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How much time are you really wasting on timewasters ?

10th Jun 2014
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Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) observed that 20% of the pods in his garden produced 80% of the peas, and that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. From this developed the theory called The Pareto Principle, which one of the assumptions originating from this rule is that it is quite likely that 80% of your profits may be coming from 20% of your clients.

It is subsequently paramount that when assessing potential prospects and similarly when providing for existing ones, one should attempt not to invest too much effort on probable time wasters. By monitoring these clients, you will ensure that you wont be wasting too much time with a client who will expect to get everything for nothing.

When one conducts the initial conversation with a prospective client, make sure to get down to the essentials in order to ascertain their seriousness. Ask what services they will be needing? When do they wish to commence with your services. What’s the budget? Are you negotiating with other companies? You will soon pick up whether they are just shopping around or are of any potential value to you. If not just respond politely but don’t spend too much time or resources chasing them up.

Additionally, you need to confirm who is in fact the decision maker. It is useless to hold lengthy meetings if at the end you might be told “I have to discuss this with my boss”. Find out if your client is at least qualified to make a decision, and try and determine initially your clients position within his firm. Is he merely doing some research for his boss? Are there other partners within his company who have a say in the matter? By considering the level of the clients authority you might be saving yourself valuable time and effort.

Similarly with existing clients, monitor your client base. By doing this, it will soon become obvious which clients are never going to generate the expected income. They will be using much more staff time than they are being billed for and will essentially be redirecting your firms resources from your more significant clients. It might be of long term benefit to the company to courteously let go of clients who are proving to be a drain on the firm.

FD started out as a UK limited company registration agent in 1994 and remains a market leader. FD is now split into specialist divisions for company restoration, practice growth advice and practice sales, electronic company registers and client ID checking

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Tel : 0161 798 9999

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