Focus effort on the 20% of activities that drive 80% of results, systematically eliminating low-yield work to maximise output per hour invested.
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The Pareto Principle often called the 80/20 rule says that a small share of inputs usually creates the bulk of the outputs. Economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed in 1896 that 20 per cent of Italians owned 80 per cent of the land; the same uneven pattern shows up almost everywhere:
In B2B growth work, the rule is a thinking tool, not a fixed ratio. Your split might be 70/30 or 90/10, but the message is unchanged: a few high-leverage activities create most results, and the long tail creates noise.
The Pareto Principle matters because it systematically identifies where to focus scarce resources for maximum impact, whilst most organisations distribute effort evenly across all activities regardless of yield. Applying the principle means analysing your customer base to identify the 20% that deliver 80% of profit, then orienting sales and customer success toward serving and expanding those relationships whilst potentially exiting low-value segments. It means examining content performance to find the handful of pieces driving most conversions, then producing more in that vein rather than maintaining a scattered editorial calendar. For channel strategy, it often reveals that 1-2 channels generate most pipeline whilst 5-6 others consume budget and attention for marginal returns. The principle doesn't suggest ignoring the 80%, but rather recognising that different segments deserve different intensity of focus your top 20% of customers might receive dedicated account management, whilst the remaining 80% are served through automated systems and self-service. The framework is especially valuable during resource constraints: when you must cut 30% of marketing budget, Pareto analysis shows which 30% of spend generates only 5% of results, allowing surgical cuts rather than across-the-board reductions that harm high-performing programmes. The principle also guards against democratic decision-making fallacies: stakeholders advocating for "fair" distribution of resources across all products or segments may feel equitable, but such approaches starve your most productive assets whilst overinvesting in marginal ones. Organisations that rigorously apply Pareto thinking typically discover they can eliminate 50% of activities whilst maintaining 95% of results, then reinvest that liberated capacity into doubling down on highest-yield opportunities.
Export leads by source, revenue by client, or trial sign-ups by blog post. Keep one metric per table so you can sort it without confusion. If data quality is shaky, fix tracking first; the rule only helps when inputs and outputs line up.
Order the list from largest to smallest contribution. Mark where cumulative output crosses roughly 80 %. You will spot a short, steep section the “vital few” and a long, flat tail. In a SaaS funnel, five nurture emails might account for almost all conversions; the rest just add noise.
Improving a proven lever by 10 % often beats launching something untested from scratch.
Archive under-performing ads, sunset unused features, or batch low-value admin once a week. Reclaiming those hours funds deeper work on the 20 % that counts.
Markets shift; yesterday’s star article can fade. Schedule a recurring 80/20 review each quarter, ideally right before OKR planning, so next cycle’s goals reflect what is now driving results.
The Pareto Principle turns “work smarter” from a slogan into a method: identify the few inputs that power most outcomes, invest more there, prune the rest, and repeat. In growth marketing, the habit of quarterly 80/20 reviews keeps focus on the campaigns, clients and experiments that truly move pipeline and revenue.
Build a solid foundation that won't collapse when you scale. Single source of truth. Tools that talk to each other. Systems that give you visibility into what's working and what's not. Without this, you're flying blind and everything breaks when you try to grow.
The wrong tools waste money and create friction. The right tools compound productivity. Avoid vendor promises and feature bloat. Choose what actually fits your workflow, integrates cleanly, and grows with you.
A poorly configured CRM becomes a graveyard of stale data and missed follow-ups. A properly set up CRM runs your sales process automatically, surfaces hot leads, and forecasts revenue accurately.
Manual lead management breaks at scale. Automation captures every lead, scores them by intent, and keeps them warm until they're ready to buy all whilst you sleep.
Broken tracking means flying blind. Proper implementation shows exactly which traffic converts, which campaigns deliver ROI, and where to double down. Measurement makes optimisation possible.
Plan your week like your marketing budget. Manage tasks with a system you trust. Stay out of inbox traps. Protect deep work time. Run better meetings. Close your week with a firebreak.
Plan course structure that moves students from problem to solution. Script lessons clearly. Record with simple equipment. Edit efficiently. Package for platforms like Thinkific or Teachable.
Richard Koch
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Use Pareto thinking to pick channels, ideas and customers. Cut the long tail and double down on what works.
Prioritise tasks systematically by sorting them into urgent-important quadrants, focusing effort on high-impact activities.
Define pipeline progression steps to standardise how reps advance opportunities and give managers visibility into where deals stall or convert unexpectedly.
Automate multi-touch email campaigns that adapt based on recipient behaviour to nurture leads consistently without manual follow-up from reps or marketers.
Systematically rank projects and opportunities using objective frameworks, ensuring scarce resources flow to highest-impact work.
Enable tools to exchange data programmatically so you can build custom integrations and automate processes that vendor-built integrations don't support.
Organise the tools that capture leads, nurture prospects, and measure performance to automate repetitive work and connect customer data across systems.
Store information in browsers to track user behaviour across visits and enable personalised experiences without requiring login for every interaction.
Clear mental clutter by transferring all thoughts, tasks, and ideas onto paper or screen, creating space for focused work.
Measure which marketing activities drive desired outcomes to allocate budget toward channels that actually generate revenue instead of vanity metrics.
Log emails, calls, and meetings automatically to understand what drives deals forward and coach reps based on actual behaviour rather than guesswork.
Unify customer data from every touchpoint to create complete profiles that power personalised experiences across marketing, sales, and product.
Assign full conversion credit to the final touchpoint before purchase to identify which channels close deals but miss earlier influences that started journeys.
Define events that start automation workflows so the right message reaches people at the right moment based on their actual behaviour not arbitrary timing.
Store raw data from all business systems in one place to run analyses and build reports that combine information across marketing, sales, and product.
Send a series of scheduled emails that educate prospects over time to stay top-of-mind without overwhelming them with aggressive sales pitches.
Assign credit to marketing touchpoints that influence conversions to understand which channels work together and deserve budget in multi-touch journeys.
Navigate competing priorities and secure buy-in by systematically understanding, influencing, and aligning internal decision-makers toward shared goals.
Credit the channel that introduced prospects to your brand to measure awareness efforts and understand which top-of-funnel activities start customer journeys.
Capture specific user actions in your product or website to understand behaviour patterns and measure whether changes improve outcomes or create friction.
Document your repeatable processes in clear, step-by-step instructions that ensure consistency, enable delegation, and capture institutional knowledge.