Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule that eighty percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your clients? Or that eighty percent of your prospects come from twenty percent of your marketing? This idea is not new but really emphasizes the idea that what makes a business successful is not the quantity of clients but rather the quality of them, at least the quality of your top 20%.

I challenge you to look at your own business and see how much business the top 20 percent of your big spenders have impacted you. How much business have they done? How many people have they referred? How many times a month or year do you see them? Then compare them to the next eighty percent and watch how the numbers drop off. It is quite an eye opener!

I recently read a blog post about a similar idea by Alex Mandossian (www.alexmandossian.com), one of the world's most successful marketers and online business people. Like me, Alex is a Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach. He is also incredibly well-known in marketing circles and business in general. Here's what he had to say:

"When you want to tap into the power of “connecting” with your friends or business colleagues, remember it’s not who you know … it’s WHO KNOWS YOU that counts most.

Consider the implications of ”Metcalfe’s Law“. I won’t go into the formula (you can read about it at Wikipedia), but I will tell you it all started with telephone networks. Then it went into fax networks. Then to operating systems. And then the Internet. 

Today, all the hype is about ”social networking” sites..."

Click here to read his whole post. Read on below for my comment about his post.

I am in full agreement with you, Alex. As a Spa Consultant (and recently Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach) I do my best to get to know other professionals that I think will be an asset to my business and I to theirs. I look for people that share similar beliefs or work style, have a similar type of client base, or have qualities or achievements I just plain admire. (Count yourself in this last category, for sure!)

The point of this for me is to get to know people that I will enjoy working with in some way or another and that I think will enjoy working with me. Life is too short for relationships, work or otherwise, that aren't pleasant or productive on some level.

The same is true for the clients I go after. I want to work with people that I like and respect and who feel the same way about me. Then working with them is a real gift with the added bonus of getting paid for doing what I love.

So while I would love to have even more clients and professional contacts that send an ongoing stream of dollars in my direction, I am after the quality of the experience. I know that even if all of my contacts and prospects fit into this ideal vision of mine, it will still be true that only a handful will rise to the top of the crop. Those that do will no doubt get extra special care and attention from me so that we can continue to nuture and grow our mutually beneficial relationship.