As you might imagine, by doing this, CarMax has eliminated a salesperson’s need to think about themselves (wanting a higher commission) over the consumer (getting the right vehicle based on need)—ultimately leading to dramatically more trust during the buying process because the customer believes the company, and the salesperson, have their best interest at heart.
Despite the fact that competitors originally scorned this sales philosophy at CarMax, the end result was groundbreaking, and in the process, CarMax was able to overcome the issue of salesperson distrust—the biggest plague facing their entire industry.
But CarMax continued to take things further. They recognized other fears consumers had and again sought to eliminate them—regardless of the way it had previously been done in the industry.
Their next groundbreaking move came when they started offering a five-day money-back guarantee to customers. In other words, if you bought a car from CarMax and realized during that first week the vehicle was not a good fit for you (for whatever reason), they’d take the car back.
At the time of offering this, the idea of a five-day money-back guarantee was, for most car dealers, preposterous.
In fact, to this day, in many countries the idea is still foreign and unheard of.
But because CarMax was building a consumer-centric business philosophy (that permeated every facet of their company), they simply didn’t care whether other companies were or were not offering this type of guarantee.
And the end result?
Once again they were able to overcome, and practically eliminate, one of the biggest fears in buying a used car: buyer’s remorse.
Another groundbreaking CarMax move was turning their attention to quality control. Instead of following the traditional pattern of selling vehicles with previous issues or problems in an effort to net huge profits, they took the necessary steps to ensure they could limit these issues to the best of their ability.
To give you a sense of this, if you walk into a CarMax as a consumer today, one of the first questions they are going to ask you is “Are you familiar with the process by which our vehicles qualify to be sold on our lot?”
Upon asking this, their next action is a critical one of trust building in that they take the time to physically show you the intensive inspection process their cars have to go through in order to meet their vehicle standards. Furthermore, they want you to see how the majority (roughly 66 percent) of the vehicles they buy (in trade-ins or straight from consumers) never make it to the sales lot.
You have likely heard auto dealers brag on their commercials or websites about their “ninety-point (or thereabouts) inspection process” to ensure vehicle quality. Although CarMax may not have started this trend, they were certainly one of the first to physically show each of these inspection points to their potential customers.
After all, seeing is believing.
You see, in business, just talking about something isn’t enough. If you truly want to overcome concerns and make your point real, you need to show it. You must teach it. And you certainly must be willing to address it.
In our digital and visual world, one thing is certain:
If you don’t show it, it doesn’t exist.
“We have great customer service” is likely said by everyone else in your industry. And if everyone is saying it, you can be assured it means nothing to the consumer—that is, again, until you show it.
The same goes for every other overused business adjective that typically litters business copy, slogans, and website messaging.
CarMax proved this point by physically showing customers their vehicle inspection system. And furthermore, they were one of the first brands to add a CarFax vehicle history report as a standard with all their vehicles—allowing the prospective buyer to see the vehicle’s history, once again eliminating seeds of doubt and adding further confidence to the buyer.
As you might imagine, between demonstrating their intensive vehicle inspection process and showing the vehicle history report, CarMax was able to overcome a third major consumer fear: the fear of buying a lemon.
At this point, CarMax has now eliminated three major fears of buying a used vehicle:
Dealing with the salesperson
Buyer’s remorse
Buying a lemon
As mentioned earlier, there is only one more consumer concern left:
Not getting ripped off (or wanting to get great value, which is essentially the same thing).
And how did CarMax overcome that fear? Well, the answer is simple: besides listing the Kelley Blue Book value with all their vehicles, they did that which you already read.
And by taking these steps, CarMax allowed the consumer to sense the extreme value. And in this case, it’s the value of trust, which is the entire rise or fall of any brand and business.
But imagine for a second that you went back in time fifteen or twenty years and were tasked with speaking to a group of one hundred used car professionals on how to increase sales and revenue with their businesses. Now imagine telling them that the key to their future success would be found by offering no-haggle pricing, a five-day money-back guarantee, an intensive inspection process with the goal of never selling a lemon again, and a way for consumers to trust in the value of the car.
How do you think that audience would have responded to such recommendations?
Yep, they likely would have thrown you out of the room.
And the reason they would have thrown you out is because such recommendations were practically heresy two decades ago.
In fact, there was a time when used car companies laughed at the CarMax business model.
But today, these same companies have now had to change their business model to match that of CarMax’s.
You see, every industry is made up of two groups: those who listen to the consumer and act (They Ask, You Answer), and those who maintain the status quo.
But time and time again, history has shown us that those who listen to the consumer and change their business model—regardless of what others may say—set the standard for their space. They become the rule makers.
And the competition? Well, they become the rule followers.
I hope you can clearly see that the amazing story of CarMax can be applied to any industry—regardless of B2B status, B2C status, size, locality, and so on.
In fact, with many of our clients (spread across multiple industries) at my company, the Sales Lion, we’ve applied this “CarMax Effect” again and again, often with astounding results.
Simply put, the greatest companies and modern-day rule makers are obsessed with consumer fear, and they allow that fear to dictate their entire business model. And they do this because they know if they are able to eliminate all fears and negative emotions from the buying process, the only emotion left to feel is trust.
And trust, quite frankly, is really what this book (and being in business) is all about.
Uber did this in the transportation space by rating drivers and coming up with dramatically more customer-friendly ways of transportation.
Zappos did this in the clothing space by offering free returns.
The examples go on and on, but the principle remains the same.
Consumers ask for it, smart businesses answer it—and often change history in the process.
I’ll share one last story about CarMax, one that would be hard to believe if I hadn’t been there myself.
In early 2016, I found myself speaking to a company in Houston, Texas, telling them the story of CarMax. When I was done, the owner of the company stood up in the room and stated:
“I agree with everything Marcus has said. In fact, I once bought a car (a Porsche even!) from CarMax but ended up returning it the first week. Why did I return it? Well, my dog didn’t like it and couldn’t seem to get comfortable, and that’s exactly what I told the company when I returned the vehicle. I didn’t believe they’d actually refund my money until I saw a check in the mail for the full amount four days
later.”
I told you the story was crazy.
But such is the stuff legendary companies are made of.
Well done, CarMax.
Putting It Into Action
Have a Healthy Relationship with Fear
Allow it to guide your business.
The following activity, albeit incredibly simple, can do wonders for your business, so give it a try. I’ve done this with multiple organizations to produce profound results.
Just as we did with used cars, take a moment to brainstorm every single reason (fear, worry, question, concern) as to why someone would not buy from your company. What would hold them back? What would keep them from clicking “buy,” swiping their credit card, or writing that big check?
If you do this activity properly (especially if you do it with fellow employees), you should come up with ten to twenty reasons, if not more (sadly, a surprising number of businesses struggle with this one small task, all because they’ve lost touch with the most important part of their business: what the potential customer is thinking).
Once you’ve listed each of these fears or reasons for not buying, now comes the critical step:
How many of these issues (fears, worries, concerns, questions, objections, and others) have already been addressed well (a few sentences doesn’t count) on your company website?
How many have been addressed within your sales process?
(Seriously, take the time to do this activity. If you don’t, you’re going to not only miss the whole point, but you’ll also miss a chance to discover some very interesting things about your business.)
If you’re like the majority of the brands and businesses I’ve consulted with, when it comes to your website, the answer is almost always between 10 and 20 percent of the issues.
In other words, the majority of companies never take the time to properly address the biggest fears of their buyers (and leave it to the face-to-face part of the sales process to overcome these objections), and it’s costing businesses millions of dollars each year.
So the question is, Is it possible for you to address, and even eliminate, all of those issues you wrote down?
Find a way to do this, and you’ll likely revolutionize your industry and innovate in ways you previously had not imagined.
But it all starts with an obsession in knowing their objections, and then being willing to do something about it.
This is They Ask, You Answer.
9
The Discovery of the Big 5
Within a couple of months after commencing They Ask, You Answer on the River Pools and Spas website, I could see that what we were doing was already making a difference.
By publishing four to five pieces of content each week on our site, it seemed like searchers (those people looking for swimming pools) and search engines (Google, Yahoo, and others) were clearly taking notice.
We were getting more Web traffic.
Leads started to increase, many of whom were more educated and qualified because of the content they had read and consumed.
Even a few sales were being made.
Although we weren’t breaking the bank, and even though we (and the economy) had a long way to go, there was real progress.
And it was exciting.
After about six months of They Ask, You Answer, I took the time to take a deep dive into our Web analytics in an effort to pick up on any patterns that may have been occurring. Essentially, I wanted to know what was working, what wasn’t working, and also the types of content that were getting the most traction and results.
What I discovered was profound.
Basically, there were five types of content subjects (or types of questions) that seemed to move the needle with readers more than anything else, ultimately rendering the greatest amount of traffic, conversions, leads, and sales. These five subjects were as follows:
Pricing and Costs
Problems
Versus and Comparisons
Reviews
Best in Class
At the time, what I didn’t realize was that these five subjects weren’t at all specific to the swimming pool industry. Rather, these are the five main subjects consumers and businesses research the most whenever they’re getting ready to make a purchasing decision.
As mentioned multiple times already, what I’m explaining here is not a B2B or B2C issue. It’s all encompassing, as our studies have shown time and time again.
Over time, once I realized how these five subjects transcend all industries, I dubbed them “the Big 5,” and their influence remains as great as it has ever been.
But with the Big 5, there is an interesting phenomenon that occurs between businesses and consumers.
As consumers, we often obsess over these five subjects when considering a purchase.
As businesses, we generally ignore or even hide from these questions, hoping they’ll either magically go away or, worst case, willingly address them only when we are face to face with the prospect or buyer.
In other words, we’re experiencing a literal paradox of business strategy, while essentially not doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Although you may be confused about how to understand and implement the Big 5 in your business, the following chapters cover each individually and show you specific ways you can address these five critical subjects, ultimately winning the trust of searchers and search engines alike. . . .
10
Content Subject 1 Pricing and Costs: Why We Must Talk about Money
Have you ever researched online how much something costs?
Assuredly, if you’ve been alive, you have.
But when you’re on a company’s website, and there is nothing about the costs of their product or services, what is the emotion you experience?
Frustration, right?
I’ve asked this question to hundreds and hundreds of audiences, and overwhelmingly, “Frustrated” is the number one response, which is exactly why I’ve dubbed it the “F-word of the Internet.”
But let’s analyze this together for a minute.
What gives you the right to be frustrated when you’re on a business’s website and can’t find any cost or price information?
For starters, you’re frustrated because you feel like you’re wasting your time and not getting the answers you’re looking for.
Furthermore, you’re thinking to yourself, I’m the customer! It’s my money. And it’s my right to know.
But if we look at this at an even deeper level, you’re upset because you know that the business knows the answer to the question. And because you know that they know the answer, you now feel like they are hiding something from you.
When you’re researching a company and their products and services, the moment you feel like anyone is hiding anything from you, all trust is lost.
Let’s continue, though, to analyze your online behavior in this moment of frustration at not finding the information you’re looking for.
Do you say to yourself, Well, I’m just going to dig a little deeper on this website and see if I can find the answer? No, of course you don’t do that. In fact, the idea of staying on a website that clearly doesn’t have what you’re looking for is almost insulting to your Internet intelligence.
Or, do you say to yourself: Oh, it’s okay that this company is not talking about their prices, I’m sure they’re a “value”-based business. I’ll just call them instead?
I bet you don’t say that either, do you? In the past you may have called them, but today, you don’t.
Instead of continuing to dig on their site or calling them directly, today you keep looking. And you do it elsewhere.
And you continue to look until someone answers your original question. And whoever is willing to answer your question first, in most cases, is the one who will get the first phone call or contact. They’re also the one who will likely get your business. In other words, they are the one who has earned your trust.
The search be
havior just described is consistent for just about any company and culture around the world. As consumers, we expect answers. When we don’t get them, we get upset and leave. Our loyalty is to the honest and open teacher focused on our problems.
That being said, Do you, right now, on your company site, talk a lot about the cost of your products or services?
If you are like the thousands of others who’ve heard me ask this question, you are likely starting to experience a little bit of internal strife contemplating why you do or do not discuss pricing on your website. There’s maybe even a civil war going on inside your head. What I have found is that fewer than 10 percent of all businesses in the world (not including e-commerce) address pricing and costs on their company website. It doesn’t matter whether they are B2B or B2C businesses, or whether they are product or service oriented, only a small percentage ever address the question of pricing and costs.
So the question is, Why?
Why are you (assuming you fall in the 90 percent) not currently discussing cost and price on your website?
Regardless of company or culture, we have found there are three reasons businesses justify not discussing this subject on their website:
“Every solution is different. Our prices vary.”
“If we discuss pricing on our website, our competitors will find out what we charge.”
“If we show what we charge, we’ll scare customers away.”
1. Every Solution Is Different
I’m sure this statement is true, but look at it this way: When was the last time you were on a website, couldn’t find pricing information, and said to yourself, Of course they can’t talk about pricing, there are simply too many variables.
If you’re anything like most consumers, you frankly don’t care that a company’s prices vary. In fact, with any common sense, you already know this. You understand they can’t be exact, but you do certainly feel the least they could do is give you a sense for what to except and some possible ranges as to where you might be.
They Ask You Answer Page 4
