Ask Better Questions, Get Better Marketing: Why Lazy Strategy Is Keeping Your Brand Stuck

This week on Marketing Sucks, Amanda and Phil dig into one of the most overlooked reasons marketing falls flat: people are chasing quick answers instead of asking better questions. They unpack how lazy questions lead to lazy strategy, generic content, unclear messaging, and teams that are busy but not actually building anything meaningful. From client strategy sessions to everyday content planning, this episode breaks down why better marketing starts with deeper thinking, sharper listening, and the willingness to challenge assumptions before jumping to tactics. They share the kinds of questions that can instantly improve your messaging, your offers, your sales process, and your overall clarity as a brand. If you are constantly asking “what should we post?” instead of “what does our audience actually need right now?” this episode will hit a nerve in the best way.

What You’ll Learn

 ✔ Why chasing answers too quickly leads to weak marketing
 ✔ How better questions create stronger messaging and clearer strategy
 ✔ Why “what should we post?” is usually the wrong place to start
 ✔ How assumptions quietly hurt your content, offers, and sales process
 ✔ Five practical questions that can help clean up your marketing fast
 ✔ Why the best marketers listen longer before they decide what to say

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Podcasting support

Production: theultimatecreative.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome back to Marketing Sucks. I am your host, Amanda Casinian.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

I'm your co-host, Phil Ginther.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Can I just say after 107 episodes, we've actually got in pretty good at the intro?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

That was I think that was one of the smoothest. Because I didn't even think about it.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Yeah, it was great. So on that note, what sucks this week, Phil?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Answer culture, I guess. Whatever we want to call it.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

You need to learn.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

What sucks is answer culture. How's that? Very direct.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah, but it's a weird, like, what are we talking about? That doesn't tell the people what we're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I think the idea that, like we all consume so much right now that we're always like, oh, I got an answer for this. Kind of everyone's handing out answers like candy, but no one's asking better questions. And so we kind of fall into this slump where we think all our success is gonna come from just hoarding a bunch of information as opposed to being like, well, am I even asking the right question in the first place?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Did you see how I got that answer out of you? I asked a better pointed question to get the answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I see what you're doing. See? Oh my god, it works.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Oh my god, it works. It works when you ask better questions. Okay, so what we're actually talking about today is that we're gonna kind of go through what is going to make your marketing better by asking better questions and what those questions could be as well. And why asking more questions actually is better than just having answers handed to you. So a lot of the time we see, you know, when we work, when we start to work with clients, a lot of the time, I mean, you had a good experience with this with the last client you signed, where they basically were like, Thank you for just listening and not just like telling me like what the answer was to my problems.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Which was crazy to me.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, do you want to like talk about that a little bit more?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

See that question? Can I please? Oh my gosh. It was good because it was just it was it was literally just a couple open-ended questions to get an understanding, right? Like, what are you going through? What are your pain points? And not me offering, well, this is the solution and this is what it costs. And because you like you can't you can't do that in one conversation. So to my surprise, at the end of that of that dialogue, they're like, Wow, thanks. That was refreshing for like just have you listen and not tell me, you know, what I need to do. Well, yeah, give me the answer. And that's batshit crazy to me, because I'm like, who's who's just walking in a room and telling people what to do?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

A lot of a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

But it's it's nice to know that it that is still respected and valued, and we need to be doing more of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, of course. I think a lot of the times too, like when we do our strategy days and stuff, like how do I always open up? So, like, Phil always has all these like really nice slides ready to go, and I come in with a blank notebook, and that is how I do I like to do the upfront structure, everything, and then you just you just walk in and you're like, let's go, like like Wild West, like almost like an improv class, which I love because I'm just asking questions based off of the answers I'm receiving to ask deeper questions and then ask even more questions that you wouldn't have even thought you would ever have been asked in your entire life. And that's the thing that I love about the way that we do things here is because this isn't based off of like cookie cutter. Like, I don't have the answer until you actually give me the answers and then I craft that into your strategy. Yeah, that's how it works, and that's good marketing because then it's so, so specific to what it is that you do, what you bring to the table, what you are selling, not just this generic, like quick fact, you know, QA chat GPT style response.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, would you like a template?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, like that shit is crazy to me. And so I think a lot of people are taken aback when I'm I'm literally like, okay, so I'm gonna literally sit here. I'm going to listen to everything you have to tell me, and I'm gonna ask you a series of questions. And I want you to just really think about your responses and answer as fully as possible. And as they're speaking, I find they're like, oh, that's a great question. I've never thought about it that way, or nobody's ever asked me that question. And so, in that, I then encourage the teams, if we have team on, to also ask interesting questions of each other to learn more about, like, especially if they're separate departments. Yeah. What do you guys need from an like asking?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

I like someone who's just come into the company for like the first three months and they kind of see everything with fresh eyes. Typically, they're like in a junior position and they'll be like, you know, they'll put their hand up and they'll ask something, and they'll be like a oh. That's a great question. Yeah, and it's it's widely received.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, and so like it it sounds like a really like fluff topic, like, oh, you're gonna talk about questions, but I'm gonna, we're gonna put some out there now that are real questions we get all the time. And and I'm gonna have you ask it differently of yourself so that way when you're going and and creating your marketing, whether that's email, social, community events, it just networking, whatever that is, it makes makes for better messaging. So we'll start with the the the best one I get all the time, especially from like social media marketing, since that is like a bulk of what we do here. And that's just like a so what should we post this week?

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Boo.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

I hate that question. That question irritates my life. I want to throw tables, like I want to Teresa Judece the fuck out of a table when I hear what should I post this week or what should we email this week or what should we-da-da-da, right? And the shoulds are exactly where this guy is, flattened by the should. And it's it's it's not asking the actual relevant question, which is what tension, desire, fear, or aspiration is our audience actively trying to solve right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I would have to think about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

But I want the answer now.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

So, what I want you to do is I really want you to think about what's happening in your brand right now, what's happening in like a cultural relevance standpoint, what's happening in your industry, just what's happening. And then look to what does your audience want, right? Like, what is it? Is it tension? Is it desire? Is there fear that you can answer? Is there this aspiration, inspirational piece? And then that's what you're posting about. Not just, oh, yeah, post a funny quote.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Uh uh, it's just like this bad habit because social feels fast, right? Or like someone comes into an office, what should we post this week? You're like, you give them some nonsense response, and then you're just caught in this like automated trap, right? And you're never gonna see like lift or or any change in in what you're doing because you haven't paused for a moment. Time is an important thing, but I think we'll we'll touch on that. When you were telling me I'm a bit of a nerd and I have that upfront structure with our clients, the answers I get a week in advance are not the same answers we get in the room a week later.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I personally don't look at those answers at all.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I love seeing that evolution because time allows Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I'll go back and look at it after the fact, but I actually prefer to have zero information up front. Because that information that's usually crafted is so blanketed and like not thought out, and I'd rather just like r ask the exact same questions in in real life. But we operate differently. I'm very good, like on my feet.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

It's literally improv for you because you process quickly and it's cool to watch where I'm like, I'd like to systematize this so I can punch your puncture holes in it, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Yeah, where I, when I see that information up front, it creates a bias and I don't like that. So I like to go in completely like with zero opinion, just completely uh just a complete objective, like this is what I'm seeing from your answers right now, and how we can make this versus if I had the information up front, I maybe wouldn't ask the same questions because I would have already had the information fed to me. So I like almost already know the answer they're gonna give me, so I wouldn't have asked it in the way that would have actually delivered a more intense response.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

So what I'm hearing is we should continue doing exactly how we do it.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Because you need information given to you one way and I need it given to me the other. And so, but the at the end of the day, the types of questions we're asking is what gives that response. And so if you have multiple people on your team or people in your company that are helping you make decisions, have them come in, like like literally have a nice dialogue, like get a little spicy, like ask the questions of each other, like really question why you're doing something, why that uh piece of content needs to go up, why we need to include this messaging, like why certain people are in the positions that they are. Do we need to change that up? Like, really, like it'll impact everything. Like asking better questions will just improve the whole system. Yep. And lazy marketing won't do that. So the am I just on, oh, I already switched my card. So I just you're ahead of myself. I'm so ahead of myself. So, really, just to kind of go off on that tangent, it's we're what we're doing is we're interrogating reality. So also with my history, like I also like did full courses in interrogation.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

I mean, you you interrogate friendships, interrogate everything.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

No, well, I mean, my background, like my actual schooling, like I did, you know, physical classes and interrogation techniques and like interviewing. So it's it's different for me because I have that skill set. So this does take a specific practice, right? So it's not going to come naturally to everybody, like really questioning their stuff. Like you're not gonna go that deep, but I really want you to take it like you're trying to find the serial killer, you know, in the content. Like, how are you getting there? Like, what are the questions you need to ask? What avenues do you need to explore? Who do you need to speak to to get the answer that you need? And it's not just asking yourself, it's asking the people around you. Maybe it's asking your customers, maybe it's asking your family, your friends, your business partner, your team lead, your director, whatever that looks like, your social media girl, like whatever that looks like to you. It's like who do we need to ask these questions of to get the best response, to make us make the best decision to get us the best results?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Yeah, and I think I I'll say, I'll say this very plainly is that bad marketers chase answers. And this used to happen to me a lot in a creative capacity. Like someone would kick open a boardroom door and be like, How do we go viral? You know, like super high stuff. And just open it and question, and then you see everyone scurrying to find an answer because they feel responsible to give something, but then they're not given the time to even go away and and come back when when truthfully that's not even the question you should be asking.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Yeah, I think that when we want a quick and easy response, then we're gonna get what we get from it. So you gotta like you you pick and choose your battles. So we don't want lazy questioning. We want like more difficult questions. So when we do that, we're gonna improve our sales, we're gonna improve lead flow, we're gonna improve like how quickly somebody actually checks out.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

You're gonna get clear. You're just gonna get really clear.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

And it's very easy. It also helps with like client, staff retention, decision making, leadership. Like, how can you make decisions if you don't have all the information? So maybe sometimes that questioning can get really fucking annoying if it's only coming from top down. So I encourage also for the questions to be coming from bottom up as well, so that we all have opportunities to get answers that we need to make our jobs better. So here are five questions that will help you clean up your marketing pretty quickly, I would say. They're a nice starting point. Obviously, get way deeper than these because your every business is different. Every, every, you know, business has their unique areas where they need a little bit more assistance in. But here's just some, you know, very, very basic questions you can start with, other than what do I post or what do I email? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And please sit with these. Like don't answer. This is not like as you're listening, like and that's okay if you do immediately, but then come back to it and observe has has my answer changed now that I've had time to really process this.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

Yeah. Yeah. It's this shouldn't be done like quickly on a whim. Like this is really like a a sit, let it, let it, let it simmer. I can't, I have to say it similarly. All right, what's number one? So just let it simmer and then come back to it. Okay. So number one, what job is the customer or client hiring us to do? So like really answer that. So what's the job? Okay, let's say it's, I don't know, they want they're hiring us to make their skin better. Okay, great. Okay, now go deeper in that. What does that like what does that mean? Like really break it down. The second one is what is making our customer or client hesitate? So, what are the pain points? Why are they not purchasing? How can we create emails, content, communities, opportunities for them to not hesitate? Okay. So now we can think about like how much more are these like or how much I don't I can't speak right now. How much deeper are these questions gonna get? These are your starting point.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

This is a big one.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Number three, what are we assuming that we have not earned the right to assume?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Blind spot warning. That's a tough question to answer, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah. Like, like, what are you assuming that you actually have no right assuming? Like, make that list. It's a really interesting question. Lots of things. So many people are gonna be stuck on this one. I know I'm gonna get questions about it. That's okay. You can come and engage with us later. Number four, how might we make this easier? Like, how can we make things easier? And that's an easy one to do if you start asking the right questions.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

It's a nice question. We like to complicate things.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

We like to make everything fucking complicated complicated. Number five, are we starting with the customer and working backwards?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

The answer is no.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

So what we want to do is that's a really important one. A lot of people were thinking about like what we what our end goal is. So like I need X amount in sales, and then you start workshopping down, and then that offer hits the customer. As opposed to what does the customer actually need right now? And then build up and say, great, now I have projected revenue.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah, what is this?

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Based on what I think I could sell because this is the problem that they need solving. So are you thinking us then them, or are you doing customer and then working your way backwards? Because that is a huge one and it requires a lot of questioning. So we wanna just make sure, you know, are your questions tactical or strategic? And so if all of your questions are tactical in nature, you need to start over in your questioning.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, you gotta zoom out.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Because if we don't do this, like we're not really gonna have like true success. Like you'll hit success. I'm not saying you're not, like, who am I to dictate that? But I know for a fact that when we actually have the the real information, the deep stuff, then our messaging is clearer, the sales pipeline is cleaner, and everybody really feels good about what it is that uh that they're doing. When we do blanket statement answer stuff and messaging, nobody knows what the fuck they're working towards. And it's really, really hard to motivate from that space.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, and it's funny because you can you can choose to ignore these questions, but they will come up in some shape or form down the road. So it's like you can choose to ask them now, which may be inconvenient, or a year from now it might be very inconvenient because the problems have compounded because you haven't addressed the questions.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah. So go ask those questions. Go give yourself time to answer them. Lots of time.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Lots of time.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Come back and ask us some questions if you need some clarity on those. That's it for today. Thank you for listening. We will see you next week. If you like the podcast, you can like, subscribe, share, review, do all the things, follow us on social at grind social media. Thanks, guys.