In 2008, Marcus Sheridan’s pool company, River Pools and Spas, was on the brink of failure. The Great Recession hit hard. His bank account was overdrawn, contracts were being canceled, and it looked like the business wouldn’t survive.
Instead of giving up, Marcus tried something radically different: He began answering every question customers had about pools—openly, honestly, and in detail—on the company website.
This included tough questions most businesses avoided:
How much does a fiberglass pool cost?
What are the biggest problems with fiberglass pools?
How does fiberglass compare to concrete or vinyl liner pools?
Even if an answer was uncomfortable or revealed industry “secrets,” Marcus published it.
The results were extraordinary. Website traffic surged, leads improved, and prospects arrived at sales appointments already educated and ready to buy. What started as a survival tactic became the foundation of a global business movement.
They Ask, You Answer is a sales and marketing framework built on radical transparency. Instead of dodging buyer questions, you address them head-on with content that educates and builds trust.
More than 15 years later, it has grown into:
A proven methodology used by thousands of businesses worldwide.
A trust-first approach that bridges sales and marketing alignment.
A movement that continues to help companies grow by being honest, transparent, and helpful.
Today, the framework has evolved into Endless Customers, which expands on the original principles to include sales enablement, leadership alignment, video, and AI-driven buyer expectations. While They Ask, You Answer laid the foundation, Endless Customers shows how to operationalize these ideas across your entire organization so you can build trust at scale.
And what about River Pools? From near collapse, it has become a national brand with 26 locations and the most-visited swimming pool website in the world.
Marcus’s journey is proof that:
Buyers are searching for answers online before they ever talk to sales.
Transparency builds trust—and trust drives revenue.
Any company, in any industry, can use They Ask, You Answer to transform their marketing and sales outcomes.
If you’re asking, “How do I build trust with my buyers the way Marcus Sheridan did?” the answer starts with education.
Check out Marcus’s book, Endless Customers, which shows how today’s businesses can implement these principles across sales, marketing, and service teams.
Ready to take the next step? Talk to our team at IMPACT to learn how you can put transparency, trust, and alignment at the heart of your strategy.
Marcus Sheridan is a writer, speaker, and business expert who’s worked with companies all over the world. Marcus is the author of Endless Customers and They Ask, You Answer.
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