Have you ever thought about including pricing information on your website, but you were worried that your best customers might get scared away if they hadn't met you before they learned about pricing, or that your competitors would steal it, or have you ever thought about including information about your competition on your website, but you didn't want to sound like a jerk? Well, check out today's episode where we interview Marcus Sheridan, the author of They Ask, You Answer and The Visual Sale.
I'm super excited to interview Marcus because I'm a big fan of his books, and in today's interview, he goes into the They Ask, You Answer philosophy, the methodology that he's created where you share information about pricing, competitions, flaws with your own products and services, and the amazing impact it can have at generating really qualified leads. Plus, I interview him a little bit about his new book, The Visual Sale, and he'll share with you how you and your landscaping company can get started with visual marketing and video.
My name's Jack Jostes, and welcome to The Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing podcast. This show is all about helping lawn and landscape contractors get found online by your "hell yes" customers so you can increase your profit and lifestyle. And this interview, this content will absolutely help you do that. So let's dive into today's episode.
Interview With Marcus Sheridan
Jack Jostes:
All right, everyone. I'm so excited to be here today with Marcus Sheridan. Marcus is the author of They Ask, You Answer, The Visual Sale. He runs the agency, IMPACT, and he also ... Marcus, tell us a little bit about your background with River Pools and Spas and what are you doing with that company currently?
Marcus Sheridan:
Yeah, so I started a pool company with two friends in 2001. So I was right out of college, and I was actually their first employee, but they asked me ... My two partners asked me to be a third partner in the business after six months. And the quick story is we almost lost that business in 2008, like many people in, whether it's swimming pool or landscaping space almost lost their business in 2008, 2009 with the crash. And I'm not sure how much you want me to say, but we ended up doing some pretty innovative things on our website and we had the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world. It's a riverpoolsandspas.com.
Marcus Sheridan:
Things went so well for us in terms of what happened, and of course, some of those things will come out today when we have this conversation, but it went so well for us as a business that we eventually started manufacturing fiberglass pool shells as well. And so today we've got dealers and franchisees all over North America, and it's growing very, very fast, and I spend most of my time now helping these ... when I'm with the pool company, which isn't a ton of time. I probably spend five to 10 hours a week with the pool company today.
Marcus Sheridan:
So I still own the original install company. The manufacturing company was acquired and I'm essentially on the board of that company. And so now I'm helping these franchisees to not make dumb mistakes, like we all do, and to scale their business. It's fun.
Jack Jostes:
That's awesome. And you and I met, we both presented at a Tony Bass' Wealthy Landscaper Summit at the GIE Expo. I think it was 2019. Yeah, it was a couple of years ago now, and I was just blown away by your presentation. Tony gave me a copy of your book, and I really enjoyed it. And I have to share that when I saw you speak, it made me really uncomfortable with one of the things that I want ... one of the reasons I brought you on the show, which is you had shared with the audience the recommendation to share your pricing on your website.
Jack Jostes:
And at that time, even in my own selling, I was thinking, "Oh, well, we need to meet and build value and establish a relationship," and everything like that. For the landscapers listening, who might be thinking, "Wow, putting pricing on my website, my competition is going to steal that," walk us through why should landscapers have pricing information on their website and how do you wrestle with those fears of your competition stealing it?
Marcus Sheridan:
Yeah. So our philosophy, and this started with my pool company, was and has been since that time, if anybody has a question, we feel like it's our job to answer it. And the name of the philosophy, of course, is They Ask, You Answer. That's the name of the book, and now it's the name of the movement that so many companies ... It's really amazing, Jack. They Ask, You Answer, the book, is selling more today than it did when it came out almost four years ago. And I think it's because so many businesses are recognizing that buyers have changed, and we have changed.
Marcus Sheridan:
And the way that we've changed, we still base our decisions on who we go with on trust. That won't change. But how we derive that trust, where that trust comes from, that is the thing that has changed. And because of the fact that we can do so much research on the front end, in the book I talk about this number 70% house, 70% of the buying decision has been made before someone even talks to a sales person, on average. They redid that study recently. It's now 80%. It's pretty amazing, right? So by the time, let's say a landscaper is in somebody's home or backyard, that person's actually 80% through the sparring cycle, which is pretty amazing, if you think about it.
Marcus Sheridan:
So lots of times the job is, "Just don't screw this deal up. Don't screw it up," because they've done a lot of the research. And part of the research they've done is they've wanted all their major questions answered, and pricing, of course, is one of those. The thing about it is, when somebody hears, "I need to talk about pricing," they think, "I need to give specific pricing numbers." That's not what we teach, and this is the misconception that people have.
Marcus Sheridan:
Really, what we need to do is we need to teach how pricing is derived within our industry because if we don't teach that, and we don't teach it well ... well, then you don't have a chance to build value. And so the mindset is this, and there's really five elements to talking about pricing. So if you did this in a video, if you did this in an article, whatever it was, there's five things you want to remember. Number one is what drives the cost up of a service or product? Okay. So take landscaping. What makes landscaping more expensive?
Marcus Sheridan:
Number two, what makes it less expensive? Okay? So what are the factors that keep the pricing down when you have a project? You can, of course, subdivide. There's so many different types of landscaping. Essentially, pool companies and landscapers were cousins. So we're very much in the same world. So that's the first two. What drives it up? What drives it down?
Marcus Sheridan:
Now, number two and number three, they're very similar, but they're not the exact same thing. Number three is why are some companies so expensive? So you've got what drives the cost of landscaping up, but you also have, what drives the cost of particular landscaping companies up? Number four, what keeps the cost of some landscaping companies down? So for example, one that immediately comes to mind is some might be licensed and insured, others might not be right. So that's something that will distinguish costing factors.
Marcus Sheridan:
Now the fifth element of talking about cost and price and really teaching your marketplace about cost and price is where do you fall as an organization in this conversation? And so there's so much to unpack there, but frankly, if somebody said, "I've got an extensive landscape project in my backyard. I want to do some patio. I want to do some shrubbery. I want some lighting. I want the works. How much would that cost me?"
Marcus Sheridan:
Now, in order to give that person even a recommendation or a suggestion, an estimate, verbally, you'd have to say, "Well, let's look at some of the factors that you need to consider," and you would just talk about those, and eventually say, "Well, based on what you just said, my sense is you'd probably be between 50 and $60,000, let's say, hypothetically. 50 and $80,000. I don't care what the range is. But now that person has a feel, and they feel better because they have a feel.
Marcus Sheridan:
As buyers, we want to have a stinking feel before we talk with the company. That's a fact. It's inarguable. That's science, that's psychology, and it's our job as businesses to win trust as quickly as possible. And if you're going to win trust in the digital age, when they can take that trust so quickly from you to someone else, especially because they can learn, oftentimes, from somebody else, well, it's our job to address those questions on the front end.
Do You Want Your Customers To Get Their Pricing Expectations From Home Advisor?
Jack Jostes:
Absolutely, and I think one of the risks of not sharing pricing is, and you talk about this in the book, is they're going to find this information somewhere. And it might be like I just Googled, "How much does landscape design cost?" And there's an article from Home Advisor. So I don't know? Do you want people getting expectations from Home Advisor?
Marcus Sheridan:
Yeah. That's the last place I want somebody to get them from.
Jack Jostes:
Absolutely.
Marcus Sheridan:
Because it's so it's so generic, and there's no meat on that bone, and it sets up false expectations. Right?
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Marcus Sheridan:
So I don't want them reading from Lowe's, either. I want them to hear from an actual contractor. You know what makes me sad, Jack, is when somebody is researching a question about ... let's just call it landscaping in this case, and you go to the first page, let's say, of search results, and you see no landscapers. Now that's sad. What that means is, as an industry, you've will allow third-party sites to own the conversation. And why do they own the conversation? It's because they're willing to address the questions that buyers have when others don't. That's the fatal flaw. And this is why They Ask, You Answer is such a powerful strategy, but you can't be selective with They Ask, You Answer.
Marcus Sheridan:
You can't say, "Well, I really don't want to talk about the drawbacks of pavers. I just want to talk about what's good." Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because you've been asked before, "So what are the drawbacks of pavers?" You've been asked. Everybody's been asked that sells pavers. So if you've been asked, well, you need to talk about it. Drawbacks to travertine. Yeah, got to talk about that, too, because people want to know, and they're going to find the answer somewhere, to your point, Jack. And if they're going to find the answer somewhere, they may as well find it from you.
Jack Jostes:
Right, and another great thing is that people are going to Google negative things. They're going to Google drawbacks, negative reviews of whatever.
Marcus Sheridan:
It just goes on and on.
Jack Jostes:
Pros and cons of whatever. And I think that when you are the source of that, including the negative side of it, then people will, like you said, they will trust you more.
Marcus Sheridan:
Well, to that point, Jack, what's interesting about this is people ... You can tell somebody is serious about buying something when they researched, what you just said, the negative questions that are being asked in the marketplace. In other words, you don't say, "What are the problems with travertine?" if you're not interested in travertine. You only research, "What are the problems with travertine?" if you're thinking seriously about buying travertine. That is one of the greatest indicators of buyer seriousness, is if they're searching for the negatives.
Jack Jostes:
I have a personal question for you, if that's all right?
Marcus Sheridan:
Of course. Anything's game.
What Is Ostrich Marketing?
Jack Jostes:
We recently read your book at our book club at Ramblin Jackson, and our a web developer, Lou, wanted to know, do you have a pet ostrich?
Marcus Sheridan:
I don't have a pet ostrich. I talk about ostrich marketing.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah, so for people who haven't read the book yet that are like, "What are they talking about?" What's the deal with ostriches when it comes to sales and marketing?
Marcus Sheridan:
So the funny thing about the ostrich is there's this myth around ostriches that they put their head in the sand, and the reason, of course, why they supposedly put their heads in the sand is because they feel like, "If I put my head in the sand long enough, this thing that's about to attack me will go away." But yet that never actually happens.
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Marcus Sheridan:
So how does this apply to businesses? How does it apply to sales and marketing? Has there ever been a question that you get all the time from buyers where you say to yourself, "You know what? We can't address that on the website. We'll just wait until they ask us. Hopefully, they won't ask us. But if they do, that's fine. We'll answer it at that point."
Marcus Sheridan:
Now that actually worked in 1995, circa pre-internet. That doesn't work in 2021. That's gone. Gonzo. Right? And so this idea that we could ignore a customer's questions, but still become the voice of trust in our space, no sir. No sir. That's why we've got to make that decision. We've got to make it.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah, and so that leads into people want to bury their head in the sand about their competition. They want to pretend that, "They're never going to find out about my competition," right? And another thing that I liked about They Ask, You Answer that also, when I first read it and heard you talk about it, that was uncomfortable was writing about your competitors on your own website. So how can you write about your own competitors without being a total jerk? Because I think that's the risk is you could do it in a way that's putting them down, talking about negatives, but how can you write maybe an honest review of some of the flaws of your competition without being a jerk?
Marcus Sheridan:
So is one of those where it's been amazing for me over the course of ... I was talking about They Ask, You Answer long before I wrote the book. I was teaching companies how to do it long before the book. I've had so many companies now on their website openly talk about many things, cost, price, competitors, comparisons, all this stuff, which was so unheard of at the time and still is in many corners of the Earth. The thing about the competition, again, it goes back to this core philosophy, have you ever been asked by a customer, "So how do you compare with such and such, or what are your thoughts on such and such?"
Marcus Sheridan:
This could be a competing company, a competing brand, a competing methodology, you name it. Anything that people say, "Okay, so I'm looking at this or I heard about this. How do you stack up?" You should get those questions all the time. Once again, do you wait to answer them or do you answer them?
Marcus Sheridan:
The other side to this is you don't have to say anything negative about anybody. I called the book They Ask, You Answer and the philosophy They Ask, You Answer, but it could've really been They Ask, You Address It Really Well, but that didn't have the same ring to it. Right?
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Marcus Sheridan:
Because sometimes you can't specifically answer the question. I can't say exactly how much a fiberglass pool is going to be because of variable costs, just like a landscaper. But can you give ranges based on factors and considerations? Yeah. That's easy. We do that all day long. Can you say a particular competitor is located in such and such area, they specialize in this particular thing, they've been around for this long, here's the products that they carry, services they offer, here's what they don't carry, here's where they don't offer? Could you say those things? Yeah, because they're inarguable. They're facts.
Marcus Sheridan:
So when it comes to talking about direct competitors, which I've done many, many times, I never inject opinion and I don't say negative stuff. That's my two easy rules. But the beauty behind it is if you research any of my competitors at River Pools today online, and you type in reviews, competitor name, where they are, oftentimes I'm going to be one of the first ones that you see learn from because, once again, that's a conversation that I want to be a part of. I don't want to be outside that conversation circle. I want to dictate the terms in my space. And so that's what it means to be a thought leader. A lot of businesses don't think like that. I'm just not interested in leaving my destiny in someone else's hands, so I talk about all this stuff.
How Can Landscaper's Use Assignment Selling To Close More Sales?
Jack Jostes:
I like that. Yeah, that's great. And one of the things that I wanted to chat with you about was this concept of assignment selling, which is essentially, if businesses produce video content or an ebook, or they produce some content that will help a client, a potential customer buy from them before that first meeting, you talk about really getting an agreement to watch it or to read it because just publishing it on your website, posting on social media, people may or may not find it. But you're having the sales team actually getting an agreement from the client.
Jack Jostes:
So tell us a little bit about assignment selling and then does it ever impact project management, like if a client isn't holding up their end of the deal? So walk me through from sales to let's say somebody is interested in a pool, they buy it, now we're in construction.
Marcus Sheridan:
Assignment selling, there's so much here because I've now taught this to sales teams all over the world, and essentially, it starts with this. If you talk to most salespeople and say, "What percentage of the questions you get, especially on your first meeting with a prospect, are essentially the same questions every single time?" You're going to hear, "Oh, about 75, 80, 85% same questions." So that begs the question, "Why do we keep answering the same daggone questions over and over again? It doesn't really make any sense, right Jack? It's like Groundhog's Day. Every sales appointment is Groundhog's Day.
Marcus Sheridan:
So what would happen if we could eliminate those? What would happen if the buyer, prospect, that they already knew the answers, but they didn't just know the answers, they'd heard it and learned it from us? How would the sales appointment be different? And so that's the idea. The idea is that you leverage the content you've produced. That's the key to this. If you don't produce the content, you can't do this. You leverage the content you produce based on the fundamental buyer questions you get all the time, and you use that to move people down the funnel faster.
Marcus Sheridan:
What we found in 2013 was if I got somebody to read 30 or more pages of our website or pieces of our content before the initial sales appointment, when I went into their home back when I was a pool guy, they would buy 80% of the time, which is a pretty astronomical number. If I didn't get them to do that, if they were just passively consuming our information, closing rates were about 25%, which is about average in the pool industry. One in four appointments will close. And so I said to myself, "Jeez Louise, what can I do to always ensure that somebody's read 30 or more pages? This will help them. It'll help us. Everybody wins."
Marcus Sheridan:
So that's where assignment selling was born, and so the key to it is two parts. You need to explain. So actually three, but you need to explain what the assignment is, why you're giving it, and get a confirmation that they're going to do it. And to what you said, Jack, you can't be passive this. So in other words, I can't say to you, "So Jack, I've got this really cool buying guide. I think you're going to like it, about fiberglass pools. It would be great if you could give it a look." See, that's just dumb. That's not effective. You didn't even hear what I said. Right?
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Marcus Sheridan:
People are going to have to just rewind and say, "What did you say? I almost didn't catch what he just said." So the way that you do this is you have to be very intentional about it. So you have to say something that get somebody's attention, and then you explain the why, as you're giving the assignment, and you get the confirmation. So it might sound something like this: "Jack, you're getting ready to spend a lot of money on a pool, and I know you don't want to make any mistakes. And so as to make sure you don't make any mistakes, I'm going to make sure you're well-educated. So this is what we're going to do. I'm going to send you two things as we're talking on the phone today. Both of these things you're going to like a lot. The first one is a video showing you the entire process of a pool being installed in a backyard. This way, you're going to see it. You're going to see what the dig looks like with the patio and the whole nine ..."
Marcus Sheridan:
You're not going to ask me on Friday. "Hey Marcus, what does this process look like?" You're already going to know. That's the first thing. "The second thing I going to send you as a buying guide. And this buying guide is super helpful to you because it's going to answer major questions that you have that nobody else has answered yet, like: Should I get a heater with my pool? What's the best type of heater. Should it be gas? Should it be electric? Should I get a cover? What's the best type of cover? Should be mesh? Should it be solid? All those questions, it's going to answer."
Marcus Sheridan:
"Now, it's going to take you a little bit of time. It's about 30 pages, but I promise it'll be well worth your time. So Jack, will you take the time to review these things before our appointment on Friday?" There's the confirmation, and boom, 90% of time, Jack says yes, 10% of the time Jack says no. Either way I've won because now I've either very much advanced him through the funnel, or I've quickly filtered him out of set funnel.
Jack Jostes:
Yes.
Marcus Sheridan:
Again, either way I win.
Jack Jostes:
Right, because if the prospect isn't willing to read that content that you're going to send them or watch a video, how serious are they about spending 50, 60, $100,000 on anything?
Marcus Sheridan:
Yeah. They're clearly a bad fit because what it means is the single variable that they're basing their decision on, their buying decision is "How much is it?" They're just straight price shopping, at which point I might as well just send them a quote over email because I'm just wasting my time.
Marcus Sheridan:
When I first started doing assignment selling, Jack, I would call people up the day of the appointment and I'd say, "I was just confirming you'd done that homework that I gave you," and there's a decent portion of time that people hadn't done the homework. Even though they'd committed, they hadn't done it. And so I tracked over the course of six months, how many of those people that hadn't done the homework bought? And if you're listening to this right now, how many do you think bought? What percentage? Of course, the answer is zero percent.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah, I bet.
Marcus Sheridan:
Can you believe that? Now, that makes you say, "Oh my goodness." And that's what I learned, too, that if they hadn't done the homework, I would just delay the sales appointment because otherwise I'm just going to go practice selling. I'm not interested in practicing selling. I'm interested in selling. That's what I wanted to do.
Jack Jostes:
Right.
Marcus Sheridan:
I had produced the content. It was better content than they could get from anybody in the world, literally. And I had earned the right to ask them to do this, for their sake and for mine. And so if they didn't do it, it was a clear indicator that they weren't serious, that they weren't ready, or that we weren't a good fit. Once again, either way, this is a good thing. And the last thing I'll say about this right here, Jack, is the greatest day in the life of a business is not necessarily when you know who you are, but it's when you know who you're not and when you know who you're not a good fit for.
Marcus Sheridan:
The headaches that we get, certainly in the landscaping business, is when we agree to things that we just don't feel good about. Something about the customer ain't right. Something about the job ain't right. Something about what they're asking for ain't right. But oftentimes, we take the job. Why do we take the job? Because we think we need the money because we're wondering, "Is the faucet going to get turned off at some point?"
Marcus Sheridan:
But then we take the job, and then we start having the stress, and we wake up and we're pissed because we've got to go back out to that job site. And we say to ourselves, "The money wasn't worth it." That's why we have to learn to say no. It's more important than learning to say yes in business.
Jack Jostes:
I agree. And the real beauty here of a video that you produce is that you can make it one time, and it can be watched hundreds or even thousands of times. And you can delegate that to other people on your team. So-
Marcus Sheridan:
It's the gift that keeps on giving, man. It's a great thing.
Tips For Landscape Professionals On How To Sell Using Video
Jack Jostes:
Your new book, The Visual Sale: How to Use Video to Explode Sales, Drive Marketing, and Grow Your Business in a Virtual World came out last night. It's very current information about how to sell during a shutdown when people don't want to meet with you in person, but you can still sell to them. What would you say if you had one tip about video for landscapers?
Jack Jostes:
And towards the end of the book, you talk about people who say, "Well, I'm not good on video." A lot of landscapers have been selling in person for years, and they often tell me, "Aw, Jack, I've got to meet with people in person so that I can charm them and woo them. And that's part of my selling process." What advice would you have for them to simply get started in the new virtual world of using video in sales?
Marcus Sheridan:
Yeah. Once again, I think in terms of questions, and I would say to somebody, "Is it possible that you don't have to meet with them on site to charm them, to woo them, to win their trust?" Now, of course, the answer is yes. Yes, it's possible. Okay. So if you were to do that, how would you do that? What are you going to stand out? How do you stand out? And then it starts to manifest. And of course, one of the ways to do that is that you show it. That's it. It's everything. Everything about you, about what you do, how you do it, your people, your staff, your products, your services, your processes, show the thing.
Marcus Sheridan:
And by showing the thing, you can do so much. Video is, really, in so many ways, the future of the way we sell. Not just video, but visual. And I am very, very interconnected at this point with the landscaping world. I'm very close with certain groups in the landscaping space. I know many landscapers set sell virtually right now and are very, very effective with it. With my pool company this year ... Well, in 2020, after COVID, 100% of our deposits came before we stepped foot on somebody's house, before we stepped foot in the yard, and we did a hundred and ... Oh, is it like 152 pools in 2020?
Marcus Sheridan:
So, of those, I guess about 100 or so were deposits that we got before we'd ever shook their hand, before we'd ever stepped on their property. And that's because of virtual, and that's because of video. We've given the ability to see the thing, to get to know us so well that they can say, "Wow, I really, really trust these guys. Yeah. They're just showing me everything."
Marcus Sheridan:
There's no secret sauce here. And of course, we meet with them virtually so they can they see us. They talk to us, and we're able to price it accordingly. So that works extremely well. Unfortunately, you're always going to have people that are resistant to change, but so was Blockbuster, and it went great for them. So it might go great for you, too.
Jack Jostes:
All right. Well, Marcus, thanks so much for coming on the show today. It's been a real pleasure interviewing you. What are you up to next, and where can we learn more about you?
Marcus Sheridan:
Well, the best place to connect with me, believe it or not, is on LinkedIn. I live on LinkedIn in terms of my social media. I think everywhere else is so negative. I just don't-
Jack Jostes:
I agree. I actually just deleted Instagram and Facebook from my phone.
Marcus Sheridan:
It's healthy.
Jack Jostes:
I sleep more.
Marcus Sheridan:
Extremely healthy. Did you know the average person that Instagram checks it, and they've done the studies, 150 times a day they check Instagram, the average person with it. And so I'm not going to sit here and say social media is of the devil, but I will say that if you want to reach out to me, if you want to learn from me, I put my best stuff on LinkedIn. One great post a day you will find from me on LinkedIn.
Marcus Sheridan:
You can reach out to me directly, Marcus@MarcusSheridan.com. That's the easiest email to remember. Marcus@MarcusSheridan.com, and make sure you get the books if you want to be great with video, and I think every landscaper should get the visual sale. If you want to have a strategy for your digital sales and marketing going forward for the next 20 years, get They Ask, You Answer. Bottom line is get them both, read them, apply them, and absorb them. And then it's going to change your business forever. I say that because I've seen it happen with so many companies. So Jack, this was a pleasure. I certainly appreciate it.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. Thanks, Marcus. Everyone, definitely check out his books. We've read They Ask, You Answer at the Ramblin Jackson book club twice now, and it's a book worth reading several times. So thank you for writing these books. They're really great, and they've definitely impacted me and the work that I do, even in my own marketing. So thank you and take care, Marcus. We'll look forward to hearing from you on LinkedIn.
Marcus Sheridan:
My pleasure.
Takeaways From The Ramblin Jackson They Ask You Answer Book Club
Like I mentioned in the interview with Marcus, we've actually read Marcus's book twice as part of our Ramblin Jackson book club, where we read cool books and meet and talk about it and brainstorm ideas. And I certainly had a ton of takeaways from the book, and here are a few key takeaways from other Ramblers.
Brian:
I think the biggest takeaway for me was the key message of creating trust and all the variety of ways that you can do that. But the biggest one being just identifying potential customers or prospects, fears, worries, concerns, and addressing those. And it's a big part of what I see Ramblin Jackson doing a really good job of already, and I obviously saw some strategies and methodologies.
But I think the two favorite things I took away from was the ostrich approach, as far as "Let's just hope it goes away." That was easy to remember, but the other one was the CarMax approach and who doesn't have an icky feeling when they think of a used car salesman? But that's a perfect example of understanding the industry and then turning that fear around. So I really liked that.
Rebecca:
Yeah, and I looked at it more as our clients and how this could be useful for them, and I know in the project kickoff, we're always talking about the sales process, and it seems like more and more of our clients have a sales process issue, and just writing content, whether it's pricing or other things to help better qualify people before they get into that sales funnel is how I was looking at it. It was super beneficial to them.
I love what Marcus said about taking the things that your customers are already asking you, talking to your salespeople, what are the things that they're telling people 80% of the time? And what if you started creating content like that on your website and assigned it, yes, assigned it to your potential customers in order to qualify for meeting with you? We both know that your close rate would go way up and you'd spend way less time driving around, meeting with people who are not going to buy from you. So I hope you check out his books and get started with that.
My name's Jack Jostes, and thanks so much for checking out The Landscapers Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing podcast. I recommend other books. So check out the full transcript from today's episode and see some links to other books that we've recommended at landscapersguide.com/podcast.