How to get more customers through disruptive content

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:22:15
Marcus Sheridan
I will say this. I will guarantee you that 90%, 90% of all service based businesses will have some type of pricing estimator on their website within the next five years. Take it to the back.

00:00:22:17 – 00:00:42:17
Alex C
This is Alex Cleanthous. And today we’re talking with Marcus Sheridan, sales and marketing expert, serial entrepreneur, and author of the book They Ask You Answer. In this episode, we talk about how to get more customers by producing disruptive content. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and make sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as they’re released.

00:00:42:19 – 00:00:51:18
Alex C
All right, so today we’re talking about inbound sales. So Marcus, are we talking about the B2B space with the B2C space when we talk about inbound sales? Let’s start with that.

00:00:51:20 – 00:01:09:20
Marcus Sheridan
Well, my personal opinion is, either one of the two shouldn’t be able to do quite well, when it comes to creating inbound sales, if they’ve earned enough trust in the marketplace, which, you know, ultimately that’s that’s going to be the big factor anyway. Do you become known and do you win their trust? That’s the battle we’re in every single day.

00:01:09:21 – 00:01:30:09
Alex C
So the big thing with inbound sales is that I think it’s become a lot more competitive over the years, right? Especially since kind of Covid and so on. The landscape has shifted, the assets have shifted, the platforms have shifted it. So what have you seen as the biggest kind of shifts, I guess, since Covid, in how kind of buyers are consuming content and purchasing?

00:01:30:15 – 00:01:56:08
Marcus Sheridan
Well, I think the biggest shift that’s happened, really started in November 2022 with ChatGPT and what type of disruption that is, is causing and will continue to cause in terms of this whole, zero click economy. The fact that, they’re not necessarily gonna run through your website every single time, even if you’re doing well from a Google’s rankings perspective, you might be losing traffic.

00:01:56:10 – 00:02:17:19
Marcus Sheridan
And of course, the reason why is people are just getting their information elsewhere, which means, okay, we’ve got to we’ve got to adjust. Like how do we find ways to continue to get the eyeballs? How do we get recommendations on AI? How do we do? Well, from a social media, perspective, and how do we not just build our house on Google search results?

00:02:17:19 – 00:02:36:22
Marcus Sheridan
This is really, really important, right? Because a lot of a lot of companies, you know, built their house on Google search. And, now it’s a precarious place to be. Maybe not, as you know, you might not say today, which I actually believe today. Yes, but very much so in five years. That’s a dangerous, dangerous, slippery slope to be on if that was your business before.

00:02:36:24 – 00:02:55:20
Marcus Sheridan
And so I think these are the things that people think about. And then, of course, we’ve got some other trends, short for video, pretty major trends. Everybody is getting on it. That’s what everybody wants. Now we got to be very, very aware of that. I think we need to talk about the self-service trend, which is 75% of all buyers say they would prefer to have a seller free sales experience.

00:02:55:20 – 00:03:00:24
Marcus Sheridan
So I think we need to talk about that. That’s a really, really big deal. So those are a few of the majors that I’m thinking about.

00:03:01:03 – 00:03:06:10
Alex C
So what do you mean by the zero what did you call it.

00:03:06:12 – 00:03:07:13
Marcus Sheridan
Zero click economy.

00:03:07:13 – 00:03:10:15
Alex C
Yeah. Zero click economy. I just explained that quickly.

00:03:10:17 – 00:03:26:19
Marcus Sheridan
So perfect case in point. Let’s say you you go to Google right now, you type in a traditional search that before you would have had a click on a link to get to a website. Well, today you might get that answer right there within Google or you might go to ChatGPT and you might get your answer that way.

00:03:26:19 – 00:03:45:00
Marcus Sheridan
At no point did you make a click though. At no point did you visit a website. And so, you know, this is why there’s just a lot of companies that are saying, I don’t understand. My rankings are still strong from an SEO perspective, but we’re just seeing a lot less traffic. Well, that’s it right there. Ladies and gentlemen.

00:03:45:02 – 00:04:05:14
Marcus Sheridan
They’re still ultimately going to your website oftentimes. But, you know, even even that will will slowly diminish over time. I do think websites have a strong decade ahead of them. So, you know, I wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be thinking yet there’s the end of websites. But in terms of building your house on Google, you do have to be very careful about that because of that zero click.

00:04:05:16 – 00:04:14:16
Alex C
So where do you see the biggest shift in sales, inbound marketing, content and so on because of ChatGPT? Like how has ChatGPT kind of changed landscape?

00:04:14:22 – 00:04:42:16
Marcus Sheridan
Well, if you look at chat, you look at data AI in general. What, you know, what we’re seeing is you’ve got the side of zero click it’s effect on him. On, on Google and just search there’s that. And then there’s the ability of people to produce a lot more content that’s at scale. Now, the issue though, is all the tools in the world will not overcome, scarcity mindset when it comes to content production.

00:04:42:16 – 00:04:51:12
Marcus Sheridan
Let me give you let me give you an example from what I’m talking about. So if you’ve ever read they ask, you answer my book. For the listeners out there.

00:04:51:18 – 00:04:52:17
Alex C
Is a book here. It’s for.

00:04:52:17 – 00:05:13:21
Marcus Sheridan
The. Yeah. So if you’ve read it, if you’ve read it, it talks about five specific subjects that every buyer wants to know, wants to learn about, but businesses don’t want to discuss. And these five, I’ll just go through them really, really fast. Are are pricing questions problems slash objections fears worries okay. That’s number two problems objections fears worries.

00:05:13:23 – 00:05:34:04
Marcus Sheridan
Number three comparison based questions. Number four review based questions. Number five best. Most top or best base questions. Cost problems comparisons reviews best. Those are what we call the big five. They literally run this economy of search. They’ve really run it for, the better part of 20 years. But most businesses still don’t want to address those fundamental questions.

00:05:34:06 – 00:05:57:21
Marcus Sheridan
And so, for example, 90% of all B2B service based businesses don’t discuss the cost of their product or their or excuse me, their service on their website. This is just just it’s ludicrous. And we’re essentially in 2025 now and people are still not doing this. It doesn’t make any sense at all because buyers want to know. You want to know if you’re listening to this, you expect to be fed.

00:05:57:21 – 00:06:13:18
Marcus Sheridan
When you go to a website, you want to get at least a sense for pricing. You want to get a sense for price range. You want to get a sense for budget. These are things that you want. Still, businesses don’t talk about it. So it doesn’t matter of fact that you got ChatGPT doesn’t matter because they could produce any content they wanted.

00:06:13:20 – 00:06:35:17
Marcus Sheridan
So, most people don’t ask, excuse me, don’t address some of the major fear based questions that people have about their product or their service. If you’ve read my book, you know, I used to be poor guy, and I still own a 24 company called River Pools in Virginia. And, there’s a whole set of fears that people have when looking to buy a pool, especially a fiberglass swimming pool, which is what we sell.

00:06:35:19 – 00:06:58:13
Marcus Sheridan
So, for example, do fiberglass pools pop out of the ground? Do fiberglass pools look ugly like a bathtub in your yard? Do fiberglass pools crack? See, these are all like negative based questions. Should you be answering them online? Yes. To most pool contractors. Answer them online. No. Why? Because they’ve got a scarcity mentality. So doesn’t matter the fact they got ChatGPT and a million potential assistants that could like help them produce content.

00:06:58:13 – 00:07:14:17
Marcus Sheridan
Right now, there’s still too scared to do it, which is absolutely sad. It’s pretty ridiculous because they’re not obsessed with how buyers think. And so, you know, I teach people how to obsess over the buyer. What does the buyer really want? What does the questions are asking? What are they fearing? What do they want to know? And are you willing to give it to them.

00:07:14:19 – 00:07:37:04
Alex C
So you start the process and it’s the brainstorm, right, of the questions that the customers are asking. Yeah. So so can you talk through that process because I think this is the place to start. And I like in your book kind of how you speak about actually I with making content that answers those specific kind of big five questions.

00:07:37:06 – 00:07:38:01
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah.

00:07:38:03 – 00:07:56:23
Alex C
Or the big five area. Sorry. Right. I think that there’s a lot of people who think of content and who think of content marketing, and then they go write like an article, right? Like some type of a thought, some type of, I thought leadership piece of sample. Yeah. How to do this. So the ten steps to do that and so on.

00:07:56:23 – 00:08:11:15
Alex C
And that seems to set the companies up. I guess that’s kind of thought leaders. But these the big five seem to answer the questions that people have. So this is the first time I’ve heard actually a person starting content like this.

00:08:11:15 – 00:08:29:05
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah, yeah. It’s stunning how many businesses waste time on thought leadership content that really isn’t very thought leader. Instead of addressing the questions that buyers actually want to know, and the way you know, the questions are asking is what are they saying to your sales team? We have that first sales call when you have that first conversation gets pretty, pretty fast.

00:08:29:07 – 00:08:49:05
Marcus Sheridan
Let me, let me let me give you an example. And just so everybody knows the context, the quick background of this, I started a swimming pool company in 2001, almost lost it to bankruptcy in 2009 because of the crash of the worldwide economy. We embraced this. What I call they ask you answer. We would become the most traffic simple website in the entire world.

00:08:49:05 – 00:09:09:12
Marcus Sheridan
Save my business, became a manufacturer, sold the manufacturing. Totally changed my life. Okay, so that’s the 30 less than 32nd story. Now when it comes to these five questions, when I was sitting there in 2009 thinking I was going to lose my business, I said, okay, I’ve been selling pools for years. What are the biggest questions that I get all the time?

00:09:09:12 – 00:09:25:00
Marcus Sheridan
And I brainstormed them all out. Now this is what everybody should do is a healthy activity. Now of course today you can use ChatGPT. I to do some of that ideation for you. That’s good. But if you’re going to do that, what you should do is you should go to ChatGPT and you should say, okay, you know, here’s the business that I have.

00:09:25:02 – 00:09:47:15
Marcus Sheridan
I want to brainstorm some, 50 potential article or video titles that I should produce. I want you to use Marcus Sheridan’s Big five methodology. The big five are costs a pricing questions problem slash fears, questions. Comparison versus questions. Review based questions and best most top questions. Right. And if you do, that is your prompt. And you say give me 50 good ones.

00:09:47:17 – 00:10:06:00
Marcus Sheridan
I mean, it’s going to slay. And what’s beautiful about that is when I was sitting there at my kitchen table in 2009, long before any type of AI that we were using, I just I had heard these questions for years. Somebody would call me up and say, okay, Marcus, be honest. What’s the difference between a fiberglass and a concrete pool?

00:10:06:02 – 00:10:24:10
Marcus Sheridan
See, nobody was talking about that online because they were like, oh geez, I don’t want to talk about concrete pools, on my website, because then people will figure out concrete pools exist. I mean, how ridiculous is that? Buyers are not stupid. They’ll get the information, right? And today they can get it faster than they’ve ever gotten before.

00:10:24:10 – 00:10:38:15
Marcus Sheridan
So instead of just saying buyers are dumb, we said buyers are informed, they’re intelligent. They’re going to get their answers. We would prefer that they get them from us. And so every single person, when I would get on a call back in the day, a salesperson would say, Marcus, I’m not going to hold you to it, but give me a sense, what are we looking at?

00:10:38:15 – 00:11:08:09
Marcus Sheridan
Give me a feel for cost and price. Like give me a range. And everybody is listening to this right now. Has heard that exact same question from a prospect before. Every single one. And what’s interesting is when it comes to talking about cost and price, if you took if you took the buyer’s journey and cut it in half, that halfway point is the moment they they talk to a salesperson at the beginning of the journey, you talk about a cost and price on the marketing side, okay?

00:11:08:10 – 00:11:26:05
Marcus Sheridan
At the beginning, at the end of the journey with the salesperson, you talk about cost and price again. So in other words, what happens is they say, okay, I think I want to get a swimming pool, okay, I think I need to hire an attorney. Okay. I think I’m looking at a marketing automation tool. Doesn’t matter. It’s all the same jam, right?

00:11:26:07 – 00:11:43:16
Marcus Sheridan
Soon as they do that, they immediately say, okay, I just want to get a sense for am I in the game here? Can I can I even come close to affording this? So at the beginning of that buyer’s journey, when they start the research phase, when they know they want to buy potentially a thing to solve a particular problem, they start to research price immediately.

00:11:43:18 – 00:12:04:10
Marcus Sheridan
And then once they’ve gotten that out of the way, then they start to really move through and start to research companies and brand that that do that. Okay. Then they meet with the salesperson, and the smart salesperson gives the complete value prop, and then they get price at the end after they’ve done solid discovery and basically they’re clear presentation a value.

00:12:04:12 – 00:12:24:05
Marcus Sheridan
So that’s how it works. Cost and price comes at the beginning and the end of the buyer’s journey. A lot of people misunderstand this and they get it all wrong. Right? Or they say we can’t talk about it online because it’s going to commoditize what we sell. Once again, that’s that’s not how it works. What commoditize is something is when you, the marketplace is an educated as to what defines value.

00:12:24:07 – 00:12:42:12
Marcus Sheridan
If they don’t know what defines value, they’re going to think everything’s the same. They’re going to choose the cheapest one. So a lack of education in the market that’s actually what commoditized is a thing. So it’s your job as a business owner to make sure that your market is well educated in terms of what defines value, which of course up, what drives costs down.

00:12:42:18 – 00:13:00:20
Marcus Sheridan
Why are some products, some companies so expensive? Why are some companies so cheap? And this other thing about cost and price out is that I have had hundreds and hundreds of clients, businesses that approach me, and it’s amazing how many of them say, I don’t know if we can talk about it. And I immediately just say, okay, let’s pretend I’m a prospect.

00:13:00:22 – 00:13:17:10
Marcus Sheridan
I come to you and I say, okay. So, what’s like Mayfield? What are we looking at here? And you would say to me, all right, well, I need to ask you some questions in order to give you feel. What are those questions? There it is right here. You’re literally now give me the factors that drive cost up and down.

00:13:17:10 – 00:13:37:10
Marcus Sheridan
And your industry, by the way, most industries, services, products, B2B, B2C, there’s different tiers for pricing and there’s usually three tiers. And almost every industry you’ve got a low and middle and a high end okay, low middle, high end. And so when you discuss cost and price through video, through article on your website, online, on YouTube, which you should be, everybody listen to this.

00:13:37:10 – 00:13:53:09
Marcus Sheridan
There’s no excuses, okay? What you should be doing when you do that, you just want to do it is discuss what drives cost up, which is cost down. Why are some companies so expensive? Why are some companies so cheap? What are the tiers of pricing and what they look like in your industry? And then finally, after all that, you can give them a sense for what you charge.

00:13:53:14 – 00:14:03:05
Marcus Sheridan
But you don’t have to give exact prices, but you do have to be willing to address the question you need to commoditize folks, because otherwise you’re going to have a problem in your space.

00:14:03:07 – 00:14:24:23
Alex C
That’s really interesting approach. That is, you’re educating them on how to buy it. And they’ve been talking about that for decades. Right. But I think it’s a really good reminder in that in this new world that we live in, no one wants to explain what are the costs and the reasons that something, costs above a competitor, say, for example.

00:14:24:23 – 00:14:38:15
Alex C
Right. But I really like kind of the perspective of explaining the cost basis is behind, the higher end, compared to the lower end product. Right. And actually have education around. This is really interesting. Thought process. I’m going.

00:14:38:15 – 00:14:39:02
Marcus Sheridan
To say one other.

00:14:39:02 – 00:14:46:12
Alex C
Thing about this, but it’s so interesting kind of how you say it, right? Because it’s not it’s $10,000. It’s like, all right, cool. So here’s how you think about.

00:14:46:14 – 00:15:09:12
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah, you’re you’re literally teaching them how to buy, like you said, Alex, you’re teaching them how to buy. You started that very, very well. And so the problem that people, you know, it’s funny, you talk to businesses, they say we believe in transparency. No, you don’t, because otherwise you’d be a better teacher online. You talk to businesses. We believe in treating our customers as we would want to be treated.

00:15:09:17 – 00:15:22:17
Marcus Sheridan
No you don’t. Because if I said to you, when you go on a website and you’re looking for cost and price, you cannot find it. How do you feel? I feel frustrated. Okay. Do you call that company? No. Do you keep digging on the website? No. What do you do? Well, I keep searching. Search until what happens.

00:15:22:17 – 00:15:40:12
Marcus Sheridan
I search until I find what I’m looking for. Right. Like this is how ever everybody. This is how everybody works. You don’t. You don’t sit there and say, oh, they’re a value based business. I’m going to call them on the phone. That’s not how it works. Right. And so if you look at your own behavior, you don’t excuse the company, you don’t excuse them.

00:15:40:14 – 00:16:03:00
Marcus Sheridan
You keep looking until someone is willing to engage you in an intellectual conversation and satiate what you’re looking for, the desire that you have. Right. And it’s the same for all these other subjects. So, you know, a lot of what I teach, Alex, it really is just it’s disruptive. It shouldn’t be disruptive. But people see it as extremely disruptive because more often than not it’s never been done.

00:16:03:06 – 00:16:04:22
Marcus Sheridan
And a lot of these industries.

00:16:04:24 – 00:16:23:07
Alex C
I think what happens is that people have been told, you need to get someone on the phone and then, you need to sell them the value on it and then tell them the price. Right. But I mean, I think it happens like in so many companies, right. Like especially software companies, what software company says speak to us the pricing.

00:16:23:07 – 00:16:39:21
Alex C
Like literally I’m going to go to the next software companies. This is a thousand, software companies that sell the same thing. Right. So it is something that kind of has shifted over the years. I think in the past, I think that people just were more patient in talking to a salesperson about about the pricing. But then the choice shifted.

00:16:40:01 – 00:16:58:20
Alex C
Yeah. And now, you know, there’s like enough companies out there. You just put the price on the website. But let me ask you a question, right. When you’re talking about price. Right. Because this is like obviously it’s a really good kind of topic. Right? And this is the one that most companies, that are not in e-commerce are going to, kind of have issues.

00:16:58:23 – 00:17:13:24
Marcus Sheridan
They’re stuck on if they’re selling e-commerce. You’re right. And even in e-commerce, by the way, Alex, they screwed up because what they’ll do is they’ll list the price. But they don’t explain the industry and they don’t explain the value as well as they should. So even the e-commerce e-com company screwed this up. So to your point, this is such a sticky thing across the board.

00:17:13:24 – 00:17:15:01
Marcus Sheridan
Sorry I interrupted you. Go ahead.

00:17:15:07 – 00:17:27:01
Alex C
No no no, I mean, it’s such a good it’s such a good conversation. I wonder, let’s say that you have a website, right? And you have a service of some sort, right?

00:17:27:02 – 00:17:28:15
Marcus Sheridan

00:17:28:17 – 00:17:40:14
Alex C
Should you put the price on the website, should you have like, essentially all of, of the questions answered about kind of all the differences and then at the very bottom of the landing page or whatever, it has the price. Right.

00:17:40:14 – 00:18:02:23
Marcus Sheridan
Like let me give you a couple different. Yeah. Let me give you a good, better, best here. Okay folks. And if you listen to me, I swear if you listen to me, this is going to dramatically, dramatically change your lead generation. And like immediately if you just listen to me here, okay? So what’s good good is if you have an article on your website, a pricing page, if you will, and let’s assume you have one for every major product service that you have.

00:18:03:00 – 00:18:21:20
Marcus Sheridan
And you explain those five keys to pricing. What drives cost up, which has cost down? Why are some companies so expensive? Why are some companies so cheap? Roughly, what do you charge now if you want to do that right, that’s going to be at least 1500 words. This is not short is a big slab of beef that you’re that you’re really giving them here.

00:18:21:20 – 00:18:41:00
Marcus Sheridan
You’re teaching them a lot okay. Now that’s good. Better do the same thing with video. Same thing with video. Best. And this is the real game changer. Keep in mind, folks, as I tell you this, I got the data on this. This is not me just making stuff up. I the number one type of content bar none. Subject matter, bar none.

00:18:41:02 – 00:19:01:00
Marcus Sheridan
With all the companies that I’ve ever had, you know, they ask me answer. I sold over 100,000 copies. It, has provided my coaching company impact with clients from all over the world that are that are applying. They ask, you answer. So it’s a pretty popular methodology that people are following. So when I speak about this, this is not, this is what I did with my pool company.

00:19:01:00 – 00:19:24:10
Marcus Sheridan
So I think it might work for you. No no no no. It’s like literally tested and so for the better part, now of 12, 13 years I’ve been talking to companies, Alex, about how to discuss cost and price online. Well, the next big one and this is the this is the highest level where you can discuss cost and price is by having a pricing estimator on your website.

00:19:24:12 – 00:19:44:00
Marcus Sheridan
Now, let me give you an example. I am because of the success we had with the ask you answer, we became a fiberglass swimming pool manufacturer. This means we have dealers all over the United States that install our pools. So how is it possible that we have a pricing calculator estimator on our website if we don’t set the price?

00:19:44:02 – 00:19:59:13
Marcus Sheridan
Once again you give an estimate. So if you go to the river pools and spa’s website. So the river pools as far as like you’ll see this little tool that allows you to build and price your pool. Now you start the journey and it’s going to ask you a series of questions. This is what we call a self-service tool.

00:19:59:13 – 00:20:15:03
Marcus Sheridan
In this case it’s a self pricing tool. So it’s going to ask you all the questions that I would ask you. Alex, if we are on a phone call right now and you said, Marcus, give me a field. What are we looking at at the price here, I’d say, okay, give me a sense for sizable. You’d say, okay, I’m looking at something you know, this long and, this shape, I’d say, okay.

00:20:15:03 – 00:20:30:06
Marcus Sheridan
And then I’d say, what type of patio are you looking for? And you might say, okay, I think I want this or this. And I say, all right, what type of options do you think you might want? And I gave you some choices. You say, I want an option, I want that option. I want that option. Okay. So after asking you these series of questions I’d say okay, so this was enough for me to give you a sense for pricing.

00:20:30:06 – 00:20:44:04
Marcus Sheridan
Here’s roughly what you’re going to spend. You can do that exact same thing on a website, and you can do it with the cell pricing tool. Now, I’ve had so much, passion about this, and I’ve seen the results so much over the years that this, over the last few months, I developed a tool called Price Guides.

00:20:44:06 – 00:21:05:21
Marcus Sheridan
I so price guide I it is the, least expensive and fastest pricing estimator tool on the internet today where whatever business you’re in, don’t out of the business you go to price guide that I and it says, okay you want to build a pricing estimator. We got you covered. And you say, all right, this is my industry.

00:21:05:21 – 00:21:23:07
Marcus Sheridan
And the I says, all right, if that’s your industry, I’m guessing here’s all the different services you could offer. Which one of these services do you offer? You say I offer that service. Offer that service offer that service okay. Now once you pick the services then it says, all right, based on those services, here’s the questions I’m guessing you want to ask to be able to give a price or an estimate.

00:21:23:09 – 00:21:42:12
Marcus Sheridan
And then you can modify the questions. And then you put in the number of variables as to what each question represents in terms of a value. And then it gives you the code, you put it up on your website and you have an immediate pricing estimator on your website. Now here’s what’s amazing, Alex. At this point, you know, this this, this product, I just launched it a couple months ago.

00:21:42:12 – 00:22:10:19
Marcus Sheridan
I got about 100 users right now. We’ve seen crazy stuff, like within two weeks at this one shared company sold over 200,000 pounds in sheds just from people that have been using the estimator. Because what happens is this what was really crazy? Check this out, Alex. This company, this company, they had a price list on their website, but as soon as they added a pricing estimator, they got three x from that point on.

00:22:10:19 – 00:22:38:05
Marcus Sheridan
Every day since then, the number of average leads per day and their sales exploded. And I said I am surprised, almost even me being me, the guy that talks about this all the time, that they had a price list, but the price estimator was the thing that took it over. And here’s the reason, Alex. And this is why it’s so interesting, because when you’re doing an estimator tool and you’re answering these questions, it’s like you’re you’re creating this, you’re building this yourself.

00:22:38:07 – 00:23:12:06
Marcus Sheridan
So the sunk costs go up. And so now you feel a greater sense of commitment and investment in this particular company, in this particular product and the price that you got for that product. And now it translates into sales. So that’s a total game changer. And I will say this and then I’ll shut up for a second. I will guarantee you that 90%, 90% of all service based businesses will have some type of pricing estimator on their website within the next five years.

00:23:12:10 – 00:23:17:08
Marcus Sheridan
Take it to the bank.

00:23:17:10 – 00:23:23:17
Alex C
Well, I’m going to test this immediately. And I will put the link in, the show notes as well. Yeah. So that is,

00:23:23:19 – 00:23:25:07
Marcus Sheridan
Price sky high.

00:23:25:08 – 00:23:52:07
Alex C
Price, sky dot frost card today I, I’ll put that in the show notes as well. Price guide that I so it seems that this level of content is for people who are product aware. Right. But if they’re not, I guess at that stage just yet, it’s almost like you need to have that just for it. Just for the point that they start to ask about the price.

00:23:52:09 – 00:24:11:16
Alex C
But what kind of content is, the best, to cash, kind of like awareness on potential solutions, right? Because sometimes, you know, like, yes, it’s a pull. But sometimes it’s something else. And they didn’t even know that they had, like, a problem yet. So. Yeah. So what types of content can kind of serve that.

00:24:11:16 – 00:24:33:18
Marcus Sheridan
But I will say this, I’ll say this traditionally where marketers have screwed up and businesses have screwed up. If you look at the the buyers funnel, right, and you’ve got the bottom of the funnel, they’re very informed and you got the middle and you got the top and you got outside the funnel. And what you just really described is, okay, when people aren’t even in the funnel, Marcus, like, what’s the type of content that you can should be producing?

00:24:33:20 – 00:24:57:16
Marcus Sheridan
And so generally where everybody should start is literally at the bottom of the funnel, the bottom. So in my case, let’s say I talk about and I’m just going to pull says the example here. Alex’s easiest okay. It’s the bottom of the funnel. It’s every question about a fiberglass pool you can think of. Why? Because they know they want a fiberglass pool.

00:24:57:18 – 00:25:26:01
Marcus Sheridan
They could have said, I got all these question about concrete pools, but that is middle of the funnel. So so at the bottom it’s all about the product that you sell, the cost problems. The big five in the middle. Now it’s about that general product that you sell. So this could be about in-ground swimming pools in the middle of the funnel.

00:25:26:03 – 00:25:51:19
Marcus Sheridan
Top of the funnel might be all about swimming pools. See what we’re doing so far. Right. So we’re getting more and more specific now outside of the funnel. Now we’re talking about very like what are some of the problems that pool solve. Lean into those problems. Right. So hypothetically somebody might be researching, should I get an RV.

00:25:51:21 – 00:26:13:00
Marcus Sheridan
Should I get a swimming pool? That’s an example. Or should I get a boat? So you might be you might be doing comparisons about that because people are saying, okay, I know I want to do something nice, get myself something nice like that. Let’s say another example of addressing a problem is, hey, I’m looking for ways, that I can get my teenagers off their phones, right?

00:26:13:00 – 00:26:32:06
Marcus Sheridan
As an example, while swimming pools, one of the best ways you can get kids off their phones, that’s just phenomenal. For that, I’m looking for ways to spend more time with my family. Right. So people’s great way to do that. And so you have to say to yourself, and this is outside the funnel again, what are all the problems that my particular product or service solves.

00:26:32:08 – 00:26:55:20
Marcus Sheridan
And once you know those questions, but they are then you address those. But I always tell people that’s last. First is bottom of the funnel and we work our way out, not the other way. This is just one component. When you do, they ask, you answer, and you’re obsessed over their questions, worries, fears, issues, concerns. Naturally, this becomes a phenomenal SEO strategy.

00:26:55:22 – 00:27:18:07
Marcus Sheridan
But when you apply it outside of just, let’s say your website and you’re doing it on YouTube and you do it through YouTube shorts and YouTube blogs, and you apply the same strategy to your social. Now all of a sudden, you become just very known in the market because you’re discussing things that others just aren’t willing to discuss.

00:27:18:09 – 00:27:41:24
Marcus Sheridan
That’s disruption 101 that makes you more known, and every piece of content you produce, every word that it is, it’s a signal. And that signal goes out to two main parties, to the marketplace and to AI, to the marketplace and to I. It’s a signal to the marketplace of, hey, this is something that this company offers, a problem that they solve, and you’re getting out there where they are.

00:27:41:24 – 00:28:02:13
Marcus Sheridan
So you meet them where they are. But in terms of AI, every piece of content you produce, they can consume and therefore, if it becomes a signal to AI that, hey, this is a company that I should recommend, you know, when it comes to search in the future, the biggest challenge is going from what is a world run by Google search to a world ran by AI recommendations.

00:28:02:13 – 00:28:21:03
Marcus Sheridan
Much, much harder, much harder. And so I can tell you, the companies that are that are doing they ask, you answer that are producing this prolific amount of content that’s just rooted in the buyer and their thinking, their fears or questions. They’re getting way more AI recommendations than the companies that are not understood.

00:28:21:03 – 00:28:39:00
Alex C
Understood. One more question on the big five topics. How do you talk about competitors? Because I know it’s a topic in your book, but yeah. So what’s a good perspective? Because there’s two sides. Yeah. So on the one side everyone’s like, oh, we can’t talk about competitors because then all of a sudden like it’s it puts a focus on them.

00:28:39:00 – 00:28:53:05
Alex C
And on the other side there are people who only sell by talking about the competitors and how bad the competitors are. Right. So I don’t think it’s either of those. It’s what’s your perspective of how you talk about the competition in the market?

00:28:53:07 – 00:29:17:07
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah, well, when somebody says, should I talk about the competition? I always say the same thing. Verse number one. Has your sales team ever received a question about the competition? The answer is absolutely. They have. So my philosophy is rooted in this. If the market if the buyer is asking the question, it’s your fiduciary. It’s your responsibility to address it.

00:29:17:07 – 00:29:43:00
Marcus Sheridan
Now you can’t always answer it, but you can always address it. This is very, very important to understand now in terms of competition. No you shouldn’t talk negative about the competition. Can’t can’t do that. You shouldn’t I mean you can, but you should not do that. But what you can’t do is present the facts. You can present honest like descriptions.

00:29:43:02 – 00:30:02:05
Marcus Sheridan
And oftentimes those are found in review types of content. They’re found in best of content. Let me give an example. You know, I used to get asked all the time, you know, when I was just a pool guy, people would say, hey, Marcus, let’s say I was in Richmond, Virginia, which is a town in Virginia. They might say so, Marcus, we like you.

00:30:02:06 – 00:30:18:13
Marcus Sheridan
We want to get this pool from you. But if we don’t get this pool from you, is there anybody else in the area that you might recommend? Okay, people might ask me that question. They trusted me, I was honest. And so because people would ask me that question, I’m like, okay, that means I need to produce that piece of content, needs to go on my website, it needs to go online.

00:30:18:15 – 00:30:37:03
Marcus Sheridan
So I produce an article producing videos like who are the best pool Builders in Richmond, Virginia? I literally came up with a list of pool builders like lists of my competitors, and I would talk about them and the information that I would describe them came from their website. So I’m literally just using their own words to describe them.

00:30:37:05 – 00:30:57:07
Marcus Sheridan
I might not sit there and praise them up and down, but I’ll just give just basic facts about this company, maybe how long they’ve been business, what they specialize in. All right. Little things like that. Now, by the way, one thing that’s these best of style articles. Now, these are actually really strong when it comes to AI recommendation.

00:30:57:09 – 00:31:14:22
Marcus Sheridan
And whereas it used to be before I would tell people, don’t put yourself on the list because it’ll sound biased. Now because of AI, I tell people, go out and put yourself on the list, but just make sure you do it in such a way that it doesn’t sound self-serving. And this way, when AI is scraping, yeah, yeah.

00:31:14:22 – 00:31:29:15
Marcus Sheridan
Don’t I just put, you know, you can put the top ten such and such companies in your town or area or whatever it is. You can do that. You should describe it, but you should do it very honestly. And I wouldn’t rank them. I would just say, here’s the top ten and we are putting ourself on the list.

00:31:29:17 – 00:31:45:19
Marcus Sheridan
And the reason is because we have, you know, this many reviews and this is our criteria. And it’s not meant to be self-serving. We’re just trying to be as honest as possible. But we’ve listed nine others that you can also consider that stuff. You don’t see anybody doing well. If they’ve read, they ask you the answer, but most people are not doing that.

00:31:45:19 – 00:32:05:07
Marcus Sheridan
And I’ve been talking about like trying to teach companies how to talk about the competition for years. And, it’s just so phenomenal. And keep in mind you have direct and indirect competition. So for example, as a as a fiberglass pool company, a concrete pool is competition. So I should be talking about it’s a competing product.

00:32:05:09 – 00:32:30:18
Marcus Sheridan
But then I’ve also got competing companies play more pools in Richmond. There are a competitor I’ve written plenty about play more pools. Nothing negative, though about them, because I’m not going to put myself in that precarious position. And if anything, they’re going to say, hey, thanks for that. That’s all they’re going to say. And so, yes, this is outside the box thinking, but, you know, the rule breakers eventually become the rule makers.

00:32:30:18 – 00:32:31:09
Marcus Sheridan
Y’all.

00:32:31:11 – 00:32:36:08
Alex C
So when you talk about that specific competitor, how did you talk about it?

00:32:36:10 – 00:32:54:10
Marcus Sheridan
Literally went right to their website, went right to the website. I got some just general facts on them. So I would say something like, so player Pools has been around for 20 plus years. They’re located, in the Mechanicsville area. They specialize in vinyl liner, in-ground pools. And they also have a heavy emphasis on automatic pool cover installations.

00:32:54:12 – 00:32:56:11
Marcus Sheridan
Like, literally, that’s what I said about them.

00:32:56:13 – 00:33:05:17
Alex C
But do you then do some type of a comparison article between them or something and content? No. You’re just kind of talking about could I could in the area. You could.

00:33:05:19 – 00:33:29:07
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah. But usually when it comes to like people compare fiberglass versus concrete. But when it comes to companies to researching the best. Right. And so that’s how it normally like how it normally is and, and the article itself or the video itself, it can compare them, but it just, it just you just want to do it in a way where you’re not saying, hey, we’re better, right?

00:33:29:09 – 00:33:39:07
Marcus Sheridan
They’re worse. You want to do in such ways, like, here’s what they say about themselves, here’s our specialties, here’s where they’re located, here’s how long they’ve been in. But it’s just basic things that are inarguable.

00:33:39:09 – 00:34:05:04
Alex C
And understood and, have the so many parts to talk through it. But I’m going to just, I’ll keep it kind of high level. You also talk about converting that content into videos, right? So to write content I think is hard for most people, but most people can do it right. And, they can publish when you tell someone, hey, make a video like phrase, they get stuck.

00:34:05:04 – 00:34:25:20
Alex C
They have to think of a production company. I don’t think they’re thinking about, the handheld style kind of content that’s happening across all of, the shorts platforms and so on. But, you know, what do you recommend as a place to start, you know, just for a company who’s saying, all right, so I’ve got my video, so I’ve got my articles, I’ve got my content.

00:34:25:23 – 00:34:31:02
Alex C
It’s in written format. I heard I should do some shorts and TikToks. Whatever. Yeah. What do you recommend to them?

00:34:31:02 – 00:34:52:14
Marcus Sheridan
Okay, first off, you mentioned I gotta backtrack just a little bit because I’m, I’m gonna I’m going to, disagree with you, Alex. You said that that writing is difficult today. I don’t believe that’s the case. And let me explain how you can solve this if if you’re just, you know, a business owner just trying, like, man, I’m not a great writer, though.

00:34:52:14 – 00:35:16:01
Marcus Sheridan
Marcus I agree with Alex. Okay? All you have to do is you can get an AI tool like voice pass. So how voice power works is you have a core question and you just talk to voice power. Literally just talk to voice power and like you would to a customer, it’s going to record everything and it’s going to transcribe it.

00:35:16:03 – 00:35:42:15
Marcus Sheridan
What voice power does well though, it asks you additional questions. And so you get to ask these additional questions. And then you continue to talk out loud. Once that’s all done, then you take the transcription that it gives you. You put it in Claude, which I believe is better than ChatGPT at the moment for writing content. You put it in Claude three five and then you say to it and use the paid version, y’all don’t be cheap, okay?

00:35:42:15 – 00:36:00:15
Marcus Sheridan
You have $20. Spend it. Don’t be a slacker, okay? You put it, you put it into Claude and you say to Claude, listen, here’s the transcription for this particular question I’m trying to answer. How much does a fiberglass pool cost? I want you to take this, and I want you to clean it up. I want you to maintain my voice.

00:36:00:17 – 00:36:25:04
Marcus Sheridan
Right. I want you to reference our company. I want this to be unbiased as I’ve described. Go ahead and turn it into a great piece of content. And now bam! I took all of your thoughts like a ghostwriter, like you would have if you had like a content writer that work for you. But now you’re not just going to AI with nothing and saying, hey, hey, hey, go make this article.

00:36:25:09 – 00:36:44:14
Marcus Sheridan
Shame on you for that sucker. But if you do it like I just described, you can be a dang good writer. All of a sudden, people think you’re Victor Hugo. Because if I came to you and if I said, are you good? And answering your customer’s questions, you say, yes. Now, you might not say you’re a good writer, but you would say you’re good at answering their questions.

00:36:44:16 – 00:36:55:14
Marcus Sheridan
And so all you have to do is answer the questions. So voice power is the name of that tool. Very good tool. Listen, I’m full of tools today and I’m just making your life so much easier. You can thank me later. Now.

00:36:55:14 – 00:37:14:15
Alex C
I’ll thank you now from everyone. Thank you. Because this is a really cool tool. And this, I would just, I would just, that’s I would just go back and listen to that last three minutes and, and just start something now because I think exactly what you explained can be done in ten minutes. Right? You talk for five minutes, sign up to an account.

00:37:14:17 – 00:37:23:02
Alex C
You make the prompt and you have the transcript. Boom. Done. So in ten minutes you can just say at least how good this advice is, right? And I think it’s pretty good. So please continue.

00:37:23:04 – 00:37:46:05
Marcus Sheridan
Staying good bro. All right. Good stuff. Thank you Alex. Now in terms of video, listen, video is one of those things where depending on the size of your company, you would scale this up, but everybody, regardless of size, you need to think like a media company to hear me there. You need to think like a media company.

00:37:46:07 – 00:38:06:22
Marcus Sheridan
And what this means is you’re saying to your show self, I can’t just say it. I gotta show it. And everything I do as a business is worthy of showing, producing, visual storytelling, i.e. video, right? Everything. Everything is worthy of showing everything is a story that you do a lot of people, they don’t realize that. And so where are you?

00:38:07:01 – 00:38:29:14
Marcus Sheridan
Where can you start with video? What generally I tell people, start with those big five questions because they’re they’re phenomenal. And just answer them with video and then post that video on the, you know, platforms that are most aligned with your industry. B2B is probably, you know, LinkedIn and YouTube and B2C. It’s probably, you know, potentially TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube as well.

00:38:29:16 – 00:38:47:16
Marcus Sheridan
Right. That’s how how most people do it. The thing about video is this a lot of people say video is not my thing. Well, too bad, because the marketplace doesn’t care about your opinion, doesn’t care about my opinion. It doesn’t care about our feelings. Marketplace is I want to watch a video. Nobody’s ever been to your website before and said, you know what?

00:38:47:18 – 00:38:57:11
Marcus Sheridan
I bet he or she gets pretty nervous on camera. And that’s why I don’t have videos that I really want to see. I’m going to forgive them, and I’m going to give them a phone call right now. That’s not how it works.

00:38:57:13 – 00:38:58:13
Alex C
True story.

00:38:58:15 – 00:39:16:05
Marcus Sheridan
Yeah, it works, but what they say is, man, this sucks. Can’t find what I want. I wish I could see it. Let me see if I can go find a video on YouTube. That’s what they do. Right. And so it’s your again it’s your fiduciary to meet them where they are not where you are, where they are. It’s the buyer’s journey.

00:39:16:07 – 00:39:36:24
Marcus Sheridan
It’s not your journey. It’s the buyer’s journey. Right. And so once we give in to that, that’s what’s called they ask, you answer. Right. It’s the same principle, obsessed with the way buyers think and act, behave and search and all these six minutes, what I spend my time doing and all the business owners that do this, they are just dramatically further than the market, than the competitors.

00:39:37:01 – 00:39:55:09
Marcus Sheridan
So that’s where you want to start with video. And also let me give you just a couple other videos that I would produce if I was you that get big results. One is what we call the 80% video, and the 80% video takes those most repeated questions that you always hear on a first sales call, and it addresses all of them in one video.

00:39:55:11 – 00:40:09:24
Marcus Sheridan
So you want to take every major product or service that you sell, all right. And say, let’s say you sell five major services and you’re like, all right, if we get on a first sales call, what are the questions we know they’re going to ask every time? All right. List them out to 7 to 10 for each one.

00:40:10:01 – 00:40:30:04
Marcus Sheridan
Create one video that addresses all 7 to 10. That’s it. That’s what you do. We call that the 80% video. Now the key to that 80% video is that you send it to the prospect before you had that first sales call. Now what happens? Well, you’ve eliminated 80% of the questions that they normally ask. Now they’re not going to ask you there have already known it because they heard you teach them.

00:40:30:06 – 00:40:49:00
Marcus Sheridan
And now you’ll spend less time teaching, more time selling, which is the purpose of a sales call. The problem is a lot of people, they think it’s called a teaching call. No, no no, no, it’s a sales call. All right? A teaching call is the type where you talk to an hour with them and you’re like, man, I really think we got a connection.

00:40:49:02 – 00:41:12:06
Marcus Sheridan
And they don’t buy from you, right? That’s because you haven’t done great education beforehand. Remember 80% of the buyer’s journeys done before they even reach out to you. So the majority of the education is already done. Hopefully they’re just learning that from you. So that’s why the 80% video is really, really powerful. Let me give you one other video that slays and that is, landing page.

00:41:12:06 – 00:41:27:04
Marcus Sheridan
Video landing page is any page of your site. It has a form somebody can fill out for the context of this discussion. Now, here’s the thing about forms. When people fill them out, there’s four major fears that people have. Number one, what are you gonna do with my information? Number two, are you going to call me today? Number three, are you going to spare me to death?

00:41:27:06 – 00:41:46:15
Marcus Sheridan
And then number four. So if I fill out this form, what is this process going to look like? Right. So this is what they think your job is. Know what they think and to address it directly. So you create a video. And that video has a title that you put next to that form. And it says see exactly what will happen if you fill out this form literally.

00:41:46:17 – 00:42:00:23
Marcus Sheridan
And then you say to them, okay, you’re sitting there right now and you’re saying to yourself, should I fill out this form? Well, let me explain to you exactly what’s going to happen if you fill this out and what we’re going to do with your information and how we’re going to follow up. Now, if you do that, all of a sudden we’re just going to lean in like what?

00:42:00:23 – 00:42:25:13
Marcus Sheridan
I can’t believe that person did that. I love this company. They’re so honest. Okay, so that is the landing page video, they say. And generally it increases your conversion rates about 80%. That’s real data folks. So I mean we’ve already given so many nuggets Alex. This person is like they were saying, okay, I’m picking up, but this whole pool guy’s putting down, they’ve got enough content ideas for the next six months.

00:42:25:15 – 00:42:43:10
Marcus Sheridan
And if you just did what we’ve talked about, you’re going to become one of the most known and trusted leaders in your market. I promise you, I promise you. Except the problem is, a lot of people are gonna listen to this and say, that was kind of cool, but they’re either going to say, that won’t apply to me because I’m such and such with this, which is the bane of innovation.

00:42:43:16 – 00:43:03:04
Marcus Sheridan
It is the bane of excellence. When you sit there and you say, oh yeah, but you see, Marcus, our situation is different. That’s not the way that it’s always been done. You know? We just can’t do it like that. That wouldn’t resonate with our market. I mean, come on, this is psychology. This is human psychology. That’s all marketing is.

00:43:03:06 – 00:43:25:09
Marcus Sheridan
And so it’s the companies that don’t sit there and think, we’re so different. Those are the ones that are most successful. The ones that are like, oh, I’m telling you, we I mean, our buyers aren’t like anybody else. Our product is so niche. All right. We have such a bespoke solution. These are the things that cause like the death of all innovation.

00:43:25:11 – 00:43:48:16
Alex C
This is fantastic points. Just one quick one on the video side of things, I think where people often get stuck is on the production quality. So how produced should a video be? And what happens if a company that has a good brand starts making what they believe is low quality videos? You know what I mean? Like, it’s kind of the the tick tock style thing.

00:43:48:16 – 00:44:02:01
Alex C
So right now that’s on the edit them a lot. But I mean like how how rough can a video be put that way. Right. Like like, well how what’s it called. How non polished can a video be.

00:44:02:03 – 00:44:25:06
Marcus Sheridan
Well you know part of this of course is an element of branding. But I would just say let me give you some general guidelines from a production standpoint, if it’s a seven out of ten we’re going to push it out there. But from an audio standpoint needs to be probably nine out of ten. So, so hypothetically, you could do plenty of videos with your iPhone, which is better than any, camera, by the way, that was in Hollywood 25 years ago.

00:44:25:06 – 00:44:43:05
Marcus Sheridan
I mean, you know, you could do amazing, but I would get an, a more advanced mic so that you’ve got good clean audio because the brain has a ton of patience with the visual side of it. And in fact, it’s okay. I mean, we watched The Office for years when the biggest shows in the history of the world.

00:44:43:10 – 00:45:02:10
Marcus Sheridan
And that’s like that people you work for that with your iPhone, y’all. I mean, seriously, that’s iPhone production level, but you got good audio. You got good audio, right? Got good cuts, right. Got a good storyline. So that’s really what matters most. Good storyline. And so don’t get too caught up in production. The companies that are, you know, have their nose up high.

00:45:02:10 – 00:45:22:17
Marcus Sheridan
It’s like it’s beneath our standards. Those are ones that are not doing squat. This is why you got all these, you know, millionaire 16 year olds running around because they just are busting out their phones saying, okay, I’m gonna send it right now. And wow. Oh, look, you know, resonated with the marketplace. So good audio, decent video.

00:45:22:23 – 00:45:34:15
Alex C
Send it I love that I love that, where we are. Oh, time is flying. One more question. I don’t know if this is going to be a short one, but can you quickly explain the assignment selling?

00:45:34:17 – 00:45:53:11
Marcus Sheridan
Oh, yes. I can’t explain assignment selling. This should be a Google for all y’all’s out there. But let me just give you the quick story. So, some years ago I was looking at my website analytics and I was comparing two groups of people. Both had fill out a form on our website and said, I want to get a quote.

00:45:53:13 – 00:46:13:06
Marcus Sheridan
One group bought one, a group didn’t buy. So I said, what is the difference, behaviorally speaking, between the ones I filled out of form and board versus the ones that filled out a form and didn’t buy, and the number 30 just kept jumping out. And that number 30 represent a total page’s view. Here’s what we found. If somebody read 30 or more pages on the website before the initial sales appointment, they would buy 80% of the time.

00:46:13:08 – 00:46:34:21
Marcus Sheridan
If they didn’t hit that number 30. The closing rates were about 25%, which was industry average. So literally there was like this hockey stick growth in closing rates if they just consume 30 pieces of content. So what is 30 pieces of content represent goes back to that sunk cost. So like every piece of content they consume of your video article, you know, tool, whatever it is, it’s like you’re going on enough.

00:46:34:23 – 00:46:53:11
Marcus Sheridan
It’s like you’re going on another date with that person. And if you go on enough dates with somebody, eventually what’s going to happen? You’re going to consummate the relationship, right? It’s the same thing in sales. That’s how it works. And so as soon as we discovered this, I’m like, oh my goodness. So you’re telling me if I just get them to consume 30 pieces of our content, they’re going to buy 80% of the time.

00:46:53:13 – 00:47:12:14
Marcus Sheridan
Oh yeah. It’s game on. And so I came up with this, this model called assignment selling. And so how assignment selling works is very simple. But a lot of people don’t do it correctly because it takes a little bit of practice. But what you do is if I’m talking to you a prospect, Alex, I would invite you to consume content before the meeting.

00:47:12:14 – 00:47:26:07
Marcus Sheridan
But the key is how you do it. It’s got to include three things what the assignment is, why it matters, and when it’s due by. So it would sound something like this. And notice I’m not I’m not just going to say to you, hey man, I’m going to send you some videos before our meeting on Friday. It’d be great if you could give it a look.

00:47:26:07 – 00:47:43:06
Marcus Sheridan
See? No, that’s not selling. It’s doling out assignment selling. So assignment selling looks something like this. So you say to me, hey, Marcus. Yeah, I’m checking out your website. Or if you come out to my house, give me a quote. In this case, we’re showing Paul. Now, I say using assignments I like. Alex, I’d love to come out to your house, but you’re getting ready to spend a lot of money in.

00:47:43:06 – 00:47:59:08
Marcus Sheridan
If you’re going to spend a lot of money. I know you don’t want to make any mistakes, and so I have to make sure you don’t make any mistakes. I’m going to make sure you’re well educated. So I’m going to send you two things as we’re talking on the phone right now. And you’re going to love these two things, because really going to answer a lot of questions that you have or that you should have, but you probably don’t have answered yet.

00:47:59:12 – 00:48:15:04
Marcus Sheridan
Now, the first thing I’m going to send you is a video that shows you the entire install process, like when the pool shows up to your house excavation, when it goes in the ground, the patio around it to clean up the whole nine. And this way, when I come out to your house, Alex, you’re not going to say to me, so, Marcus, what is this process look like now time out really quick.

00:48:15:04 – 00:48:30:05
Marcus Sheridan
That just saved me 30 minutes on my sales appointment. If you watched that video, 30 minutes saved. Right. Trying to save time, right? Less teaching, more selling. Now the second thing I’m going to send you, Alex, is a buyer’s guide. This buyer’s guide is great because it’s going to answer all these questions about pools that you should have, but you might not know the answers to yet.

00:48:30:05 – 00:48:52:04
Marcus Sheridan
Like, should I get a heater with my pool? What’s the best type of heater? Should I get a cover? What’s the best type of cover? I mean, it goes on and on into these details, talks about the mistakes you can make, etc. now this guide, it’s about 30 pages, but I promise it’ll be well worth your time. So Alex, will you take the time to review these things before our appointment on Friday?

00:48:52:04 – 00:49:15:07
Marcus Sheridan
You say yes and then boom! Marla, if you do the homework, I’m going to close it 80% of the time. But you notice it took me about four minutes to describe clearly the setup there. Right. Which is what the assignment is, what’s in it, why it matters to you. And then I finish with, will you take the time to review these things before our appointment on Friday?

00:49:15:09 – 00:49:40:19
Alex C
And this is the conversation with the prospective client. And yep, you’re giving them little assignments. I guess Astro’s right. But you also mentioned that 30 kind of pages in that example. So therefore that assignment, it’s one of a number of assignments like across a period of time. Is that correct? Because they have to have consumed 30 pages roughly.

00:49:40:19 – 00:49:45:15
Alex C
But then there’s assignments as well. But they still have a consumed 30 pages yet. So is that like.

00:49:45:15 – 00:50:04:07
Marcus Sheridan
So all depends on your, what would be your, your traditional how the sales process and buyer’s journey work together for you. So, you know, you might have a situation where, you sent out a basic assignment for the first call, and then you might always have a second call. You might have a design call. It’s it just depends.

00:50:04:09 – 00:50:26:01
Marcus Sheridan
And so like you take my agency impact, there’s like multiple stages to that. So with each dates there’s corresponding assignment that we know we’re going to give that’s going to prep them for the next call, make them more prepared, increase those sunk costs, increase their allegiance towards us, you know, and make every everything more efficient. It’s a win win because the season time and it prevents mistakes.

00:50:26:01 – 00:50:29:23
Marcus Sheridan
It’s a win for us too, because it saves time and it prevents bad fits.

00:50:30:00 – 00:50:51:12
Alex C
And so in the ideal world you kind of outlining the customer journey like all the steps in the process. And then you’re making content according to the big five. Of course, each step of that journey and then you’re giving them assignments as they go along that journey. And it is leveraging all the content that has been produced so far.

00:50:51:12 – 00:50:52:04
Alex C
Is that kind of.

00:50:52:04 – 00:51:08:14
Marcus Sheridan
The circle of life? Alex. Brother, there it is. All right. And they are just so invested in you by the end. They’re like everything I’ve ever learned about your product service. I learned from you. Right. I feel like I know you already, right? Yeah. That’s the stuff that you want to hear. So what we want.

00:51:08:16 – 00:51:33:17
Alex C
I love that. And, from the content perspective, the key is to be disruptive by talking about things that the other people are not talking about. How much is the price? What’s the competitor’s, you know, how do I make a decision, you know, speak to me about the industry overall. You know, like talk about the things that other people, are not speaking about because that’s the disruption that.

00:51:33:18 – 00:51:47:08
Marcus Sheridan
Right word. It’s say what others don’t say, show what others don’t show and sell how others won’t. So that’s really what we discuss today.

00:51:47:10 – 00:52:02:15
Alex C
That’s awesome. This is such a great conversation. All right. So how do people hire you, to help them with this? Because obviously, you know, for people who are thinking about this, but, sure, the place to start, I mean, start with the book and read at least 30 pages. Not I’m just joking. But that was good.

00:52:02:17 – 00:52:03:15
Marcus Sheridan
I like it out.

00:52:03:17 – 00:52:10:21
Alex C
Start with the book. But then, how do they get in touch with you? And, who do you serve us? The,

00:52:10:23 – 00:52:24:17
Marcus Sheridan
So the best. So reach out to me on, First of all, connect with me on LinkedIn. If you’re listening to this, let me know. Yo, I heard you on Alex’s podcast, and and, you know, you sound a little bit nutty, but, I just had to connect with you anyway, right? So, that’s a good place.

00:52:24:23 – 00:52:47:19
Marcus Sheridan
You can email me directly. Marcus at Marcus sheridan.com. That’s my direct email. I always give that out. It’s snobbery scalable. But I do it anyway because I just, I love, to interact with, the world. Right. And the people out there and, I’ve got a company called impact. Our website is impact plus.com, and I also speak all over the world and you can find my speaking websites, Marcus shared.com.

00:52:47:21 – 00:53:00:00
Marcus Sheridan
So those are how you can find me. But, LinkedIn is a good place to start. So connect with me there. And I’m pretty dang good on LinkedIn. I put my best stuff on there every single day during the week. For the most part, 4 to 5 days a week, you’re going to get something good for me and you’re like, you know that.

00:53:00:00 – 00:53:03:16
Marcus Sheridan
Do these things a little bit differently. I like how he makes me think too.

00:53:03:18 – 00:53:20:19
Alex C
Fantastic. And I’m going to put all of these links in the show notes. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast. What is such a great conversation. And I really like the twist on content production thinking and topics and so on. And I think this is going to be extremely valuable for everyone who just is making content, but who’s just not kind of nailing it.

00:53:20:19 – 00:53:28:07
Alex C
And so thank you so much for coming on the podcast. And yeah, to summarizing, the approach so well, thank you so much, Marcus.

00:53:28:07 – 00:53:29:06
Marcus Sheridan
You’re very welcome.