How a Hollywood Producer Taught Me to Double Sales: The Dream 100

When I went out on my own as a marketing consultant, I realized I knew a lot about design, web development, and project management, but not nearly enough about actual marketing. So I started consuming everything I could find from copywriters and marketing experts.

The most valuable strategy I found came from an unexpected place. Not a top-tier copywriter, but a Hollywood producer named Chet Holmes.

Chet was a 5th-degree black belt in karate who wrote and produced feature-length movies. He was also a marketing and sales expert who consulted for over 60 Fortune 500 companies. The guy always conceptualized the trailer before he started making the movie. He thought in terms of hooks first, everything else second.

The best thing I learned from Chet is what he called the Dream 100 strategy.

The Origin Story

Mid-90s. Chet Holmes is working for billionaire investor Charlie Munger, tasked with turning a small newspaper from a laggard into a leader in its industry.

Chet's job was selling ad space, but the paper didn't have great readership and didn't stand out. He had a database of 2,200 potential advertisers and was making over a hundred cold calls a day. He wasn't getting anywhere. Most of his leads hadn't even heard of the paper.

Then he noticed something. A saleswoman at the company was outselling everyone else by a ridiculous margin. Three times the sales of the next best person.

He took her to lunch and asked how she did it.

Her answer was simple: she only focused on ideal clients. She told him most of his 2,200 leads were worthless. A small percentage was responsible for nearly all the ad buying in the industry. Focus on those, ignore the rest.

Chet ran the numbers. She was right. 95% of the market's ad space was bought by just 167 companies.

Those 167 became his dream clients.

Four Months of Nothing

With a smaller list, Chet could get creative. He needed to get the attention of major players who had no reason to care about his little newspaper. So he used curiosity.

He sent his 167 prospects "lumpy mail" every two weeks. Odd packages, the kind you can't ignore. He followed up with personal phone calls twice a month.

The first four months produced zero results. Charlie Munger pulled him into a meeting about the lack of progress. Chet convinced him to stick with it.

In the fifth month, the first domino fell. Chet closed a deal with Xerox. A 15-page full-color spread, the biggest deal the industry had ever seen. Everyone on his list noticed.

Over the next five months, he closed 28 more deals. Within about 12 months, he had doubled the sales volume of nine divisions he was managing for Munger. He kept doubling some of them year after year using the same approach.

At one point Munger pulled him into a meeting just to make sure they weren't doing anything illegal. He couldn't believe the numbers were real.

How to Run the Dream 100

The idea is straightforward. Instead of marketing to everyone, identify your top 100 (or so) ideal clients and focus all your energy on winning them over.

You want the clients who could transform your business if you landed them. The ones where a single deal would give you the social proof to unlock everything else.

Here's how to do it:

1. Research your market. Build a big list of every prospect or potential client you can find. Go wide. Google, directories, databases, whatever is relevant to your industry.
2. Define your criteria. What makes someone a dream client? Think about revenue potential, branding value, partnerships they could open up, long-term upside. Be ambitious.
3. Pick your Dream 100. Filter your big list down to the ones that fit your criteria. These are the only people you're going to focus on. Learn their names. Study their businesses.
4. Get their attention. Come up with a plan to make them notice you. The goal is curiosity. You want them wondering who you are, not deleting your email. Think about what would be impossible for them to ignore.
5. Build the relationship. Once you have their attention, provide value. Solve problems. Be useful. Follow up consistently. Use a CRM or a schedule to stay disciplined.
6. Close the sale. Depending on your industry, this could take a few touches or it could take months. The relationship does most of the heavy lifting.
7. Keep going. That first sale gives you credibility with everyone else on the list. Use it. Stay persistent, refresh your criteria, and update the list over time.

Why It Works

When Chet had 2,200 leads, he was spread too thin. A hundred cold calls a day and nothing to show for it. When he narrowed down to 167, he could put real thought and effort into each one.

That's the core of it. You can't build meaningful relationships with thousands of prospects at once. But you can with a hundred. And when one of those hundred is a big name, closing that deal creates a chain reaction.

I found this strategy early in my marketing career and I've used it ever since, both for selling my own consulting services and with clients across different industries. My favorite thing about it is the clarity. Starting a marketing plan is overwhelming when you're looking at a huge list of potential targets. The Dream 100 makes it simple. Pick your best prospects, focus on them, and don't waste your time on the rest.