The Ten Times Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

by Grant Cardone

  Let's say that a company successfully gets my attention long enough that I consider its products but then doesn't do enough to earn my business and “shut me down” (i.e., make me a customer). Not being a customer makes it impossible for me to become a satisfied customer. I am just saying don't put the cart before the horse. Notice how executives become concerned about customer satisfaction and then start initiatives to conduct customer satisfaction surveys of the individuals who became customers—and completely ignore surveying those who did not become customers. This is a huge miss and a great example of an “only practice” (discussed in chapter 10) that will show you immediately how to acquire more customers. In addition to surveying those you acquired, garnering input from those who didn't buy will disclose much more to the company about true customer satisfaction! Don't you want to find out why you didn't acquire the business? You think you didn't satisfy a customer and therefore never made one? Most companies fail not due to lack of quality in their product, service, or their offering. They fail because they don't take enough strategic actions to acquire the support—the client—in the first place. That is why I suggest that customer satisfaction is the wrong target—because you don't even get the opportunity to “satisfy” someone who never evolves into a customer.

  My point here is not to negate customer satisfaction after acquisition but to shift your attention back to acquisition. Also understand that it is impossible to somehow completely prevent customer complaints. There are, of course, measures you can take to improve your product or service. But when dealing with human beings, you are going to face complaints and dissatisfaction. It's just that simple. The best you can do is resolve complaints and dissatisfaction when they emerge (and they will—I promise) and treat them as opportunities to be in communication with your clients. What you need is more people interacting with your product or service and the company. Yes, complaints will increase when dealing with human beings—but so will praise. Increase the number of users of your product or service through massive action, not through massive initiatives that cause your people to back off from the acquisition in the first place.

  I launched my first company under the naive impression that I would work with a handful of clients and really concentrate my attention on them (thereby eliciting great customer satisfaction). I assumed that this would give me an advantage in the market and allow me to deliver quality service and really make a difference. And although it was a nice idea, it just didn't work out that way. First of all, this plan didn't put me on a scale necessary to build a business with a wide reach to get me attention, and I fell way short of dominance, not to mention the cash flow necessary to continue to support clients. Just as important, it didn't allow me to share my information with enough of the successful people.

  When I finally got my thinking to the right levels and committed to expanding my footprint and taking on 10 times more clients, I multiplied my exposure—tenfold—and increased the number of successful people and companies I had been avoiding. I shifted my focus to monumental quantities instead of just serving a handful of clients, which enhanced my ability to spread the word about myself and my company to a growing number of people. The grumbles I received did intensify—right along with the compliments I received. In fact, I enjoyed more successes than I suffered failures because I was exposed to greater numbers of people using my material. Augmenting the numbers of attendees at my seminars and workshops amplified the number of quality clients I had—and expanded the number of individuals who were exposed to my ideas and techniques. More people were talking about my methodologies among their associates, who would then spread the word to people they knew, and so on. The more people talked about me, the more I was able to expand my footprint, get more attention, acquire more customers—and then create more customer satisfaction. Think about it like this: Would Facebook and Google be better off if they provided their services to only a few people? If they would, I wouldn't even use them as examples.

  The practice of customer satisfaction is not limited to how you treat customers after you acquire them; it should also focus on what you do to attain them in the first place. The quality of the clients you attain will have a direct effect on your level of customer satisfaction. You will not get to quality without seeking quantity. Remember as well what we discussed in the previous chapter: that criticisms and complaints are inevitable indications that you are growing as you should. So disregard criticism, welcome and handle complaints, and do everything you can to expand your footprint. The more people you serve, the better your chances are of interacting with quality customers.

  To be clear, you certainly want to deliver—and exceed—on the promises you make. However, if you focus on delivering exceptional 10X service prior to acquisition, this part will come naturally after acquisition. I am assuming you have a great product, service, idea, or investment. Now you need to increase your support base for it. There are, regrettably, thousands of organizations in existence that sell inferior products every day. Although I'm certainly not suggesting you push substandard offerings or sacrifice your product's quality, I am trying to highlight an unfortunate reality: Domination of market share tends to trump all other things. Companies that sell poor products make acquisitions their number one goal—and then handle any problems with their products or offerings after they get users on board.

  No organization in the world has created massive success while limiting its acquisitions. Apple learned this lesson the hard way for too long. It got killed by Microsoft for decades—a company any Apple user will claim sold an inferior product—because while Microsoft made its merchandise available to the masses, Apple focused on just a small number of people. Notice the shift that Apple has made in the past few years, making its products appealing to the masses. Three percent of all households have an iPad, and 63 percent are using an MP3 player, with Apple getting over 45 percent of that share. Apple is clearly adopting “massive action” in a big way these days with the goal of dominating with its footprint!

  Remember, even if your product and company deliver perfectly, you are going to get complaints from customers—because they're human. You can't keep everyone happy all the time. It's a mistake to be scared of complaints. Instead, encourage them, look for them, find them, and then resolve them. Complaints are your customers' very direct way of telling you exactly how to make your product better. If you approach every situation wrought with anxiety about offending a client, then you will never attain dominance in the market.

  Let's go back to Apple as an example. This company doesn't worry today about customer satisfaction so much that it neglects to continue building products that people are willing to stand in line to get. It recognizes the proper order of objectives: (1) acquire customers (via an amazing product or service that you've worked on at 10X levels to create); (2) impress them with how great you are during the acquisition process; and (3) establish customer loyalty (through repeat purchases, support, word-of-mouth marketing, etc.). When you're building a business, your primary target is not customer satisfaction (yet); it's acquisition, referral, and loyalty and then more acquisition using the customers you've attained. I want everyone to have my products, not just some people. I want masses of people—not just a few—to know about me and my products. I won't be satisfied until 6 billion people do. I want everyone to purchase from me over and over, and I want to be on their minds so regularly—and make such an impact on them and their companies—that they never even think about using anyone else.

  This line of thinking differs from concentrating so intensely on customer satisfaction that members of the sales team worry about upsetting, pressuring, and pressing hard for fear that doing so may damage their clients' opinion of them. I know sales teams that are penalized when they receive customer complaints, which seems odd to me for several reasons. For one, it suggests that these grievances could be avoided, which they clearly cannot. Even if you could avoid them, why would you want to? Complaints and problems are opportunities to do mor
e business and solve more issues—and to give your customers the chance to spread the word about how great you are at making their problems go away!

  If you truly want to find out what your organization's customer acquisition and loyalty weaknesses are, then survey the people who you do not acquire. The sooner you can ask them questions, the better—ideally, as they leave or refuse the business. And be sure to ask them about the processes—not about the people—they encountered. You might ask questions like the following: How long were you here?

  Did you meet a manager?

  Were you shown optional products?

  Were you presented with a proposal?

  Did anyone offer to bring the product to your home/office?

  Feel free to call my office for guidance on how to develop this survey for your unique situation (800-368-5771). We can help identify what to ask in order to pinpoint where the breakdown is taking place.

  When was the last time you were asked to give a company that you decided not to purchase from your feedback on the experience? Did the salespeople give you enough attention? Did they stay with you through your decision-making process? Did they meet you enthusiastically, offer to solve your problems, have someone from management say hello, show you various options—or even present their product or a proposal? And did anyone call you back? I bet the answer to most of these questions is no. Companies fail not because they offend customers but because they don't take enough action to make these individuals customers in the first place. And I assure you that these very same companies hold one meeting after another on improving customer satisfaction. They will survey those who buy from them instead of taking the time to ask those who didn't why. Add to this the fact that most of these surveys focus on what the sales associate did wrong rather than on what is inadequate about the organization's thinking and processes.

  Remember the operative order of importance: customer acquisition is the primary target, followed by customer loyalty, followed by customers who spread the word about you. This approach allows a company to continue to invest in product development and improvement, enhance processes, and increase promotion—which ultimately creates real customer satisfaction.

  Chapter 20

  Omnipresence

  The word “omnipresence” conveys the concept of being everywhere—in all places, at all times. Can you imagine what it would be like if you, your brand, and your company could be everywhere all the time—and how much power this would give you? Although it may seem impossible, this should be your goal. The things that are assigned the most value on this planet are believed to be available everywhere. It is impossible to amass true success without thinking in terms of making your ideas, products, services, or brand universal. The things upon which people depend most are omnipresent, from the oxygen you breathe to the water you drink to the fuel you burn in your car to the electricity that runs through your home to the most impressively branded products on earth. What these items have in common is that they're accessible everywhere. You see them, constantly, depend on them, and have become used to needing them, in most cases, on a daily basis.

  Consider something as seemingly obvious as the news. TV channels, newspapers, radio, and the Internet deliver the news 24/7—so that's usually what's on people's minds most frequently. We see it when we wake up, we talk about it at the water cooler, we hear about it throughout the day, and we watch it on television before we go to sleep.

  This is the kind of mind-set from which you must operate—to make yourself available everywhere. You want people to see you so often that they think of you constantly and instantaneously identify your face or name or logo with not just the offering you represent but even the offering made by those similar to you. Many people incorrectly assume that they can make a handful of phone calls, a personal visit or two, and send out some e-mails and somehow command people's attention. But the truth is that none of these actions will cause people to think about you enough to have a considerable effect. Are you operating at the right level of targeting, and thinking big enough? If you're not already, you need to expand your approach and enlarge your footprint with the goal of dominating and being everywhere.

  My goal these days is to get more than 6 billion people to hear my name constantly, know it when they hear it, and then when they think sales training, they think of me. Although this may seem unrealistic, probably unattainable, it is the right target, thinking, footprint, and concept for my business—to be everywhere. The mere commitment to doing something this big will be an adventure in and of itself. Even before I'm able to fully attain my goal, I will achieve some greater level of success in the attempt. Will money come as a result? Absolutely! Will people buy my products? For sure! Will I create success for my ideas and get support for whatever I am trying to accomplish? Guaranteed!

  This mind-set will then allow for us to make all our decisions with the goal of moving me in the direction of getting everyone on the planet to know about me, my products, my company, and my efforts! Every decision we make at my company is based on this one mission: Introduce the entire planet to Grant Cardone. Although our targets have to be funded, money is not our primary interest. We know profits will come as a result of our efforts to be everywhere at the same time. We don't ask what a project will cost or whether it fits in the budget or if we have time to do something. We ask, does it help us accomplish the mission of being everywhere? We don't stop to figure out whether I want to travel or speak to a smaller group or what the outcome may be. We simply do not allow any excuses and distractions that could limit expansion. In the same way, any attempt you make to have yourself, your brand, your product, or your service be omnipresent will automatically guide your actions and decisions.

  Is this kind of thinking too big? For most people, it is. Is it absolutely necessary? Well, not if you are willing to settle for average. However, if you are considering that, go back and reread the chapters on why average goals will fail you and why normal does not work. Show me one great company that has not accomplished omnipresence. Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Google, Starbucks, Phillip Morris, AT&T, La-Z-Boy, Bank of America, World Disney, Fox TV, Apple, Ernst & Young, Ford Motor Company, Visa, American Express, Macy's, Wal-Mart, Best Buy—these names are everywhere. Each of these companies is in every city—some on every street corner—and most are available around the world. You see their ads, you know what their logos look like, and you can even hum some of their jingles and use their names to describe not just their products; but in some cases, their competitors' products as well.

  There are also individuals who have accomplished omnipresence so well that the world immediately recognizes their names, such as Oprah, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, George Bush, Barack Obama, Abe Lincoln, Elvis, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Walt Disney, Will Smith, Mother Teresa, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and so on. Whether you like them or not, each of these people has created such a name for himself or herself that most people know who they are—or at the very least, recognize their name and align it with importance. The way in which they manage and control their brands will determine their long-term success and survivability.

  My father always gave me the following valuable advice: “Your name is your most important asset. [People] can take everything away from you—but they can't take your name.” Although I agree with my dad's emphasis on the importance of names, it of course becomes less important if no one knows it. Unless people know who you are, no one will pay attention to what you represent. You have to get people to know you, which means that you have to get attention. The more attention you get, the more places you will be; the more people you are with, the more you can be everywhere. And all of this will improve your chances of using your good name to do good work.

  Have you ever heard the saying, “It is enough if you can just help one person”? Although it's surely a good thing to help one person—and certainly better than helping no one—I personally don't really believe helping just one person is enough. I know it sounds good an
d that this saying emphasizes the importance of helping others, but there are 6.8 billion people on this planet, and most of them need some kind of help. Your goal must—and can—be bigger than “just one person.” And in order for this to happen, people must know who you are and what you represent! Otherwise, you will not be able to help even one person—much less make a dent in 6.8 billion.

  You must think in terms of being everywhere at all times. This is the kind of 10X mind-set necessary to dominate your sector. If you commit to taking 10X actions consistently, followed up with more 10X actions, then I assure you that you will be propelled into situations where you find yourself everywhere. The first thing you have to do is burst through obscurity and let the world know what you can do for it—and then do it relentlessly. Although it might sound like a grind, it will only be a chore if your goals are too small, self-serving—and unattained. I promise it won't feel like a grind when you come out on top. You may want to get rich—but why? What do you want to use the money for? Do you have a higher purpose you're looking to serve? After all, you can only accumulate so much personal wealth before it doesn't matter anymore. Maybe you want to amass riches in order to help more people and improve conditions for all mankind. That would require you to be omnipresent—everywhere, all the time.

  The higher your purpose, the more fuel it will provide for your 10X actions. This is what it takes to rocket to omnipresence. People of fame and influence achieve this status because they are compelled to fulfill their purpose by writing books, doing interviews, blogging, writing articles, accepting speaking engagements, and saying yes constantly to get attention for themselves, their companies, and their projects. These are the results of thinking big. This isn't a grind; this is passion. It is only a grind when your mind-set and actions are too small and will not create enough of a payoff. You are capable of much more than you're doing now. Once you match your mind-set with the right purpose, you will start taking 10X actions—and find yourself simultaneously propelled into more places than you ever thought possible.