Ask by Ryan Levesque: Book Summary, Review & Notes
An in-depth summary of Ask by Ryan Levesque, with the Ask Method, its 4 surveys, real quotes and how it compares to similar books.
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This is an in-depth book summary, notes and highlights of Ask by Ryan Levesque. First published in 2015 by Dunham Books and reissued by Hay House in 2019, it lays out the Ask Method, a survey-driven way to find out what a market wants to buy.
Ask in 3 sentences
- Ask argues that people rarely know what they want, so asking them directly gives you poor answers.
- Ryan Levesque's method uses a sequence of surveys to learn what prospects struggle with, sort them into groups and send each group a tailored offer.
- The book sums up the process as Prepare, Persuade, Segment, Prescribe, Profit, Pivot.
Key takeaways
- People are poor judges of what they want. Levesque says they can reliably tell you only what they don't want and what they have done in the past.
- Start with a Deep Dive Survey, an open-ended question about the single biggest challenge people face with your topic.
- Read for depth, not frequency. The longest, most detailed answers come from hyper-responsive prospects, the people most likely to buy.
- Use your market's own words. The language in survey answers becomes the language of your pages and emails.
- Sort people into buckets. A short Micro-Commitment Bucket Survey groups prospects by situation, so each group gets its own offer.
- Small yeses build to the big one. Each easy question is a micro-commitment that makes the purchase a smaller step.
- Ask the people who did not buy. The Do You Hate Me Survey asks non-buyers why, and the Pivot Survey asks what else they need.
- Replace one-size-fits-all marketing with a funnel that changes with each person's answers.
Who should read Ask
- Course creators and coaches who are unsure what to build or sell next.
- Marketers with an email list who want to segment it by need rather than by opt-in date.
- Business owners whose single funnel converts poorly across very different customers.
- Anyone planning a launch who wants to hear objections before spending on ads.
- People entering a new market who need to learn its language quickly.
- Readers who like step-by-step processes with real campaign examples.
Who might not enjoy it
- Readers who want research or theory. It is a practitioner's playbook built on Levesque's own campaigns.
- People with no audience or traffic yet. Surveys need respondents, and choosing a market comes first.
Popular quotes from Ask
The reason why is because people essentially are only good at answering two basic types of questions when they don't know what they want: What it is they don't want and what they've done in the past.
The idea the Ask Method is built on.
It's not about getting it perfect; it's about getting it going.
Launch the survey or funnel before it is polished.
One of the biggest things I discovered was that I had been taking a "one size fits all" approach to my marketing.
The problem that segmenting an audience solves.
The right way to use surveys is counterintuitive.
Why the method asks about problems rather than product ideas.
The only incentive you want to offer is the promise of a solution to their problem.
People should answer because they want help, not for a prize.
Your emails should not read (or even look) like promotional messages.
Plain, personal emails get read and answered.
Sometimes starting over at the bottom can be the best thing you can do for yourself.
From his own story of leaving finance to start online.
How Ask compares to similar books
Choose by Ryan Levesque
The companion book on picking a market before building anything. Published in 2019 by Hay House. Ask assumes you have chosen a market and shows how to learn what it wants to buy.
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick
How to talk to customers about their past behavior instead of pitching your idea. Published in 2013 for startup founders. It shares Levesque's distrust of opinions, but works through one-on-one conversations rather than automated surveys.
DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson
Sales funnels and the value ladder for selling online. Published in 2015. It goes deeper on funnel structure, while Ask focuses on the questions that decide who sees which offer.
Launch by Jeff Walker
The Product Launch Formula, a sequence of prelaunch content before an offer opens. Published in 2014. It covers how to launch an offer, while Ask covers how to find out which offer to launch.
Influence by Robert Cialdini
The psychology of persuasion, including commitment and consistency. Published in 1984 and based on research. Ask's micro-commitments put the same principle to work in a sequence of survey questions.
Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
A 7-part framework for clear marketing messages that cast the customer as the hero. Published in 2017. It helps you say your message clearly, while Ask helps you find out what the message should be.
About Ryan Levesque
Ryan Levesque studied neuroscience and East Asian studies at Brown University and built a finance career in China with AIG, which he left after the 2008 financial crisis. His first online business began in a Hong Kong apartment, teaching people to make jewelry from Scrabble tiles, and he went on to build businesses in 23 niche markets.
He created the Ask Method and has been an Inc. 5000 founder 7 times. His second book, Choose, came out in 2019. He hosts the podcast The Digital Contrarian and lives on a farm in Vermont.
FAQs about Ask
The questions people most often ask about Ask by Ryan Levesque.
Ask is a 2015 marketing book by Ryan Levesque about using surveys to learn what customers want to buy. It shows how to sort an audience into groups and send each group a tailored offer. The process is called the Ask Method.
Ryan Levesque studied neuroscience and East Asian studies at Brown University and worked in finance in China before starting online. He built businesses in 23 niche markets, created the Ask Method and later wrote Choose. He has been an Inc. 5000 founder 7 times.
A process that uses a series of surveys to learn what a market struggles with and wants. It sorts people into segments, called buckets, and gives each one a recommendation that fits their situation. The book sums it up as Prepare, Persuade, Segment, Prescribe, Profit, Pivot.
The Deep Dive Survey, the Micro-Commitment Bucket Survey, the Do You Hate Me Survey and the Pivot Survey. Each is used at a different stage, from researching a market to following up with people who did not buy.
An open-ended survey that asks people about their single biggest challenge with your topic. Its goal is to collect detailed answers in your market's own words. You then use those words to shape products, pages and emails.
It describes the people who write the longest and most detailed answers. Levesque says to weigh their answers above the most common ones, because hyper-responsive prospects are the most likely to buy.
A bucket is a segment of your audience that shares a situation or problem. The Micro-Commitment Bucket Survey asks a few easy questions and places each person in a bucket. Each bucket then gets its own message and offer.
It goes to people who went through your funnel but did not buy. It asks them why, so you can hear their objections and fix the offer or the message.
It asks people what else they need help with or would like to learn. The answers point to your next product or offer.
Small, easy yeses, such as answering one simple question. Each one makes the next step feel natural, so a purchase at the end is not a big leap.
Levesque argues that people don't know what they want. He says they can only reliably tell you what they don't want and what they have done in the past, so his surveys ask about problems and past attempts instead.
They are closely linked. The Micro-Commitment Bucket Survey works like a quiz that segments people, and Levesque is known for both the quiz funnel approach and the Ask Method.
Ask was first published by Dunham Books in April 2015. Hay House Business reissued it in paperback in July 2019, and it is also available as an ebook and an audiobook.
Choose covers the earlier decision of which market to enter, and Ask covers what to sell once you are in it. Read Choose first if you have not picked a market yet, and Ask if you already have an audience.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
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