This is part three of our series of interviews with Paul O'Dea. The founder of Select Strategies , an Irish firm specializing in business growth. Last week, Paul discussed the strong links between growth and a shared vision among the management team. This week, we start to look at the customer question by discussing the sweet spot . The sweet spot is an ideal customer profile that needs to be determined. It is the basis of any successful growth process.
You can find Paul's interview below, with a summary of the most important information to remember.Defining a sweet spot is probably one of the most difficult aspects of growing a business. The sweet spot is the group of customers that best fits what the company wants to grow. Most companies take on customers initially because they need the business to grow, regardless of the profile of those customers. saudi arabia whatsapp data
Soon, several customer groups emerge, including one that is not suited to what the company offers or its values. As is often the case, the 80/20 rule applies. 20% of customers make 80% of the profits. Which means that some customers bring no profit to the company.
This could be because they are too demanding, for example, and this over-demanding nature could be due to the fact that the company's services do not actually fully match their needs. Paul's solution may seem radical. He suggests getting rid of some of these customers, who are actually holding back the company's growth.
Paul uses a prosaic analogy. They want champagne at the price of beer, which makes them difficult to support. for all teams in the company, from sales to technical support.