Working with a client in my consulting business, I’m delighted to see that one of the things they are finally starting to do is prioritize their work to focus on launching the products that will 
have the biggest bang for the buck. Of course, one can’t know for sure which products will be a hit and how big, but by applying some business judgment and common sense, they can rule out many opportunities that would seem to have a disproportionately small payback for the large amount resources it would take to launch them.
In essence, they’re applying Pareto’s principle, or what most of us know as the 80/20 rule, which states that for many phenomena, 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population.
The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes, and it’s a good rule of thumb for decision making.
Just as in product development, the 80/20 rule makes a lot of sense for networking as well. 80% of your leads may come from 20% of your contacts or 20% of your activities. Because time is as precious a resource as you can have, taking an objective look at what’s working with your networking, and what’s not, is important to networking smarter. Spending less time on the least effective sources will give you more time to spend with the most effective ones, and take your networking results to the next level.
© 2007, Liz Lynch
Liz Lynch is founder and executive director of the Center for Networking Excellence which develops products and programs to help professionals learn how to build profitable relationships. If you're ready to start networking smarter, get your free networking tips now at www.NetworkingExcellence.com .
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