80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More

The title of this book grabbed my attention as soon as I saw it. The reason is that I read Richard Koch's book 'The 80/20 Principle' back in the late '90s when it was first published. Although the book by Mr. Koch intrigued me, I didn't figure out how to take its theories and put them into practical and profitable use.After reading Perry Marshall's book, I realize what the problem was. I'm a person who needs to see "the forest before the trees"; to get a clear view of the big picture before seeing how to chunk down into details. This is especially true within the confusing and cluttered worlds of sales and marketing. That's what this book by Perry Marshall can do for you. It can give you that "aha moment" - the one in which you realize someone's given you a clear path to grow any enterprise and the only thing that could stand in your way is your own possible unwillingness to use discipline in staying on that path.There's a diagram on page 86 that clarifies everything so much for me - gives me that view of the forest - that I just want to refer to it whenever I might feel overwhelmed by sales and marketing information. On that note, the whole book is written and formatted in a very readable manner. The chapters are short, concise, and to-the-point. And even though the book is an obvious marketing piece for Mr. Marshall's bigger products and services (as most non-fiction is), you'll be happy with its stand-alone value. You'll likely feel as I do - that you have a clear choice to go on learning more from the author or you can take the terrific info he's provided here and on his website to figure the rest out for yourself. That's refreshing.Obviously, I'm really happy I've read this book. It's marked up with highlighter at this point. I'm sure I'll refer to it again and again. It'll likely be marked further with underlines and margin notes. Perry Marshall's taken the mystery and hard work out of deciphering the practicality of Richard Koch's work. I highly recommend it - unless you happen to be one of my direct competitors ("Haha").

I've heard the "80/20" rule in passing throughout my life. And for the most part I disregarded it as just kind of a blanket theory like "work hard" or "do what you love" - common sense without practical application. But Perry really impressed me with this, and that's not easy to do. He gives numerous examples of 80/20 in action in day-to-day life and really demonstrates with empirical data that it applies to EVERYTHING.I've always been a big fan of leverage. But this book has trained me to see through 80/20 goggles. And he really drives home the point that the real power isn't in understanding 80/20, but 80/20 multiplied. The top 20% of the top 20% and so on, 80/20 multiplied until you're focusing on the exponential leverage - the top 1% of things that will have massive impact on your business and life.For that reason alone I highly recommend this book.But 80/20 applies to learning too - and if you're in sales and marketing, there are MASSIVE insights here into what Perry is focusing on in his own business. My initial skepticism was that "80/20" is a great hook for a business book - and I wasn't wrong. It has wide appeal - but it delivers. It also gives you plenty of reasons to dig deeper into Perry's funnel, although the book delivers heaps of value, you'll find yourself wanting to go further down the rabbit hole, and Perry provides plenty of (free) opportunities to do so.If you watch closely Perry is "racking the shotgun". He's automating his funnel. He's rapidly disqualifying. He's practicing exactly what he preaches - and he does so in a way that doesn't take any value away from the book. There are a TON of great marketing lessons in here, both explicit and implicit - and they're equally valuable if you pay attention to them.I titled this "80/20 Is A Double-Edged Sword" because while it's powerful, it's also easy to fall into the trap of always pursuing a faster/easier way of doing things, and in the process never accomplishing anything. I see people do that all the time. But this provides a great roadmap into focusing on the areas you can leverage for massive results. Just be sure to ACT on the advice and not falling into the trap of thinking you have to reach the point of 100% leverage before you take action.If you spend $100 on this book, take the lessons to heart and never pay attention to Perry again, your money would be well spent. Fair warning though - if you're the kind of person who appreciates these kinds of strategies, you're most likely going to find yourself immersed in Perry's world long after this book......Which is fine. You can ignore the tools and bonuses, digest the book and walk away, you'll get much more than your moneys worth. Or you'll find yourself sucked in to Perry's funnel - which whether you decide to buy from or not you'll get a front-row seat to an 80/20 sales and marketing education done right.Final Thoughts: Judging the book alone. Pay attention to what he teaches - pay just as much attention to what he does. Do that alone and this could easily be the most valuable sales and marketing education you'll find anywhere. I highly recommend this - that includes close friends and family. If you're involved in sales, marketing or entrepreneurship, I highly suggest grabbing it right now and reading it today.