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The Pareto Principle

Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) was an Italian economist.  He noticed that 80 percent of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people, and that 20% of the peapods in his garden produced 80% of the peas.  Thus, he invented the 80/20 rule, more formally known as the Pareto Principle.

It’s now a common rule of thumb that many real systems have approximately this balance.  People say that 80% of profits come from 20% of customers, and 80% of results come from 20% of efforts.

How does it work?

So how does the Pareto Principle work in communication?  What is the magic 20% that accounts for 80% of your communication success?

I think it’s the ability to build trust and build it quickly.

Miller Heiman, the strategic selling company, found that lack of trust is the number one reason people don’t buy.  Surprisingly, it accounts for more than all the other reasons that you can think of put together.

And Theodore Levitt, the great Harvard business guru, said, “…products (are) judged in part by who personally offers them… the representative is… inextricably and inevitably part of the product…”

The secret ingredient:  trust

Charlie Green of Trusted Advisor Associates has spent decades studying what builds trust and what undermines it.

More than 70,000 people have taken his Trust Quotient assessment, which is an online course, and it turns out that the most important element of all the elements in this thing called trust, is the ability to create a sense of  intimacy with your audience.

Trust and intimacy are very hard to fake. If they aren’t real, your insecurities peek out through the cracks.

When you can achieve that sense of intimacy, you will be very close to that magic 20% that will get you 80% of your communication success.