What is it that separates good salespeople from great salespeople?
It’s probably not what you think.
A lot of times, when we think of a sales person, we think of the greasy used car salesman using pushy manipulation techniques. Or we think of Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry, Glen Ross” screaming “COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS!”
But in truth, the best sales people I know are nothing like that. They don’t rely on manipulation or intimidation to get results. They rely on relationships.
That’s why I was so fascinated when I learned about the Dream 100 technique, which focuses on identifying and building relationships as a path to business success. And it works for all types of businesses. You can give it a try yourself — start with our 4 week Dream 100 Challenge. Click here to download it now!
What is the Dream 100?
The Dream 100 is a concept first introduced by CHet Holmes in his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine. In it, he describes how he was able to double the ad sales of a magazine three years in a row using a technique he called the “Dream 100 Effort.”
He realized that out of the magazine’s database of advertisers, only 167 companies bought 95% of the advertising in the top four magazines in their market — yet none of those companies was advertising with his magazine at the time.
He started a relationship building campaign with these advertisers, and within a year, he was able to get 30 of them to start buying ads in his magazine. By the end of the third year, all 167 companies were buying ads in the magazine.
So, the Dream 100 is a mindset and a set of steps that anyone can follow to grow their business. You can use it to target your ideal customers, to identify media outlets and influencers who can give exposure to your brand, or you can use it to help you find affiliates who will sell your products and services for you. The possibilities are endless!
What the Dream 100 is NOT
While we’re on the subject of relationships, however, let’s be very clear what the Dream 100 is not about.
- It’s NOT about spamming. The “100” in the name refers to the idea of generating a tightly curated list of prospects that you go after — not opening up a phone book and going down the list. (Do they even make phone books any more?!) And it’s curated because these people are your perfect, dream clients or partners, not everybody that’s ever friended you on Facebook.
- It is NOT about proposing on the first date. This isn’t the sort of “relationship” you can build by sending one email and saying, “Hey! Want to work with me?” Maybe one out of 100 will say yes to that sort of approach. Instead, it’s about building up a true relationship with people. And that takes time.
- It’s NOT about pestering or annoying people. While you will have to be persistent, this isn’t about talking to people who don’t want to talk to you! As I said above, it’s about truly building a relationship so that people are pleased when they see your name in their email inbox, or your name on their caller ID.
In other words, this isn’t about a shortcut; it’s about building real relationships with real people. And there’s no way to spoof that or fast track it. It takes time and effort.
The Dream 100 Mindset
Which brings us to the Dream 100 mindset. As you can see, this technique can work for anyone in any field and bring huge success. But the key component is you. You have to be ready and willing to do the work.
The Dream 100 is as simple as building real relationships with a targeted group of people. But simple doesn’t mean easy. You’ve got to approach this with the right mindset:
- Treat your Dream 100 efforts as a marketing strategy in your business. That means allocating time, and in some cases money, to executing your strategy. Just like you would create a content calendar for blog posts or social media marketing, you’ll have to create an outreach calendar and stick to it.
- You have to dream big. There’s no point in spending this much time and effort to play small. I usually suggest people break their Dream 100 lists into tiers, like A list, B list, and so on. So shoot for the moon for your A listers! And then do the work to get there.
- You must be determined. The fact of the matter is that probably not all 100 of the people on your list will say yes. Maybe only one will. But the idea is that if they are the right people and businesses, even one yes will mean dramatic growth. Be determined and don’t be swayed by any perception of “failure.”
The truth is, with this technique, the only way to fail is not to try at all!
If you want to get started putting the Dream 100 to work in your business, click here to download our 4 week Dream 100 Challenge now! I promise that if you do the work, you will see incredible results.
