As a business owner, CEO, or sales manager, you know firsthand how challenging it can be to bring in big clients and close big deals.
But what if there was an effective sales strategy specifically designed to help you do so?
Enter the Dream 100 Strategy –a proven method used by some of the biggest companies across industries to land their dream clients and ultimately boost their long-term success.
The Dream 100 Strategy is an innovative, powerful, and practical approach used in sales and marketing. Leveraged correctly, it can be instrumental in opening up new opportunities with large businesses by positioning yourself as the perfect partner.
In this blog post, we’ll explain everything you need to know about harnessing the immense power of The Dream 100 Strategy.
From refining your list of targets to developing strategies that engage potential customers, we’ll uncover why employing this approach could be invaluable when securing large client opportunities.
So, if you’re ready to take your sales game up a notch – let’s dive right in.
The Origins of the Dream 100 Strategy (or How The Dream 100 Strategy Got Started)
The Dream 100 Strategy was developed and popularized by (the late) entrepreneur, speaker, and business advisor Chet Holmes in the mid-1990s. According to Holmes, the strategy was designed to help companies target large businesses that would be most beneficial for them to partner with.
Chet Holmes worked for Charlie Munger, one of the most celebrated investors in the world. He was a salesman at Munger’s company, where he had to make a hundred calls per day. However, he wasn’t happy with the results.
He noticed that the top salesperson in the company was a woman making three times as many sales as the runner-up. Wanting to learn her secret, he repeatedly asked her for help.
One day, the woman finally gave in and took him to lunch.
She explained that her secret involved only focusing on ideal clients.
With this new knowledge, Holmes went through his list of 2,200 leads and chose 167 of the most promising to focus on.
Fast forward six months… And Holmes didn’t close a single deal.
Surprised?
Munger thought so as well. When he reached out to Holmes to find out what was wrong, Holmes asked for Munger’s trust.
Five minutes later, Holmes closed the first deal. And in the next six months, he completed 11 more, including some of the largest orders in the company’s history.
Chet Holmes says:
The goal of the Dream 100 is to take your ideal buyers from “I’ve never heard of this company” to “What is this company I keep hearing about?” to “I think I’ve heard of that company” to “Yes, I’ve heard of that company” to “Yes, I do business with that company.”
Holmes went on to develop The Dream 100 Sales Strategy, a more affordable and effective way to land dream clients.
(From the Ultimate Sales Machine YouTube Channel: “Our founder Chet Holmes provides the story of the Dream 100 strategy and how it came into being while he was working for Charlie Munger.”)
Understanding the Dream 100 Strategy
Dream 100 is based on the idea that it’s more effective to focus sales efforts on a smaller number of dream clients than trying to reach a larger number of prospects.
Concentrating on dream clients specifically can create a powerful and focused approach tailored directly to them.
Essentially, when selling dream services or products, you should determine your dream clients first and then come up with an approach that meets their needs.
This involves researching dream customers, understanding their buying or decision-making process, and creating sales strategies tailored specifically for them.
A dream client could be a large corporation or an individual in the top one percent of their industry—anyone who would majorly impact your bottom line if they chose you as their partner.
When pursuing these dream customers, it’s important to have the plan to make contact with them and gain their trust to secure their business.
To do this successfully, using the Dream 100 Strategy means focusing solely on those ideal prospects, not just any leads but only those who will make the biggest difference in your business success – whether it’s revenues or brand recognition.
This way, you don’t waste time chasing after unqualified prospects that might lead nowhere.
By utilizing this method thoughtfully and strategically, businesses have found success repeatedly in acquiring big clients that propel them into even greater growth opportunities.
That’s why so many companies continue today to rely upon The Dream 100 Strategy as an invaluable sales tool for securing dream clients –one capable of elevating their business into realms they never dreamed possible before!
A Deeper Dive Into the Dream 100 Strategy
To fully appreciate The Dream 100 Strategy, you first have to understand that there are two types of ideal clients:
- Great clients
- Dream clients
You’ll always have many more “great clients” than “dream clients” – but the dream clients will make up 60%–80% of your revenue. It’s the 80/20 rule in action: “80% of your results come from only 20% of your clients.”
The Dream 100 Sales Strategy is a balance of attracting both great and dream clients.
The Dream 100 Sales Strategy is a balance of attracting both great and dream clients. The strategy consists of seven essential steps:
- Develop a strategic plan for your Dream 100.
- Determine your Dream 100 client profile.
- Create your Dream 100 list.
- Design your Dream 100 marketing collateral.
- Design your Dream 100 marketing plan.
- Train your sales staff on the Dream 100 Strategy.
- Launch your Dream 100.
Check out this related article on the 80/20 principle, also known as the Pareto principle, which states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.
You can apply the 80/20 rule in your business to highlight the importance of focusing on the most impactful and valuable activities to maximize efficiency and success.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these seven steps:
Step 1: Develop a Strategic Plan for Your Dream 100
With a clear framework present, you need a strategic approach for finding your ideal clients.
The key here isn’t to come up with a complex processes for the strategy. In fact, the very opposite is true.
You need to keep things simple and straightforward to avoid bottlenecks and confusion.
Of course, a strategic plan isn’t a document that you create once and file away somewhere. It’s got to be a live document that your team will be working from. That’s part of the reason for making the plan simple and easy to understand for all.
You can use a range of software tools to develop your strategic plan. Alternatively, you can go old school and use pen and paper. It really doesn’t matter how you approach it, so long as you have a plan.
Step 2: Determine Your Dream 100 Client Profile
As they work on defining their ideal clients, the downfall for many business owners is an over-reliance on the broadest categories like revenue, the title of the decision maker, etc.
While that’s important, when it comes to your Dream 100 clients, the more relevant, targeted, and personal your message – the higher the conversion rate.
Take into consideration the finest details of your ideal client’s life…
- What are their buying habits?
- What frustrations and stresses keep them up at night?
- Where do they go to solve their problems?
- What are the ultimate goals they set for themselves?
These are only some of the questions you must answer when developing your Dream 100 best client profile.
Of course, you should also focus on how your company can uniquely benefit them…
Go through your top clients and find out what characteristics make them ideal.
For most companies, 20% of the clients at the top contribute 80% of the revenue.
What attracts such clients to your company?
What other Dream 100 targets can you identify that would dramatically move the needle in your business?
Going forward, you’ll focus on everything that makes you want to work with these clients. It could be their story, persona, or even geographical location.
You should explore as much detail as possible while creating your best client profile.
Step 3: Create Your Dream 100 List
Having determined your best client profile, it’s time to make your Dream 100 list. This list should contain all the clients that fit your criteria.
As Chet Holmes says:
“If there were 100 clients that, if you’ve got them all, you could dramatically increase your business...”
Depending on the size of your market, you may not hit 100 companies that you want to work with… But the list can easily just have 20, 50, or however many businesses that meet the criteria. The number doesn’t matter nearly as much as the details attached to each.
This means that you’re going to have to use due diligence in defining those clients. On top of naming the your ideal clients, you’re going to need information like:
- Contact person
- Title
- Phone number, email, mailing address
- Social media handles (like LinkedIn and Twitter)
Also, try your best to gather as many other relevant details as you can, such as looking at professional bios to see what awards/recognitions a company or leader has earned, recent articles mentions, books published, etc.
Doing so will inform you about who you’ll be talking to.
Get to know your ideal clients, and you’ll have a much higher chance of closing the deal.
Step 4: Design Your Dream 100 Marketing Collateral
The fact is that only 3% of your sellable market is ready to buy right now…
Because of this, you want a strategy that puts you on their radar, allows you to stay top of mind, and preemptively positions you as the obvious choice the moment they find themselves ready to buy what you have to offer.
For Dream 100 Strategies, this begins with your Dream 100 client becoming familiar with who you are…
To start, you want to retarget the entire list of Dream 100 clients (and those in the company that influence decisions) on platforms such as Adroll, Facebook, Google Display Network, and LinkedIn. The goal is to get them to say: “I see this company everywhere!”
Familiarity breeds trust.
Then you want to reach out to them using an omni-channel approach…
We work with our business coaching clients to develop a strategy that includes:
- LinkedIn Voice Message
- Telephone
- Direct Mail
But we’re not talking about a “one-size fits all” approach like many outbound prospecting sales strategies.
For a Dream 100 client, you’ve got to do your research with an eye on making your marketing more creative, personal, and inviting.
Check out our related article on direct mail, “Is Direct Mail Marketing Still an Effective Strategy in an Increasingly Digital World?”
Step 5: Design Your Dream 100 Marketing Plan
Once you’ve defined your marketing collateral, it’s time to plan ahead. This means creating a firm marketing schedule to stay top of mind.
In addition, your marketing implementation should be systematic and repeatable. The easiest way to make this happen is to create a marketing calendar and fill it with all your activities.
In the first month, for example, you could plan on pre-heating the list with retargeting and engaging with them (liking/commenting) on LinkedIn.
The next month, perhaps use email, make a LinkedIn connection, and a phone call. Whatever your marketing collateral is, spread it throughout the calendar and execute accordingly.
Make sure you create a lead list inside of LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Several times a week, like and comment on their posts. This is an additional way to stay in front of them while, at the same time, giving them something they want (i.e., engagement).
Remember, this is a long-term strategy – you’re not going into this with the idea that you’ll get the results of your Dream 100 Strategy right away.
But as the saying goes: patience pays off.
Step 6: Train Your Sales Staff on The Dream 100 Strategy
According to a survey, words account for only 7% of communication. The rest isn’t about what you say, but how you say it…
A big mistake that many companies make is not putting enough effort into training. If your staff isn’t fully prepared to handle your ideal clients, so much of your marketing efforts will go to waste.
Because of this, your sales staff should rehearse their scripts until they’re 100% confident in their skills. Even a slight change in tone (or hint that there’s a “pitch” coming) can have an outsized impact.
Remember, Dream 100 clients aren’t a one-size fits all situation… This strategy requires a deep understanding of the client and why working with you is the best decision that they could make for their business.
Step 7: Launch Your Dream 100
If you’ve executed the first six steps properly, this one should be as easy as it gets. With a tight marketing plan in place, you’re going to execute it for months to come.
In the first six months or so, you’re building momentum. Persistence and patience are paramount here. So many businesses gave up just before their marketing starts working.
Believe in your strategy and stay faithful to the plan.
Setting suitable objectives and identifying strategies or opportunities are vital to growing a business. Nevertheless, you need to turn your ideas into actions if you want to achieve your end goals. Read about tactical planning in this related piece.
What Makes the Dream 100 Strategy so Effective?
The Dream 100 Strategy can be effective for a number of reasons:
- It helps businesses focus their efforts on a specific group of high-value prospects: By identifying and prioritizing the 100 individuals or organizations most likely to be interested in their products or services, businesses can more effectively allocate their resources and increase their chances of making successful sales.
- It allows businesses to create targeted and effective marketing campaigns: By focusing on a specific group of prospects, companies can create customized marketing campaigns that are more likely to resonate with those prospects and increase the chances of making a sale.
- It enables businesses to build relationships with key influencers and decision-makers: Many of the prospects on a Dream 100 list are likely to be influential individuals or organizations within their industries. By building relationships with these prospects, businesses can gain access to valuable networks and resources to help them grow and succeed.
- It helps businesses measure their progress and identify areas for improvement: By keeping track of their efforts and the results they see as they work through their Dream 100 list, businesses can measure their progress and identify any areas where they may need to adjust their sales and marketing strategy.
Going Long: A Final Word About The Dream 100 Strategy
The Dream 100 Strategy isn’t for those who are looking for instant gratification. It’s for serious business leaders looking to achieve great things in the long run.
As you can see, there’s nothing complicated about the strategy. Time, effort, and attention to detail are all you’re going to need.
When defining your ideal client profile, be thorough and gather as much information as possible.
This will allow you to tailor your marketing strategy to the most ideal clients. All that’s left after that is perseverance – and to keep working at it.
Schedule a free strategy session if you need help executing the Dream 100 Strategy.
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