80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
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This book applies the 80/20 (Pareto) Principle to sales and marketing, showing how to exponentially amplify results by focusing your efforts on the most important 20%, iteratively. It's a good mix of theory and application. Read it if you want to do more with less in your business.
Google AdWords is mentioned frequently due to the author's experience, but the principles can be applied to many forms of online and offline marketing.
I read this because it was recommended on the Agency Advantage podcast. I'm thinking a lot about marketing right now, as we market our WordPress Maintenance Plans. My notes follow.
Real power of 80/20 is that if you look at only the top 20%, the rule still applies. And so on if you keep taking the top 20%.
If you hire 10 people, 2 will generate 80% of results. Those 2 are 16x as effective as the others.
Averages almost never tell you what's really important; the extremes do.
"Everything that really matters in business isn't linear, it's exponential. 80/20 is about Power Laws - powers of 10. … Customers' ability to spend money is not in increments but multiples."
Most companies waste 80% of marketing money. If you put that money into the top 20%, ROI would improve 16x.
Turn publicity into a sales funnel with white paper, diagnostic tool, or cheat sheet.
Focus on 1-3 forms of marketing and advertising, to get much better at them than competitors. Master 1 first.
Scratch the unscratchable itch. Sports teams get 50% of revenue from 1% of fans by offering luxury options.
Capitalize on the willingness of the top-shelf customer to spend money. Sell up-sells, cross-sells, additional products.
Sell results, not procedures. Sell complete packages that solve total problem, not a la carte parts.
To make big bucks, your product has to address one or both of following urgent things ("bleeding necks"):
A good headline should read like a classified ad that would move people to call.
Google AdWords is the best place to test offers and headlines.
Before you redo your entire website, pick the single most important page and split test. Iteratively improve, and you'll get half the total benefit of redoing the entire site by redoing just one page. Optimize a handful of pages and maybe your overall template, to get almost all possible improvement benefits.
Using methods 2-10 (from list above), you can generate 5-50x more sales than with AdWords alone.
After you refine your marketing, partner with resellers and affiliates to get more traffic than you can handle.
20% of customers will spend 4x the money. 4% of customers will spend 16x.
Of repeat buyers, 20% account for 80% of repeat sales. 20% of orders represent 80% of quantity. 20% of orders represent 80% of diversity (different types of products purchased at a time).
"If it doesn't make your stomach churn, it's probably not an awesome guarantee."
Power USP: If you are [qualifying type of customer] and if you [commit $X and follow steps Y and Z] then you will achieve [specific results] or else [penalty to me/vendor].
This USP removes uncertainty and doubt and delivers results, allowing you to charge more than competitors. It also attracts better customers (not those who want cheapest option).
To command higher prices than anyone, guarantee better results than anyone.
Find the selling environment that lets you harness your persuasive/sales gifts (writing, speaking, video, etc.) to maximum advantage.
Replace interviews with auditions (test projects).
When hiring from an online job board, look for the top 1%. Look for "top 100" lists.
Set an application fee (such as $25) to weed out applicants who don't think they can win.
"When you take that position and beat the drum, you build a powerful publicity platform." "The fastest, easiest way to become famous is to pick a side that you're passionate about and start advocating." If you take a definite position, you're quotable, and will be quoted by magazines and invited to conferences.
You can achieve rapid attention and stardom by triggering panic in the top 1% of your opposition."
Pay attention to responses from those who said "very difficult" and gave long responses. Here you'll find most motivating language, needs, and your point of difference benefits.
You can buy the 80/20 Sales and Marketing ebook, book, or audiobook on Amazon (aff. link).
This book emphasizes the importance of online marketing. What's the center of online marketing? Your website! Make sure your site is well cared for, so it doesn't fall down on the job. The easiest way to do that is by leaving website maintenance to the experts. Sign up for your WordPress Maintenance Plan today!
This must really be a great book. Excellent review. Added it to my list of books to read.
Collins, it is a great book. I highly recommend it if you do any marketing or sales. I hope you find it as useful as I did!
I particularly like your statement Using methods 2-10 (from list above), you can generate 5-50x more sales than with AdWords alone.
Nailed it!
It's a worthwhile read, Tom!