5 builders who never spoke to each other

Keep a named list of dream accounts and work it

Write down the specific companies you want, work out who inside each one decides, and treat winning them as a standing project run over months rather than a campaign. Most of the money in a market usually sits in a small subset of that list.

The method

1. 01

   Write down a fixed, named list of the clients you most want and treat winning them as a standing project.

2. 02

   Do not work a long prospect list evenly; first find out which small subset accounts for nearly all the spending in your market, then put everything into those accounts.

3. 03

   Work your shortlist with gifts, lunches and relentless repetition over months rather than a single mailer.

4. 04

   When you get thirty seconds with a decision-maker, lead with a quantified saving you can prove you have already looked into.

5. 05

   Open the follow-up call by naming the senior person who referred you, so the gatekeeper has no reason to screen you out.

What it returned

• 100

  Chet Holmes' method is known as the Dream 100

• 2,200

  Chet Holmes was handed 2,200 potential advertisers in 1981 and discovered 167 of them drove 95% of all ad sales, so he abandoned the rest

• 104

  Xerox eventually booked 104 full-colour spreads, called the industry's largest deal, and the magazine went from 16th in its market to double its nearest rival in three years

• Batansky told the CEO he had read the annual report and could save them several million on real estate; the CEO handed him the property executive's name and Avocat won its largest ever account

Sources

• Episode 88: How Delia Monk earned $100,000 in *Her First Year Freelancing* (!!) From Cold Agency Outreach - Double Your FreelancingDelia Monk · doubleyourfreelancing.com · AI-Generated Summary: · 2023-10-23
• The Ultimate Guide to Building Client Relationships - Double Your FreelancingAustin Church · doubleyourfreelancing.com · Make a Top 20 list. · 2016-09-12
• When you're building a product, whose opinion should you listen to?Justin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Who you should listen to (and how you should listen) · undated
• “The Dream 100”Harry Dry · Marketing Examples · “The Dream 100” · undated
• One thousand replies to cold emailsHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · One thousand replies to cold emails · undated
• Shutting Down my “IT-Manager-for-Hire” BusinessJames Cort · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated