The $100 MBA Show

Customer feedback is like fertilizer for your business growth. Way too many entrepreneurs try to “figure out” what would appeal to customers, when a smarter solution is there all along: just ask some. Today, we’ll discuss the incredible, underappreciated value of customer feedback, and how to mine your customers for this valuable resource. With it, you can do everything from improving your sales and marketing to lowering your churn. We’ve got 4 specific ways you can gather and utilize feedback, without putting too big a dent in the ol’ marketing budget.This is a small investment with a massive return.Establishing a systematized way of gathering and analyzing feedback takes a little work, but the payoff on that investment (of mostly time, by the way) is astronomical. With this precious intel, you can clear the blockage from your marketing and sales funnel. Growth ensues.You don’t have all the answers. Fortunately, your customers have quite a few. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Almost every business goes through this: you set a refund policy, and a customer violates it — but they still want their money back.The terms were clear, but the customer isn’t. Or they are, but they want an exception. This is especially common when your refund policy stops after a certain amount of time. People unintentionally let free trials lapse into paid memberships, or procrastinate on returning a physical item. What should you do when they ask for a break?It’s Q&A Wednesday, and we’ve got a listener who wants to know how flexible or strict they can afford to be. Are there advantages to being a hardliner? What can you gain from bending the rules? It’s best to figure out what you’re going to do now, before you’re faced with the situation — because you probably will be.We’ll share our own formula for handling post-deadline refund requests, and explore the pros and cons of good old fashioned mercy. Plus, we’ll explain how every refund request is a hidden opportunity, if you know how to approach it. Click Play!To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s something every marketer studies endlessly. If you’re in business, you’ve heard of it by now: the “funnel.”There’s a good reason this concept is so common. Understanding the funnel and applying it to your business is crucial to your company’s growth. You could even argue that without studying the art of the funnel, your business can’t grow at all! Whether they realize it or not, all businesses funnel. It’s just that some are better at it than others.In short, the funnel is the thing that takes people from perfect stranger, to lead, to customer, and finally to creator of other customers. It’s a central tenet of digital marketing, and the only efficient way to approach the task of finding your customers among all those millions of people out there on the Internet.Today, we’ll explain the funnel, unpack its mysteries, and illustrate the concept with a hypothetical example. Let’s build your funnel, and get some people into it. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There is no better salesperson than someone who doesn’t work for you.Think about how you decide to purchase something. While marketers, advertisers, and actual sales people have a goal in mind, other consumers have nothing to gain by encouraging you to buy a given product. It’s that simple.A happy customer is worth a dozen salespeople — because trust.That said, most of your customers aren’t likely to speak up for you unless you ask them. Today, we’ve got a special guest who’s an expert in enlisting customers as evangelists. Kim Speed is a branding master who knows how to get that crucial word of mouth going.She’s here with a lesson on approaching your customers, getting the feedback you need, and using it to turn satisfaction into hyper-effective marketing and advertising. Testimonials and customer reviews are pure gold, more likely to influence your sales than any amount of paid ads. Find out exactly how to extract this powerful asset from your customers, and use it to maximum effect. Click Play!Branding on a Shoestring by Kim SpeedPurple Moon CreativeSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does a podcast cost?It’s a good question, and one you should definitely ask before you get on the mic. The good news is that it’s more affordable than ever to produce a decent quality, competitive podcast in your space.But a good entrepreneur always crunches the numbers.We’ve gotten a ton of exposure and opportunities thanks to our humble little show. And take it from us, it started out very humble indeed. Almost 1,500 episodes later, we only wish we’d started sooner. Podcasting is a viable, economical brand builder for any entrepreneur with a point of view and a (surprisingly) few bucks.Today, we’ll ring up the price on a bare-minimum-quality podcast. Your “starter podcast” won’t cost a prohibitive amount, but it will require some investment. We’ll discuss initial one-time costs as well as recurring costs you can expect. We’ll also offer lots of recommendations for hardware, software, and resources to use. Get ready to podcast. But first, let’s do the math. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What are you waiting for? No, seriously. What should you wait for before starting a business?One of the first, biggest hurdles new entrepreneurs face is taking the first step into the game. You’ve researched, you’ve planned, you’ve studied. But when is the right time to actually move? When does the light turn green, and how can you know?There’s a shockingly simple answer.Knowing what conditions should be in place to start a business is important to your chances of success. But those conditions probably aren’t as hard to align as you think. There’s an overlap in the venn diagram between planning and execution that anyone considering independent business should understand. The answer to the question of “when” is the same for almost every business. We’ll discuss what that answer is, and why it’s correct. When this episode is over, you’ll know exactly when the time is right. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every business needs a website, and therefore a good domain name. But do you need all the domains with that name?Good question.It’s Q&A Wednesday, and one listener wants to know if you should buy up the .com alternatives: the .co, the .net, even the international domains like .uk and .au. How many domains is too many? How many is not enough? Domains aren’t exactly expensive, but a few ventures into the game can ultimately cost you hundreds if you’re not picky enough. On the other hand, you don’t want someone else using your name and causing all kinds of brand confusion. Today, we’ll discuss what you should do before you start snapping up domains. If you buy too many too soon, you can end up burdening your business instead of protecting your brand. Find out what needs to happen first, and proceed from there.To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Business travel got you stressed out, tired, and feeling low? It’s not just you.Traveling for work can absolutely suck. The airports, the baggage, the time zones, the bad food, and a million other inconveniences can turn any trip into a draining experience. As entrepreneurs, business travel is supposed to be part of the fun.So why isn’t it?We’ve put a lot of miles on our own business ventures, schlepping from conference to conference and managing a remote team spread around the globe. We know business travel, and we’ve picked up a few tricks along the way that make it a much less stressful experience.The work we do on the road is invaluable to our business. That’s why it’s important to have strategies for staying on top of your game, wherever you are. Get there, get it done, and get home without the drama. Come back feeling just as good as when you left — mentally and physically. Find out how. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We’re not good at understanding each other. And that’s bad for business.Malcolm Gladwell has made a massive career out of noticing — patterns, syndromes, common social threads. He’s sold millions of copies of books like The Tipping Point and Outliers. His latest, Talking to Strangers, tackles another big, broad topic: human interaction.How we relate to people we don’t know has a massive impact, especially for entrepreneurs.The way you handle new people has implications for everything in business, from customer service to networking to partnerships. The skill of getting to know someone can change everything — but it’s a skill you have to develop.In fact, Gladwell argues that generally, we’re awful at figuring each other out.Today, we’ll discuss how business people can utilize the lessons of this book, and why we all need to question our instincts and assumptions about others. As Gladwell illustrates with a variety of real-world examples, failures in our evaluation of others can have drastic consequences. It’s something most of us don’t even realize we don’t even realize. See what we mean: Click Play!Talking to Strangers by Malcolm GladwellDiscover all our must-read book reviews at https://100mba.net/bookreviews.SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Customer service: the forgotten weapon. The power move. The brand-defining differentiator that sets you apart from the competition. The secret to long-term customer retention and increased CLTV (Customer Lifetime Value). It’s kind of a big deal, so you have to get it right.Great customer service doesn’t just solve customer’s problems. It creates loyalty and reduces one of the worst diseases a business can struggle with: churn. So how can you make sure you’re offering customer service that works? It’s almost shockingly easy to improve your customer service.Today, we share 3 ridiculously simple ways you can make sure to be there for your customers. With a little strategy, you can pre-solve a ton of problems, and build a reputation for customer service that keeps people coming back — and inspires new people to come on board.We run a SaaS (Software as a Service) business, so we know better than most how important customer service is. When people don’t feel confident, when they don’t feel secure in your support, they live on the fence. Great support attracts, onboards, and retains customers, especially with a digital product.Take these 3 steps. It won’t be hard! And it’ll be well worth the effort. Click Play!SUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.