Show notes
In a special Saturday edition of the Top Secrets podcast, David Blaise explains to co-host Jay McFarland why 100K per month in promo sales is not just doable, it's also a decent, worthy goal for promo distributors who aren't there yet.
Comment below and let us know if you agree or disagree.
David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the significance of each $100,000 in promotional product sales. Welcome back, Jay.
Jay: Hey, it's great to be back with you. David, and I really want to talk about this topic a little bit. I know you've put a lot of emphasis on that first hundred thousand dollars.
What makes that so significant, so special?
David: Well, that's a great question. I mean, it's the first hundred thousand dollars, it's every a hundred thousand dollars thereafter. And there's no real magic significance, I don't think. But if you bring in a thousand dollars sale or a $2,000 sale or a $5,000 sale -- and I'm talking in the promotional products industry primarily, because that's who this material was put together for -- it's helpful. It's good.
It feels good to bring those sales in. But, ultimately that can be done in a day or a couple of days or a week. And I think sometimes it's just good to have sort of benchmarks that are out there a little bit. So generating a hundred thousand dollars in sales of promotional products for most people is an accomplishment.
Whether that happens in the course of six months, or three months, or a month, or a week, or a day. It doesn't usually happen for most people in a day. The industry at large generally does about a quarter of a million dollars in annual sales. Most salespeople do roughly that on average in the industry. So each hundred thousand dollars is actually pretty significant.
And I think that when you look at trying to make an impact and trying to generate the revenue that you need to be able to support the lifestyle that you'd like to become accustomed to, it's good to sort of stretch yourself a bit and to ask yourself. Okay. What am I doing to get to my next Hundred K in revenue or my first, if you're just getting started.
Hitting that first hundred thousand is usually pretty significant for people.
Jay: Yeah. I'm guessing most people remember that first hundred thousand. But I think you're right. You know, were they looking at that moment as benchmark? Were they saying " this is going to be significant and this is our plan on how we're going to reach it."
Or was it kind of haphazard and what a great milestone, but what did they do ahead of time to get to that point?
David: Yeah, and that's the question that each person has to ask themselves. What did I do to get me to this point? How long did it take to get there as well? I mean, there are some people who spend, and whether they start out part-time or whatever it is they're doing, some people spend six months or a year or a couple of years even before they hit six figures in gross sales.
When you're doing that, you're not earning a lot of money. Some people start out and they're doing it part-time. They're doing it on the side. So if they generate a hundred grand in gross sales, it seems like a really significant accomplishment for them.
But if you look at the amount of time that it took to get there, sometimes you have to say, okay, well could I have done that faster? And for people who really want to make their mark and want to be able to generate significant sales, I think that it's just a decent sort of benchmark to look at, to say, "okay, how long is it going to take me to get to my next a hundred thousand in gross sales? Is it going to take me a year? Is it going to take me six months? It's going to take me a quarter. Is it going to take me a month? How long will it take and how quickly could I do it again?"
Because that will determine ultimately what your gross sales are going to be, which determines your gross profits, which then determines your personal income.
Jay: Yeah, I'm just curious, as you're thinking about this, you talk about maybe starting out part-time, how do you judge?
How do you know how much time should it take to get to that first hundred k?
I think initially it may be hard to figure out what those milestones are and how you're going to achieve them. Once you've achieved them, I think you can understand better. Okay, let's shorten that time and those kind of things.
David: Yeah. Well, I do a lot of work with people in the industry, and some of them are just starting out. And many of them don't even really have any good solid benchmarks in place. They're not thinking, "okay, well I'm targeting X amount of revenue."
They think to themselves, "okay, well, I know this industry to some extent. I like the products. I think that I can talk about the products intelligently. I know people need them. Therefore, I'm going to go out and I'm going to talk to people about it, and I'll see what happens."
And an approach like that. Can work, but it's not likely to work nearly as well as if you've got some really solid figures in mind. Plus of course, a plan to get from here to there.
Because if you're just sort of going out to see what happens, then anything that happens at any given day or any given month is like, "okay, well that's what happened."
But when you start to put some of these benchmarks in place and you really come up with a solid plan for customer acquisition and for generating the types of sales that you want to generate to get to your numbers, it really becomes a whole different thing.
Jay: Yeah, and I think it's important for people to know, these are benchmarks. It's not like you're devastated if you fall short, that's a learning experience as well. And then you can adjust along the way and make your systems better.
Or like we've talked about in the past, look at what type of clientele you're focusing on to figure out ways to get to those benchmarks more efficiently.
David: Yeah. And, exactly. A benchmark is something that you're saying, "okay, I would like to get to this point, and how long is it likely to take me to get there if I continue doing what I'm doing." Or are there things that I could change right now that would get me to that number more quickly?
And if you just approach each day like, okay, it's another new day and I'm just going to go out there. I'm going to pound the pavement, or I'm going to hit the phones, or whatever it is that I do to generate business, and I'm going to see what comes in, then you really have no idea of what you're shooting for.
So, again, there's nothing really magical about the idea of a hundred thousand dollars. Other than that, it's significant enough, generally, to get our attention to say, okay, yeah, that's worth pursuing for me.
Jay: Yeah, and I think also it's something that you can set a goal for and then. I think what you're saying is you work backwards from there. Okay, we want a hundred thousand by this point. That means I need to make 20 calls a day, or I need to send out this much every week, or, you know, make this many new contacts. Work backwards to figure out how you're going to achieve that milestone.
David: Yeah. And one of the reasons that I put together the ebook, How to Make a Hundred Thousand Dollars in Promotional Product Sales... every month. That's the full title, How to Make $100,000 Every Month in Promotional Product Sales.
The reason I put that together is that a lot of people like the idea. But it seems out of reach to them. And I wanted to point out that if you've never done it, then it's likely to seem out of reach. But for the people who are doing a hundred thousand dollars a month consistently, that's just another day at the office. And so, there's definitely a mindset approach in play here. Where if you can get past that idea, it's like running the four minute mile, right?
For the longest time in human history, people thought it couldn't be done. And then, It happens, and then eventually it becomes a standard. It's like, "well, of course, just about anybody who's serious about it can do that now."
And it's the same kind of thing here. It's about deciding for yourself what is possible .And I just think it's a reasonable benchmark because you can put it wherever you want it. You can say, I want to make a hundred thousand a week. I want to make a hundred thousand a day. Right? You can set it. the more tight you get with it, the crazier it might sound to people, but you decide where to put that.
You say, okay, I want to hit a hundred thousand dollars over the course of the next three months, or the next two months, or the next six months. You get to pick.
But then it's a matter of saying, "okay, now how am I going to do it?" And then once you've done it, it's an accomplishment.
Jay: Yeah. And then you'll start to believe. And then , maybe your initial time was three months, and so you're like, you know, I think this time I'm going to do it in two months.
Or change that goal, because I don't think anybody just wants to stagnate on a certain number either. They want to keep growing and progressing, right?
David: Yeah, exactly, and I mean, it could just as easily be titled How to Make a Million Dollars a Month in Promotional Product Sales, but people would look at that title and say, "no, that's crazy. I don't believe that. That's hype."
And there are people who do it. But it's a very small number in our industry, at least individuals. Obviously there are companies that do that sort of volume. And so a hundred thousand a month for most promotional products salespeople is a decent, worthy.
Jay: And you believe doable. That's why the ebook, and that's why we're talking about it.
David: Well, it's absolutely doable. And the only reason I know it's doable is because I've done it. I know other clients of mine who have done it.