The 80/20 Rule In Sales

 In a recent podcast with Roger Burnett, I mentioned the 80/20 rule of sales.  I was referencing a great book from Todd Duncan called High Trust Selling.  After that conversation with Roger, I got a question from Mendy Klein: “In 80 20 in sales episode that took your business to the next level from Tod Duncan’s great book.  Can you describe in detail what are the few vital tasks that will bring the 80% of success?”  Thanks so much for reaching out Mendy! So let’s start from the beginning.  In the book, Todd Duncan says that Pareto’s rule (the 80/20 rule) is in full effect in sales.  The idea is that 80% of your results in sales come from only 20% of your activities.  The challenge is, that most sales professionals spend 80% of their time on the activities that only bring 20% of the results.  One of the most important (at least to me) parts of the book was that in order to achieve great sales results, we need to flip that.  We need to spend 80% of our time on the areas that bring the most results.  So back to Mendy’s question, what are those activities. The simple answer is: sales activities.  In nearly every sales job there are things you “have to do” for the sales process.  They are important.  But they are not revenue generating.  They are things like getting proofs to clients, making sure things ship on time, organizational activities.  You get the idea. The idea from Duncan is you need to spend less time on these activities (and potentially even outsource them) and spend time on sales activities.  These are the ones that actually move the sales needle. So they might be: 1.  Meeting with clients2.  Making product presentations3.  Making prospect calls  You get the idea.  These are all client facing activities that drive behavior.  As I heard Greg Muzzillo from Proforma say once “There is no money behind your desk!  Stop looking there!”  I love that. So get out and “see the people.”  Or as I said in this blog, let the people see you.   Thanks for the question Mendy!  If you have any questions you would like me to answer, please email me here.  Otherwise, now is a great time to sign up for our VIP newsletter to make sure you never miss an update.