The 80/20 rule
More than a hundred years ago, an Italian economist called Vilfredo Pareto noticed that most of the land in Italy belonged to a small share of the people.
Decades later, a quality engineer called Joseph Juran saw the same shape in factories. A few causes made most of the problems. He called them the vital few, and he named the idea after Pareto.
Then, in 1975, Juran wrote that he had put the wrong man’s name on it. Pareto had only described who owned the land. The idea that it happens everywhere was Juran’s own. The name stuck anyway, and most people know it as the 80/20 rule.
It does not mean you should pick 20 percent of anything. It means the things that matter are lopsided. A few do most of the work.
Your business works the same way. A few parts bring in most of your customers, and your few are not the same as anyone else’s.
How it applies to your business
The picture below has seventeen blocks. Two of them are always built, and I will come back to those. The other fifteen are choices.
Nobody needs all fifteen. Most of the value comes from a few. Usually two, three or four.
But they have to be the right ones for your business.
Every business has a different place where a small push makes the biggest difference. For one, it is being easy to book. For another, it is being trusted before anyone picks up the phone.
Get Found
A great site nobody sees is a billboard in a jungle.
Earn Trust
They found you. Now they are deciding whether to believe you.
Get Chosen
A visitor with a job to be done, and the small mechanical steps most practices leak at.
Keep & Grow
The profit is in the second sale, and in the money stage nobody systematises.
Hover over any block, or tap it on a phone, to see what it does.
Your problem probably isn’t your website
A website is the front door. It matters. It is also the smallest part of the job.
What decides whether you get the work is everything around the door. Can a stranger find you at nine at night? Do they trust what they see? Does anyone follow up when they don’t call back?
There is a word for all of that. It is distribution
Distribution is everything that carries your work to the people who need it. Most of it is not on your website at all.
You still have to have the front door. People do not book a business they cannot find, or one that looks closed.
The other thing you cannot skip is measurement. Without it, nobody can tell which parts are working, and that includes me. Everything else rests on it.
So two parts are always built. The foundations, which is your website and what sits under it. And measure what matters. They are the floor, and the 80/20 rule does not apply to them.
Everything on top of them is a choice. That is where your few come in.
Three businesses, three different builds
Here is how that plays out for three very different businesses. All three stand on the same floor. Each one needs a different few on top of it.
Medical clinic
Someone arrives worried and in a hurry. They want to be seen today. Waiting is the one thing they will not do.
Reviews engine
A worried person checks what other patients say before they pick a clinic. The reviews engine asks happy patients at the right moment, in plain words, so the reviews keep arriving. For a clinic they are asked for honestly and never paid for, because health professions have strict rules about this.
Scheduling
Scheduling shows a patient the open slots and lets them book one themselves, at any hour. Nobody waits for a receptionist to phone back. The booking happens while they still want it.
Never miss the call
When a call goes to voicemail, the caller usually just phones the next clinic. This block texts them back straight away and covers the hours when nobody can answer. The patient who would have gone elsewhere stays with you.
Can do without: Lead funnel and scoring, Case studies, Payment management, Onboarding and the second sale.
Old age home
Nobody wakes up wanting this. A family arrives in the middle of a hard week, often looking on behalf of a parent who lives somewhere else. The decision takes months.
Content engine
A family asks the same questions every time. What does a normal day look like? Can we visit whenever we like? The content engine answers them in plain articles on your site. The family reads them late at night, before they ever phone, and arrives already trusting you.
Testimonials
Families trust other families. One named family saying the move was right for their mother does more than any page you write about yourself. Asking for consent is part of the block, so every word is used with permission.
Referrals by design
Doctors and estate planning lawyers work with older people every day. When a family asks them where to look, you want to be the name they give. Referrals by design keeps you in front of them, so that happens on purpose rather than by luck.
Can do without: Scheduling, Reactivation campaigns, Payment management.
School
Parents decide in one season, and the whole year rides on it. More than one person is in the decision. The campus visit is where it turns.
Reviews engine
Parents talk to each other, and they check what other parents say before they book a visit. The reviews engine makes sure happy parents are asked. What a new family finds then reflects the school you actually run.
CRM and lead capture
Enquiries arrive by phone, email, the website and open days. Without one place to hold them, some are never answered. CRM and lead capture puts every enquiry in one list with a next step, so no family falls through the gaps.
Lead funnel and scoring
Choosing a school takes several steps, and more than one person. The funnel joins the prospectus, the open day, the campus visit and the application into one path. Each family knows what to do next, and the school can see where every family is.
Can do without: Reactivation campaigns, Never miss the call, Scheduling.
The clinic does not need a lead funnel.
The old age home does not need scheduling.
The school does not need a content engine.
Same fifteen blocks. Three different builds.
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