Grow Your Business in 2023 Using the Pareto Principle
Do you want to grow your business in 2023? Using the Pareto Principle can transform your business this year. In fact, it’s a rule that can be applied to most business tasks:
- Products/revenue
- Marketing/leads
- Customers/retention
What is the Pareto Principle?
The Pareto Principle is over 115 years old and was invented by Vilfredo Pareto in 1906. At the time, the world was different and related to Italy’s wealth. Vilfredo found that 20% of the country’s population owned 80% of the property.
So, how can this be the key ingredient to your company’s success?
The principle dictates that 80% of your business’s profits come from 20% of your clients. You’ll also find the principle described as 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes. For example:
- 20% of your clients make up 80% of your revenue
- 20% of marketing brings in 80% of your clients
- 20% of your services bring in 80% of profits
- 20% of your Facebook posts account for 80% of engagement
If this rule is true, and it has been applied across the world with great success, it’s something that you need to begin using in 2023.
Using the Pareto Principle in 2023
Your business is unique, and you need to ensure that the changes you make benefit your business, team, and clients as a whole. However, this principle can help you drive revenue, increase efficiency and eliminate resource-intensive tasks & clients.
A few of the ways that you can begin applying this principle include:
Evaluate Who Your Most Profitable Clients Are
If the rule holds true, which we find it does for many businesses, 20% of your clients are driving 80% of your revenue. You must learn who these clients are so that you can:
- Devise ways to serve these clients better. Perhaps you can offer a service or product that benefits them and complements what they already purchase from your business.
- Review these clients, their niche, size and needs. Use this information to bring in more of these types of clients.
In addition to your clients, you can use the Pareto Principle for your products and services.
Evaluate Your Products and Services to Find the Most Profitable
Reviewing your books and sales figures, use the principle to find the 20% of products and services that are driving 80% of your profits. Once you narrow these items down, you can then work on:
- Finding ways to sell more of these key products or services.
- Learn the driving force behind these sales and how you can replicate it to find more success.
You can even find the products or services that are selling poorly and decide to eliminate them from your offerings to put more focus on what is working for your business.
Uncover Who Your Worst Clients Are
This rule can also apply to your clients. Often, 20% of your clients will take up 80% of your time. However, some of these clients may not drive the revenue necessary to tie up the amount of resources they demand.
Now, you can use this data to determine:
- Who are your worst clients?
- How much resources do these clients take up that can be better spent elsewhere?
- Should you let these clients go?
Business is a money-making venture. If you tie up resources with clients that aren’t making you money, it may be time to let them go.
The scarcity versus abundance mindset will play a major role in the decision process of who to let go. If you develop an abundance mindset, you’ll see that:
- You can let clients go
- You can free up resources
- You can find more success with the resources you free up
For example, you can let the most time-consuming, low-profit clients go and use the freed up resources to find new clients or better serve other clients. That being said, it’s important to note that letting go of a client isn’t always cut and dry. If you really like working with a client, you might not mind that they take up a little more time or bring in lower profits.
Optimize Equipment Use and Labor
In the manufacturing business, companies are using this principle to determine:
- Who the 20% of employees are that are contributing to the company’s 80% success and promoting these individuals.
- Which of the 20% of equipment is responsible for 80% of output value.
- What are the 20% of goods the company manufactures that are generating 80% of revenue?
Illinois Tool Works used this principle to grow its business by 19% annually, expanding it to $14 billion in revenue annually.
On top of optimizing your equipment and labor, you can also use this principle to improve the customer service you provide to clients.
Boost Your Customer Service
Roughly 90% of consumers or clients will factor in customer service before doing business with a company. Whether you feel as if your customer service is lacking or you want to make sure to keep delivering a stellar expense, you can use the Pareto Principle to improve it and better serve your clients.
How?
- Uncover the 20% of products causing 80% of the complaints. Use this knowledge to improve products and create guides on troubleshooting or knowledge bases for these products.
- Learn who the 20% of employees are that are leading to 80% of customer service issues and retrain them.
- Find ways to educate the 20% of customer or client types that ask 80% of the questions so that they’re more informed going into the purchasing process.
Retaining just 5% more customers due to better customer service can improve profits by 25%+.
Reduce Waste
Waste is a part of every business. Some waste relates to time spent on tasks, and other types of waste may be product-related. Productivity and product waste can be improved using the 80/20 rule.
Sit down and determine:
- Which tasks are taking up the most time? Are all of these tasks necessary, or can you eliminate them to improve efficiency?
- Which products are leading to the most waste? In manufacturing, you may have products that always spoil or end up costing you more money to sell because they sit in the warehouse for months on end before selling.
When you use the Pareto Principle, you can improve your business’s overall efficiency and reduce waste in the process.
Final Thoughts
Using the Pareto Principle is something that businesses worldwide are doing to grow their operations. You can and should learn to implement this principle into your daily operations so that you can improve efficiency, increase profits, and even serve your customers better.
To learn more about how we can help you grow your business or to schedule an appointment, click here.