Chet Holmes: how ignoring 2,033 of 2,200 leads took a magazine from 15th to 1st, and how to find your own 167 with AI
In 1981 Charlie Munger hired a young salesman named Chet Holmes to sell ads for a magazine. Holmes was handed 2,200 possible advertisers and a stack of flyers. He threw out almost all of them, focused on 167 companies, and the results were so big that Munger, in Holmes's telling, called him in and asked if they were "lying, cheating, and stealing." This page breaks down exactly what he did, the 6 month schedule, how to find your own 167 in an afternoon with AI, and word for word scripts.
Overview
Chet Holmes became one of the best known sales trainers in America. He worked with Tony Robbins, wrote the bestseller The Ultimate Sales Machine, and founded Chet Holmes International, which his daughter Amanda runs today. He died of leukemia.
His whole method grew out of one job early in his career: selling ads for a magazine owned by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner. What he did there became what he later called the Dream 100.
Step 1: find the 167 who matter
The magazine gave him a list of 2,200 possible advertisers and flyers to mail them. Most salespeople would have started mailing.
Holmes did not send a single flyer. He ordered back issues of the competing magazines and counted who was actually buying ads. The answer: 167 companies bought about 95% of all the ads in the competitor's magazine.
So the other 2,033 names on his list were almost worthless. He stopped chasing them and put all his time into the 167.
The move: in almost every market, a small group of buyers spends most of the money. Find them first, before you write a single pitch.
Why it works: the buyer's pyramid
Holmes explained it with what he called the buyer's pyramid. At any moment, about 3% of your market is buying now and another 7% is open to it. The other 90% splits into thirds: people not thinking about it, people who think they're not interested, and people who know they're not interested.
If you only pitch people who are ready now, you're fighting every competitor for the same 3%. If you stay useful to your best 100 for months, you're the first one they call when they move up the pyramid.
The 6 months: letters, calls, and silence
He sent the 167 something useful every two weeks and called them four times a month. Gifts and lunches too.
For four months, nothing. Not one ad. This is where most people quit.
In month five, one of them bought an ad. In month six, 28 of the 167 came in at once, with full pages and color spreads, not small fractional ads. Those 28 alone doubled the year's sales.
The move: plan for silence. The work in months one to four is what pays in month six.
The Xerox deal
The best known win was Xerox. It ordered 104 full color spreads, described in retellings as the biggest deal in the history of that industry.
That was the moment, in Holmes's telling, that Munger called him into his office and asked whether they were "lying, cheating, and stealing." They weren't. They were just only talking to the people who spend the money.
The numbers
| Figure | Number |
|---|---|
| Year | 1981 (per retellings) |
| Leads he was given | 2,200 |
| Companies buying 95% of competitor ads | 167 |
| Contact | Something useful every 2 weeks, 4 calls a month |
| Months with zero sales | 4 |
| Came in at once, month 6 | 28 of the 167 |
| Xerox order | 104 full color spreads |
| Result | Year's sales doubled; 15th to 1st in just over a year (another telling: 16th to double its closest competitor within 3 years) |
Find your 167 in an afternoon with AI
Holmes needed weeks of back issues to find his 167. Today you can do the same research in an afternoon with ChatGPT or Claude, and you don't need to be technical.
1. Ask AI who already pays for what you sell.
Paste this, word for word:
"I sell [your product or service] to [type of customer]. List the kinds of businesses that already spend the most money on this, and where that spending shows up in public: who advertises it, who sponsors it, who hires for it, who buys it from my competitors. Give me 20 specific places I can look to find the biggest buyers."
2. Turn those places into names.
Do this: go through the places AI gave you: competitors' case studies and client logos, sponsors of newsletters and podcasts in your niche, companies hiring for the role your product replaces, advertisers in your industry's magazines and sites. Paste what you find back in and ask:
"Here is a list of companies I found. Group them by how much they likely spend on [your category], biggest first, and tell me why for each."
3. Cut to your Dream 100.
Do this: keep the top 100 (or fewer; Holmes had 167). For each, find one real decision maker: the name, the role, and one recent thing their company did. Ask AI: "For [company], what are they focused on right now, based on their recent news, posts and job listings?"
4. Send something useful every two weeks for six months.
Do this: one short, useful thing every two weeks: an idea for their business, a relevant article with one line on why it matters to them, a small free piece of work. Never a brochure.
The first letter, word for word:
"Hi [name], I noticed [specific thing their company did]. I work with [type of business] on [the problem you solve], and one thing I've seen work is [one concrete idea]. No pitch. I'll send you something useful like this every couple of weeks. If it's ever not useful, tell me and I'll stop."
5. Call, and keep it short.
The call, word for word:
"Hi [name], it's [you]. I sent you a note about [idea] last week. I'm not calling to sell anything. I just wanted to ask: is [problem] something you're working on this year? ... Got it. I'll keep sending ideas. If that ever changes, I'd love to help."
6. Plan for four months of silence.
Do this: put the next 12 sends on your calendar today, so you don't have to decide each time. Holmes got nothing for four months. Track who opens and who replies, but don't change the plan before month six.
7. When one moves, go big.
The follow-up, word for word:
"Thanks for getting back to me, [name]. Based on what you told me about [their goal], here's what I'd suggest: [specific offer]. Want me to put together a short plan with the numbers so you can see if it makes sense?"
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Sources
- Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine (2007), chapter 4 and the Best Buyer strategy
- Amanda Holmes, interview on the Beyond the Hustle podcast, January 2023
- Harry Dry, "Dream 100," Marketing Examples, citing The Ultimate Sales Machine and Holmes's keynotes
- Russell Brunson, Traffic Secrets (2020), retelling of the Dream 100 story
