How to Sell Like Ralph Lauren

Good Morning! A Berkshire employee just pocketed $1M in Buffett's March Madness challenge by nailing 31 of the 32 first-round games. Meanwhile, the rest of us can't even predict if that ‘sure thing’ deal will actually close this quarter. If you're not that lucky employee with a cool $1M hitting the bank account this morning, it's time to get to work - our pipelines aren’t gonna fill themselves. 😁

Ever wonder how a 28-year-old selling neckties became a billionaire?

Picture this: It's 1967, and a young salesman with no fashion training walks into Bloomingdale's to pitch his new neckties. They tell him they’ll sell em’, but he’s gotta change his design and remove his name. He says no and walks out.

Most people would call that career suicide. Ralph Lauren called it his defining moment.

Six months later, Bloomingdale's called him back and accepted his terms.

That single decision launched one of the greatest sales and branding stories of all time.

Today, we're breaking down the sales strategies Ralph Lauren used to become a household name and build his $10B empire.

"I don't design clothes, I design dreams," - Ralph Lauren.

His advertising never focused on fabric types, the way the clothes fit, or any of the tangible features. Instead, he painted pictures of dream lifestyles involving things like family, wealth, and romance.

This approach transformed how people connected with his brand, and in turn, bought his products. He wasn't trying to sell the individual clothes – he was selling the identities that those clothes created.

Apply this by:

While fashion trends changed like crazy over 50+ years, the Ralph Lauren message never did.

Every single ad focused on the same three things: family, romance, and elegant living. That little polo player became a symbol that screamed ‘expensive’.

This is why he's worth billions while other designers from his era are forgotten.

You can do the same by:

I see examples of this on Linkedin every day. The brands (and people) that win aren't always the most creative - they're the most consistent.

When Ralph started selling ties, he priced them at $7.50-$15 while everyone else was charging $3-$4.

That's 5X the competition!

But here's the genius part, he never once tried to justify the price difference. He simply created products that FELT worth the premium and sold them as premium products.

Most of the best businesses use this exact strategy:

The moment you start racing to the bottom on price, you've already lost.

Ralph knew this 50 years ago, and it's still true today.

Ralph had ZERO advertising budget when he started.

But like any great salesperson, he didn’t let that slow him down.

He hustled his way into talking with every fashion editor who would talk with him, one conversation at a time.

When Bloomingdale's rejected his first pitch, he didn't quit. He got his ties into their smaller stores first, proved they sold, then leveraged into their flagship location.

In his first year, he sold $500,000 worth of ties (about $3.8 million today).

No magical strategy - just refusing to stop knocking until a door opens.

Remember: When you believe in what you're selling, everything else becomes easier.

A 2024 Bank of America survey revealed something incredible: 83% of HNW respondents 43 and younger say they currently own art, or would like to.

Why? After weathering multiple recessions, newer generations say they want to diversify beyond just stocks and bonds. Luckily, Masterworks’ art investing platform is already catering to 60,000+ investors of every generation, making it easy to diversify with an asset that’s overall outpaced the S&P 500 in price appreciation (1995-2023), even despite a recent dip.

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Today’s newsletter was written by Nic Conley

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