Sam’s Dirty Little Secret to Billions
All Selling Aside with Alex Mandossian | "Seeding Through Storytelling is the 'New' Selling!"
English - May 07, 2018 07:00 - 22 minutes - 13.1 MB - ★★★★★ - 91 ratingsMarketing Business Entrepreneurship Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
You may be surprised to know that one of the world’s wealthiest men rarely showed up on the lists, because he had children and his fortune was divided among them. The man in question is Sam Walton, the founder and owner of Walmart and Sam’s Club. The story of how this man from a modest background created such a profitable company is fascinating and provides incredible insights.
Sam would fly a small plane over the parking lots of other five-and-dime stores, looking for parking lots full of cars. When he found them, he would land his plane and go inside the store to learn what his competitors did. Through this process, he learned what worked for his competitors. Once he figured this out, he used the knowledge that he had gleaned to go into small cities, open a Walmart location, and become the biggest employer in town.
This story illustrates the idea that originality is the most dangerous principle in sales and marketing, as Rosser Reeves thought. It was through deeply researching what his competitors were doing well that Sam was able to create his empire. The only way to have a competitive advantage is to observe the competition, learn exactly what they’re doing, and then do it better!
I remember going to Disneyland and Disney World. On some of the thrilling rides, you’ll have your picture taken at the most exciting moment. You then have the choice of whether to buy that picture. At other amusement parks, you’re not allowed to take pictures of the screen showing your picture. At Disneyland, though, you’re actually encouraged to take these pictures, even if it means you won’t pay for the original photograph. The reason is that you’ll send out these pictures to your friends, and suddenly other people want to go to Disneyland. This illustrates another of my points for this episode: one of the keys to success is figuring out how to make money when people steal from you. Tune in to learn all about this, and much more!
In This Episode:
[02:06] - Alex talks about the three key insights into becoming an ethical influencer that you’ll learn in this episode.
[03:07] - We hear the beginning of the story of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart and Sam’s Club.
[03:54] - Observation is your best friend in business or as a marketer. Alex talks about how Sam Walton observed and did his research.
[05:24] - Many people think that being original is the key to having a competitive advantage. Alex explores why this isn’t the case.
[06:47] - Alex returns to the story of Sam Walton, explaining how successful his strategy was.
[08:42] - We hear some of the specific things that Sam learned from observing his competition, such as having a greeter at the front door.
[11:04] - This episode’s Alexism is that experience is not the best teacher. Experience is the only teacher.
[12:46] - Alex brings up a question you should ask: “How do I make money after other people steal from me?” He then shares a specific example that makes this point very clear.
[15:53] - When Alex had a $2,500 product, people would steal the username and password to access the product for free. Alex explains why he had no problem with this.
[17:28] - Alex offers a quick review of the insights he has explored in this episode.
[18:39] - If you haven’t already reviewed this show after listening to a previous episode, please take a moment to head to this link and type in your biggest takeaway from this episode!
[19:51] - Alex offers listeners a gift in honor of this eighth episode (and this will be the last time he does this, so jump on it now if you haven’t before). You can get a free copy of his book Alexisms, which took him 25 years to write. To learn how to get yours, tune into the episode.
Links and Resources:
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