Principle 16

Hunting for Big Deals

Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs.

—Malcolm Forbes

In this chapter, you will learn that it takes the same amount of preparation, time, skill, and persistence to sell one widget as it does to sell 10,000 widgets. You will learn why it doesn't make sense to do business one at a time when, for the same effort, you can market your business in volume and continuously push the envelope as you explore what's possible. You'll gain the confidence needed to start at the top when calling on buyers and work your way down the ladder, instead of starting at the bottom and fighting your way to the top. You will learn how to hunt for “big elephant” prospects and get into the mind of perhaps the biggest elephant investor of our time, Mr. Warren Buffett.

Several years ago, I learned that working for just an hourly wage is to accomplish nothing other than to trade your most prized possession, your time, for money. Talk about a waste of time. As a young boy, I quickly learned that I could go off and get a job and be paid $3.35 per hour (minimum wage at the time), or I could sell my products or services and work a whole lot less and make a whole lot more.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I took a job flipping burgers at a local hangout called Country Ranch. This burger place served the best burgers and frozen cokes around. However, after I figured out the amount of time I was putting in to make only $3.35 per hour, I soon realized there had to be a better way. That better way was to get into sales.

In the winters of my earlier days, I would go door to door with my shovel in hand and sell homeowners on believing that my back was strong enough to shovel their driveways and my time was worth about $20. Most of these jobs took me about 30 to 45 minutes, and then I would go back up to the house, ring the door bell, and retrieve my $20 bill. I remember one huge storm we had in Michigan that winter where I did this all day long, and I made $200 in a day. Now for a 12-year-old kid, that is a lot of money. I remember taking this money and going down to the electronics store and purchasing my first boom box, complete with detachable speakers and a cassette player . . . . Wow, it didn't get any better than that.

During the summers, I would do the exact same thing, except instead of a shovel, my father let me borrow the family lawnmower (of course, only after our own lawn was mowed). I would then go throughout the neighborhood pushing our family mower while looking for homes with tall grass. I would do this anytime during the summer when I was bored, usually whenever I couldn't find any of the neighbor kids to play wiffle ball or home run derby. The life of being a kid—how I sometimes miss the simplicity of that lifestyle: my only concerns were what's for dinner, what time do I have to go to bed, and do those cute girls in my class like me as much as I like them. A pretty good life I must say.

Looking back at my youth and applying those lessons to my adult life of becoming an entrepreneur, the biggest “Aha!” moment I have had is that at a young age, I learned you could make far more money in sales than you can as an employee trading time for dollars. Not only that, but you become your own boss, set your own calendar, work whenever you are not playing wiffle ball, and have a much better life.

The lessons served me well because as soon as I graduated from college, I entered the sales field, selling corporate travel against other travel agencies. Next, I sold overnight air express against other delivery companies. Finally in my last sales career, I sold printed circuit boards against other circuit board manufacturers.

During those years, I had a huge awakening: As long as I left it up to someone else to manufacture the product (circuit boards) or perform the service (overnight air express), as the salesperson I could not control the finished and final experience for my customers. This final product or service was always left in the hands of other people. As a result, I can't tell you how many times while working in the air express business I had to call my contact and apologize for their payroll not showing up (this was before the days of direct deposit) due to an “Act of God,” which was usually just a snowstorm at the main hub in Ohio where hundreds of planes would fly each night, sort all the freight, and then return the next day with all of the packages. Also, I often would end up taking calls from Intel (my biggest client), explaining to them why their circuit boards would not be delivered on time, thereby causing them to miss their build schedule.

These continued headaches over the years led me to have two epiphanies: (1) If I were going to maximize my wealth and true earning abilities, then I needed to pursue a career in sales; and (2) I needed to be the one who creates the product or performs the services so I can be in complete control of the results my customer wants. As a result, I no longer sell for anyone else. What I do today is market my services as a professional keynote speaker, and as a book publishing, book marketing, and speaking coach. Additionally, I market copies of my book in large volumes throughout the world.

As a result of pursuing this model, I am the only one in complete control of the product or service that my clients experience. I am in control of my destiny, I am in control of my earning limits (or no limits), and I am the one ultimately in control of providing for my family. This last sentence is especially important to me because when I was laid off at 9/11 and again in 2002, I was left feeling I had no control over the situation.

The most important principle you as a future Affluent Entrepreneur can take away from hearing my story is that you too must create your own product or service so that you can be in complete control of your customers' level of satisfaction and your full income potential.

Selling in Volume

There is an old Native American tale where a grandfather and his grandson are standing atop a plateau looking down into the valley below and admiring all of the buffalo grazing. With excitement, the boy says to his grandfather, “Let's run down there and get us one of those buffalo.” The grandfather replies to his grandson, “No. Let's walk down there and get them all.”

This story illustrates what I'm talking about when I say “hunting for big elephants.” Instead of looking to sell just one of your products or services, I am asking you to think outside of the box, expand your level of thinking, and sell large volumes of your products or services to single buyers.

Easier said than done. I know—I feel your pain. However, two books that I highly encourage you to read that will further drive home this point are Strategic Selling and Conceptual Selling, both by coauthors Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman, since both books will help you to understand the importance of always starting at the top. Find the individual who has the ability to authorize the check, sign the purchase order, or move forward with the sale.

Let me tell you about two of the biggest sales I have made in my career. The first was selling 40,000 copies of my first book, Creating Your Own Destiny, to a network marketing company. The second was actually selling the rights of my first book to the world's number one business publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Let's start with the first example. In reading Dan Poynter's book, The Self-Publishing Manual, I learned that the commonly accepted number of books that needed to be sold in order for a book to be considered a bestseller was 35,000 copies. As a result, I set my sights on achieving this number ASAP. I found and interviewed book brokers who had relationships with direct selling companies that bought books by the tens of thousands for their Book-of-the-Month programs. As soon as I learned about this opportunity, I bet I sent in 20 sample preview copies of the book, let them know I could be flexible and work within their budget, and finally advised my front-line representative that I would authorize whatever she said it would take to make the deal happen.

When I said all this, I fully understood that many in the book selling business believe you should never accept less than $1 per book in net profit. Well, that was their model, not mine. I told my book broker I would do whatever it took to sell this volume and move 40,000 copies of my book as fast as I could. I was eager to make this sale happen and become an overnight bestseller. Well, long story short, word came back from my broker that after printing, shipping, and distribution, I would only earn 25 cents per book, or approximately $6,000. I immediately thought, Literally, I have less than 30 minutes into this project so why not sign off on the deal.

The so-called experts in the book marketing business advised me not to do the deal, but I went against their opinion and did the deal anyway. Later I learned that if I hadn't done the deal, three other authors were behind me, all ready to pull the trigger on their books. So I did the deal, and within four months of self-publishing my book, it was a best-seller. This deal and the prestige that went with having a best-selling book allowed me to increase my speaking, coaching, and consulting fees right from the get-go. The rest is history—it was that deal that gave me the confidence to pursue this business eventually on a full-time basis.

The next rule of thumb that you as the Affluent Entrepreneur must apply to your business is always to start at the top; when doing this, often the top person will make the introductions on lower levels to allow for the large “elephant” deals to go through.

Therefore, after selling an estimated 150,000 books in five languages over nine plus years, I realized that I had pretty much exhausted all of my resources in my quest to sell one million books and that if I were to achieve that goal, I needed to partner with one of the world's biggest publishers, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., the elephant of the business book publishing industry. My research found that Wiley was roughly 200 years old and did something like $3 billion per year in sales. Additionally, it is the number one business publisher in the world, owning about 15 percent of the business book market. From the get-go, it was my goal to land a publishing deal with this phenomenal company.

Therefore, after several unsuccessful attempts using literary agents, I learned that, according to the Publishers Marketing Association (PMA), only 80 percent of book deals are done directly with literary agents. To me, that meant that 20 percent of book publishing deals were done directly with publishing companies without using an agent, thereby allowing the author to save 15 percent on royalties and 15 percent on the advance. Obviously, I decided going solo was the way to attract a publisher's attention.

My next step in the process was watching a video on www.DailySuccessStream.com and listening to Mark Victor Hansen summarize how he attended BookExpo America and went booth to booth handing out review copies of his book. I figured that I could do the exact same thing. This process reminds me of the anonymous quote, “If you want what others have, do what they did, and you will get what they got!”

I followed Mark Victor Hansen's lead. I booked a speaking engagement in Manhattan, where the next BookExpo America was being held. Then I reserved a hotel room, secured my airline ticket, and I was in business. Six weeks later, I landed at New York's La Guardia airport, went into Manhattan, and checked into my hotel room. Once checked in, I went over to scout the floor layout of the Jacob Javits Convention Center to determine where Wiley's booth was located. I also took note of several of the other major publishers, all of which seemed to be in the same general area.

I returned to my hotel room, put on my suit and tie, and proceeded to go deliver my speech that night. Case in point, whenever I travel, I always attempt to deliver a speech while on a trip so I can make the trip (or at least a portion of it) tax deductible. As an Affluent Entrepreneur, you must also combine business with leisure if you are to minimize your tax burden and maximize your business.

I woke up early the next morning and took a cab over to the Jacob Javits Convention Center after a pit stop at the post office to pick up boxes of my book. I arrived and rented out space on the lower level reserved for luggage and such. I used this space as home base and left my boxes of books there. I put 20 hard copies in a shoulder bag and went booth to booth handing out copies to key representatives (typically acquisition editors) of major publishers. I was surprised at how many twenty-somethings right out of college advised me that I couldn't hand out books on the exhibit floor. I thought to myself, This is what they are trained to do, but I am not going to let someone else's stick-to-the-rules mentality stop me from accomplishing my mission.

After 60 minutes or so of handing out books to acquisition editors and networking with others in attendance, I stopped at the John Wiley & Sons, Inc. booth, which must have been bigger than my house. I bet their booth was 4,000 to 5,000 square feet and had 20 to 30 representatives from Wiley available and eager to help or answer questions.

I scanned the booth looking for the oldest, baldest (and I write this with no disrespect), wisest representative. I found my man; he was probably in his late fifties or maybe early sixties, and his name badge read Senior VP of Sales. I gave him a copy of my self-published hardcover Creating Your Own Destiny, and I advised him that I had been on the cover of USA TODAY and had sold more than 150,000 copies over nine years. I also told him I had a speaking engagement in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, later that fall, and I had no idea how I was going to get 500 copies of my book into Malaysia through customs. I finally advised him that after all these years, I was ready to partner with a world-class organization that could help me better achieve my book-marketing goals.

He looked me in the eye, shook my hand, and gave me his business card as I gave him three copies of my book. And he told me to come back in 60 minutes when the VP of Acquisitions would be available to meet with me. I was thrilled, tried to contain my enthusiasm, and left the booth. I must tell you that those 60 minutes seemed like they took forever.

When I came back 60 minutes later, the VP of Acquisitions asked me to step outside into the hallway so we could talk. Once in the hallway, he asked me whether the process of selling 150,000 books was easy or not. I could not tell where he was going with this or why he asked the question.

I responded with the honest-to-God truth and advised him that it was the most difficult thing career-wise I had ever done. I advised him that I had risked everything for this pursuit of my business except my faith and my family. I risked my perfect credit score, my house, everything. He said, “Good,” and then advised that had I answered any other way, he would have questioned my genuineness.

He looked me in the eye and then said, “Yes, I think we can do a deal with you. I will send you a sample blueprint of a book proposal for you to use as a guideline. Complete the proposal, send it back, and we will make something happen.” I asked him, “How much time do I have to complete the proposal?” thinking he would say a month or so. His answer was, “How about the end of the week?”

I gulped and thought, Okay, he means business. I flew home and on Monday morning started my proposal. I spent 14 hours writing, rewriting, and editing my proposal to turn it in two days later on that Wednesday. That was during the summer of 2009, and during that summer, Wiley did a two-book deal with me on my first book, Creating Your Own Destiny, and my second book, the book you are now reading, The Affluent Entrepreneur.

I share this detailed story with you for one reason and one reason only. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is a $3 billion per year company that is over 200 years old. It is a big elephant, and I am encouraging you to pursue sales with big elephants. What are, and/or who are, the biggest prospects in your industry that you can pursue and land so that in doing so, you will become an Affluent Entrepreneur?

Summary

If you want to become an Affluent Entrepreneur, you must think like one and not focus on selling your products one at a time, but develop a big elephant mentality and sell in volume. Identify the biggest buyer of your products or services in your marketplace and be bold and go after that big elephant prospect. Remember the grandfather talking to his grandson who said, “How about we walk down there and get them all?” That is the kind of mentality you need to develop if you are to become an Affluent Entrepreneur.

Buffett's rules are never to lose money, to bet big, and not to swing all that often, but when you do swing, swing for the fences. The material in this chapter may be the most important in this book because by considering the ratio of the client to its wealth potential, you can determine whether an opportunity is a big elephant worth pursuing. Always remember, that big elephants will feed a lot of people for a long time, so I challenge you to pursue those big elephant prospects and you will be on your way to achieving your personal wealth goals.