Strategy questions business leaders must ask: Part 5
Arthur Marara-Point Blank
As you strive for excellence in your professional life, it is essential to acknowledge that personal growth and development are just as crucial as professional growth. Recognising areas where you can improve can help you become a more effective leader, team player, and individual.
Question 4 – Which 20 percent of your customers give you the most grief? which 20 percent of your customers also cost you the most to maintain?
You will appreciate this rule from the work done by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto.
This is now famously called, the Pareto’s Law, or the 80/20 principle, at work.
This is an important principle that can help in terms of quarantining and severing relations with certain customers.
A business should be afraid of losing customers who do not add value to it.
The 20 percent will be a noticeable group of your customers who cost you more in time and other resources than they are worth.
The cost in many cases will be quite heavy. It is likely to be as high as the opposite number. Let us try to exemplify it, if 20 percent of your customers cause you the most problems, then it is likely to be 80 percent of your problems!
If on the other hand, the number of trouble-makers is only 5 percent, then they will probably cause you 95 percent of your headaches.
It becomes important to identify who they are, so that we can severe ties with them.
You will be aware of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
This group sets production quotas. The purpose of the quota is not to pump as much oil out of the ground as they can.
Their focus rather is to earn as much money as possible. To achieve that, you pump less; not more.
This naturally follows from the settled principles of supply and demand. When the demand is greater than the supply, the prices go up; and so it is possible to sell less and earn more.
The principle in all the above examples is, less is more.
In the example of oil, less is sold, but for a higher price, and so the overall revenue is more.
When it comes to your customers, you will spend the majority of your time and other resources dealing with the issues surrounding a disproportionately small number of them.
If you want to exponential raise the revenue for your business, figure out who is delivering the least amount of value to you, and then get rid of them if need be.
Focus on where the real value is coming from. When you have fewer problems to deal with, your focus can shift to acquiring more customers who are easier to deal with.
Try to do this exercise frequently so that you remain productive in your business.
Question 5 – How can your sales teams serve your customers and future customers better?
If you ask the wrong question, then there is little chance that you will get a good answer, that is because it is based on incorrect assumptions.
You can have great product or service but if your sales and marketing is not in place, you will not be able to grow your business.
The focus for many people will be to ask how their sales teams could sell more, either to existing customers or new ones.
This is not necessarily the right question; the focus should be in terms of the question asked above.
The question makes the sales teams part of the value that your business delivers.
Customers seek value. If we develop value, there is even more for your sales team to deliver.
This should remain the focus of your business. Your roles as a business leader is to think about how your sales teams can help your customers deliver more value to their clients. When setting up a team realise that the goal is not just to sell value; it is also to enable others to deliver more.
Arthur Marara is a corporate law attorney, keynote speaker, corporate and personal branding speaker commanding the stage with his delightful humour, raw energy, and wealth of life experiences. He is a financial wellness expert and is passionate about addressing the issues of wellness, strategy and personal and professional development.
Arthur is the author of “Toys for Adults” a thought provoking book on entrepreneurship, and “No one is Coming” a book that seeks to equip leaders to take charge.
Feedback : [email protected] or visit his website www.arthurmarara.com or contact him on WhatsApp: +263780055152.
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