5 Keys to Pulling Off Marketing and Recruiting

Marcus Sheridan is a pool salesman turned marketing-and-recruiting expert. Now, he teaches courses to help businesses like yours. 

If you’ve been following this course for a while, you’re probably starting to like the They Ask, You Answer mindset. You can see how it’ll help your business, and you’re ready to try it. (If you’re just dropping in, here’s what this course is all about.) 

Now that you know the principles of They Ask, You Answer, it’s time to learn the five keys to actually applying this stuff to your business. 

1. Get everyone on board 

When there’s change in an organization, there’s resistance. You’ll need to get everybody in the company to buy into this idea, from sales to leadership to HR. (Marketing is already onboard—they’ve been dreaming of this day for a long time.) 

2. Teach everybody these principles

The easiest way to teach people in your organization about these principles is to start with your leadership team. Have them watch the course and read the book. For the rest of the team, you can do a shorter workshop to teach them why the company is doing this. 

When people know why things are changing, they take more ownership and help make it happen.

3. Add two positions to your team 

If you want to grow your business by getting more customers, you may need to grow your team first. Start with two key positions: 

Content manager

You need about three new pieces of content per week, and your marketing team is probably too busy (or overwhelmed) to take on that work. A content manager will be dedicated to writing and publishing those articles. 

Videographer

Video gives your content power. Again, you want someone whose sole job is to produce amazing videos in-house.  

With a content manager and videographer, you should be able to do at least 80% of the content in-house with your own people. That’ll take away a lot of the limits your company faced before and open enormous possibilities for the content you can produce. 

4. Require participation 

Don’t tell your team, “Hey, it would be nice if we could do a video or answer a few customer questions.” Make it very clear that these things are 100% necessary. Everybody has to see themselves as part of marketing the company. If you’re really serious, make this part of everyone’s job description. 

That said, remember that change is uncomfortable. You can require participation and still change things respectfully—without being a jerk.

 5. Track the results 

Anything worthwhile takes time, effort, and (usually) money. Since you’re putting in all this work, you need to know what you’re getting back. Find and use tools to help you measure the results. 

What’s next?   

Once you start making content, you’ll need a place to put it all. In his next lesson, Marcus talks about creating a learning center to serve your customers and recruits. 

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