The 10x rule ffirs indd I 3/14/11 10: 22: 47 AM ffirs indd II 3/14/11 10: 22: 47 am the 10x rule The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Grant Cardone John Wiley & Sons, Inc

acquisition. Emerging organizations fi rst need people to know 
about them, then do everything they can to make them happy. 
Remember, customer satisfaction cannot exist without a 
customer fi rst.
American corporations have become so obsessed with 
“customer satisfaction” that they’ve lost sight of the fi rst—and 
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Customer Satisfaction Is the Wrong Target
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most vital—factor: customer acquisition! “Keep the main thing 
the main thing,” as they say in the South. Customer satisfac-
tion shouldn’t be an initiative but something so inherent to an 
organization that all of its attention is focused on customer 
acquisition. To garner the attention of a potential customer or 
market and then fail to capitalize on creating a user of your 
products and services makes no sense and is the most expen-
sive of mistakes. Yet that is what happens with far too many 
organizations.
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 satisfi ed customer. I am just saying don’t put 
the cart before the horse. Notice how executives become con-
cerned 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 fi nd 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 fi rst 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 
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140
THE 10X RULE
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 fi rst place. 
I launched my fi rst company under the naive impression 
that I would work with a handful of clients and really concen-
trate 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 fl ow 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 fi nally 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 grow-
ing 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 amplifi ed 
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Customer Satisfaction Is the Wrong Target
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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 fi rst place. The 
quality of the clients you attain will have a direct effect on 
your level of customer satisfaction. You will not get to qual-
ity without seeking quantity. Remember as well what we dis-
cussed 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 deliv-
ering 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, regret-
tably, thousands of organizations in existence that sell inferior 
products every day. Although I’m certainly not suggesting you 
push substandard offerings or sacrifi ce 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. 
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THE 10X RULE
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, encour-
age them, look for them, fi nd 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 acqui-
sition 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 satisfi ed until 6 billion 
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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 
more business and solve more issues—and to give your custom-
ers the chance to spread the word about how great you are at 
making their problems go away! 
If you truly want to fi nd 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/
offi ce?
Feel free to call my offi ce 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.
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THE 10X RULE
When was the last time you were asked to give a 
company that you decided not to purchase from your feed-
back 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