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Vilfredo Pareto was an early twentieth century Italian economist who gave us the 80\/20 rule.\u00a0 <\/span>We hear it most commonly used in reference to sales . . . 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers.\u00a0 <\/span>But the mistake we often make is to spend too much time trying to get the marginal 80 percenters to perform like our superstar 20 percenters.\u00a0 <\/span>Wouldn\u2019t it make more sense to spend most of our time working with our superstars?\u00a0 <\/span>After all, they \u201cget it.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>They understand and appreciate our value proposition, and if we nurture them and are attentive to their needs, they may have the potential\u00a0 <\/span>to become even better customers.<\/p>\n Where else might we apply the rule?\u00a0 <\/span>Is it possible 80 percent of our customer service headaches are coming from the bottom 20 percent of our customers?\u00a0 <\/span>The customers accounting for the least of our sales are often the most demanding and time-consuming.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s not a bad idea to comb through your customer list periodically looking for customers who demand significantly more service than they are worth, and make them available to your competitors.<\/p>\n How about your employees?\u00a0 <\/span>Think of the activities that are key to your company\u2019s success.\u00a0 <\/span>Do you believe that 80 percent of those key activities are being achieved by 20 percent of your workers?\u00a0 <\/span>Again, doesn\u2019t it make sense to invest time and resources in the 20 percenters . . . the people who are really making a difference . . . rather than spending most of your time trying to improve the 80 percenters?<\/p>\n It\u2019s all about leverage.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s about identifying the customers, employees, systems and processes that are the keys to your company\u2019s success.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s about making sure you\u2019re constantly working with those keys to make them stronger and more effective.\u00a0 <\/span>Where can you get an 80 percent result from a 20 percent effort?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vilfredo Pareto was an early twentieth century Italian economist who gave us the 80\/20 rule.\u00a0 We hear it most commonly used in reference to sales . . . 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your customers.\u00a0 But the mistake we often make is to spend too much time trying to get<\/p>\n