Episode 34: The Power of Simply Answering Questions with Marcus Sheridan

E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 00:00 Announcer: Welcome to the Neon Noise podcast. Your home for learning ways to attract more traffic to your websites, generate more leads, convert more leads into customers, and build stronger relationships with your customers. And now your hosts Justin Johnson and Ken Franzen.

00:18 Justin Johnson: Hey, hey, hey, Neon Noise nation. Welcome to the Neon Noise podcast, where we decode marketing and sales topics to help you grow your business. I am Justin and with me, I have my co- host, Ken. Ken, what's going on today?

00:31 Ken Franzen: Not too much, Justin. How are you doing yourself?

00:34 Justin Johnson: I am doing fantastic, thank you. I am extremely excited to talk to our featured guest today. He's got an awesome story, I can't wait to dive in. Today we have on Marcus Sheridan. He is called a web marketing guru by the New York Times. The story of how Marcus was able to save his swimming pool company, River Pools, from the economic crash of 2008 has been featured in multiple books, publications, and stories around the world. And it is also the inspiration for his newest book, "They Ask, You Answer," which is dubbed, "The number one marketing book to read in 2017" by Mashable. Today, Marcus has become a highly sought after global speaker and consultant in the digital sales and marketing space, working with hundreds of businesses and brands alike to become the most trusted voice in their industry while navigating the ultrafast rate of change occurring within consumers and buyers today. When Marcus isn't giving riveting and passion filled keynotes around the globe or consulting with businesses and brands, he generally finds himself on an adventure with his wife and four children. Awesome stuff. Without further ado, Marcus, welcome to Neon Noise.

01:50 Marcus Sheridan: Gentlemen, it's a pleasure to be here. And hopefully I'll say something today that doesn't suck.

[chuckle]

01:57 Justin Johnson: All right. We are gonna keep the suckiness out of this conversation. Good stuff. Hey, fill in the blanks on anything I may have missed and why don't you give us a little bit of background?

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 02:08 Marcus Sheridan: You hit it, man. I'm just a pool guy turned marketing guy. And if you want, I can tell the whole story.

[laughter]

02:16 Marcus Sheridan: Or wherever you wanna go. You just tell me where you wanna go.

02:19 Justin Johnson: Awesome.

02:20 Ken Franzen: Well, I think you got a really unique story in... It's in the fall of 2008, I don't think we're gonna shed any light on your nose, it was a challenging time for just about everybody.

02:31 Marcus Sheridan: It was very difficult.

02:32 Justin Johnson: Yeah.

02:34 Ken Franzen: But it was a major pivot point for you. Let's set the table here a little bit with you telling us about where you were, what was going on, and how that moment in time or that time period itself transformed you or set you on the track to where you are today.

02:54 Marcus Sheridan: Well, we started the company River Pools in 2001, literally, out a back of a pick-up truck. And we're just trying to grow it, grinding, like everybody does when you start a little company like that. And things were okay up until 2008 when the economy collapsed. And within the first 48 hours of the crash we lost five deposits, people that said they were gonna get a pool, withdrew that deposit and say, "We just can't do it." So we lost about a quarter of a million dollars in business in the first 48 hours after the crash of Lehman Brothers, and all that stuff. Then over the coming months it just got worse and worse and by January of 2009, we really were looking at bankruptcy square in the face.

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 03:36 Marcus Sheridan: And I talked to three consultants, they all said, "You should probably just close your doors and file." But the issue was if I did that, I was gonna lose my home, my two business partners were gonna lose their homes. My 16 employees at the time were gonna lose their jobs. We basically had to figure out a way to generate more trust, more traffic, more leads, more sales than we'd ever done without really spending any money to do it. That's where we were. And that's when I started to read about the Internet and seeing all those fancy phrases like "inbound marketing," or "content marketing," or "digital blogging," etcetera. And really, what I heard in my mind as I read these technical phrases was, "Marcus, if you just obsess over the questions you get asked every single day by prospects and customers, and you're willing to address those on your website through text and video, you just might win." And so, that's when we embraced that philosophy that today, of course, I call "They Ask, You Answer."

04:26 Marcus Sheridan: And to make a long story really short, we did it so well that it became the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world and saved the company, and we went on to start manufacturing fiberglass pools as well and now we have dealers around the country. And it's just been an amazing ride and I started writing about that about a year after we were doing it. We began and called it "The Sales Lion." It was just a personal blog at the time, but it grew into something of its own, and today I spend the majority of my time with The Sales Lion, with those activities, with the consulting, and speaking side of it, and just companies saying, "Hey, I want to be the most trusted voice in my space. I wanna be the Wikipedia of that thing that we do." And we try to help them achieve that. It's been awesome.

05:15 Ken Franzen: Great story, great story. So what was your activity like though when you said that you started answering questions, what was your activity like there that led to the increase in traffic? I'm guessing it was blog posts?

05:31 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah. We would consider it a blog post. Of course, we did it on the website through text and video. Literally, at first, I just brainstormed every single question I would get all the time. And there's plenty of those. There's probably at least a hundred of those. And then, whenever I would sit in the sales appointment, I would be first listening to... Instead of just trying to answer the question fast, I would think to myself, "Have I addressed that well on the website yet?"

06:01 Marcus Sheridan: And so that became our moniker, our philosophy. It turns out, we did a lot of things that nobody had ever done though. At the time, I wasn't thinking to myself, "This is gonna be the most innovative thing ever with content marketing." I was just thinking, "I gotta save my company." But to give you an example of a few of 'em, when we start the process of "They Ask, You Answer" about seven years ago,

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN there wasn't a pool guy in the world that had addressed on their website, "How much does a pool cost?" [chuckle] Which is crazy.

06:28 Justin Johnson: That's what everybody wants.

[chuckle]

06:29 Marcus Sheridan: That's what everybody wants, yet that's what most businesses refuse to talk about. Well, so that was one of the first pieces, "How much does the fiberglass pool cost?" And immediately it started to generate traffic, again, because nobody had answered the question ever. And to make a long story short, because we measure this stuff, and because we know the total number of leads we get, and where they come from, and what pages of the website they hit first, etcetera, etcetera, I know that that one single article that I wrote seven years ago, since the day it was written, has generated over $3.5 million in sales of swimming pools that I never would have had, had I not addressed the question.

07:05 Marcus Sheridan: Now, somebody that's hearing this right now, is probably thinking, "Well, I can't address cost and price on my website." Which is total bull. Of course, you can. Now, the reasons why businesses say they can't do it, is because number one, they say, "My competitors are gonna find out." Number two, they say, "I might scare 'em away." Number three, they say, "Well, every job is different. It depends. It's a customized solution." That's the same answer for every business. But the reality is this, if you or I go on a website right now as buyers and we're looking for cost and price and we can't find it, we do not stay. In fact, the average person will stay less than 10 seconds. And not only that, but we don't call them, 'cause we stopped calling the company. Instead, we keep searching until we find what we're looking for. And generally speaking, whoever gives us what we are looking for, they're gonna get our business or at least first contact, first phone call. Yet, we all do this as buyers, but sadly most businesses aren't willing to address this question.

07:58 Marcus Sheridan: And so, you get back to the reasons why we don't do it, you say, "The competition." Well, okay, if I came to your sales team right now or to anybody that's listening to this and I said, "Do you have a good sense as to what your competitors charge?" You would say, "Of course." And so, if you know what they charge, it therefore means, they know what you charge. It's like the big secret non-secret, everybody acts like nobody knows what everybody's charging, and everybody knows what everybody's charging. And besides, your competitors don't pay your bills, that's number one. Number two, you say, "Well,

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN I don't wanna scare 'em away." Well, what we have seen time and time again, this is an established fact at this point. What actually scares people away is not seeing the price.

08:30 Marcus Sheridan: It's no different than if you decide to go to a new restaurant tonight. You go to that new restaurant, you decide you wanna vet it before you go, you're gonna look at Yelp and reviews, and you're also going to look at the menu. Now, here's where it gets interesting, if you go to the menu and there is no pricing, are you still going to go to the restaurant? We have found over 90% of all people in that case won't go, and it's not because they can't afford it, it's because the moment they leave the dumb answer blank, they plant a seed of doubt. And when seeds of doubt exist, buyers don't buy, inertia occurs, they stop. Then finally you say, "Well, I can't do it because every job is different." Well, explain it. Explain the marketplace. Why are some cheap? Why are some expensive? We have to teach people as businesses how to buy, what to buy. We got to... They don't understand these things necessarily every single time.

09:16 Marcus Sheridan: One last point about this, when we aren't willing to talk about cost and price, what inadvertently happens is the thing we're trying to prevent, and that is, we commoditize what we're selling. And the reason why we're commoditizing it, is because we're allowing people to make ignorant decisions because nobody bothered to teach them the thing. By aggressively answering their questions, or in this case explaining, how we come up with our cost and price, not putting a price list but explaining the marketplace, we de-commoditize that thing we sell and we become the trusted voice.

09:51 Ken Franzen: Interesting. And you're so spot on.

09:54 Justin Johnson: Spot on.

09:54 Ken Franzen: It's taboo for so many people to wanna talk about that and all the points you just made. You scratch your head and say, "Why aren't we addressing?" 'Cause the restaurant example you make is a perfect point. If you pull up a menu, no price, it's not like, "Oh, I can't afford this place." It's like, "No, I'm gonna go check out the next place." And you leave and you don't come back. And so...

10:16 Marcus Sheridan: Well, there's so many examples of that. One other really simple example that everybody's experienced, let's say, you're going to a shopping cart page, you got your credit card out, you're getting ready to buy whatever that thing is online that you wanna buy, but then, all the sudden, you notice

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN there's a coupon code and you don't have a coupon code. So in that moment of realizing, "Uh-oh, I don't have the coupon code" most people go and look for the coupon code.

10:34 Justin Johnson: You're going looking for it.

[chuckle]

10:36 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah, here's where it gets really interesting though, if you don't find the coupon code, do you still buy the thing? And our studies have found that over 50% of people in that moment now will not buy that thing just a second ago they're gonna swipe their credit card for. And it's not because they can't afford it, but because they planted a seed of doubt.

10:54 Justin Johnson: Yeah.

10:55 Ken Franzen: Interesting, interesting. And you bring up these changes and things that didn't exist and consumers have changed a lot. We now have all this information at our fingertips. We are able to view all these things and things that didn't exist a decade ago or even five years ago exist today. Can you talk a little about, you made some really good examples there, but dive in maybe a little bit deeper on what has happened to the marketing and sales world overall based on the new way the consumer functions and interacts with businesses in the world of marketing and sales?

11:32 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah. Well, you know the studies say, and there's different studies on this, but basically different studies have shown that, at this point in time, 70% of the buying decision is made before someone actually talks to the company and the salesperson. That's why all of us, at some point over the last couple of years, we've gone, we've researched something to buy, we've gone to buy it, and we have found that we were more informed than the salesperson themselves. And so, at this point in time, the buyer's no longer dumb. And because they're not dumb, businesses have a choice to make. Do we treat them as informed consumers and buyers or do we continue to pretend it's 1995 and try to hide it, try to cup it? Try to act like whatever that thing is, we can be the ostrich with the head in the sand and not address the thing. You simply can't do that.

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 12:22 Marcus Sheridan: And so if you look at what's happening with today's buyer, here's what's fascinating. When you think about innovation in the past, it's like, did we invent something new? Something that you can hold. Something tangible. Well the most innovative companies today, they aren't trying to necessarily invent something new. What they're trying to do, is they're making it faster and easier for you to get that thing that you've been buying for years. Super classic example could be Zappos or Amazon, because they changed the shipping elements of it. Zappos said, "Okay, we'll send it back." Just by saying, "We'll send it back," they overcame the concern of, "There's no way I'd buy a pair of shoes online without trying them on first." And they said, "We're going to eliminate the risk, and therefore you're going to be able to do this, now, without fear." That's powerful, and they change an entire industry.

13:12 Marcus Sheridan: You look at a company like CarMax, that 15 plus years ago they said, "Nobody trusts us in the used car space. How can we get the trust back?" They said, "Okay, let's have a five-day money-back guarantee. Let's have set pricing instead of these stupid haggle setups that are done in so many automotive dealerships. Let's have a CarMax quality certified, where we're gonna walk them through the inspection process, and we're gonna do everything we can to prevent selling a lemon." And because of that, CarMax sells thousands of cars a year without anyone even test-driving the vehicle. And these are just two simple examples. Now, you might say, "Those are bigger brands." It doesn't matter, it's the same principle.

13:48 Marcus Sheridan: Whatever the thing is that you think has to be sold face-to-face eventually is gonna be sold online. The reason is because how we define a face-to-face sales experience is going to change. If somebody goes to your website right now and they watch an hour's worth of videos, which is very possible, anybody that says, "That's never... " Don't even lie to yourself, it's very possible. Somebody goes and watch an hour worth of video of you talking or teaching them about that particular thing that you sell, and by the end of that hour they're like, "This is my guy, this is my gal." Have they had a face-to-face sales experience? I say yes, some people say no, but in their mind they know you. They know how you sound, they know what you look like, they've heard your doctrine and your philosophy, and because of that, they're gonna give you their money. That's the essence of business today.

14:33 Ken Franzen: All done before, at least you made mention they haven't even touched the phone, you haven't made...

14:38 Marcus Sheridan: Haven't touched the phone, yet.

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 14:39 Ken Franzen: No physical interactions. And that's how consumers are acting today. I guess my question to you is, businesses that are operating where they don't provide these tools for getting to know their customers before they pick up the phone, what type of situation are they leaving themselves in right now?

15:00 Marcus Sheridan: [chuckle] So a lot are being left behind, right, man? If you look at it, there's a lot of people holding onto the past right now, refusing to embrace what is obvious. That's why you keep seeing industries being left behind, and very, very frustrated about it. If I had a dollar for every insurance agent that has complained to me about Geico, I'd own a beach right now. A big one.

[laughter]

15:31 Marcus Sheridan: 'Cause I've spoke at so many insurance conferences, right? So, the thing about it is, you can either complain about Geico or you can say, "How can we make it faster and easier for the buyer?" It doesn't help to complain about the thing. It doesn't help to tell everybody, "No, no, no, no, they're screwing it all up and we've gotta continue to keep it the way it's always been." It's not gonna work that way. It's not gonna work that way. So they're missing out on big-time opportunities and they're being replaced in the marketplace. That's the circle of life, when it comes to business. What happens is, and this is always the case, the leaders of the previous generation are the slowest adopters of the next, and so the ones that were killing it on door-to-door sales are the slowest to embrace the Internet, in most situations. That's the facts, that's the facts. But that's why you see ones get left behind and this is why also, the ones now today on the Fortune 500 companies list, the time they're on that list today is about a tenth of what it was 20 years ago, in terms of average time they're on the list. And it's only gonna get smaller and smaller and smaller because of that rate of change.

16:37 Ken Franzen: Amazing. I have to ask, your title of your book is "They Ask, You Answer" and this is a little bit more than just a catchy title. You kinda reference it as a business philosophy.

16:50 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah, that's right, Ken. It's a philosophy. Yes.

16:52 Ken Franzen: Can you expand on "They Ask, You Answer" a little bit more and what it actually means?

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 16:58 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah. Well, it really aligns with what we've been talking about. Now, there's the simple side of which is, if they've asked the question, you need to be willing to address it on your digital properties, your website, social, etcetera, through text, video, maybe audio. And that question could be anything. Like "How much is it? What're the drawbacks of it? I heard this negative thing about your stuff, is that true?" You need to be willing to address those things because somebody's gonna own the conversation. It may as well be you. That's the surface level. But if you get deeper than it, it's meeting the buyer where they are. In other words, there's a whole group of people right now that are saying, "I don't do video, and I don't shop with video, so I'm just not gonna... As a company, we're not gonna do this whole video thing." [chuckle] Well no, ding dong, you can't do that.

[laughter]

17:49 Marcus Sheridan: Because the studies have shown that by the year 2019, 80% of the content consumed online is gonna be video-based content. That's fact, I don't make this stuff up. So if that's true, what percentage of your content right now, is video, or visually based content? You look at video. Video is the rising tide that is going to come up, whether we move our lounge chairs or not. It's going to happen. What are we going to do about it? That's the essence of "They Ask, You Answer." It's by saying, "Okay, so it looks like we're a media company." Yep, because we're all media users and we're all obsessed about media 'cause we're always connected, and so that's "They Ask, You Answer." "They Ask, You Answer" is saying, like CarMax did, most put would "Wow, low and behold, I don't like to haggle." 80% of the marketplace doesn't like to haggle. Well, the entire industry is built on what 20% of people like to do. Most people, especially most decision makers, when it comes to automobiles, are females, and females definitely don't like to haggle. The majority. All right, the majority.

18:54 Marcus Sheridan: And so, with that being said, why was an industry built on what people don't like? It's dumb. "They Ask, You Answer" is knowing what they're thinking, what they're feeling, what they're saying, what they're searching. How they want to do it, whatever it is, and then willing to adjust the way you sell, the way you market, the way you do business to match that, whatever it takes. That's how you stay in front of things, that's how you move. "They Ask, You Answer" is saying, "Oh look, they're on MySpace today, oh, they're gone. They're on Facebook today, oh, they're gone, what're they gonna be on tomorrow, I don't know." But it's where they are. They asked. They asked you to be there, so you answer it by saying, "Okay, let's continue to evolve and adjust."

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 19:36 Ken Franzen: This aligns pretty well with, then, understanding your buyer persona, your avatar, whatever we wanna call that these days, moreso than just defining a target demographic that you're gonna go after.

19:49 Marcus Sheridan: Well, that's a really, really good point. If you really understand "They Ask, You Answer," lots of times your personas really take care of themself, because you're obsessed with the questions your people are asking, and the way they're asking it, the way they talk, not the way you talk, the way they think, not the way you think, as the business. That's why, if people are really obsessed about this element, the whole persona oftentimes, for the most part, takes care of itself.

20:21 Ken Franzen: Awesome. Now, you mentioned in your book, something called, and I found this interesting that I'd like for you to expand a little bit on, something called the ostrich marketing strategy that I think a lot of our listeners might find themselves... To identify with, but I wanted to hear your take on what is the ostrich marketing strategy. I think you've touched on it just a hair bit already.

20:44 Marcus Sheridan: We have. The most common example is the pricing element but... Of course, it's a myth, but you always hear the analogy of "Don't be an ostrich with your head in the sand." And, of course, the reason why they would put their head in the sand is because they think the problem will go away, but the problem, it never goes away. What is the problem? The problem could be the question, it could be the need, it could be the concern, it could be the worry, it could be the issue, but it's the thought of the prospect or the buyer in this case. If they want to know pricing, you can't just bury your head in the sand and say, "Let's just ignore the question because I'm sure it'll go away." Nope, they're gonna kinda wanna know so we have a choice.

21:28 Marcus Sheridan: Let me give you another example. Perfect example of ostrich marketing. For years, people used to ask me as a pool guy, 'cause we sold fiberglass pools, they'd ask me, "So, Marcus, what're the problems with fiberglass pools? I've been reading about it and the concrete pool guy said they had problems."

21:41 Marcus Sheridan: Okay, so I had a choice. I could either address those problems through text and video, etcetra, or I could just pretend they don't exist, like every other pool guy. Well, see, that would be dumb because people aren't dumb. They're gonna find out, so I can get in front of the conversation, and I could come out and say, "You know what, fiberglass pools aren't for everybody. They don't get longer than 40

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN feet, they don't get wider than 16 feet, they don't get deeper than eight feet, you can't customize them any way you want, but if you're looking for a low maintenance pool that's gonna last you a lifetime, that's less than 16 by 40, less than eight feet deep, and you can find a shape that fits yours needs, well then it might be a great choice for you." But you see, that's addressing the elephant in the room.

22:22 Marcus Sheridan: The smartest companies today, they take the elephant that's in the room, that's in the corner, that's buried somewhere, that the person's gonna discover, they take it and then they bring it to the front door. So that when the person walks in, you hear, "This is our elephant! Any issues with our elephant? 'Cause we love our elephant."

[laughter]

22:41 Ken Franzen: Love it.

22:42 Marcus Sheridan: That's why I was able to say, "This is fiberglass pools. Don't get longer than 40 feet. Want some longer than 40 feet? That's okay, we're not a good fit for you." Boom. It becomes a great qualifier, and allows your raving fans to become even more serious fans for your product, your service, your brand, or whatever that thing is.

23:00 Ken Franzen: So by getting this elephant out in the front, you're basically having a conversation right away that's eventually gonna happen if you do get the chance to see them through the entire cycle, it's gonna get brought up eventually anyway so you're qualifying them up front. What does this do for the productivity of maybe your sales force?

23:18 Marcus Sheridan: Oh my goodness, dude, right? Way less tire kickers, bad fits, etcetra, etcetra, when it comes to the sales front. Way more time with qualified leads. Look, we've all heard this, and this isn't just about sales, it's about life. The best way in life to resolve a concern, is to address it before it becomes a concern. That's why, when somebody runs for office they, oftentimes, will come right out and say, "Yeah, I smoked dope when I was in college." Because if someone else says it for them, before they say it, well then it's a scandal, but if they say it themselves, all of a sudden everybody says, "Look at that person, he's honest, he's a man of the people."

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN

[laughter]

23:56 Marcus Sheridan: Right? Gotta get your skeletons out there.

23:58 Ken Franzen: Sure.

24:00 Marcus Sheridan: And so, you might not have skeletons but it's the areas where you're not a good fit. I do this with our clients, I have this with my websites, but one of the highest converting pages always of a website is the one that nobody has. And the title of the page is, "Who We're Not A Good Fit For".

24:15 Ken Franzen: Awesome. So your recommendation is just air that out right away, put that on your website and...

24:21 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah.

24:22 Ken Franzen: Let's kick 'em out of the door right away. Let's not even waste each other's time.

24:25 Marcus Sheridan: Yes, absolutely and you don't have to be a schmuck about it. You don't have to say well if you don't value a dollar [laughter] well then we're probably not the best thing for you. No, yeah, no, it's not that, right?

24:37 Ken Franzen: Sure.

24:37 Marcus Sheridan: I'm like you literally say... Let's say that you're an attorney and you're in Washington, DC and you specialize... Your litigation specialty is corporate work. So if you say, "Look, if you're a small business and you've got some needs, well then we're probably not the best fit for you because we generally

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN only work with corporations, but we can tell you some small business litigation attorneys that might be a good fit." So you come right out and you just say it. This way the corporations are saying, "Good, this is a big player here, there's a bar, this is all they do is corporations like us, big companies like us, big brands, so this is the attorney we wanna go with."

25:25 Ken Franzen: And they're not wasting their time with those that just aren't gonna end up being a client anyway. That's a great idea. Awesome.

25:32 Marcus Sheridan: Word to your mother.

25:34 Ken Franzen: Awesome.

25:34 Marcus Sheridan: Exactly.

25:35 Ken Franzen: So in your book you've noted five types of content subjects that have the greatest impact generating more traffic, conversions, leads, sales. Can you share with our audience these five content subjects and maybe a little bit of detail on each one?

25:52 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah, of course. We've addressed two of them already. So we call these the "Big Five" and the Big Five is the essence of "They Ask, You Answer." The Big Five runs the economy because whenever anybody is gonna buy anything, whether it's a service, a product, a big thing, a small thing, whatever it is, B2B, B2C, they research these five things. They don't even always realize it but, yep, this is how we do it and they are: They wanna know how much it is, cost, price, questions. They wanna know what are the negatives or problems with the thing, what are the drawbacks with it. They wanna know how does it compare to the other competitors or options they have in terms of what they buy, so we call that "versus". They wanna know what everybody else is saying about that thing. Reviews, that's how we define quality today, is what everybody else is saying about that thing. That's "reviews". And they wanna know what the best is for that particular thing in the marketplace, right? So you might say, "What is the best corporate attorney in Washington, DC?" That's a very common search that somebody might do, and there's a million ways that we do this. "What are the best Mexican restaurants for tequilas in Richmond, Virginia?"

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 27:01 Marcus Sheridan: This is how people think and they're that specific. And so that's the way we search. The question is, are companies willing to address these Big Five? Most are not. Most certainly don't talk about cost. Most don't talk about the elephants, the problems. Most don't like to compare their thing with any other thing because they don't like to mention the competition. That's stupid because you can either control that conversation or you can allow somebody else to do it. But they're asking, so it's your job to mention it. So I give an example of this, I used to get asked all the time, "So, Marcus, tell me the difference between a concrete and a fiberglass pool." And seven years ago most fiberglass pool guys hadn't even addressed concrete pools on their website. Why? [chuckle] Because their logic was, our biggest competitor is concrete pools. So in order to deal with the problem, this is what we're gonna do. We're not even gonna talk about them on the website. And if we don't talk about them, nobody will know they exist. [laughter] It's just like, yeah, that's some good logic right there. But I still see companies doing that all the time. So you gotta talk about how your stuff compares to the other stuff, whatever that is. And you need to openly discuss reviews, and you need to discuss the best.

28:08 Marcus Sheridan: So what is the best, small pool for a small backyard? That's a good example of one that I have done. What is the best fiberglass diving pool out there? These are the types of questions that I get asked as a pool guy but they exist in every industry. Again, B2B service-based businesses, same deal. The Big Five doesn't change. The majority of our clients are actually B2B service businesses, not even B2C. Big Five just as relevant, just as prevalent and that's where the action is. And what's cool about the Big Five is they represent bottom of the funnel questions that buyers ask. And most companies fail at content marketing or they're slow to get results because they produce too much fluff, stuff that buyers don't really care about, like something that could be nice, something that could even generate traffic, but it never generates a stinking lead for your company and that's because it's not a buyer-based question.

29:04 Marcus Sheridan: That's why you're never gonna see me as a pool guy writing an article like "Five Fun Games to Play in Your Swimming Pool". [laughter] Like, what the heck? That's dumb. It doesn't make any sense because that person might not even be in the market for pool. Maybe they own a Walmart pool, maybe they're going to the YMCA to have a party this Saturday, but they sure as heck are probably not my customer and so why am I gonna produce content on that? It doesn't make any sense. Yet, there's a lot of companies that think like that. That's called fluff and when we have a client, we don't allow 'em to produce any fluff at all whatsoever. We start with Big Five and we focus on that usually for the first six months.

29:37 Ken Franzen: So the Big Five that you're talking about then, these aren't anything that of Internet age... These are five things that are pretty much foundational that are gonna be commonplace 10, 20, 50 years from now.

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29:51 Marcus Sheridan: Because we're always going to ask these questions when we buy something. [laughter] That's just how it's gonna work forever. That's the cool thing about this. "They Ask, You Answer" is an eternal principle, it's not gonna go away. Right? Like link-building, eventually gonna go away friends. And I don't got a problem with link-building, but link-building is not a principle, it's a technique. "They Ask, You Answer" is a principal, it's a business philosophy that's been around for a long time and it's not gonna go away. If you're a great teacher, if you obsessively listen to your customers and your prospects and their questions and you're willing to address them honestly and transparently and consistently, you're gonna win, you're gonna win. That's nothing new, nothing new.

30:39 Ken Franzen: Exciting and so, so true. I encourage each of our listeners to grab a copy. I've read the book, Justin's read the book, we both enjoyed it thoroughly, and find the items that you talk about in it. You've shared somewhat today but there's so much more value packed into that book. Definitely pick up a copy. I'm curious, Marcus, what are you working on now? You seem like you're on the move quite a bit; you're speaking, you're an author, you're The Sales Lion, everything that you're involved in, what are you working on now, or what do you have coming down the line that you're really excited about?

31:20 Marcus Sheridan: Well you know, I'm excited about a lot of things. Ultimately I think what excites me most is great communication. And that's what I see sales, that's what I see marketing being is... When companies can understand the principles of world-class communication, sales takes care of itself, branding takes care of itself, marketing takes care of itself. And one of the things I've been doing a lot of recently that I just love, man, is doing workshops on how to be a better communicator. Be it from, what I like to say, from the stage to the boardroom to the living room. How can you and I reach peak performance as communicators? And there's just so much that we can do right there. And I know I'm gonna be writing a book on that at some point; I expect it will be called "The Art of the Question," but it's about seeing the world in terms of questions. And ultimately if you see the world in terms of questions it just opens up so many doors.

32:21 Marcus Sheridan: And just to give you one little concept of how this impacts things, the reason why I've been so successful as a speaker is because I ask questions that force audiences to look in the mirror. I can't convince them of something, they have to do it themselves. So the only way they're gonna own what I tell them is if they discover it for themselves. And they only way they're gonna do that is through the power of the question. If I want to be great with my employees, with their personal development, with their progress, I'm gonna have to ask them just the right questions so that they are able to say, "My goodness, this is what I need to do." And then I'm able to say, as the boss, "Yes, exactly."

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33:02 Marcus Sheridan: But if I tell them what to do, well then they don't own it for themselves. If I can with my kids, when they ask me a question, 'cause kids are curious and they say Dad, "Why does the sun rise in the morning?" Is it possible for me as a father to say, "Well, let's talk about that. What do you think?" And if I ask a series of questions, then all of a sudden at the end of those questions, the kid says, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, I think I know. The sun isn't moving at all, is it Dad?" "No, it's not. Well what's happening?" "Well I guess what's actually happening, Dad, is the Earth is the thing that's moving and not the sun. Is that right?" You see in that moment they just discovered for themselves, and they have that same feeling that whoever that was, that scientist that discovered that all those year ago, they had that same feeling because they own it. That's the art of the question, that's the power of the question. And by asking better questions, as a society, as a people, we can advance so much further than we've ever been, and that's what I'm passionate about right now.

34:05 Ken Franzen: That's interesting. And the one thing that you said there that really hits home from a standpoint with... Justin and I both have children and we both have teams that we work with and lead, is the having someone else own it. And the accountability that comes with that has so much more strength or legs or whatever you want to call it than if you give them orders, or if you were just to give your child the answer to the question. But I never really thought about it in the form of asking more questions or asking the right questions.

34:46 Marcus Sheridan: It's the right ones, yeah, it's the right ones.

34:49 Ken Franzen: So that's fascinating. I'm interested and excited to hear more about this in your next... When you get the book out.

35:00 Marcus Sheridan: Thank you man, I appreciate that.

35:01 Ken Franzen: So we anxiously await the follow up to "They Ask, You Answer."

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 35:05 Marcus Sheridan: And in a lot of ways it is that; it's a deeper understanding of this principle because "They Ask, You Answer" starts with obsessive listening, and once you've obsessively listened then you have the ability to ask incredible questions that can lead to the desired outcomes that we have.

35:27 Ken Franzen: Sure. It's so easy just to not ask the questions or not listen.

35:31 Marcus Sheridan: Oh, totally. Here's what I think you should do, because we all want to feel smart. And because we wanna feel smart we wanna give answers.

35:39 Justin Johnson: Good stuff.

35:40 Ken Franzen: It's good stuff to think about.

35:41 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah. Yeah, man. That's what I think about all the time. It's kind of nerdy by that's my jam.

35:46 Ken Franzen: Hey, no.

35:46 Justin Johnson: Whatever works. [chuckle]

35:48 Ken Franzen: And the thing is communication's something that we all do. It doesn't matter what profession you're in, we're all communicating, whether it's with our children or our leaders, or us as leaders communicating with our teams. It's all there so we need to understand and better digest ways to effectively communicate, so this is good stuff.

36:09 Marcus Sheridan: Well, thank you, guys.

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 36:10 Justin Johnson: Good stuff. Hey, Marcus, you've shared a lot of awesome value today. If you had one piece of parting advice for our listening audience, what would that be?

36:19 Marcus Sheridan: I would say... I'm just gonna pick one of many, but in this world of digital so many people are unfocused simply because they try to be a jack of all trades. Try to be great on social media and then they try to be great on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Twitter and all these places. And then they try to be great here, and when it becomes a business we try to be great with a multiplicity of customers and a multiplicity of needs. And then we try to be great with all these different skill sets. And the reality is, is we're way better off being instead of a jack of all trades, a master of one. Because if you try to be a jack of all trades you'll be a master of none. And so if I could give one bit of advice, is for you to understand what is that one thing. What is that one thing that you could do or you could say better than anybody else, or at least at a level that can have major, major impact? Don't try to be everything to everybody. But understand your niche. Understand your target. Understand your market. Understand who you are, and of course in doing that you've gotta understand what you're not. And if you understand what you're not, it's gonna be one of the happiest days in life for you as a person, as a professional because it gives you the ability to say no. And when you have the ability to say no, your yeses are dramatically more rewarding.

37:47 Justin Johnson: Awesome. Awesome advice. Neon nation, figure out that one thing and just be the master of one. Good stuff, Marcus. Hey, what is the best way for listeners to get in touch with you? Should they go to your website? How do they purchase your book "They Ask, You Answer"?

38:06 Marcus Sheridan: Yeah. Well, appreciate that if you purchase "They Ask, You Answer" you can get it on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. And if you would, please leave a review that has a big impact on things and I haven't done a very good job of asking people to do that so that would be wonderful. You can email me personally, [email protected], if you have a question for me. Just anything you've heard today. You can find me on the Twitters @thesaleslion. But gentlemen, it's really been great chatting with you guys today.

38:34 Justin Johnson: Awesome stuff. Marcus, thanks so much for being on the show today. Neon Noise nation, we hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Marcus. Be sure to go over and check out his website at thesaleslion.com. Pick up his book. Please leave him a review. As always the show notes from today will be available at neongoldfish.com/podcast. Until next time, this is Justin, Ken and Marcus signing off. Neon nation, we will see you again next week.

www.neongoldfish.com/podcast www.neongoldfish.com E34: THE POWER OF SIMPLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH MARCUS SHERIDAN 39:04 Announcer: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Neon Noise podcast. Did you enjoy the podcast? If so, please subscribe, share with a friend, or write a review. We wanna cover the topics you wanna hear. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like Justin and Ken to cover, connect with us on Twitter @neongoldfish or through our website at neongoldfish.com.

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