The Survey Funnel Formula That Has Generated Over 100 Million Dollars Online with Ryan Levesque
Marketing Expert, Coach, Consultant – Ryan Levesque
Learn how to use surveys to automatically segment and strategically mesmerize your audience with irresistible language that will have them begging to buy. Ryan shares his unconventional strategy that has earned him over 9 figures online and has crowned him as “The Funnel Specialist.”
Resources Mentioned in the Podcast:
- Ask by Ryan Levesque
- NextLevelGroupMastermind.com
Go to AskFormula.com to get Ryan’s new book on 4/21
Check out FunnelSpecialists.com for more info!
Thanks so much for listening!
***CONTEST***
Ryan will ship the top 3 commenters a copy of his new book. “Ask.” The question is, “What was your biggest takeaway from the interview?””Please leave your comment below. Winners will be chosen by Friday at 12PM CST, and will be emailed directly via the email address they provide when filling out the comment form. UPDATE: Winners have been chosen and emailed at the email address provided via their comment. Thank you for all the incredible comments — it was tough to choose!
Transcript: Download
Tags: lead generation, Lead Magnet, millionaire interview, Ryan Levesque, survey, survey funnel, Survey Funnel Formula, The Funnel Specialist
Categories: Action Plans, All, Business, Business Model, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Marketing, Millionaire Interviews, Sales, Starting A Business, Systems/Processes
44 responses
May I say that this is my favourite Eventual Millionaire episode?
Because it absolutely is!
He is one of the people who GIVES not just tell stories!
It is a must see!
Thank you Ryan!
What a fantastic interview! Thanks for coming on Ryan, and thanks Jaime for your great interviewing skills as always!
My number one takeaway: Focus on DEPTH of response rather than FREQUENCY of response.
Focus on the top 20-30% in terms of response length, and ignore everybody else. These people are the likely buyers. NOTICE what people are writing passionately about. Even if only 10% of people are passionate about a topic, those people are likely buyers. Focus on that topic and those people.
Can’t wait to put this perspective to use when I email my audience.
Cheers,
Thatcher
Hi Jaime, thanks for this podcast and Ryan you guys are awesome. great I love it.
Thanks I am learning from you guys.
Ernst
Great interview. The methodology is great where you are in the business of selling information online that solves customers problems. What about for B&M/service businesses utilizing a inbound marketing campaigns (i.e., we push out gated premium content that solves our clients’ most pressing problems, but often what we sell is not necessarily the total solution to the problem for which we are writing content, but part of the solution). How would the survey methodology be adapted in this case?
So, I loved this! Massive notes. I loved the suggestion of the email that is an auto responder asking them to respond. I too had a significant health situation that is the reason I do what I do – sharing the benefits of personal development for the dentist. Biggest takeaway – I paused the video in the middle – went to FB and Twitter and ASKED the dentist – “What is the single biggest challenge you are struggling with? Please be as specific as possible I’ll read every single word.” That has been my challenge. Finding out their pain point and wording it in a way that gets their attention.
I’m signing up for his FB group. A huge thank you.
Be Blessed!
Deanna L. Robinson
What was my top takeaway?
My biggest takeaway is that you should learn as you go.
You can get the best practial background (MBA, reading books etc), but you need to do. And that is the best way to learn what you need.
Biggest Takeaway: I thought the advice on how to use surveys to segment your list, and how to gauge the level of passion around a topic (from the length of the response), makes perfect sense. Also the advice about getting a conversation going with people who opt-in to your list as a way of becoming more visible in their inbox is not only golden, I think it also helps you truly develop a relationship with the people that you’re trying to serve. Thanks Jaime! 🙂
This was one of the best Eventual Millionaire podcasts I’ve listened to. Great value!
My biggest takeaway was that you can’t effectively ask people “What do you want?” Ryan’s explanation of why you can’t do that, and how to work around that was very informative and helpful to me.
My biggest take away from today’s podcast was to apply the consultative approach vs. the circus barker trying to push you to the sales page with the counter on it. The whispering idea stuck me as a way to stand out while indicating you may be able to help them if the prospect can help answer a few questions.
This way it appears you’re tailoring a solution to them vs. Henry Ford’s view that the customer can have any color car they want as along as its black.
Thanks for the great interview!
Andy
What an interesting interview! It’s always refreshing to hear the truth about how much work it actually takes to create a successful online business – not many people are as open about their early struggles as Ryan was.
That’s my biggest takeaway from this interview. That, and the fantastic tip about putting people into buckets depending on their greatest need. I love the imagery that creates!
Thanks for another inspiring interview, Jaime! I’ll be listening to this one again!
Best wishes,
Hazel
I liked the interview very much but I have not seen any survey on Ryan’s website! 🙂
And actually there is little information about “SURVEY FUNNEL FORMULA ONLINE TRAINING”. What’s included there?
What I struggle with – with time!! I don’t have time! I work 9/5 and have family and it is difficult to have some extra time allocated for Internet business. The second struggle is copywriting… All right you can really create a good Landing Page in couple of 10 minutes but only when you have copy prepared earlier… And for me this is drama.
A takeaway is the optimism and history of Ryan 🙂 There is a chance for my success as well. Another important thing is this plants water/repotting case. And segmentation of your database and focus of the message. And maybe finally I found out a resource for creating working surveys!! I also hope I will find in the book a proven recipe for asking people of reviews/testimonials after they bought something from me.
PS. When I clicked on “Continue shopping” in the cart of surveyfunnelsoftware I was redirected to: http://www.rlassociatesllc.com/
PS2. When at first I saw “October 2014” and “Location” I thought page nextlevelgroupmastermind.com is an offer for an event which already occured.. and I closed the page.
Michal, after reading your posts, I decided to check out your website, but I get a 401 (Authorization Required) error on your website.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
Thanks Ryan and Jamie for a shockingly timely interview. Wow! I seriously needed to hear that. I love the part about the Asking instead of Shouting when it comes to selling my products. I have a window opened on my desktop to write my first sales page right now and this is going to change that entire concept.
I am crazy determined to make this work, the concept of getting my expertise to the world and being paid handsomely for it, but I haven’t been very comfortable with the sales tactics of forcing and pushing my products down the throats of prospective buyers.
I feel exactly like the ‘when the time is right, the teacher will appear’ or whatever version of that saying it is.
Thanks again Ryan for your openness in telling the difficulty of your beginnings. That’s encouraging! And thanks Jamie for having such quality podcasts.
Scott
I agree with the other hustlers that this episode is really one of the best podcast I’ve ever listened to. Both inspirational and insanely practical.
My biggest takeaway is the fact that starting your own business is cheaper and more effective than a MBA. When Ryan talked about considering spending your first thousand dollars on Adsense like education, I immediately felt more confident about starting to advertise on Fb. Before listening to him, i was so afraid of possibly wasting my money on Fb ads.
Thank you so much Ryan and Jamie.
I have watched many podcasts over the past year and I must say this was the most useful content rich segment that I am confident is the key to my future business success. I personally hate when someone tries to sell me something which means I’m also the world’s worst salesperson. This interview spoke to me because I consider myself a consultant and this podcast gave me the tools needed to do what I do best by helping my potential clients to solve their biggest challenges and create an opportunity to grow my business in the process.
The biggest take away for me is to ask people what their biggest challenges are so you can then tell them what they need, even if they don’t know. Once they realize that you know exactly how you can solve their biggest challenge that immediately positions you as an expert with a solution to their problem worth buying. How brilliant is that! Now I can do my job well and meet my clients needs without feeling like a used car salesman!!! : )
Thanks for this interview!
By biggest take away was the moment Ryan described how most online sales go in comparison to real life sales.
He said something like, “What do you do when people in the real world ask you about how to solve a problem? You don’t show them a ticking clock and tell them they must buy immediately. You ask questions…”
That’s a fascinating perspective and broke down to the core of much of my hesitation for online sales.
I don’t like ugly long sales letters or BS “limited time only” sales crap. I think that’s why I’ve never been able to make it work.
To interact with people and identify what they need support with, that’s magic.
Thank you Ryan and Jamie
definitely. his sincere generosity by sharing his expertise for others success
This interview is so valuable. My Takeaways: 1st: Listen to your audience and customers, 2nd Focus on Pareto Law, 20% of “pains o needs” will guide you to your 80% revenue. 3rd Work, work and work
Ryan, I can’t thank you enough for the wisdom you shared in this interview. And I can hardly express in words how impeccable the timing was. I was just thinking about incorporating a survey into my process but wasn’t sure how to build or where to start but you gave me the tools to do that. About a year and a half ago, after leaving my corporate job and losing my mother, I started a consulting based business with the intention of moving to an online model to create more of a passive income model. My consulting and speaking business have been going well, but I have been struggling with focusing on the digital product and determining what exactly what to put into it since there are many ways I could go. After listening to your podcast episode, I realized that I need to put that survey out there TODAY. Then use that data to build both my webinar and my digital product. I love the counterintuitive advice about focusing on depth versus frequency.
I am looking forward to learning more about what you do, the experiences you’ve had and the advice you give, particularly since I get overwhelmed when thinking about sales funnels and all that is required. But I am committed in building a successful business and also sharing what I learn with other people to help them to do the same like you and Jaime have both done in your career journeys. Thanks again!
Ryan –
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
The timing was EXCEPTIONAL – my team is looking to build a new product and we’ve been surveying the public to get an idea of what they “want”…but we are not happy with the results so far.
Your ideas have forced me to re-evaluate…and re-TEST…the way we survey.
The biggest take away was the idea of how many replies to try to gather (1000), how to put them in “buckets” and what percentage to ultimately work with.
Tremendous!
Thank you!
Jeff Eskow
My favorite takeaway was: “People hate surveys, but they love taking quizzes.”
Genius reframe!
Fantastic episode. By far the biggest takeaway (among the many we were treated to) was right at the very end, just as I was pulling into my driveway from my commute.
What a eureka moment – sending the email after the value delivery to invoke a reply and then responding to get into the primary email box – this one tip alone could make a massive difference to all of your listeners – it certainly will for me.
Thank you both.
Rob
One of the Best episodes of Eventual Millionaire for sure. Ryan, you are not just “Smart”.. You are “Really Smart” and your wife is truly your better half.. She not only stood by you but also steered you in the right direction. What a couple!!! Your techniques are so genuine. Lets put them in practice. Time for some action everybody.
Cheers
Nick
Yesterday was a very interesting day. I woke up at 5am, did my miracle morning routine and then spent 12 hours straight setting up my first ever sales funnel with Mailchimp autoresponders.
By 6pm, I was exhausted but very satisfied with the progress. I loaded a few podcasts to my phone and went for a run around sunset. Can you imagine my surprise when the first podcast in the queue was “The Survey Funnel Formula…” The timing was incredible.
When I got home I added a new email to the top of my funnel “Did You Receive My Free Presets? Let Me Know”.
24 hours later I received 18 replies. I am building the relationships with my readers from the first email. Incredible.
Thanks, Ryan.
Jaime, you might want to change the “Friday at 12PM CST” to something like “Friday 4-23 at 12PM CST”.
When people are new to business, they tend to focus on the product that they sell, and on selling it to the customer, instead of focusing on the problem that it solves, and understanding what the customer’s needs are.
This goes along with what Ryan was saying with the questionnaire.
It does not matter how great a product or service is, if it does not help solve a problem for that customer, it won’t produce any money.
And just how bad is that problem for the customer. Many people come up with a business idea, and their friends and family tell them how great their product is, neither they nor anyone else will put any money down to buy it. What people say they want, and what people are willing to pay money for, are two different things.
But then there are things that while they won’t generate any sales, can be given away, contributing to sales later.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
oops… 🙂
“Friday 4-24 at 12PM CST”
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
“Look out world! Yesterday I was just another man with a dream, and today after listening to Ryan’s interview I have realized with one hundred percent certainty that I will stand among the greatest of marketers to ever exist on the World Wide Web!
Ryan has presented the information, insights, and strategy so eloquently it was as if I was jumping out of a plane with no parachute and his words came out of nowhere to form the most innovative parachute in the universe, that rescued me to achieve a perfect Landing. And now I am ready to take on any obstacles and follow my dreams without fear apprehension.
There were so many things that I have learned in this interview (such as listening to the words and emotions of my prospects and making the effort to understand them by using surveys and auto responders to gently move them through the process of getting to know you and feeling comfortable by sharing more and more of themselves through your conversations – as they move toward becoming a customer, a friend, and eventually a raving fan.
Remnants of good ideas were floating around my head, and now Ryan has helped me to organize them so that I can see the path and the process in the correct sequence that I need to take today in order to achieve my greatness by helping others achieve their’s.
My Takeaway(s)
1. Make an effort to understand your customer by asking them the right questions at the right time
2. Create a an enjoyable experience in the form of casual conversations that show them you are genuinely interested in them.
3. Spend your energy and making a difference in your lives leaving a legacy that make your children proud!
Thank you so much for this interview and I look forward to absorbing all of the information in your new book and also sharing it with the people who appreciate it as much as I do? ? ? ?
Bruce
“Look out world! Yesterday I was just another man with a dream, and today after listening to Ryan’s interview I have realized with one hundred percent certainty that I will stand among the greatest of marketers to ever exist on the World Wide Web!
Ryan has presented the information, insights, and strategy so eloquently it was as if I was jumping out of a plane with no parachute and his words came out of nowhere to form the most innovative parachute in the universe, that rescued me to achieve a perfect Landing. And now I am ready to take on any obstacles and follow my dreams without fear apprehension.
There were so many things that I have learned in this interview (such as listening to the words and emotions of my prospects and making the effort to understand them by using surveys and auto responders to gently move them through the process of getting to know you and feeling comfortable by sharing more and more of themselves through your conversations – as they move toward becoming a customer, a friend, and eventually a raving fan.
Remnants of good ideas were floating around my head, and now Ryan has helped me to organize them so that I can see the path and the process in the correct sequence that I need to take today in order to achieve my greatness by helping others achieve their’s.
My Takeaway(s)
1. Make an effort to understand your customer by asking them the right questions at the right time
2. Create a an enjoyable experience in the form of casual conversations that show them you are genuinely interested in them.
3. Spend your energy and making a difference in your lives leaving a legacy that make your children proud!
Thank you so much for this interview and I look forward to absorbing all of the information in your new book and also sharing it with the people who appreciate it as much as I do!!!
Bruce
Ryan said “don’t ever go into a fad market ever again”,but a fad market is not bad to be in, as long as you know that it is a fad market. When you don’t know that it’s a fad, is when you can get yourself in trouble. Besides no market stays the same. But also if you are going to be in a fad market it’s best to also have other income from another market to carry you through after the fad market is over. And with anything, don’t live on all your income, because businesses come and go, and when one business goes, you need to have money saved up to carry you through. Too many people with jobs live from pay check to pay check.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
“instead of sending someone to a squeeze page, a landing page just saying ‘Here is my free report. Enter your name and e-mail,'”
I always enter “webmaster@(whateversiteimon).com” 🙂
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
“We came out with a guide on how to water your planet because we thought ‘Hey, 80% of people are asking questions about watering,’ but it turns out that it wasn’t a big enough problem in their life that they were willing to spend money to solve it”
Very good point. It’s too easy to spend a lot of effort trying to sell what people want, but are not willing to spend money on.
But something like this can be put in the website for free, so that the search engines will pick it up, this will bring in more visitors that will then pay money for the things that they are willing to pay money for.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
Hi Jaime,
Ryan did a super job. You must add him to the EM Hustlers program with some behind the scenes extras! Even his advice to you helped me. I also have more than one Avatar and hearing how you can serve each segment at their entry point is most helpful. I loved how he shared how he and his wife started with the Scrabble jewelry tutorials and what lessons he learned and carried over to creating his next business.
His business tactics make so much sense. During our first coaching session you advised me to contact 10 people from my e-mail list to find out who they are and what they need to know. Ryan’s script for a one time survey will work perfectly to help me understand what my visitor’s need!
You asked Ryan how many responses we needed to determine our buckets and he gave you some of his numbers then added how people with small lists should look for trends even if they are not 100% statistically stable rather than guess.
But the biggest takeaway for me was when he said “Treat the money you invest in your business as tuition and even it it doesn’t generate a return right away, over time it will.” I love this mindset phase shift!
Thank you Ryan for an awesome interview and thank you Jaime for continuing to deliver the best interviews packed with useful, actionable information. You both Rock!
And the money you loose from learning comes before taxes.
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
I really enjoyed this interview.
I’ve struggled conceptually with the hard sell. It’s not what I’m good at and, honestly, it’s not what I want to do. I do want to provide products and services that people find valuable and that can help them with their businesses. In the off-line world, I generally am able prove my value and my desire to help my clients in their businesses. In the online world, it’s harder for me to make that connection. I’m just getting started and I often feel like I’m trying the “find what sticks” method (you can guess what’s sticking.) I want that personal touch and personal connection to their problems because I’m very passionate about solving those problems with them.
What I loved about this approach, and my key takeaway, is that it is an on-line, automated way to take that same approach. Through a series of survey type questions, I can find their pain and help to determine where and if I can help them. I have no shame saying that I can’t or even helping them find who can. I hope to leverage the methodology to find more of my client’s problems and where I can help while still enjoying the disconnected benefits of an online life
Thank you!
WOW!
I’m a pretty big consumer of content given the insane number of hours I spend commuting each week. This ONE episode had more tactical value packed into it for me than the majority of podcasts I listen too daily.
Biggest takeaway: Auto responder to ensure the magnet was delivered to start a dialogue that keeps my mail out of the spam (right at the end of the episode) … HUGE value.
Thanks!!
I’m already getting the book, and got into Ryan’s Next Level Mastermind a couple weeks ago. I met a lot of “heavy-hitters” in that group, but as he mentioned, what’s really special is it’s the culture of sharing… its almost like an unspoken competition to see who can free-share the most in-depth, valuable stuff.
Was great seeing him on here. “Ask” is now the #1 book on Amazon… period! Anyway, I’ve been in every single webinar Ryan’s been doing at my level in the last month or so, and have my copy of Ask on my device, so I’ve heard a lot of what he said in this interview already. Still, I heard something I haven’t really nailed down as yet following him directly: When he talked about the sales page for the deep-dive survey, he rattled off a number of tactics that had my head reeling because that was the missing piece for me. It’s a conversational video that doesn’t even mention the word survey, and the prospect has to opt-in to be directed to a customized solution or resource based on his answers to the survey. NOW I know how to get people to do a survey for someone they don’t even know or have never met.
Pure genius in it’s simplicity!
Post on behalf of Paul Johnson due to technical issues:
Thanks Jaime. What a great interview! It was so valuable to see how Ryan placed, on the fly, your business on the hot seat and masterminded some great suggestions. I sent a text to my daughter in college and suggested she start listening to you and to start with this episode.
Biggest Takeaways:
1) Persistence through obstacles and failure as evidenced by Ryan?s journey to success story. 2) The value of strategic in-depth analyzed survey/quiz/questions in the sales funnel.
I ordered the book -yay! Am I the only one that found a discrepancy in the facebook group? Ryan said $97/month but when I went to the website, it was twice that. Do we have a special code we’re supposed to use?
Yes I noticed it too.
Keep in mind that this video was recorded a while before it was posted, so some time has past since it was first recorded.
However it was still the higher price when the interview was recorded, though there was a countdown timer to give the person a chance to get it for the lower quoted price.
On this page, press ctrl f (for the find command) and enter ?absolute last?. Read until you see ?countdown timer?.
Now go to http://web.archive.org/web/20150314230127/http://www.nextlevelgroupmastermind.com
Another question:
Did anyone get one of the 3 books promised?
If so, what was your opinion of the free book you received?
Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
This was the best podcast I’ve listened to. I actually listened to it three times and have just finished implementing the part about sending a generic email saying “did you get the video i sent” and am literally replying to 2,000 emails now, and I sent it 3 hours ago. I am already learning so much from implementing what was said in this podcast. HUGE takeaways, thank you! You just helped me make many sales, and many new connections!
Dave
The Survival Summit
Loved this interview. My biggest takeaway was all the very effective ways I can use surveys to uplevel my business. Awesome.
I checked out Ryan’s FB group link because I’m interested in joining. He quoted it at $97.00 per month but the page says $197 per month.
Is there a coupon code or something I should be using?