80/ 20 Your Business Part 2

I ended the last post with the controversial opinion that only
the Top 20% of clients deserve attention.

But don't all clients deserve equal attention? No they don't. In fact most businesses spend most of their time working on the least productive clients. If you apply 80/20 to your client list I am confident that you will find that the Top 20% of your clients cause the least headaches, pay the fastest and are generally the easiest to work with. The Bottom 20% probably cause you the most headaches, are time wasters, don't pay on time and generally make you miserable. So why spend time of them?

I propose either sacking or ignoring the Bottom 20% of your client list. Sound radical? Well it certainly makes sense.

Sack them? If a client is a habitual slow payer, rude to deal with or generates chaos and distraction for very small returns, then you should walk away from them. Inform them that you will no longer be able to do business with them unless they change their ways. They will either adapt or depart. Either result is probably better for you as you will now have more time to focus on the business that matters.

Ignore them? Most business implement call or service cycles that mean we talk to every client a nominated number of times over a set period. It generally means that each client, whether good or bad, receives a fairly even level of service. It also keeps our customer service or sales staff busy for the week. Unfortunately busy doesn't mean productive. I propose implementing systems that allow for less productive clients to order from you but take as little of your time as possible. Then spend the rest of your time on servicing the Top 20% or finding more clients who fit the profile of your Top 20%. The result will be little if any drop in revenue from your Bottom 80% and improved revenue from your Top 20%.

By either sacking or selectively ignoring your least productive clients and concentrating exclusively on your best clients you have suddenly freed up a remarkable amount of your most precious commodity - time. For me it meant that I now only really had to worry about 6 clients instead of 30. For my account manager who has around 24 clients on her list, the effort is spread over approximately 5 clients. We only really need to make one call per day each and follow through (or delegate) the actions from each call.

This isn't just theory. It works. Since I personally implemented the 80/20 rule to our client list I have freed up an amazing amount of time and the business has continued to grow. Whatsmore, we haven't even lost a client.