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*A Book Review*

80/20 Sales and Marketing

By Perry Marshall

by Michael C. Gray

November 6, 2013

Back in the late 1800s, an Italian economist and engineer, Vilfredo Pareto, discovered that many distributions of characteristics follow a pattern of 80%-20%.

For example, 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

Not only that, the "law" works on a "power" basis. In other words, of the 20% that owns 80% of the land, 20% of that group owns 80% of the land for that group, and so on.

This "Pareto principle" applies to many things. We know that it applies to the wealth in our country, to the point that the lion's share of the wealth is owned by 2%!

In 80/20 Sales and Marketing, Perry Marshall shows how you can use the Pareto principle to make your sales and marketing more effective, and reclaim your life. The basic idea is to stop treating all customers and other factors in your business the same.

80% of your income will come from 20% of your customers. Why not focus your energies finding out who that 20% is and serving them better? If you have a sales force, 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your salespeople. Why not let the other 80% go?

Starbucks offers a high-priced cappuccino machine. It's only purchased by a small fraction of their customers. A few of them buy multiple machines as gifts for others. These customers generate a disproportionate share of Starbucks' profit.

Included with the book are links to supplemental materials and web applications that you can use to help put 80/20 to work in your business.

There is quite a bit of material in the book about how to use search engine ads and other internet techniques for market testing. Perry Marshall wrote another book about using Google Adwords. On page 82, he lays out a process for rolling out the marketing for a product or service from Google Adwords to Direct Mail to Print Advertising, TV, and radio.

Perry also wrote a book about advertising on Facebook. In 80/20 Sales and Marketing, he discusses what products and services are likely to be successful on Facebook. He also includes a web application for evaluating whether a product or service is likely to be successful on Facebook.

By focusing your energies on the areas with the biggest payoffs, you can free up time to enjoy your life more while generating increased profits. You'll want to study 80/20 Sales and Marketing.

Buy it on Amazon: 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More.

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