The 10-Minute Advantage

Robert Coles

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Entrepreneurship

Business growth doesn’t have to be complicated—or time-consuming. Join Robert Coles each week for practical 10-minute lessons on marketing, AI, operations, sales, productivity, and business strategy that you can put into action immediately. One idea. Ten minutes. Better business.

15 hr ago

Don’t Just Win the Sale. Win the Next One.

Businesses put enormous amounts of energy into winning new customers. Advertising. Content. Sales calls. Emails. Proposals. Meetings. Follow-up. Then the customer finally buys—and everyone immediately starts looking for the next new lead. But what if the first sale isn’t the real victory? In this episode of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert wraps up the Winning Customers series by exploring what happens after someone chooses your business. From the Ritz-Carlton approach to empowering employees to the importance of actually using the customer information sitting inside your CRM, this episode is about turning transactions into lasting relationships. You’ll explore the difference between incentivized repetition and genuine loyalty, why returning customers shouldn’t have to continually reintroduce themselves to your company, and how asking “What else can I help this customer accomplish?” creates a completely different relationship than simply asking what else you can sell them. You’ll also hear a simple test for customer loyalty: If your business disappeared tomorrow, would your customers actually miss you? For this episode’s 10-Minute Advantage, you’ll identify five of your best existing customers and ask three questions: What do I know about them? What do they need next? When was the last time we made them feel genuinely appreciated? Then choose one—and do something about it. This episode also brings the entire Winning Customers series together: Trust. Follow-up. Advocacy. Recovery. Loyalty. Because the strongest businesses aren’t necessarily the ones that convince the most people to buy once. They’re the businesses people keep choosing. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
15 hr ago

The Moment Something Goes Wrong Is the Moment That Matters Most

Every business will eventually disappoint a customer. A shipment will arrive late. An email will get missed. Technology will fail. An employee will make a mistake. Something won’t work the way it was supposed to. The companies that earn lasting loyalty aren’t necessarily the ones where nothing ever goes wrong. They’re the ones that become extraordinary when it does. In this episode of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert shares the story of Chewy, a grieving pet owner named Anna Brose, and her dog Gus. What could have been a routine refund became a customer experience that reached millions of people—and a powerful example of what happens when a company sees the person behind the transaction. You’ll explore why rigid policies can sometimes get in the way of remarkable service, how great recovery experiences can create stronger customer relationships, and why employees need enough authority to solve problems without forcing customers through layers of approvals. Then, in this episode’s 10-Minute Advantage, you’ll examine your own customer complaint process and identify one piece of friction you can remove today. Because customer loyalty isn’t proven when everything goes right. It’s built by what you do when something goes wrong. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
2 days ago

Referrals Aren’t Luck. They’re a System.

Your happiest customers may love your business, leave five-star reviews, buy from you again and again—and still never refer a single person. The problem usually isn’t that they’re unwilling to recommend you. It’s that your business never made the next step obvious or easy. In this episode of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert Coles explores what he calls the Referral Gap: the surprisingly important distance between “I love this company” and “I’m going to tell somebody about this company.” Using Dropbox’s famous referral strategy as an example, Robert breaks down how businesses can stop treating word of mouth like something they simply hope will happen and start designing a repeatable system that encourages it. That means identifying the moments when customers are happiest, asking at the right time, removing unnecessary friction, and giving customers a simple way to share your business with someone else. But there’s an important catch: referrals have to be earned before they can be encouraged. No automated email, referral code, incentive, or clever campaign can compensate for a mediocre customer experience. Build something people genuinely want to recommend first. Then make recommending it ridiculously easy. Your 10-Minute Advantage for today is to identify your business’s referral moment. When are your customers most enthusiastic about what you’ve done for them? Pick that moment and decide what should happen immediately afterward. You don’t need to build an elaborate referral program today. You need to build one repeatable moment. Because your best salesperson might not work for your company at all. They may already be one of your customers. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
3 days ago

The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up

A prospect goes quiet. An email goes unanswered. A proposal sits untouched. Most businesses eventually assume the same thing: They must not be interested. But silence doesn’t always mean no. Sometimes people are simply busy—and the business that stays thoughtfully connected is the one they remember when they’re finally ready to act. In Episode 12 of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert Coles explores why consistent, human follow-up is one of the simplest and most overlooked ways to win more customers and build stronger relationships. Drawing on the story of legendary car salesman Joe Girard, Robert explains why staying top of mind matters before the sale, after the sale, and long after the initial conversation has ended. You’ll also learn why the dreaded “just checking in” email usually falls flat, how to follow up without becoming annoying, and how your CRM can help you maintain relationships without turning those relationships into robotic automations. Then, your 10-Minute Advantage is simple: find five people you haven’t followed up with and send each one a genuine, useful message. Five relationships. Ten minutes. And potentially an opportunity you didn’t even realize was still sitting there. Because follow-up builds relationships. And relationships build revenue. In this episode: Why silence from a prospect doesn’t necessarily mean rejectionWhat Joe Girard understood about staying top of mindThe difference between helpful follow-up and annoying follow-upWhy you should stop sending “just checking in” emailsHow follow-up changes after someone becomes a customerHow your CRM can help you remember to be humanA simple five-person follow-up challenge you can complete todayFor an extra dose of encouragement throughout your week, listen to The Daily Momentum. And if you’re ready to strengthen your sales habits and systems, explore The 28-Day Sales Challenge, part of The 28-Day Challenge series: 28 days of practical action designed to help you build better habits, stronger systems, and more momentum. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
5 days ago

People Buy Trust Before they Buy Products - Winning Customers Series | Part 1 of 5

Before someone buys your product, signs your proposal, books an appointment, or enters their credit card number, they usually buy something else first: trust. In Episode 11 of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert kicks off the new Winning Customers series by exploring why trust may be one of the most powerful — and overlooked — competitive advantages a business can build. Using the story of Marcus Sheridan and River Pools during the 2008 financial crisis, Robert looks at what happens when a company stops trying to control the sales conversation and starts genuinely answering the questions customers are already asking. Price. Competitors. Problems. Limitations. Timelines. Even the uncomfortable questions that most businesses would rather avoid. Because today’s customers aren’t waiting for your sales pitch to educate themselves. They’re searching Google, reading reviews, comparing competitors, browsing Reddit, checking social media, and asking AI before they ever talk to you. You can’t control all of that information — but you can become one of the sources they trust while they’re gathering it. You’ll also hear why earning trust sometimes means being willing to lose a sale, how small moments throughout the customer experience either build or erode credibility, and why helping someone make the right decision can be far more valuable than convincing them to make a decision right now. Your 10-Minute Advantage: Set a timer for ten minutes and write down every uncomfortable question customers ask about your business. Then identify the one you’ve been avoiding the most. That may be exactly the question you need to answer publicly first. Because winning customers isn’t about becoming better at convincing people. It’s about becoming the kind of business people feel comfortable choosing. In this episode: • Why trust comes before the transaction • What Marcus Sheridan and River Pools can teach us about customer education • Why customers can recognize a sales pitch almost immediately • The questions businesses are often afraid to answer • Why transparency can become a competitive advantage • When losing a sale can actually strengthen your business • The tiny moments that build — or destroy — customer trust • A 10-minute exercise you can put into practice today This episode begins the five-part Winning Customers Advantage Series, exploring how businesses attract customers, keep them, turn them into advocates, recover when things go wrong, and build relationships that last. The 10-Minute Advantage gives you one practical idea you can understand — and start using — in about ten minutes. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
21 Aug

Your Website Has One Job

Your website doesn’t need to impress everyone who visits it. It needs to help them take the next step. In Episode 10 of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert wraps up the Working Smarter series by tackling one of the most misunderstood tools in business: your website. Too many businesses build websites like digital brochures—packed with company information, beautiful design, clever animations, and plenty of details about themselves. But your visitors aren’t primarily asking, “Who are you?” They’re asking, “Can you help me?” In this episode, you’ll discover the five essential elements every effective website needs, why clarity almost always beats complexity, how to create stronger calls to action, and the three questions every visitor should be able to answer within five seconds of landing on your site. You’ll also learn why your website should be treated as one of the hardest-working members of your team—working 24/7 to educate prospects, build trust, answer questions, and move potential customers toward action. Because a beautiful website that doesn’t convert is just an expensive brochure. Build for clarity. Build for trust. Build for action. Plus, get a preview of the next Advantage Series: Winning Customers, where we’ll move beyond simply acquiring customers and explore how trust, follow-up, referrals, memorable experiences, and customer advocacy create sustainable growth. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
21 Aug

The 80/20 Rule That Can Transform Your Business

Being busy doesn’t always mean you’re making progress. In this episode of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert explores the 80/20 Rule and how identifying the small number of activities that create the biggest results can transform the way you work. You’ll learn how to separate high-impact “needle movers” from the low-value tasks that quietly consume your time, why opportunity cost matters more than most business owners realize, and how a simple weekly audit can help you protect more time for the work that actually grows your business. Because answering emails, attending meetings, and checking things off your list might keep you busy—but they don’t necessarily move your business forward. This week’s challenge is simple: identify the three activities that have produced your biggest results over the past year, then look at how much time you’ve actually reserved for them next week. Busy is an activity. Progress is an outcome. Focus on what moves the needle. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.
19 Aug

Your CRM Should Be Your Hardest-Working Employee

Your CRM should do a lot more than store names, email addresses, and phone numbers. It should remember what you can’t, keep opportunities from slipping through the cracks, and help you build stronger relationships at scale. In this episode of The 10-Minute Advantage, Robert breaks down why a great CRM should function like one of the hardest-working members of your team—tracking conversations, prompting follow-ups, organizing opportunities, and automating the repetitive work that can quietly consume your day. You’ll learn why consistent follow-up is one of the biggest growth opportunities most businesses overlook, how automation can actually make your customer experience more personal, and why a business that depends on someone’s memory will always struggle to scale. Today’s Advantage: Open your CRM—or even a simple spreadsheet—and identify three people you need to follow up with this week. Schedule those follow-ups, then identify one repetitive task your CRM could start handling for you. Because your CRM shouldn’t just remember your customers. It should remember for you. Thanks for spending ten minutes with The 10-Minute Advantage. Take what you learned today and put it to work—then share this episode with someone who could use the advantage, too. Keep the conversation going, explore more practical ideas, and join us again for another ten minutes designed to help you think smarter, work better, and keep moving forward.

Trailer

Welcome to The 10-Minute Advantage

Welcome to The 10-Minute Advantage—the podcast for busy professionals, business owners, marketers, sales leaders, and anyone who wants to grow their career or business without spending hours listening to podcasts. Every episode delivers one practical lesson in about 10 minutes. No filler. No long interviews. Just clear, actionable ideas you can put to work immediately. Throughout the series, we’ll cover topics like: • Leadership and management • Marketing and branding • Sales and customer experience • Productivity and personal development • Communication and influence • Entrepreneurship and business strategy • Career growth and professional skills Whether you’re driving to work, taking a walk, grabbing a cup of coffee, or squeezing in a quick break between meetings, you’ll walk away with one idea that helps you work smarter, lead better, and keep moving forward. If you’re looking for practical business education that respects your time, you’re in the right place. Subscribe today, and join me each week for another episode of The 10-Minute Advantage. Because sometimes, all it takes is ten minutes to change the rest of your day.

Business growth doesn’t have to be complicated—or time-consuming. Join Robert Coles each week for practical 10-minute lessons on marketing, AI, operations, sales, productivity, and business strategy that you can put into action immediately. One idea. Ten minutes. Better business.

Creator

Robert Coles
Years Active

2026
Episodes

17
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 The 10-Minute Advantage
Show Website

The 10-Minute Advantage