HOME       ABOUT US      SERVICES
PROCESS       BLOG       CONTACT
CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT / HTML
How to Use the Dream 100 Sales Strategy
Written by Marissa B. on July 8th, 2021
The concept of ideal clients has become somewhat overused. Yet, entrepreneurs who identify and leverage ideal clients can increase revenue with less effort. The Pareto Principle applies to everything from business to relationships. The Principle says that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts. The Dream 100 Sales Strategy, originated by Chet Holmes, asserts that 80% of income comes from 20% of clients.

Marketing and sales are the first two of the five pillars of business. Optimizing these pillars is essential to success. Say Yes! Enterprises (SYE) is a strong proponent of the Dream 100 Sales Strategy because it clarifies marketing and forces systemization into the sales process.

Dream clients, or ideal clients, are the 20% of clients responsible for 80% of income. This concept allows a business to focus on the most worthwhile and servable clients, rather than trying to fill the varied needs of many types of clients. Specificity is powerful.

Benefits of Focusing on Dream Clients

Think like a client. Are generic messages or tailored ones more compelling? Consider the difference between these two hooks:

“XYZ Fitness Brand is the best online fitness library for men.” vs. “XYZ Fitness Brand is the best online fitness library for busy men interested in gaining muscle mass without wasting hours in the gym.”

Neither hook is terrible, but the second one is likely to resonate with ideal clients because it is specific. Focus marketing efforts on raising awareness among a specific group of dream clients.

Always remember the principle of WIFIM (What’s In It For Me.) This is the question that your ideal clients subconsciously ask. When there is no clear answer, information fades out of memory. A memorable business must address the needs of ideal clients.

Targeted awareness campaigns make ideal clients understand why they want and need to work with a certain business. Then, these dream clients ask to work with the business instead of the other way around. The Dream 100 Strategy gets ideal clients, the people you want to work with, to want to work with you. Imagine getting 80% of your business from high-paying, low maintenance, easy to work with, ideal clients. That’s the dream!

How to Find Dream Clients

Dream clients do not have to be a permanent decision, but it is a serious decision to make. After all, much effort and expense go into targeting a specific group of people. Strike the balance between stifling analysis paralysis and making a serious decision on a whim.

Consider these questions:

Who do you like to work with?
The Dream 100 Strategy works best if working with these dream clients becomes effortless. These are the people your business feels built to serve. These are the people your team members can work with on autopilot. Serving dream clients involves processes the most inexperienced members of your team could write SOPs for.
Who generates the most income?
Money is not the only determining factor for finding dream clients, but these clients will account for the majority of revenue. There are two ways of approaching the financial aspect of dream clients. Ideal clients may be the highest paying clients or the lowest paying clients.

It is easier to convince people to spend less money than it is to convince them to spend more money. For example, many business coaches generate considerable revenue selling $5-10 eBooks. A portion of the customers who buy books would never fathom buying high ticket $5,000-$10,000 coaching programs. If more people are willing to buy the cheaper option, the low ticket offering can end up generating more revenue than high ticket services.

Still, there are many businesses that have found success working with one or two big-ticket clients per year. Consider what makes the most sense for your business. In most circumstances, business owners choose dream clients who are mid-to-high-ticket spenders.
Which clients generate the most work?
Be practical. If you strategize your business to attract a certain group of clients, you must be able to serve those clients. Some clients require more time and expertise. When deciding upon a Dream 100 Sales Strategy, consider if your business could handle an influx of dream clients.

For example, a car detailing business could identify clients who want ceramic coating as being their Dream 100. What if ceramic coating takes twice as long to apply as the average full detail? One of the three employees knows how to apply ceramic coating, and the facility only has enough space to service three cars at once. This is a logistical issue that a business owner would have to give serious consideration to before making a final decision.
Which clients are you most uniquely built to serve?
The key to reaching dream clients is to be attractive to them. Clients are not working with businesses for the fun of it. While there is an argument for social proof and other FOMO factors of working with one business over another, clients are most concerned about having their needs met. Your business must meet the needs of your dream clients.

When you think that you have found your ideal client, get super specific about what their needs are and how your business serves those specific needs.

Here is a sample of the kinds of questions you need answers to:

Why do these clients come to a business like mine?
What are the failures they may have already experienced to lead them to me?
What kinds of other businesses may these clients be working with?
What are their biggest concerns?
What is the specific job title of the decision-maker in this business that I need to reach out to?
What kind of lifestyle does that decision-maker have?
What are the things that my dream client gets excited about?

The answers to this line of questioning form the foundation for targeted marketing campaigns aimed at dream clients. In all of the messaging that goes along with this marketing, avoid speaking to a wide group of people. Speak to the decision-makers for dream clients and make direct mention of both the problems they face and the solutions you offer.

Implementing the Dream 100 Strategy

After identifying dream clients in abstract terms, bring the vision to fruition by making a tangible list of 100 ideal clients. These should be specific businesses with contact information. Rather than getting generalized contact information, identify the names of specific decision-makers within each organization.

Next, personalize the marketing approach with a two-pronged strategy. First, you will raise awareness through a super targeted ongoing digital marketing campaign. Many businesses have found success with this strategy using a combination of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Ad Roll.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps to identify people who work in decision-making roles with ideal clients. Sales Navigator can also help to build targeted marketing campaigns, and Ad Roll helps to save those audiences and target them outside of LinkedIn.

Tailored, hyperfocused advertisements reach the specific decision-makers who work for your 100 (or less) dream clients. This is much cheaper than wide targeted digital marketing campaigns, and it will yield specific results.

At the same time, build even more awareness by developing a personal rapport with your dream clients. Make direct contact with the individuals through more traditional and personal means. Some examples are comments on LinkedIn, postcards, emails, lunch and learns, and phone calls.

This is a long-term strategy. The goal is to build awareness and trust with ideal clients. This process will put a face to a name, keep the lines of communication open, and help to open a door.

This communication should not involve traditional sales pitches. Be a resource and a professional peer first. A hasty attempt at a hard sale, in this strategy, is like picking unripened fruit.

The Dream 100 Strategy is a long game. Results will not come next week or next month. Some of the results may not even come next year. The goal is to get the decision-makers within ideal client organizations to come to three conclusions.

“I know this company.”
“This company understands my needs.”
“I want to work with this company.”

These individuals already have their inboxes flooded with half-baked sales pitches. Stand out by focusing on building a rapport and addressing the client's needs first. In ideal circumstances, the dream client initiates the conversation that leads to them becoming a client.

Patience pays off. A well-planned Dream 100 list deserves special, undivided attention and investment for as long as necessary. The time spent getting to know the dream clients and their unique needs allows the business to fine-tune messaging and product offerings to be even more useful.

A Real-Life Example

SYE chose a dream client that differs from the original target audience. Income and ease of working with certain clients were not the key motivations for the decision. This dream client was born from an identified need in the market and an ability to fill that need.

As an acquisitions firm, the focus has always been to buy and sell businesses. The SYE team noticed that many businesses were not meeting the criteria to sell for a high valuation. These businesses needed specific improvements before SYE could invest in them. Sending the business owner away did not serve the needs of either party. This problem led to a new service.

Growth Acquisition Partnership (GAP) allows SYE to form a new entity with the business as a legitimate business partner. This partnership happens either in exchange for a monthly fee, equity in the business, or a combination of both. The experts at SYE work hand-in-hand with their new business partner to fix the specific problems that made the business less valuable. When the business sells, both partners benefit.

Despite it being far from the original goals of the company, GAP partners have emerged as SYE's dream clients. SYE still buys businesses and works with investors who want to buy businesses. Yet, marketing focuses on GAP partners, the Dream 100 clients. These partners make up the 20% of clients that can account for 80% of SYE's income.

With first-hand evidence of the value of the Dream 100 concept, SYE encourages partners to leverage the power of dream clients. Over time, this strategy bolsters the two pillars of marketing and sales. Revenue increases and business valuation follows. This is a small portion of the core strategies that SYE helps partners implement. To learn if GAP is the right solution for your business, explore some of our resources.

About Say Yes! Enterprises

Say Yes! Enterprises is an investment management company that acquires, builds, and sells companies that benefit shareholders, customers, team members and communities at large.
About Christopher Wick
Investor, 9X Award-Winning Entrepreneur, and 5X Best-Selling Author & Speaker

*Founder/Principal of businesses that have been featured by Huffington Post, ABC, NBC and Wall Street Select*

Christopher Wick is an award-winning entrepreneur who has built, bought and sold various companies relating to social media marketing, e-commerce, real estate, retail and investing.

Other Articles:

Work With Us Today!
Work With Us Today!
ABOUT 
Say Yes! Enterprises is an investment management company that acquires, builds, and sells companies that benefit shareholders, customers, team members and communities at large.
Say Yes! Enterprises is an investment management company that acquires, builds, and sells companies that benefit shareholders, customers, team members and communities at large.
CONTACT 
Say Yes! Enterprises
5900 Balcones Drive
STE 100 
Austin, TX 78731
Copyright © 2020 Say Yes! Enterprises | All Rights Reserved. 
Copyright © 2020 Say Yes! Enterprises | All Rights Reserved. 
ABOUT 
ABOUT 
Say Yes! Enterprises is an investment management company that acquires, builds, and sells companies that benefit shareholders, customers, team members and communities at large.
Say Yes! Enterprises is an investment management company that acquires, builds, and sells companies that benefit shareholders, customers, team members and communities at large.
CONTACT 
CONTACT 
Say Yes! Enterprises
5900 Balcones Drive, STE 100, Austin, TX 78731
Say Yes! Enterprises
5900 Balcones Drive, STE 100, Austin, TX 78731
   Email Us
   Email Us