The Marketing Book Podcast · Douglas Burdett

BONUS! They Ask, You Answer in German by Rene Neubach

·53 min·3 clips

René says companies should talk openly about prices, and hiding them creates wasted time.

1. The Marketing Book Podcast episode centers on René Neubach’s German edition of Marcus Sheridan’s "They Ask, You Answer." 2. Douglas Burdett hosts the show, René Neubach is the guest author and translator, and Torsten Herrmann serves as guest host because the interview is in German. 3. The episode asks why a sales-and-marketing framework built around customer questions matters in German-speaking markets. 4. René says he first read the English original years ago and found it "revolutionär einfach" for client work. 5. He argues that many professionals make marketing too complicated and turn it into a "Blackbox." 6. René says the book’s central move is to answer customer questions openly and transparently. 7. He frames the shift around how buyers consume much more information before contacting a company than they did 20 years ago. 8. René says companies are close to being obligated to provide the information buyers already seek online. 9. He identifies the Big Five question areas as price, problems, product fit, reviews, and comparisons. 10. René says those five areas match how people research both personal and business purchases. 11. He argues that pricing should be discussed directly because silence only wastes time when the buyer is not a fit. 12. René gives three reasons companies avoid pricing: fear of being too expensive, fear it is hard to explain, and fear competitors will learn the numbers. 13. He says the bigger issue is trust, because buyers will not buy from a company they do not trust. 14. René argues that marketing and sales should not be separate silos but part of one shared revenue effort. 15. He says sales teams already hear the customer’s direct questions, so those answers should be published earlier in the journey. 16. René describes a workshop method in which marketing and sales brainstorm the questions customers actually ask. 17. He says that exercise reveals differences between perceived questions and the questions buyers really raise. 18. René explains assignment selling as giving buyers materials before the next meeting so both sides can save time. 19. The tone is practical, explanatory, and interview-driven, with Burdett and Herrmann pressing René for concrete implementation details. 20. Listeners who work in B2B marketing, sales, or content strategy will get the most out of it; listeners who do not follow German may skip it.

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