Feb. 9, 2026

Just Ask

Just Ask – “Do you want Fries with that?” That single question makes McDonald's millions every single day. You can do the same. Just ask.

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Hi, you live, don too censure wow for you young.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures Pipe

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Man W four c Y Radio with a once again

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positively Pipeman segment powerful business strategies and I'm gonna ask

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Michael Barbarita from Next Step CFO if he wants fries

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with that.

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Well, that is the single question that makes McDonald's millions

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of dollars every single day. And here's why it mattens

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to your audience, Dean, and thank you for having me.

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By the way, the reason why it mattens is that

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thirty four percent of customers will buy additional products or

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service says at the time of purchase if you simply ask.

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And the problem is is that most business owners don't ask.

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So when you think about it, you know you're not

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chasing leads. This is just an additional sale that would

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have never happened otherwise by simply asking. And companies and

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Amazon is also great at this, where you know you

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buy one product, that's making suggestions on other products that

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you should buy that are similar that other people have

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bought after they bought the same product. And it's a

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strategy that works incredibly well. And everybody's website should also

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have suggestive selling incorporated it if especially if there's some

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type of e commerce company. But even beside that, I

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don't care who you are. Anytime you make a sale,

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you should be asking for another one, and with different

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products or services that in all likelihood the customer does

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not know that you have and that you offer and

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that the other thing. You know, I was telling talking

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to a client today and I said, you know, every

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business owner thinks that someone like Michael Jordan or Abraham

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Lincoln with it. They're just not forgettable. They're very forgettable,

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very forgettable. Because a lot of a lot of my

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clients when I talk about drip campaigns and reaching out

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to former former customers, they haven't bought for you from

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you in a while. Oh, they know who I am,

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they know how they and they know who they know me,

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They know who I am, who we are. You know

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we did business with them. They don't. They forget, Yeah,

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and they need to be reminded. Uh. I've got so

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many clients that just don't understand that concept of rejuvenating

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former customers and the concept of simply asking just ask

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if there's if you made a sale, you've got them

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in the right position. They're there, they get their wallets

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out because they're buying from you already, and one third

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of the time they're gonna buy something else. Will you

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get rejected? Yeah, two thirds of the time yep. But

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the other one third at the time, you're gonna get

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additional business. You're gonna increase your average dollar per sale.

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There's a saying that I live by, and that is

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ask equals get, which also translates to if you don't ask,

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you don't yet.

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That's right, It's so true. And a lot of business

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owners in every one of your whether it's a sales

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presentation or some type of a communication with customers, whether

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it's online or otherwise, you need to have suggestive selling

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to sell something else. Do you want fries with that?

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Do you want a coke with that? All of that

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type of suggestice ouse.

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Would you like to super size that?

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Yes? Which you'd like to super size that. It's it's

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just it's incredible how much money that has made companies

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like McDonald's, like Amazon. And it's a very it's not

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a difficult thing. And you know, all we're saying is,

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you know, just ask, just ask. And by the way,

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many times I have a client in the roofing business,

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and he also sells siding and gutters, and fortunately or unfortunately,

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the name of his company has the word roofing in it,

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so people just think he sells roofing. Yeah, okay, that's

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all and so uh you know, and and this past

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year almost ninety percent of his sales were roofing. I said,

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you need to let your customers know at the point

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of sale, as well as to drip campaigns, but at

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the point of sale that you sell roofing, I'm sorting

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siding and gutters and windows too, by the way, So

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he sells all these things. It has the ability to

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sell all these things, but customers don't know, mainly because

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of his name, but maybe not. I bet you if

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his name didn't have the word roofing in it, these

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customers still wouldn't know he did siding, guts and windows. Yeah,

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and so it's it's really paramount. We know our companies

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better than the customer does. By a landslide, and that's

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how we have to think about it. By a landslide,

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they don't know we sell half the stuff that we

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do sell. They forget that we sell the primary stuff

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that we sold them.

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That's what we are so important because you know how

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many times people buy services and products from another company

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that you do and they never knew you did it,

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and it would have been such an easy sale.

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That's right, And that's what kills me because I think

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if if people think about how they deal with their

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own life, who is that company I used? Who was

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that business that I had I used a few years

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back that did such a great job? They forgot? Yeah,

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that's okay, people forget. They don't it's not your name,

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is it Abraham Lincoln? You know, it's not. It's not

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something of Michael Jordan where it's something that they're gonna

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absolutely remember or know. It's just isn't that way. You're

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just a company that's in the sea of other companies

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and other businesses, and so it's critical that you just

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ask thirty four percent of the time.

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I'll tell you what too. I have a story myself.

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You know, when I worked at Prudential staring off in

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the financial industry. What you used to do is you

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used to set appointments based on giving them a quote

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on their auto insurance to save the money on their

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auto insurance. But really the real reason you were there

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was to sell life insurance, but you didn't go in

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with that, so you went in with the and then

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you saved the money you're and while you're writing the

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auto insurance, that's when you open up the door for

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the life insurance. But really the money that you really

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made as the agent was off the life insurance, not

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off the auto policy. And I'm mentioning that because sometimes

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when you just ask, you're going to get a much

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bigger profit than what you initially sold, right, agreed.

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Uh, yeah, it really is amazing how much you can

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increase your average ticket per customer by just simply asking.

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That's it. That's all you have to do. No, no,

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not a big it's not a big ask.

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No it's not. No, it's not so So why do

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you think people just don't ask?

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I think they're so focused on making the initial sale

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and so happy that they made it that you know,

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or sometimes the mechanics of closing a sale are extensive. Okay,

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well you have to write stuff up and that type

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of thing, and and they either don't think about it

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or don't just they're just happy with what they got

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when it yeah, yeah, just happy with what they got,

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you know.

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And the thing is too, it is that a lot

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of times in that scenario, like that's the best part

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and time in your relationship with that client is at

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the moment of sale. So the most likelihood that you're

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gonna get people to listen to you about other products

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and services that you have is right then and there.

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Right, that's it. That's the point. That's the point when

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they're ready the most active to purchase. And by the way,

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so there's also another point in time that it actually

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also has a high close rate, and that is at

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the end when a job is complete. It especially in

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the trades, especially in the trades, a job is completed,

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the customer is really happy and now you're telling me

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what else yourself. Un believable works very.

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Well exactly because once you have a relationship, they're most

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likely to do business.

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With you, absolutely and that's the best time to ask

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them for a review as well.

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Yeah, and referral right, do it all, do it all,

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kill it all. So anything else you want to share

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about this subject and also tell people how they can

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reach out to you for more information and more help

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in this arena.

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Yes, So the way what I love to do to

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help help business owners and help myself to be honest

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with you is do book interviews. We're always updating our book.

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There's always something new happening in business. I mean a

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year ago, tarifs were something that was just a word,

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and now it has an impact in business. And so

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you know, that's why I always say business is always changing,

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and I need to constantly update my book to get

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new and fresh information in there and fresh ideas which

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I get from business owners to book interviews, and it

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works really simple. At sixty minutes on Zoom. I share

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strategies for my book and then I ask the interviewee

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if they were if a business owner in their industry

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were to implement that strategy, what would the impact be,

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and then I document it for the book. It's an

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industry perspective that I like getting.

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Love it. Love what you do to help businesses. They

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need it more than ever I think nowadays. And thank

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you Michael for all the great advice you give, and

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thanks for being here on the Positively Pipemin segment of

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the Adventures of Pipemin.

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Thanks for having me gat me. Thank you for listening

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to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.

Just Ask

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