincerely helpful answers, but now, there’s a new twist. They’re asking you questions right now. And they want you to answer immediately. This new consumer expectation has given rise to something marketers call “conversational marketing.”

• Ijm.plortante chats

Conversational marketing refers to the one-to-one conversations buyers have with brands across different channels, whether that’s through live chat, chatbots, Facebook Messenger, Slack, text, and so on.

Conversational marketing is another example of how brands and companies are being challenged to continually meet their customers where they live — in a digital sense — as our relationship with the internet continues to evolve. At its core, conversational marketing is everything They Ask, You Answer is supposed to be.

It’s all about making the whole buyer experience of getting answers to questions and, ultimately, making purchases as effortless and friction-free as possible. And that’s exactly what you need to be doing.

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“Customers have all the power in the buying process,” says Dave Gerdhardt, who is the VP of marketing at Drift, a conversational marketing platform for businesses. “As a result, whichever company makes it easier to buy is going to win. That’s how we make decisions, today, as consumers.”

“If you try to dictate the buying process for customers, you will fail. So that’s what we think about a lot with conversational marketing. It goes beyond the technology. It’s about being there for potential customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Because that’s how they expect you to be there for them.”

Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, “I get what you’re saying, Marcus. I really do. I don’t want to lose deals to my competitors, but how does a company of my size adapt to such a massive change? Where do I even start?”

Unless your organization is never asked questions by anyone, ever — which, let’s be honest, is highly unlikely — you will eventually need to embrace the notion of being conversational online in some form or another.

Either you want to answer your customers’ questions — in real time, as they ask them — or you do not.

You need to do two things to get started with real-time conversations. First, you need to shift your mindset about how you communicate with your potential buyers online through these new channels. Second, you need to learn the tactics associated with using conversational technology to connect with potential buyers.

In these conversations, you need to chat in a more fragmented way — the way you might communicate with a friend — so your buyers feel immediate gratification and aren’t left wondering, “What the heck is taking them so long to respond to me?”

In short, you need to shift your mindset to a more informal way of communicating. The way you succeed with conversational marketing is by being conversational and human. Save the thoughtful paragraphs for your email newsletters, blog articles, and landing pages.

First, identify your “high-intent” pages on your website — contact us pages, “get started” or demo request landing pages, etc. Then, add a chatbot or live chat functionality to a select number of pages — even just one — and see how your website visitors respond.

When HubSpot added more real-time options to their contact page — including a chat option (therefore giving them the ability to address concerns and questions the very moment someone is on that page) — they saw a 160 percent increase in conversions on that page.

Once you’re ready to scale up, add conversational opportunities for your buyers on FAQ or knowledge base–type site pages — if someone has come to that type of page, it’s very likely he or she has done so because of a problem or question, so facilitating conversations with your buyers on those pages is a fantastic way for you to offer solutions and answers in real time.

You can also explore how you’re presenting content to people. For example, what if you flipped the traditional process of a visitor converting on a form to gain access to a piece of premium content on a landing page on its head? Instead, you could create a chatbot that asks if someone would like a downloadable copy of a piece of content. If someone says yes, that file could be transmitted through that chat window in a matter of seconds, creating a more helpful and positive experience for someone visiting your site.

“Think you’re an SEO master? Type ‘SEO’ in our comments to play our SEO Quiz in Messenger to find out your score.” Once users took the quiz, they would receive a personalized score based on their responses, as well as an invitation to explore a more in-depth piece of premium content about SEO strategy.

1. What are some of the most common mistakes companies make with conversational marketing?

They build an exact replica of what currently happens on a form, landing page, or email in a conversational interface, without making any changes that take into account it being a real-time conversation that should feel human. If they’re using live chat on their site, they let their potential buyers wait too long to get a response while they try to craft perfect answers. They don’t adapt their communication style to be more in line with the “instant messaging” back-and-forth expectations of today. Their goal with conversational marketing is to cut costs in their marketing budget, rather than trying to create a genuinely better experience for people who visit their website.

Ultimately, if you want to see incredible results from conversational marketing, you have to change your mindset and make a commitment to building a truly real-time conversational experience on your website.

Finally, one other way we see companies fail is by not using existing content they’ve produced to better and more thoroughly answer questions. To illustrate, let’s say you’ve created an 80 percent video as an organization. If someone in a live chat asks you a question that is answered in that video, it’s incredibly easy to send a link immediately to the visitor to allow that person to get a more thorough answer than you could possibly explain in a chat conversation.

2. If we decide to use live chat on our website, who should be responsible for responding to website visitors?

If you start small and experiment on one or two pages at first, a sales coordinator, marketing manager, office assistant, or receptionist should easily be able to take on this responsibility at first. It doesn’t actually matter who that person is — all that matters is you’re putting yourself out there and doing it.

Or, using ourselves as an example, we have more than 60 people working at IMPACT. When we started out with real-time conversations, we only assigned one person to respond to live chats — a sales operations specialist. Now we have two people from our marketing team who take turns having conversations with website visitors during business hours, in addition to their other more primary responsibilities.

3. Due to [our industry, the length of our sales cycle, our average deal size, etc.], would conversational marketing even work for us? My gut says no.

What happens when real-time conversations become the norm? Sadly, most organizations are more worried about their competition than they are about what buyers really want. Let’s not make that mistake.

4. How would you prioritize conversational marketing against the other teachings and tactics found in They Ask, You Answer? We teach our clients to focus first on answering their customers’ questions through text and video on their website. If you do this well, you’ll be able to offer a way better chat or conversational experience for your customers as well. We don’t suggest you try to do all of this at once. Essentially, follow the order of the book. Allow it to guide your priorities to eliminate overwhelm and ensure optimal results.

5. We know what conversational marketing looks like now, but what will it look like in 10 years?

Jon shared that he could imagine a world where a business’s homepage is simply a bot. In his vision of the future, “when you land on someone’s homepage, your only option is to engage with a bot that will get you exactly where you want, as quickly as possible.” Dave, on the other hand, posited that the future of conversational marketing will be much less focused around specific tactics. Instead, in response to the increasing demand from consumers to have their expectations — whatever they may be — immediately met, he believes marketing will be much less about broadcasting one-way messaging and will look more like a “two-way communication channel.” As for me personally, I think the spirit of both of their answers is correct. While I can’t speculate precisely what conversational marketing will look like 10 years from now, I believe we will continue to see consumers demand more personalized, real-time experiences that feel more human and conversational. And those interactions will need to happen on their terms, whenever they feel they need help.

Once again, our expectations as consumers on digital and artificial intelligence are so high that we expect the internet (and businesses) to “know us” — and therefore identify exactly what we need for our specific situation. Examples of extremely common “for me” searches are: “What is the best car for me?” “What is the best diet for me?” “What is the best dog food for my dog?”

The options were myself, a client, a company I work for, and someone else. Notice the way this was phrased? Wix has used “first person” positioning for their messaging. Why? Because they wanted Danielle to feel a sense of specificity and ownership throughout the process. It was for her — her website, her business.

The experience created by Wix is interactive, easy, and friction-free. But more than anything else, Danielle is in control. She is dictating, at least in her mind, the buying experience.

That’s the beauty behind what Wix is doing with this interactive questionnaire. Each question builds on what came before it, adding more specificity to the type of business and making it feel even more personalized to the user.

In the digital age, buyers have certain expectations: They want it fast. They want it personalized. They want it to be easy.

At impactbnd.com/scorecard, you can receive an immediate numerical score and assessment of how well your business is adhering to the principles of They Ask, You Answer, based on your input.

If you’re like many people I’ve spoken with about self-selection, you may be thinking the following: “I see how this makes sense, Marcus, but aren’t you afraid by doing this you’ll diminish the sales team’s role and hurt your ability to truly differentiation yourself from your competitors?” That’s the beauty of They Ask, You Answer. Instead, in these moments, you should ask yourself, “But would I want this if I were the customer?” That type of buyer-focused question should always be your compass. Of course, in this case, the answer is almost always “Yes!”

So think about the major questions your customers have to consider during the buying process. Could you create a tool that replicates or even enhances this process on the front end of the buying experience through your website? You may be tempted to say, “There’s just no way we could do this unless it is face-to-face.” But keep in mind that in the future the way we buy — fast, personalized, friction-free — isn’t going to stop or slow down. It’s always better that you, as a business, come up with the next way in which people make buying decisions, rather than waiting for your competitors to innovate first.

1. What are the most common types of self-selection tools our business should consider? The most common are cost and pricing calculators. More and more businesses allow users to at least get a “sense” for pricing, which is something we predicted in the first edition of this book and a trend that has only increased since that time.

Another very common and impactful self-selection tool would be what we call a design/build tool. These are extremely important for many businesses and, once again, can be used just as well for designing a “service” as for a “product.” Here are some generic examples that could literally be used in almost any industry: “Which plan is best for me?” “What options should I go with?” “How much __________ will I need?” The third most common self-selection tool we’ve been involved with are customer on-boarding tools. In other words, once someone becomes a customer, we can create a self-selection tool that starts them off on the right foot working with us and keeps them on track. This type of tool can also help us identify and resolve any issues our new customer may be experiencing, which makes it extremely helpful for an internal customer service department.

2. How much would it cost us to build one of these types of tools for our website? The obvious answer to this question is “it depends.” But because we’ve developed so many of these for our clients at IMPACT, I can tell you that the average price for something like this is in the $5,000to$15,000 range, depending on the complexity of the application. That being said, there certainly are cases when the cost can be significantly higher.

Therefore, the key to getting the most out of a self-selection tool is taking the approach that each question or item needs to be further explained. In other words, assume ignorance. The simplest way to do this is by showing some type of “learn more” link next to the item, which points to an educational video or article. When you do this, you allow the customer to decide whether to perform a deep dive to further understand a particular feature.

4. How can I see examples of self-selection tools in action? Visit impactbnd.com/playbooks/selfconfig, where we have a continually updated collection of the best self-selection tools we’ve seen businesses use. Go there to be further inspired for ways you can create a better user experience for your customers going forward — ultimately increasing trust, transparency, and sales revenue in the process.

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What are your buyers thinking the moment they land on your website? It comes down to this: “Can (your company) solve my problem (need) or not?” That’s it. That’s what is on their minds.

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Therefore, the headline of your homepage — as well as just about any other page on your site — should lead with your visitor’s primary problems, needs, questions, or worries in their words. Only afterward can you begin to introduce your company, what value you can provide, how you can address their problems and/or answer their questions, and so on.

It’s eye-opening: Count how many sentences include the word “you” versus the number that include the word “we” or “our,” as in “our company.” The ideal ratio, from the customer’s point of view, is 5 to 1 or better. In other words, you should refer to the customer five times more than you refer to you and your company.

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But when a visitor goes to your “pricing” page, your “learning center,” or a “self-assessment” area, we start to see a contextualized picture of this individual; a legitimate customer experience has occurred, and your relationship with her has begun.

Knowing this, the rule of thumb you want to follow is simple: Your goal with your homepage shouldn’t be to “teach” visitors everything you want them to know. Your homepage is there to allow them to find exactly what they want as quickly as possible. This is exactly why, in a majority of cases, your homepage should never feature paragraph after paragraph of text. Approach it more like Google’s homepage — one simple box — instead of Yahoo! — a simple box lost among a million news items. You can apply this principle by answering a simple brainstorming question with your team: “What are the top actions/questions/needs someone would have if he or she were coming to our website right now?”

Once you’ve come up with a list, rank them in order of “most” important. From there, look at your list and ask: “How does our existing design and layout reflect what the buyer would actually want?”

Brainstorm the top 25 questions you hear from prospects regarding your products and/or services. How many of the answers to those questions are easy to find — or even available at all — on your website right now, either in text or video format?

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Website Priority 3 Premium Education Although so much of the education we offer buyers is found in articles, videos, and so on, we still want to offer those who want it the “full course” of meat and potatoes—commonly referred to by marketers as “premium content.” Examples of common premium content offers include: Ebooks and whitepapers Buying guides and physical brochures Downloadable templates, checklists, and workbooks Webinars or on-demand videos To measure how well you meet the needs of your buyers through your premium content, ask yourself: “If someone wanted to learn as much as possible about each of our products and/or services, have we created and published enough premium content offers for them to do so? If we have, are those offers easy for our website visitors to find?” Again, the gaps you identify should be part of your plan of action.

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So ask yourself: “If someone wants to visually learn about any of our products and services, could they do that on our website right now?” Every major page of your website should have at least one video that is specific to its subject matter, whether that’s a particular product or service, your pricing, or another topic.

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“When a customer has to make a ‘choice’ of any of our products or services, is there an interactive tool on our website that guides them through this process?”

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This is why, in many ways, customer service has become one of your most important marketing tools. How is this possible? Because if your customer service is great, they (the customers) may leave a positive review. But if your customer service is terrible, there is a high chance they’ll leave a negative review.

For this reason your organization should be prolific about social proof—what others are saying about you—on your website. Examples of social proof include customer journey videos, testimonials, client case studies, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and so on. If you are short on social proof, identify some of your happiest customers. Then ask them to record their journeys as buyers. Leverage these videos on your site and throughout your sales process.

In fact, Google recently found that 40 percent of consumers will abandon a website page entirely if it takes more than three seconds to load. Ouch.

What should you do? First, check out your site speed. Three great places to do this online, for free, are: www.webpagetest.org www.gtmetrix.com www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/testmysite

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common reasons companies say that haven’t been able to achieve success with content marketing comes down to one variable: time. Individuals and companies are struggling — mightily — to find the time to produce content.

Here at IMPACT, we’ve seen client content production explode simply by adding one step to their educational (They Ask, You Answer) emails — bcc-ing someone in the marketing department to ensure that the content (assuming it’s a fit) will be used in the future. By simply adding this click of a mouse, content ideas are continually being generated, the marketing team keeps its fingers on the pulse of all the questions and issues the sales team are dealing with, and silos are torn down. It’s powerful. Do it.

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Participate in Blogathons or Videoathons with Employees If you have employees and want to create a lot of content in a short period of time, a blogathon just might be the perfect solution. By getting everyone in the office away from writing emails and assigning articles and videos to work on — all together and at one time — a company can truly do amazing things. In fact, we recently had a client in the financial space produce more than 50 pieces of content in one day — all because they set aside the time with their team to get it done without distraction.

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In short, when you leverage the strengths of every team member, you can dramatically reduce the time you spend in the production process and get the most bang for your buck.

Turn on the Camera and Hit Record Some of the greatest successes I had with my swimming pool company occurred when my business partner Jason and I would walk onto a job site, look around, and just start explaining everything we saw. In a few hours’ time, we had produced multiple videos, many of which today have hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. Keep in mind, most of these videos weren’t planned out. We simply looked at the job, asked ourselves what the consumer might want to know about it, and then began talking. This principle can be applied to any business, and, boy, does it save some serious time in the process.

As humans, when we do not value something enough, we have a simple fallback response: “I don’t have the time.”

Also, what you’re reading here is contingent on doing content marketing the “right” way — as explained in this book. Specifically, the following assumes that your company is: Producing at an absolute minimum two to three new pieces of content each week (videos, articles, and so on). Following the philosophies of They Ask, You Answer — a willingness to truly address the most common buying questions a prospect or customer is going to ask, about costs, problems, comparisons, reviews, and so on. The company is fully participating. From management to sales to marketing, everyone is involved, and a mission statement — stating the vision of They Ask, You Answer for your company — has been created.

Hit “publish” and get the sales team engaged. Searchers and search engines realize you exist. Finally … you get leads. Generate sales and revenue. The snowball is rolling down the mountain.

Rarely do amazing things happen in content marketing without an incredibly consistent production and editorial calendar.

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Also, keep in mind the immediate victories that can, and should, occur within the first 90 days. For example, if you’re producing The Big 5 content, then you’re clearly addressing the top questions your sales team is receiving. This content should be integrated into the sales process as soon as it’s produced. If you complete your 80 percent video, your sales team should integrate that into their sales communications immediately. Remember, every piece of content produced should be viewed as another tool in the sales team’s toolbox.

However, a significant factor that dictates your ability to have search engines recognize your content is how saturated your niche or industry already is. In industries where everyone is producing content (like digital marketing companies), it’s difficult to rank well in search engines. But among those industries that produce much less content, the lack of competition allows for quicker results.

Now that leads are starting to come in, it’s critical to measure where they are coming from. Always look at your leads and the piece of content that brought them to the website. If that lead at some point becomes a customer, and you know his or her originating piece of content, you can track value back to that one single article, video, tweet, or other source.

If we boil it down to its most basic characteristics, how would we define content marketing (assuming we weren’t using “marketing speak”) and They Ask, You Answer? Earning trust through teaching? Using great information to help others solve their problems? Listening to consumer questions and providing honest answers to those questions?

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Will teaching still be relevant? Will helping others solve their problems still hold value and build trust? Will it be important to hear and address questions from your prospects and customers? Yes, of course they all will be important.

The Big 5 — cost, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best in class — are generally the most critical questions to tackle early on in the process. Once you have completed the answers, take these same pieces of content, stack them together in an organized way, and create ebooks, guides, video series, and so on, to enhance the sales team’s capabilities to educate the prospect, earn trust, and close more deals.

You can customize awards and recognition for your situation, but here are a few examples of milestones worth celebrating: Articles or videos that reach a thousand views Number of leads generated Views from organic traffic Ranking on page 1 of search results for target keyword phrases

Make It Easy for the Team to Share Content Want your employees to share content? Make it easy for them. Teach them how to do it. For example, you could introduce them to: Lazy links: A hyperlink to a website typed in by an instant messenger chat member while chatting because he or she is too lazy to open a browser, type in the URL, and click “enter.” Email signatures: One of the simplest ways to point someone’s attention to content, especially with all new signature tools available on the market today. Social media: Many more employees would share company content if they understood how to share it, when to share it, and why to share it. A little training can go a long way.

9. Humanize It Always remind everyone of the real human beings that your content affects. How does it change lives? What is the deeper “Why?” to what they’re being asked to do?

Here are a few examples: “You’re really awesome at generating content on a regular basis. What is your secret to making it look easy? How have you worked it into your everyday life?” “Hey, thought you’d be interested to learn that 80 percent of your team members are contributing content. I’m curious to hear how I can make it easier for you to participate so that people can learn from you, too.” “How can I make this easier for the team to participate? How can I make it more fun?” “How can I prove this is working?”

You see, at this point (in the 21st century), most of what we say is a repeat of what someone else has already said.

You see, by producing content, regardless of how many times “it has been said,” we become better people, better employees, better sales professionals, and better communicators. That’s how it works. And that’s how it has worked for thousands of years.

This is why I truly believe every individual and every company needs to write what I call “The Gospel According to You.” Your prospects and customers want to know your thoughts and feelings. They want to know what you believe and why you believe it. But you also need to experience this. You need to distill your thoughts. You need to state your company’s doctrine.

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Give a man a fish, you’ll feed him for a day. But teach him how to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime.

We’ve suggested you take on three major expenses: The cost of a full-time content manager The cost of a full-time videographer The cost of a tool that fully measures the ROI of all your digital sales and marketing efforts Combined, the sum of these three expenses is equivalent to hiring a single salesperson for most companies. Think about that.

Digital is the great equalizer.

So don’t ask, “Can we afford to do this?” Instead, I challenge you to answer these hard questions: “What if we don’t do anything?” “What is the cost on inaction?” “Can we afford not to do this?”

So now, as we come to a close, I ask you to follow the instincts you already have. After all, we have them for a reason. Be the best teacher in the world. Obsess over their questions. Answer with fierce honesty. And win their trust.