What is They Ask, You Answer about?

Marcus Sheridan saved his swimming pool company during the 2008 financial crisis by doing something most businesses resist: answering the questions customers were actually asking online, including the uncomfortable ones about price, problems, and comparisons with competitors. They Ask, You Answer is the philosophy he developed from that experience and then spent a decade teaching to companies across industries.

The central idea is simple. Buyers research before they buy. They have questions — about cost, about problems, about comparisons, about reviews, about best-in-class options. Most companies refuse to answer these questions on their websites because they're afraid of showing a price, admitting a limitation, or acknowledging a competitor. Sheridan argues that this refusal creates a trust gap and that the company willing to answer honestly captures the buyer's attention and, eventually, their business.

The five content categories Sheridan calls the Big Five — cost and pricing, problems and negatives, comparisons, best-of lists, and reviews — are the ones buyers search for most and companies publish least. Addressing them directly on your website, blog, or YouTube channel builds the kind of authority and trust that expensive advertising struggles to create. Sheridan's pool company started getting calls from buyers who had already done the research, understood the tradeoffs, and effectively pre-sold themselves before speaking to a salesperson.

The second half of the book extends the framework into how sales and marketing teams should work together, including the concept of assignment selling — sending prospects specific content to read before a sales call so the conversation can skip basic education and focus on fit. The book is anecdote-heavy and the prescriptions occasionally repeat, but the core idea is sound, well-grounded in buyer behavior, and underused by most companies.