The GURUS Selling System Story

In order to understand the creation of The GURUS Selling System, it is important to know the story of Erik Luhrs.

Fired up

In late 2000, after ten years of working for several large corporations in the New York City area, Erik Luhrs found himself being fired from his job…because he did it too well. As he was escorted out of the building by two armed guards, carrying two heavy boxes filled with whatever he could throw in them in the 5 minutes he was given to clean out his office, Erik realized that being an employee is the least powerful position to be in. At that moment he swore he’d never work for anyone again.

Several days later, Erik became an independent consultant. Over the course of the next few years he would suffer through the “feast and famine” cycle most solo and small business owners face.

In early 2003, after a year of “feast” Erik was facing another “famine.” At this point he realized that he was still in a vulnerable position. Even though he was no longer an employee, his fortunes were still controlled by the whims of other people.  Soon he made a key decision in his life: he decided to learn how to build a business that was stable, profitable and ultimately took less time from him.

Erik tried his hand at Fitness Training, Real Estate Investing and Professional Organizing. Although all three businesses made him some money, the Professional Organizing business proved to be the most viable. Yet, even though he was devouring business books and attending every business seminar he could, he still wasn’t able to get himself out of the “feast and famine” cycles. Like so many other entrepreneurs, he soon found himself working harder and harder, and going deeper into debt trying to create a profitable business.

A change of direction

By 2004 Erik was doing fairly well in his Organizing business, earning $400 an hour to coach people about Organizing by phone. At the time, the average Professional Organizer was earning approximately $45 an hour to do hands-on organizing. Yet Erik wanted to do more. He wanted to get back into the business world, but not doing the type of consulting he had previously done. Plus he wanted to use his skills of coaching and training as well. So, he closed his Organizing business and started the company that would ultimately become The BOSS Companies.

It was a rough first year. Erik wasn’t sure what he was selling, who he should be selling it to, how much he should be charging, how to market it or how to build a business around it. He had tons of ideas, got lots of interest, but virtually no sales. He made less than $10,000 the entire year.

Backed to the wall

Then things came to a head. Broke, desperate, earning $377 a month, with maxed out credit cards and unsure of how to pay the three months of back rent he owed, Erik stood in a hospital deliver room holding his first born child in his hands. Suddenly something inside him snapped! Within days Erik made more movement in his business than he had the entire previous year. He attacked marketing and selling with abandon. Within 3 months he was bringing in $5,000 a month. Within 6 months he had created a six-figure income.

Ironically, Erik built his business by coaching other people on how to build their businesses, and he had amazing results. His first client doubled her customer base in less than a week. Another client doubled his annual sales in less than 6 months. Plus, Erik was now being asked to do in-house trainings for companies.

Of course, not every story was champagne and roses. Some of Erik’s clients were still facing the same “feast and famine” he had gone through so many times.

Something is missing

Erik realized that although he had succeeded, he wasn’t exactly sure how. He knew the true driving force behind any successful business was sales and marketing. Wanting to understand this process, so he could master it and share it with his clients, Erik began studying the greatest sales and marketing experts in the world.

Also, Erik wanted to know what made the switch inside someone go from NO to YES when they decided to buy, and he wanted to know how and why some salespeople seemed capable of flipping this switch almost at will in their prospects, while others struggled to get a sale here and there.

For the next 2+ years Erik worked with the greatest sales and marketing people alive today. Plus, he studied many of the greatest “salespeople” from the past, like Thomas Jefferson, Ghandi, Jesus Christ, Albert Einstein, George Washington, Martin Luther King and more. Leaders who had been capable of selling massive amounts of people on ideas or ideals they wanted to see come to life, which is the greatest sale of all.

The aha moment

As Erik worked and studied with these modern sales and marketing pros something odd and amazing happened. He noticed that even though these pros were openly teaching everything they could to the people studying with them – through books, CDs, seminars, etc – most of their students still weren’t making great strides. It wasn’t that the teachers were holding back. It’s just that something was missing.

It was at this point that Erik decided to go beyond just watching, reading and listening to these pros. Using his skills from his studies of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Erik decided to model the pros. He BECAME them.

What Erik discovered is that the pros taught their students everything that they themselves were consciously aware that they did to create sales. But there were a number of things they did UNCONSCIOUSLY that also had great impact on creating sales. Now Erik was able to understand and combine what the pros did consciously AND unconsciously. This had never been done before!

Erik’s efforts culminated in the creation of The GURUS Selling System!