Ask

The Counterintuitive Online Formula to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy...Create a Mass of Raving Fans...and Take Any Business to the Next Level

By: Ryan Levesque

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

The "mind-reading" system that is revolutionizing online business

Do you know how to find out what people really want to buy?

(Not what you think they want, not what they say they want, but what they really want?)

The secret is asking the right questions - and the right questions are not what you might expect.

Ask is based on the compelling premise that you should never have to guess what your prospects and customers are thinking. The Ask Formula revealed in this book has been used to help build multimillion-dollar businesses in 23 different industries, generating over $100 million in sales in the process.

You'll discover why the Ask Formula is arguably the most powerful way to discover exactly what people want to buy and how to give it to them - and in a way that makes people fall in love with you and your company.

In this tell-all book, expert online marketer Ryan Levesque (featured on CNBC and Yahoo Finance and in The Miami Herald, The San Francisco Chronicle, Mass Market Retailer, Bloomberg Businessweek, and more) turns everything you know about customer surveys on its head.

You'll discover how Ryan Levesque developed his proven system for creating survey-based, customized sales funnels. And you'll also learn how you can implement the same system in your own business - no matter your market. The Ask Formula blueprint is laid out in clear and detailed steps for anyone to use and adapt.

Whether you're an aspiring Internet entrepreneur, advanced online marketer, or established business owner, this book will both inspire you and show you how to skyrocket your online income - while creating a mass of raving fans in the process - simply by asking the right questions in a surprisingly different way. For people looking to scale up their business, Ask will utterly transform how you think about consumer behavior and selling online.

©2015 Ryan Levesque (P)2015 Ryan Levesque

A long book about a simple concept

As a marketer I had high expectations for this book. I was very disappointed.

Why?
- About 30% of the book is the author telling us how fantastic his method is, how many millions he has made, how smart he is
- About 20% of the book is his life story, which is not very well told, has a couple key flaws, and fails to in providing useful context
- About 30% of the book is a step by step guide of his method, narrated seemingly for people who have no clue about marketing, while promoting the author's products and services.
- The last 20% is more stories about how companies have used his method to make millions and millions

The secret: ask your customers what they want, deliver personalized messages and do a lot of testing. I just summarized his 6 hour book in one sentence. Marketing 102 if you ask me.

Of course the author provides a few best practices and a couple step by step guides. The problem is that his method, as he describes it, is only useful for a specific type of online business, not 'any business' as promised.

Skip the first half

The first half of the book was the author tooting his own horn and telling uninteresting stories, while trying to sell products without actually providing any value at all.

After the first ELEVEN chapters, he teaches some of his techniques for creating survey funnels, though this could have been painted clearer.

It's sad when books are solely created as marketing tools for other products and it's worse when presented like a cheap sales page.

First half is a bit of torture

The author explains at the beginning the book is divided into two sections. True, indeed. I recommend going directly to the second half immediately as the personal history is not necessarily important to one's business outcome.

This book is a sales funnel to his company

I have never written an audible review but felt compelled to after listening to this entire book. The author clearly wrote this book to drive traffic to his host of companies and services. There is some decent content but I feel is purposely left confusing so you seek their paid services. It didn't read/listen as a genuine book to help a small business owner develop sales funnel to me.

Too much unrelated personal stuff. Poorly written.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Tom Parks?

Yes.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

First half is all about bragging: the SAT test, Chinese bootcamp, subtle emphasis on how he was a smart hard working student, etc.

The author clearly didn't have a clue how the sequence of contents is perceived in audience's mind, and was constantly dumping some not-very-impressive egoistic stories to the listener.

A whole chapter reading the letter to your mom? Are you kidding me? Those were something completely irrelevant to the meat of this book. The hospital part was nice, but the rest are unrelated to the book, very boring.

Other parts also kept repeating "I this, I that, I don't care, blah blah blah". I mean, if you really "don't care", why did you even include them in the book?

First half is NOT about "how I came up with this formula", instead, it's more like something the author is trying to proof himself.

I mean hey, you even said at the beginning, entrepreneurs are busy people, and WHY ON EARTH did you even include those poorly constructed unrelated stories during the first half?

Unbelievable.

Any additional comments?

This book does have some important concepts, but be prepared to skip constantly if you are listening through the whole thing.

Doesn't lend itself well to an audiobook.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This content is much better suited for a physical book where you can see images and charts .. it was really hard to sink my teeth into this content without visually seeing the concepts and examples that he talks about.

Would you recommend Ask to your friends? Why or why not?

Maybe the actual book. Not the audio version.

WaToo much story but helpful concepts

Good stuff, but not optimized for efficient delivery. The author could have removed most of the first 1/2 for a better result. The reader could have spoken at least 2x as fast (I listened at 3x speed and had no trouble following).

I will however implement the valuable principles, which were clearly explained in the second 1/2 of the book.

Land the plane.

What would have made Ask better?

Get to the point and stop telling me you're going to tell me something ground breaking for the first 3 hours of the book.

Has Ask turned you off from other books in this genre?

So much nonsense and build up.

What didn’t you like about Tom Parks’s performance?

Get to the point.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ask?

Skip your thanks to mom and your story about hustle. We get it.

Any additional comments?

I rarely get pissed at stuff like this, but I wasted several hours listening to you tell me "What I'm about to learn..." This could have been a two hour book with much more value packed in.

I Ask,why it takes so long to get to the point?

I could not get past the first few chapters, This book was more hype than substance.

The way forward if you want to grow a business

Would you consider the audio edition of Ask to be better than the print version?

The audio edition makes the pages of the book come alive. For me I took many notes in the physical book but this audio edition really helps cement Levesque's concepts. I listened to this walking to the office and at the gym and really have a deeper understanding of the ASK formula.

What other book might you compare Ask to and why?

ASK is practical. It gives you the roadmap of what you need to do to create a survey funnel in your business to grow your audience and increase your sales. This book reminds me of Feed A Starving Crowd, The Automatic Customer and The Membership Economy.

What does Tom Parks bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Tom brings the ASK formula to life. It makes it easy for you to really create a vision of the process you need to go through to create your survey funnel.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The secret sauce to running a profitable business in an ever evolving world.

Any additional comments?

Loved the audio version of this book. Engaging and easy to listen to.

Nearly half the book is about his story and not the technics

I'm 4 hours in and he's still talking about himself and his story!
Don't you think giving a brief about your story would be enough?
Good story but not relevant to why I bought the book.

So helpful!

When my start-up succeeds, the Ask Method will be one of several key teachings that i will be thanking for it. I feel so grateful to Ryan for sharing his knowledge so comprehensively. Thank you to everyone who has worked on bringing me this work!

Very promising strategy

Clear and well structured step-by-step guide on how to boost online sales. Well worth your time.
I disagree with those who say the Author talks too much about himself in the first part. In my opinion the story if functional to a better understanding of the whole book.

great insights on a survey funnel

I'm going right away to my notebook to examine what I can implement into my business. Its worth to examine if you have already at least some advertising budget, however if you're just starying out there is too much geeky words which might cause kore confusion then help.
Nevertheless, I see the potential in my consulting business and recommend to listen for those who're already at least familiarized with fundamental marketing terms.

Great business book

Ryan opened up my desire to serve customers the right way by selling them what they truly need. Fantastic business funnel book. Thanks

utter spam! don't even bother

Struggled with 4 chapters of bull.... can a book smack of narcissism? Plain spam would be more tolerable. Request a refund. Buy another book. By all accounts the millions upon millions in revenue these guys refer to with boring monotony, wtf write a book??? oh, I get it, to share their secrets with the world.... give me a break! It's The Emperor's New Clothes story all over again.... if you don't know it look it up, it's a better story and I don't think a PhD or Fortune 500 was mentioned once in any attempt to garner providence. FFS this doesn't even squeeze me into the very wide end of a poorly founded light entertainment worth hanging in for. Cut this loose and move on.

Helpful digital marketing guide

while good advice contained within, his presentation and style is very American and a little irritating.
additionally, while intuitively a good approach there is little to no evidence of the performance.

Amazing learning, amazing insights

Who was your favorite character and why?

Its nice to have a personal story there, too

Any additional comments?

Thank you for sharing your hot tips!

A ton of value

You just must listen to this if you have an online business or want to create one. Specially if it's based on a blog and you have an email list. Simply amazing.

Great methodology

Could have done with less of his story, although it was interesting it didn't contribute to the core of the methodology.
My suggestion is to not bother with that part of the book and get straight onto the process which is amazing.