The Ultimate Sales Machine - Chet Holmes [61]
I’ve used this approach in hundreds of cases, especially for myself. I’ve gotten 60 of the Fortune 500 as clients through the pigheaded determination I’m recommending for you. And to tell you the truth, most of them were not that difficult to get. The point is that massive and diligent follow-up can penetrate just about any company if you are determined. One of the hardest of all was Jay Abraham, author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got. I have training programs for business owners and he has a large database of business owners that buy his training programs. I decided that I wanted to partner with him to mutually co-market to his and my list. I hit this guy with a phone call or letter every other week for two solid years. Finally, after two years, Jay’s then business manager called me up and invited me to have lunch with Jay. I flew to Los Angeles and had lunch with Jay, and the game was afoot. I’ve estimated that the first lunch with Jay has easily been worth over $15 million to me over the years. Jay became an extraordinary partner who not only made me a ton of money, but also taught me a great deal about thinking out of the box.
Most all of my other large clients were much easier to get—most within three to six months, some with one phone call. Here’s how I got the chairman of a $100 billion company on the phone with a single try.
I decided that I wanted Wells Fargo Bank as a client and called the chairman and CEO of the company. To my utter shock, he called me right back 10 minutes later. Here I was expecting my usual three to six months of hard labor, and the man just called me right back. He tried to turn me down for a meeting about four or five times on that phone call, but I persisted until he finally said, “How’s tomorrow at 3:00?” I sputtered and took the meeting. On my way to the meeting, I stopped at three of their branches, looking to open a business checking account, and was able to report to him about my experience and how I thought I could improve it. I got the account. This is to say that you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get 99 percent of your dream clients. There will be that 1 percent that take forever but even those can be had if you’re committed.
Penetrating Hollywood
I wrote a screenplay entitled Emily’s Song, a touching, sweeping drama about a singer who goes from rags to riches. After getting many very positive reactions, I decided that I was going to sell this screenplay in Hollywood. I knew nothing about the entertainment field, the players, how every thing worked, and so on.
I bought the issue of Premiere magazine that lists “the 100 most powerful people in Hollywood.” Gee, there it was, my Dream 100 list, and someone had already done the work for me. Then I subscribed to Hollywood Creative Directory, which gives you all the contact information for anyone of substance in Hollywood. Next I had one of my assistants make up index cards for me with all their contact data, and I began my process.
I called the CEOs of all the major studios, including Paramount, Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, and Sony Pictures. Using the techniques we’ll go over in Chapter Nine, I was able to get seven out of 11 of the biggest CEOs in Hollywood on the telephone. I then went after every major agency and, finally, after the agents who represented the artists that I thought would make great leads for my movie. Basically, I was turned down 38 times with various methods of rejection, the most common being the words, “We pass, but thank you for your submission.”
Then one day I got a call from perhaps the most powerful music agent in all of Hollywood. At the time, I approached him because he handled Shania Twain, Céline Dion, and Faith Hill, among others—any one of whom would’ve made a great lead to play the main character,