080 Tom Webster | Business Lessons About Polling Audiences From The Recent Presidential Election

The most recent presidential election in the United States proved that predicting – or as my guest today calls it, ‘probability calculation’ – is a dangerous way of reading an audience. It essentially amounts to throwing darts at a board, he says.

If companies want to create products and services that best meet the needs of their ideal customers, they need to have solid research to support their business objectives – otherwise they might wind up guessing at the wrong outcomes.

On today's episode, I talk to Tom Webster, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Edison Research, the organization behind exit polling for national elections in the U.S. For more than two decades, Tom has conducted political polling for some of the most contentious elections in U.S. history, as well as market research for some of the top companies across the nation. What he’s learned about the role of research in business decisions may surprise you.

“You need the input,” Tom says. “There’s no such thing as a perfect study. There’s no perfect piece of input. But it’s a lot better to fly with instruments you can correct, than to fly with no instruments at all.”

Tom and I talk about President Trump’s surprising victory, the need for diverse points of view in boardrooms across corporate America, and what to do to really have your finger on the pulse of your audience. I know you're going to love this discussion, and you're going to learn a ton on this edition of Grow My Revenue!

Listen to this episode and discover:

· How you can gather and distill insights about your audiences.
· The misconceptions people had about the most recent U.S. presidential election.
· Why President Donald Trump is what pollsters call a 'black swan'.
· How bias plays a role in different types of polling.
· How to get the right type of qualitative and quantitative information to · really have a finger on the pulse of your audience.
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

As a polling expert and survey researcher, Tom Webster is the man companies go to when they want a snapshot of what’s happening with their clients today, and the data trends that have happened over time. There’s a big difference, he says, between forecasting outcomes and predicting them.

“Once you start getting into the business of, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen in the future,’ you get into a very different business,” Tom says.

That's why he’s not a fan of ‘probability calculators’, and why he says business owners and executives should never make decisions in a vacuum. Today you'll learn:

· What ‘bias’ is in polling, and why it exists in every survey conducted.
· How a ‘social desirability’ bias among voters played a part in Trump’s surprising victory.
· Why it’s dangerous to surround yourself only with people who think and act like you.
· What the difference between qualitative and quantitative research is and why you need both.
· Why companies need solid data to ensure they're meeting the needs of their customers.

When you listen, you'll hear how pollsters in the most recent presidential election didn't get it wrong. Rather, it was the interpretation of the data that lead to all the confusion. On this edition of Grow My Revenue, you'll also hear how consumer behavior has radically changed over the years with advances in technology, yet the reasons why customers buy remain the same.

Also on today's show, Tom and I talk about how content marketers need to take on the role of trusted advisor, rather than the more traditional salesman. Tune in for all of that and more on today's Grow My Revenue with Tom Webster.

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/tom-webster/

079 | How Asking the Right Questions Can Shorten the Sales Cycle and Lead to Better Results

Have you ever wanted to peer inside a potential customer’s mind to understand how he or she makes a buying decision? Have you ever wondered what key questions a prospect asks himself when deciding whether or not to buy your product or service? Do you wish you could crack the code on how a customer thinks so you can shorten the sales cycle and achieve the business results you’re after?

In today’s episode I discuss a few of the common misconceptions salespeople have with regard to their prospects’ buying and decision processes – and how to develop the skills necessary to uncover a buyer’s real motivations.

Plus, I'll be weighing in on how businesses get it wrong when describing what the customer's buying cycle looks like, and how you should look at it instead. Listen in for those topics and more on this special solo edition of Grow My Revenue.

Listen to this episode and discover:

· How to glean better insight into the sales process in order to achieve better results.
· The types of questions you should be asking during sales conversations.
· How to prepare for a sales encounter in order to accelerate the sales cycle and stop wasting time on bad opportunities.
· And so much more…

Episode Overview

I lead workshops all over the world and have trained thousands of CEOs and sales execs on how to achieve better results in business. One of the questions I get asked all the time by salespeople is about how they can encourage and facilitate faster buying decisions from prospective customers. In other words, they want to know how to get to the sale faster.

The trouble is, the way businesses think about the sales cycle is all wrong. In fact, in most cases, it’s a complete waste of time.

Today, I’ll show you a better approach to the buying process that can actually shorten the sales cycle and lead to better revenues. You'll learn:

· How to uncover the truth behind a prospect’s motivation to buy.
· The three key questions you should be able to answer in every sales conversation (answering these questions is nearly guaranteed to shorten the sales cycle every time).
· Why following a script can undermine a sale.
· What top performing salespeople do that others don’t.

When you listen in, you'll hear the types of questions not to ask if you want to see better results and what to ask instead. You'll also hear how the old methods of sales no longer work, and the specific steps to follow to have more productive, insightful sales conversations on this edition of Grow My Revenue.

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/ian-altman-asking-right-questions-shorten-sales-cycle/

078 Ahava Leibtag | How Businesses Create Trust and Authority with Quality Content

If you’re a business with an online presence, content marketing is critical to growing your business and building relationships with customers, which can have a direct impact your bottom line. In fact, creating quality content that is both relevant and useful to your audience can be the difference between being seen as a trusted leader in your field and being ignored.

Too many organizations make the mistake, however, of not creating a sound content strategy, which inevitably leads them to making costly mistakes that confuse – and lose – potential clients.

My guest on today’s episode of the Grow My Revenue Business Cast is content creation expert Ahava Leibtag. Ahava helps businesses develop strong, coherent content strategies that allow businesses to showcase their expertise online and be seen as leaders in their industries.

Today, we cover the common mistakes businesses make when developing their content strategies, why it’s important to have a designated person leading the charge, and the number one thing to consider when creating content for your organization. I know you're going to love this talk, and you're going to learn a ton on today's edition of Grow My Revenue!

Listen to this episode and discover:

· What common mistakes companies make when creating content strategies.
· Why having a content strategy – and someone to lead the effort – is so important.
· What the number one thing to consider is when creating content.
· The five questions companies should answer when creating content strategies.
· When and where to draw the line between content creation and self promotion.
· How asking (the right) probing questions will help companies understand their customers’ issues better, which leads to better content creation.
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

Before we get into the five questions companies must answer to create effective content strategy plans, Ahava and I uncover the biggest mistakes businesses make regarding content marketing. Although Ahava says she sees a lot of missteps, we talk about three in particular.*

After discussing the biggest mistakes in content marketing, we discuss the top five things that companies should ask themselves when creating content strategy. Before diving into strategy, Ahava always asks companies five questions.*

“One of the clients we worked with had a 28 percent increase in social media traffic after we answered those questions, and they also had far less confusion among their content teams about how to write content,” Ahava said.

Also on today's show, Ahava and I talk about how a company can effectively identify their audience, and the number one question an organization should be asking with regard to content creation. Tune in for all of that and more on today's Grow My Revenue with Ahava Leibtag.

*For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/ahava-leibtag/

077 Neen James | How To Accomplish More In Less Time, With Half The Effort

Have you ever wished you could add more hours to your day just so you could cross more tasks off your to-do list? Do you spend most of your days going from meeting to meeting only to feel like you haven’t accomplished what you need to accomplish? Do spend countless hours going through your email and still feel like you’ve barely made a dent in it? If so, you’re probably making the kinds of mistakes productivity expert Neen James says most people make when thinking about time.

“We’ve got to look at time differently and think: Is this the best use of my time right now?” she says.

In today’s podcast episode, Neen talks about the biggest mistakes people make when thinking about time and productivity, ways they can organize their day so they can get more done with less effort, and why it’s important.

As the author of Folding Time: How to Achieve Twice As Much in Half the Time, Neen talks about how the notion of “time management” is no longer useful or effective, and how people should look at time if they want to accomplish more.

She speaks with audiences and top executives around the world, sharing field-tested strategies that not only improve leaders’ productivity but increase their influence and effectiveness.

“We all get the same 1,440 minutes in a day,” she says. “So when people think they can manage their time, that’s not true. What they can do is manage their attention.”

Listen to this episode and discover:
· The biggest mistakes people make when thinking about time, and what things to consider instead.
· Why making a to-do list is actually a waste of time.
· How to make business meetings shorter and more effective.
· The single most important question you can ask yourself when tackling a task.
· How to create an environment that is conducive to focus and productivity.
· The “super-fancy” (Neen’s words) system she uses to make sure she accomplishes what she needs to each day.
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

As an expert on time and productivity, Neen despises the term “time management.” It’s an old paradigm that keep people on a never-ending hamster wheel of to-dos.

“The old way of managing time used to work before we had email, before we had the internet, and before we had social media. While it’s important to have a really good relationship with time and to understand how you work best, I think the new conversation is about attention.”

Instead of using outdated and ineffective language to describe time – “I’m going to kill time” or “I don’t have time” – people should use more empowering words to describe their behavior around time.

“We have to reframe it,” she says. “It’s really easy to say, ‘I don’t have time,’ but that’s not true. You do. A better choice of words is: ‘I didn’t choose to spend time on that.’”

Considering time in this way allows people to step off the hamster wheel of needless activities. Because the truth is: people sabotage their productivity when they choose to spend time on small, seemingly important things that produce little to no results – things like unnecessary, in-person team meetings, or email.

“What we have to be more disciplined at, as leaders with our time, is understanding what activities are going to give us the highest return on our time invested,” she says.

In addition, Neen shared some tips on how people can organize their day to ensure they prioritize what’s important (the “not-negotiables,” as she calls them) and let go of what’s not. Using a “super-fancy” single Post-It note system, Neen shares her secret to getting more done in less time.

Listen in for all of that and more on this edition of Grow My Revenue, and then let me know what your key takeaways were. I look forward to seeing how you’ve implemented Neen’s tips and strategies.

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/neen-james/

076 Jack Quarles | Expensive Sentences That Drain Company Resources

We’ve all heard the clever, catchy truisms tossed about in corporate environments that sound like sage advice:

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

"You get what you pay for."

"You can’t switch horses mid-stream."

They sound good on the surface. Some of these witty aphorisms may even hold a kernel of truth. But dig a little deeper, and you begin to discover that these widely-held and unchallenged beliefs can cost companies lots of time, money, and opportunity.

My guest on this week’s episode, best-selling author and negotiation expert Jack Quarles, calls these toxic statements ‘Expensive Sentences.’ Left unchecked and unexamined, these simple little proverbs or phrases have the power to drain valuable resources from companies, keeping them from reaching their full growth and potential.

Jack co-authored "Same Side Selling: A Radical Approach to Break Through Sales Barriers" with me. In his latest book, "Expensive Sentences: Debunking the Common Myths that Derail Decisions and Sabotage Success," he looks at the destructive nature of commonly held beliefs and statements that have the power to shut down conversations within organizations, and lead to bad decisions and missed opportunities.

“These ideas set in pretty deep in an organization,” Jack says. “They become company lore. They become things that people really believe, but they’re often not true.”

Listen to this episode and discover:

· How one simple statement cost a company millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses.
· What are some of the most commonly-used ‘expensive sentences’ to watch out for in a buying-selling environment?
· How not to a respond to an ‘expensive sentence’ situation (and what to do instead).
· Three ways to tell if you’re in an ‘expensive sentence’ environment.
· Three important questions to ask yourself and others that can turn an ‘expensive sentence’ situation around almost immediately (plus a bonus question from Ian).
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

Back when Jack was the Director of Procurement for a multi-national company, he discovered that a million dollar buying decision was being made on a faulty assumption that was never questioned or challenged.

“We’d spent probably millions of dollars more than we should have over of several years, and what was the reason? The reason was this distorted idea that had taken root,” he said.

In other words, an expensive sentence had reared its ugly head.

That discovery led Jack on a quest to find out why these assumptions were being made and, more importantly, what could be done to change them. He wanted to help buyers shift their perspectives to allow for more healthy, robust competition.

“The tricky thing about these ‘expensive sentences’ is that there’s almost always some kernel of truth in them,” Jacks says.

Sellers will know if they are in an ‘expensive sentence’ scenario if they have one (or all) of these three elements present:

· Stuck
· Scarcity
· Special

“Whenever you encounter a situation where you feel like you’re stuck, or you feel like the resources are scarce, or you feel like somebody’s special (where we’re dependent upon someone or they’re irreplaceable) those are warning signs,” Jack says.

For more in-depth explanations of Jack’s three-step formula – Engage, Examine, Enlighten – for turning an expensive sentence scenario from a negative to a positive, make sure to listen to this episode.

Jack and I also talk about the shift that’s happening in the procurement world toward better overall value (and away from cheapest prices), and the biggest fear a procurement agent faces (it’s not what you think!). Tune in for all of that and more on today’s Grow My Revenue with Jack Quarles.

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/jack-quarles-expensive-sentences/

075 | How to Properly Use Sales Scripts and Active Listening

On this episode, I'll be answering these questions plus weighing in on the impact of social media in ways you may not have considered. Listen in for those topics and more on this special solo edition of Grow My Revenue.

Listen to this episode and discover:

· Should you use a script in sales calls?
· What active listening really means, and how to apply it to your sales team.
· How do you learn the most about your potential client?
· When are questions powerful, and when are they not?
· And so much more…

Episode Overview

Have you ever received a phone call from someone selling something, and you could tell they were reading from a script? That is the number one reason I dislike the use of scripts. Although I'm a proponent of having a process, I discourage anyone from reading scripts verbatim.

Instead, I suggest a particular formula and sequence you can follow to uncover the real information when dealing with a potential client. In fact, you can use a script, but be sure you understand why you are asking each question in that script.

Here's what I suggest you do if you want to successfully utilize scripts:

Before you write out the script, lay out exactly what you are hoping to learn with each question. So, if you are asking the client how long their problem has been going on, it's because you want to know if this has been an ongoing issue, a long-term problem, or none of the above.

And if you ask what else they have tried, you are doing so because you want to know what alternatives they have pursued, and if this is important enough that they've invested in solutions in the past.

When you ask what happens if they don't solve this problem, you are finding out if the problem is important enough to the person to warrant their investment. Then you'll know if you are dealing with the right person, and/or if the problem is something they are willing to spend money to fix.

Now that you know your goal for these questions, you can outline the potential responses and the likely conclusions that you can draw based on their responses. Once you draw out those conclusions, you can then move on to the next step, which is creating a decision tree for these conversations. I explain exactly how to do so on today's show.

Also on today's show, I cover the topic of social media and two points worth considering when you are interacting with others in that space.

The first is: where has our civility gone? After the US presidential elections, I have been seeing a lot of people respond and make comments to their social media "friends" in caustic and nasty tones. They aren't having debates or discussions, but have resorted to name calling.

And it is not from just one political party; it's both sides. Rather than indiscriminate name calling and venting our frustrations at others who disagree with us, it's our duty to respect other opinions. And if we want to be understood, we must take the time to understand them.

The second point I discuss is to consider who your friends are online. It's easy for us to forget who we have invited as friends and who we have accepted on any of our social media platforms. A simple solution is to respond as if you were at a cocktail party with friends. Would you be rude and offensive there? If not, then don't be rude and offensive on social media.

You'll also hear how to avoid alienating potential clients with social media, and what active listening really means on this edition of Grow My Revenue.

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/ian-altman-sales-scripts-active-listening/

074 Marcus Sheridan | 5 Ways to Build Trust with Content Marketing

You know how important content marketing is to your success, but how do you actually use it as a tool to build trust? Joining us to answer that question and others is my great friend and two-time visitor to the show, Marcus Sheridan. Marcus is a best-selling author of several books, and is also the quintessential case study in successful content marketing.

I'm bringing him back because he is the de facto expert on this topic. Today we cover the five ways to build trust with content marketing, the biggest mistakes most companies make regarding content marketing, and his latest book, "They Ask You Answer." I know you're going to love this talk, and you're going to learn a ton on today's edition of Grow My Revenue!

Listen to this episode and discover:
· Who has to be involved in your content marketing if you are to be ultra-successful?
· Why doing content marketing right means starting at the bottom of the sales funnel, not the top.
· What you can learn from CarMax.
· How to become a purple cow in your field, and why that's a good thing.
· What is the concept of the anti-persona?
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

Before we get into the five ways to build trust with your clients through content marketing, Marcus and I uncover the biggest mistakes businesses make regarding content marketing. Although Marcus says there are lot of missteps he sees, we talk about three in particular.*

Marcus gives an example from when he used to run a pool company, a company he is still a silent partner in today. He saw a lot of pool companies put out fluff pieces like 5 Fun Games to Play in Your Swimming Pool. The reason pieces like this don't work is because you don't know if the reader actually wants to buy a pool! They could be throwing a kid party at another pool somewhere and may not even be in the market to buy a pool.

But if you focus on swimming pool buyer-based questions, like "How much does a fiberglass pool cost?" and write a piece on that, you will get readers who are in the market to spend money on a pool.

After discussing the biggest mistakes in content marketing, we discuss into the top five things that move the needle and build trust with content marketing. These are all covered in Marcus' book "They Ask You Answer," and we briefly cover them on this episode.*

Also on today's show, Marcus and I talk about how to frame negatives in such a way that you can address them while keeping everyone in your company okay with that, specifics about what his latest book They Talk You Answer has to say about removing "elephants" in the room, and a simple strategy and activity that can revolutionize your relationship with customers. Tune in for all of that and more on today's Grow My Revenue with Marcus Sheridan.

*For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/marcus-sheridan/

073 Bob Burg | How To Be a Go-Giver

When you hear the term "go-giver" what do you think of? Do you think of someone who gives and gets nothing in return? Or do you think of someone who gives value consistently and ultimately reaps financial rewards as a result?

Our guest for today's episode, Bob Burg, defines it as the latter. Bob is the co-author of the best-selling book, The Go-Giver, a book that has sold over half a million copies around the globe. Bob is also an international speaker and the man behind The Go-Giver Sales Academy, a two-day event that helps entrepreneurs and business owners accelerate their growth.

It's an absolute honor to have Bob on the show; listen in as we discuss the principle of The Go-Giver, its five laws, plus much more!

Listen to this episode and discover:

· What does it actually mean to "go-give"?
· What is the only reason people buy from you?
· Bob explains the difference between price and value.
· In a free market exchange, what are the two profits?
· What is a "phonus balonus" and how do you avoid being one?
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

On this episode of Grow My Revenue, Bob and I cover a lot of ground, including people's biggest misunderstandings about the concept of being a go-giver, what holds most people back in sales conversations, and the five laws in The Go-Giver.

Bob says the biggest misconception people have about being a go-giver is that it means you don't care about profits. That idea is patently untrue; being a go-giver simply means shifting your focus to one of giving to others first and providing consistent value to them.

By doing so, you will increase your profits and revenue, because at its core, selling is about focusing on what the other person wants, needs and desires. And when you do that in a genuine way, people want to buy from you, and they want to refer business to you. According to Bob, this is the single greatest skill you can have: a highly developed and authentic interest in the other person. When you have that, the rest – including profits – will follow.

To explain the principles of the go-giver on a deeper level, Bob shares a brief summary of each of the five laws covered in the book.

Also on today's edition of the show, Bob and I discuss the skills that hold most people back during sales conversations, what to do if you discover that you and your client aren't a good fit, and his Go-Giver Sales Academy. Tune in for all of that and more on this episode of Grow My Revenue with Bob Burg!

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/bob-burg/

072 Jill Rowley | The Keys to Social Selling

What exactly is social selling, and how do you know if you're doing it right (or wrong)? Our guest today, Jill Rowley, is the de facto expert on the subject. Jill is an international speaker, digital transformation expert and startup advisor who began her career as one of the first sales people with Salesforce.

On this episode, Jill explains what social selling is, what the keys to social selling are, and a few things you should be doing to embrace the current digital age. We also discuss what not to do with social selling, and the misapplication of marketing automation today. You won't want to miss this episode with Jill Rowley!

Listen to this episode and discover:

· What is social selling?
· Why your network isn't a group of potential buyers, and what a network actually is.
· What was the original intent of marketing automation?
· Why more is not "more better," and what that means.
· How to become visible and valuable through content.
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

Jill became a student of marketing starting back in 2002, because her buyers were marketers. She learned what was driving modernization and transformation at the time, how it was becoming more about data, automation, technology and personalization through multiple channels and through social media. Through that lens she saw these buyer changes sooner than most sales people, and why those changes would become so important to sales as a whole.

Today she explains that social selling is about researching your buyers, and then becoming relevant to them and building really meaningful, deep relationships with them. These factors will ultimately drive revenue.

To succeed you need to know your buyer, be where they are, and be visible and valuable to them. Buyers are increasingly spending more time on social platforms, so social selling is about finding and creating your digital presence, showing the world that you are someone who has business acumen and has solved problems for your customers – problems that your potential clients are dealing with.

Jill explains you must develop your online network through LinkedIn, because if your network is your net worth and someone can't see that network on LinkedIn, then your network doesn't exist.

It's also about becoming visible and valuable through content that is interesting and relevant to your customer, not you! Chances are good that your buyers are putting massive content out there through podcasts, YouTube videos, tweets, and sharing content on LinkedIn. Since they are out there on the digital web, you need to learn to be, too.

When I asked Jill to share the biggest mistakes or misconceptions that she sees organizations have about social selling, she gave me three:

1. Companies are not addressing social selling at the organization level.
2. If a company is addressing social selling, they are doing so by buying LinkedIn Sales Navigator and calling it social selling.
3. Companies are saying more is "more better": do more mass emails, send more useless and impersonal invitations to connect on LinkedIn, share more impersonal content to the masses. It's a lot of irrelevant "more."

Since Jill is a primary reason we have marketing automation today, I asked her to give the original intent behind it. She says originally marketing automation's intent was to be able to convert an inquiry into a customer more efficiently and faster.

On this episode, Jill explains why those early days of marketing automation have now gone awry, and why it's more like a spam cannon today than a tool to turn an inquiry into a customer. She also gives a few things you should do right now to embrace today's digital age.

Listen in for all of that and more from the energetic social selling guru Jill Rowley on today's edition of Grow My Revenue!

For full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/jill-rowley/

071 Ryan Levesque | Asking The Right Questions

Do you think you know what your customers want? Have you sent them surveys? Most business owners either assume that they know what their customers want, or don't know the right questions to ask to get the most impactful answers.

Today Ryan Levesque, creator of the Ask Method and national best-selling author of Ask, joins us to talk about why you shouldn't assume you know what your clients want, and how to formulate the questions to find out what they need so you can best serve them. He also explains why segmented opportunities will produce better results for your marketing efforts on this edition of Grow My Revenue.

Listen to this episode and discover:

· What is the key to unlocking the full potential of your business?
· What is the second biggest mistake people make when trying to find out what their customers want?
· Where should you start when sending out a survey?
· What does SMIQ stand for?
· What are micro-commitments and how do you use them effectively?
· And so much more!

Episode Overview

Ryan Levesque is a software entrepreneur and the creator of the Ask Method. His book Ask, which was written based on his method, was named the #1 marketing book of 2015 by Inc. magazine, and Entrepreneur magazine listed it as the #2 must-read for budding entrepreneurs. And those accolades are well-founded: he has used the Ask Method to help build multi-million dollar businesses in 23 different industries and generated over $100 million in sales in the process.

When he joined me on the show, I asked him to talk about the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to surveys, and his response was simple: people assume and assume they know. He says whenever he brings up the idea of surveying customers to get to know them better and find out what they want, what they need, and what they'll buy, his suggestion is met with resistance by the business owner.

Business owners inevitably tell him they know what their clients want. But the key to unlocking the potential in any business is to have a beginner's mind. Approach your business as though you know nothing about your customers. Pretend you are a scientist about to start an experiment, and go in with no bias or preconceived ideas. As you experiment, you let the data, the feedback, and your market tell you the truth.

Once you do that and you are open to getting the data and the feedback, you must know the right types of questions to ask. This is the second place where people fall down, they ask the wrong questions. They send out surveys to their customers asking them what they want and what they need help with.

Ryan says this doesn't work because people don't always know what they want. But people do know what they don't want; that is a question they can accurately answer. You can get those answers by using something Ryan calls the Single Most Important Question method (or SMIQ).

You use SMIQ by thinking about how to frame your questions. You can say something like: "When it comes to X, what is the biggest challenge, frustration, obstacle, or hurdle you run into?" In this example, "X" stands for the thing you intend to help people with. Ask your clients to be as detailed as possible in their responses.

On this episode, Ryan also explains the myth of the FAQ by sharing a story of his experience in the orchid care market. His company successfully entered the orchid care market using the Ask Method. He had no knowledge and no experience in that market, other than the fact that he and his wife bought a bunch of orchids and killed them!

So they went into the market and asked questions like: "When it comes to caring for your orchid, what is the single biggest challenge/frustration/question you are running into right now?"

Hear more about that lesson, and other gems from Ryan on this episode of Grow My Revenue!

For full show notes, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/ryan-levesque/