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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 Paperback – April 21, 2015
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"What Ryan Levesque has done is give you the art and the science behind figuring out EXACTLY what your prospects want... and then delivering it via an incredibly effective sales process. Buy this book and put the formula to work in your business - the results speak for themselves."
- Jeff Walker, #1 NY Times bestselling author of "Launch"
"I am going to put the brilliant advice Ryan presents in Askto work immediately. This is the most innovative, practical and useful business book I have read in years."
- Reid Tracy, CEO Hay House, Inc.
"Before you finish the first third of the book, you'll be eager to jump ahead and implement his process immediately - it's that powerful!"
- Annie Hyman Pratt, former CEO of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and CEO of IMPAQ Entrepreneur Business Execution Systems
"Ask may be the most important book written for anyone who sells products or services directly to consumers since Breakthrough Advertising was published in 1966. Ryan Levesque will go down in history as the marketer who used his background to change the way products and services are sold online."
- Brian Kurtz, Business Builder of Boardroom, Inc. and Serial Direct Marketer
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 multi-million dollar businesses in 23 different industries, generating over $100 million dollars 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 in CNBC, Yahoo Finance, 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, Askwill utterly transform how you think about consumer behavior and selling online.
For example, you ‘ll learn:
- How to increase your income by 36% by asking potential customers this slightly unusual 4 word question.
- Why most businesses are doing surveys all wrong (and the one question you should NEVER be asking your prospects)
- And much, much more…
Discover for yourself why leading marketers all use and recommend the Ask formula.
"Investigation based sales is the most profitable type of selling. Ryan Levesque explains how to utilize this powerful technique beautifully in his book ASK."
- James Schramko, SuperFastBusiness.com
- Print length216 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDunham Books
- Publication dateApril 21, 2015
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.54 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101939447720
- ISBN-13978-1939447722
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About the Author
In 2008, armed with nothing but a $450 laptop, an Ivy-League background in neuroscience, and an insatiable curiosity to understand why people buy...
Ryan Levesque left a lucrative career on Wall Street and later in Shanghai, China to launch a multimillion dollar online publishing business selling information and software using what's now become the "Ask Formula" as taught in this book.
Since then, Ryan has used the Ask formula to help build multi-million dollar businesses in 23 different industries, generating over $100 million dollars in sales in the process. Today, he and his team offer training, consulting, and implementation services for entrepreneurs and businesses at all levels.
Product details
- Publisher : Dunham Books (April 21, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 216 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1939447720
- ISBN-13 : 978-1939447722
- Item Weight : 9.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.54 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #116,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #30 in Multilevel Marketing (Books)
- #71 in Direct Marketing (Books)
- #107 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Ryan Levesque is the CEO of The ASK Method® Company and author of the #1 National Best-Selling book, ASK – as featured by Inc. Magazine as their #1 Marketing Book of the Year and by Entrepreneur Magazine as their #2 Must-Read Book.
The ASK Method® Company was ranked #462 on the 2017 Inc. 500 List and named the #7 Fastest Growing Company in Austin, TX. Ryan is also CEO & co-founder of bucket.io™ – the leading marketing funnel software entrepreneurs are using to build interactive quizzes, assessments, and surveys to segment their audience into buckets and create a tailored buying experience online.
Ryan lives in Austin, TX with his wife and 2 boys.
Visit https://askmethod.com and https://bucket.io for more details.
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The subtitle of this book is “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.” The author claims that his book is “the world’s most powerful marketing formula…”
The process Levesque describes should make your customers feel that you are talking directly to them, not at them. This is achieved through the “Ask Formula”, a way of asking questions that will assist you to accurately determine what your customer wants, the language of their context, and the issues and messages they want to hear. Asked correctly, they will tell you what they want to buy, and under what conditions they will be willing to buy from you.
“Instinctively, we ask people what they want. We think if we just ask them, they’ll tell us, and we can sit back and watch the dollars pour in,” says Levesque.
Steve Jobs, a man with a fine sense of what people will appreciate, said, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Henry Ford believed that, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.’”
However, people are good at answering what it is that they don’t want, and what they’ve done in the past. Had Ford asked his potential customers what they do not like about their horse, they might have responded that it is too slow, needs feeding, or only carries one person at a time.
The purpose and value of this book is to offer a formula that will allow you to identify what your customers want, even when your customers can’t quite articulate it. This is the value of the “Ask Formula.”
The method the author uses is a set of surveys. “The secret to spectacular sales (is) all about asking the right questions, in the right way, at the right time.” Levesque’s formula has had success in multiple businesses and has revitalized markets that were previously considered dormant.
When you are able to discover what your customer wants to buy through “somewhat counterintuitive” questions, and you are able to customize a solution for them, they are more likely to purchase from you. If, in addition, you can completely automate this process so it does not require a conversation with every single customer, you have a very powerful digital marketing system.
Executed correctly, these automated surveys will give you priceless information that will inform you of exactly what the customer wants to buy, and when they are ready to buy it. When you are present with the exact product or service when they are ready to buy, you will have a satisfied customer who will return for more.
Through this process of surveying potential customers, you will also be able to identify why they decided not to buy, so you can revise your campaign or correct your offering. When you have this working accurately, you have the ability to scale your business to something much, much larger.
The hard work, however, lies in getting the details of the process correct.
The Ask Formula uses a combination of questions in surveys in a very specific sequence, and requires that you act or adapt to the data you collect in very specific ways. If you are broadly addressing the right group of people for your product or service, the surveys or questions should appeal to their “sense of self-discovery and curiosity.”
The set of surveys operates like a funnel to assist you to clarify who is in your market, to engage with them, and then, further down the funnel, to refine your marketing approach to them and then to benefit by closing sales. Levesque’s “Survey Funnel Strategy” describe a step-by-step, detailed process to apply in your online business.
This funnel is significantly different to the common practice where you, as a prospective customer click on an online ad, are led to a landing page. Here you are immediately asked for your name and email address, and other details you probably would not like to enter, in exchange for a free report or coupon. Then you are shown a webpage with a “one-size-fits-all” offering, and moved too rapidly to the payment section for your payment details. Little surprise that the results are paltry.
The Survey Funnel Strategy offers a slower and more carefully crafted method that will allow you to really satisfy the client so the buying decision is so much more likely. Essentially you succeed by never assuming you know everything about your prospective customer, and you eliminate as much guesswork as possible. Having collected real data, cleverly and carefully, you better understand your market and the natural consumer language it uses.
When people do not buy you need to understand that too, so you can hone your approach for the future.
While the logic of this process is obviously compelling, the value of this book to anyone interested in micromarketing to a mass audience, lies in the clever construction of these surveys and doing the hard work.
Even if you do come to the conclusion that this process is beyond your capability, and you do need to engage the author’s company to do the work for you, you will have picked up great insights along the way.
You will also have seen proof of Levesque’s ability. You were self-selected as shown by the fact that you bought the book. You do know how complex doing the work correctly is, and you are now willing to buy it from a master.
Readability Light ---+- Serious
Insights High --+-- Low
Practical High +---- Low
*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.
After learning of Ryan back in March 2014, I had witnessed a presentation he gave about the power of using funnels in a strategic way to not only build a large list of responsive prospects, but also for making tons of sales, based on giving people exactly what they'd asked for.
I decided to get the book because I already believed in Ryan 100% and wanted to support him, and really had very little intention of reading it, thinking I already knew what it was all about, but I have to be honest...
I couldn't help but open it up and start thumbing through it, and now after reading through just a couple of the chapters, so far, I'm fired up all over again, just like that day I first saw his presentation, because it's simplified the entire process for me, and makes me want to jump in and create my own funnel, based on his "ask formula" (and I am).
Don't hesitate at all to grab this book, because he not only talks the talk, but he really WALKS THE WALK, having been successful in multiple niches, deploying his "ask formula" for numerous clients, to the tune of millions in profits and email subscribers.
As far as results go, even though I haven't personally implemented the strategies in his course (yet), because my focus has been entirely on working with my client's marketing funnels, I've seen countless reports of his students' real success stories, many of whom I personally know, from within his high-level mastermind group that we belong to.
I've also heard nothing but solid things from others who have taken his training, and that says a lot, because I hear the good and the bad about experts and "gurus" in our industry, believe me... and his reputation is impeccable.
The only "less than positive" thing I can think of to mention might be to be aware that he shares a considerable amount about what's happened in his life before getting into the meat of the "how to" portion of the book (just a chapter or two), but I truly believe reading his story will make what he teaches make SO much more sense, because of where he came from, the challenges he faced, and how that led to the REASON for creating these ask campaigns in the first place.
That's all I can think of, though... this is just a fantastic book that Ryan has created for all of us, as marketers, to not just read and put on a shelf... but to actually IMPLEMENT in our businesses to achieve results similar to what he's proven to achieve.
Ryan's "Ask" book gets my highest recommendation. Not just because of the solid principles and strategies he teaches, but because of my personal belief in Ryan as not only a true thought leader in our industry, but who is also just a solid person who authentically cares about making a positive impact on the world through sharing what has worked, consistently, for him and his clients.
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I get suspicious when a book has many more five star reviews than anything else in case friends and family have been press-ganged or there's been some kind of marketing campaign to drum up support.
The book splits into two parts - his story as part one and the Ask process as part two. He correctly suggests that some people might prefer to jump straight to part 2 and I wish I had. What I learnt from reading the cloying first section is that he's very bright and he's prepared to work hard for what he wants. He also admits to be influenced by two marketing experts that I admire - copywriter Gary Halbert and digital marketer and researcher Glenn Livingston.
The Ask approach is based on finding out what customers want and then delivering it to them through a website and email sales funnel. Yes, this is about INTERNET MARKETING but it can be used for physical products.
I think we can all agree that different people in a product-market have different needs and wants and there are only three options:
1) A business might have many different but quality products that genuinely fit different needs and has a challenge to match customers to the right products.
2) A business has one or a small number of products and should pre-qualify customers so that they know whether they are a suitable fit or not.
3) A business has a few products or many poor products and aims to sell them to all the different needs through lying, deception and manipulation. I bet you've met sales people you thought you could trust to help find what you need only to be disappointed afterwards. If not, you've been very lucky.
As customers won't have seen the products, the Ask process can be used for options 1 and 3. It's less relevant for option 2 since customers can easily qualify customers in advance. The author wants readers to use it the right way but recognises that it can be used with bad intentions.
At its best, the Ask process imitates and automates a one-to-one selling relationship based on talking and listening. In the same way that a sales person will adjust to what's been revealed by the buyer, so can the Ask process.
The first survey aims to investigate the market and to capture the thoughts of potential customers on a no risk, low involvement basis. Then the data needs to be analysed. It can be used to help design products and to develop marketing messages. It is used to design the second survey which is used to match customers to products based on their needs. The third survey asks people who did not buy, why not and the answers can be used to adapt the marketing messages again. The fourth survey pivots to further new products.
Adding to the process is the explanation of emails built into funnels for buyers and non-buyers. At its limit, there is a thin line between effective marketing and preying on weaknesses to get someone to buy something they don't really want or need. That's why buyer's remorse and Internet returns can be high.
The Ask process is very clever in the same way that Jeff Walker's Product Launch Formula is clever, although as methodologies, they are very different. The author would like to think that it can become the standard approach for e-commerce and Internet marketing. That depends on it being used to sell products that deliver good value to committed customers. Like the PLF, if it is abused, it could get a bad reputation and customers would learn to recognise the approach and actively resist.
The author shares plenty of his approach but it's also a long pitch for his products and services. First there is the software needed to run the surveys, next is a training course to give you more details, third the option to join a mastermind group to share experiences and finally, you can, of course, buy the entire process from his company.
I'm left admiring the methodology and I'm glad I know about it but many businesses have discovered that there are limits to customer research. As Henry Ford remarked, if he'd have asked, people would have requested a faster horse instead of the car. As I was reading it, I couldn't see a use for it in my business. I fit into category 2 where I have a very limited range of services and I can qualify customers in advance. I'm rating it as a four star book. I didn't like part 1 and I would have liked more insight in the case studies along with less blatant marketing.
About my book reviews - I aim to be a tough reviewer because the main cost of a book is not the money to buy it but the time needed to read it and absorb the key messages. 4 stars means this is a good to very good book.
Paul Simister, a business coach who helps business owners who are stuck, get unstuck.
I came across Ryan and his work through a course he was offering a while ago. The course was built upon the principals of the ask formula and once I went through the course + book my business changed forever.
When I first saw the book I thought it was going to be just like any other business book that I bought in the past (a bunch of big ideas with no real formula or strategy to implement). I thought I was going to read it, get excited, get a bunch of ideas, and then be left with no idea how to implement the actual strategies.
Well...I was wrong.
I worked my butt off and completely rebuilt my business from the ground up using Ryan's formula. To be clear, I mean I really did work....and it was hard work at times....but boy did it pay off.
Before rebuilding my business the best I could do was get an ROI (rate of return) of 70% on any money I spent on advertising. That's right, my previous best system was loosing me 30% on each dollar I spent on ads. Certainly not sustainable...and certainly not a business.
After implementing Ryan's formula my worst month now has been 150% ROI....and in some months we've even done 250%. And I can honestly say that it's due to the marketing system, which is the ask formula.
The only downside of the formula is the traffic generation part. If you have an online business one of the most important pieces is how to generate traffic. Ryan does not discuss traffic strategies in the book which is positive and a negative. In one way you're left to figure out one of the most important pieces on your own, but on the other hand he's not trying to be all things to all people. His focus is on the formula for converting prospects into customers....and with a good enough formula you can just go out and BUY your traffic. That makes sense to me.
I want to personally thank Ryan for sharing this formula and putting it out into the world. He doesn't know this but I probably wouldn't be online anymore if it wasn't for this book, his courses and the fact that he was willing to share it with the world (he could have made a lot more money keeping it to himself)
If you sell anything online, or you plan to, then this book is a must.
I consider it the foundation of my business.
The one thing I felt the book lacked in was in providing guidance on how to generate an email list. Surveys, after all, are only worth doing if you have a minimum number of people on your list. So the perennial question arises - how does an aspiring entrepreneur convince people to hand over their contact information to conduct the surveys that he or she needs to? Ryan mentions that if you dont have an email list, then go and rent someone else's. But then, he says that option is not preferable. I believe the book could add substantial more value if it provided specifics on developing an email list.
Overall, I would absolutely recommend the book. For the information that you gain versus the price you have to pay, it is a no-brainer.
First off hearing Ryan's story first hand really made me realise, if you want it, you can get it. Life will throw you a curveball sometimes but there are many ways to go round it and get the things you really want, and what else? LEAP, Ryan made the leap when people told him he would be wrong, he took the risk, some people would be happy with comfort but Ryan has literally found a formula that works and used it over and over again to prove that when he took the leap of faith it was the right decision.
Now, even though I have only read this book recently, in the past week I have implemented strategies in here to get more engagement and find out what my niche in the nutrition industry really want, by asking them what they DON'T WANT to happen again and it has been very helpful in helping me brainstorm the ideas for my next venture.
Even in the past week, just by asking and engaging with my clients this has lead to double the amount of sign ups that I would usually get and with my first podcast episode now in it's second week the downloads BEFORE I asked were minimal around 25 and the second week they are up over 400% already! JUST by one thing....Using the ASK formula.
Yes it is early days to translate into direct sales from the formula but right now I have no reason to believe the information in this book has already changed my life, just by my way of thinking and the engagement with my avatar. I KNOW IT WILL WORK.
If you are in a business that needs leads, you know that the most effective leads are those that are coming to you, with cash in hand ready to buy. But how do you get that laser focus that allows you to identify those prime leads?
Simple. Buy this book.
Ryan has created a funnel system through a series of surveys, that is simple, effective, and so unobtrusive that customers will identify themselves to you without any objection. And it can work for any industry or niche.
In a word, brilliant!
Now I said it is simple in it's concept, but as Ryan says in the book, "The devil is in the details." However, even if there is some work to getting it up and running, once you do one, you will do a hundred surveys.
I read through it the first time, fairly quickly because I understood what he was explaining and my excitement was almost uncontrollable. I knew that I could do this and it would work, because I know I've filled out numerous surveys in my time with barely giving it a thought.
I think this is could easily be the most important tool in your marketing arsenal...period. You need leads, but more importantly you need the right leads and Ryan teaches you exactly how to find them.
Again. Brilliant.















