What does IMPACT do?

IMPACT is a sales and marketing training company that empowers its clients to take control of their own marketing destiny.

IMPACT is not an agency. In fact, we believe that the traditional agency-client relationship is flawed. Too often, businesses are trapped in a never-ending cycle of dependency, paying an agency to complete inbound marketing tasks they could do themselves. 

Instead of this dependency, we focus on education and autonomy. We train your company to not depend on any other business for marketing help —including us.

IMPACT works with each client to develop a long-term strategy and short-term priorities. Then, we train your sales, marketing, and leadership teams in the skills and mindsets necessary to reach your goals.

Marketing that’s geared toward today’s buyer

We believe the way people buy has changed fundamentally in the past two decades. Today, buyers self-educate by way of online content. When buyers are getting ready to make a purchase, they use search engines and social media to find the answers to their questions — long before they reach out to a sales rep.

Accordingly, each business’ online presence (its website, its written and video content, and its social media presence) must be optimized for this new reality.

This is modern inbound marketing.

To do this, businesses need to produce content that answers the questions buyers have.

We believe that no matter what they’re purchasing, buyers always want to know the same five things:

• Cost: Buyers want to know how much they can expect to spend, as well as the factors that make that price go up or down.
• Reviews: Buyers want to hear from other customers about their experience with a product or service.
• “Best of” lists: Buyers will search for content that allows them to compare the several top solutions for their problem as they home in on the one they want.
• Problems: Buyers want to know about the potential drawbacks of whatever they’re considering so they know they won’t be making a purchase they'll regret.
• Comparisons: When making a final decision, it’s likely that a buyer will put several similar options side by side to evaluate relative strengths and weaknesses. 

Help buyers solve their problem

Whether customers are buying a refrigerator or a software package, they always want to know the same thing: Will this purchase solve my problem?

If potential customers are searching for answers, wouldn’t you want them to get those answers from you? At IMPACT, we train our clients to produce content that answers peoples’ questions.

If a customer’s search leads to an answer you provide, they will start to see your brand as trustworthy. The more they read and watch, the more they form a relationship with your brand.

Our philosophy: They Ask, You Answer

In 2008, Marcus Sheridan’s business was failing.

With an overdrawn bank account and mounting cancellations, his business, River Pools and Spas, seemed like it wasn’t going to make it through the Great Recession.

Then, Marcus took matters into his own hands. Each night after work, he wrote detailed and transparent answers to every common customer question, problem, and concern he had heard. Having learned about inbound marketing, Marcus put these answers on his company website. Then, his sales reps started using this content with prospects. 

In this way, Marcus took control of his own marketing and began to see tremendous results.

Potential customers far and wide found their way to River Pools’ website, attracted by Marcus’ clarity and candor. 

They Ask, You Answer was born

Today, Marcus is a partner and co-owner at IMPACT. He preaches his They Ask, You Answer philosophy to companies all over the world, and he has written They Ask, You Answer — the best-selling book that has been used by thousands of businesses around the world.

If you obsess over your customers’ questions, problems, and concerns, and if you seek to educate and build trust, customers will buy from you. 

After all, trust is the common currency of all business. 

Over the years, we have worked with hundreds of companies, providing the sales and marketing training they need to see incredible success.

We do this by teaching companies how to employ the They Ask, You Answer framework to embrace transparency and build trust. 

IMPACT’s experts will work with your teams, including sales, marketing, and leadership, so you can successfully connect with today’s buyer and take ownership of your own digital sales and marketing success.

Sales and marketing training for your business

At IMPACT, we believe that no one can tell your story better than you can. So, instead of producing marketing content for you, we teach you how to do it.

When a client signs up to work with us, we follow a prescribed and proven process to help them grow and achieve results.

Clients work with us for an average of 18 months, after which they possess all the skills they need in-house to succeed long term.

1. Strategy sessions to help you plan

Working with a dedicated coach, you will develop a long-term strategy, along with short-term goals and benchmarks to make sure you get there. With our help, you'll plan in 90-day cycles.

We hold your team accountable as you progress, week by week, quarter by quarter.

2. Training sessions to help you act

Subject matter experts from IMPACT will offer your team tactical instruction in

• Content production
• video-for-sales strategy,
• HubSpot implementation,
• Sales enablement,
• On-page SEO,

and more.

Frequent sessions help us check progress and tailor the trainings to your needs. 

Your self-sufficiency is our end goal

The traditional agency-client relationship is expensive and inefficient. IMPACT believes this is a flawed model and a broken system.

There’s an old saying: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

We believe that we can help your business learn to market itself way more effectively and efficiently than we could market for you. 

To share what your company does, why it does it, and what makes it different from the rest of the marketplace requires first-hand knowledge that comes by way of familiarity and careful observation.

An internal marketing team — composed of a content manager, digital marketing director, and videographer — is crucial to successfully sharing your team’s expertise with the world.

We will help you hire and train that team.

IMPACT believes that by building trust with your audience and by committing to being the go-to educational resource in your space, you are setting your business up for long-term success. 

IMPACT can show you how.