The benefits of under- performance in business…

‘Excellence requires under-performing on the dimensions your customers value least so that you can overperform on the dimensions your customers value most.’

Insert ‘mind blown emoji’...

A little snippet from Uncommon Service by Frances Frei, Anne Morriss.

When looking at our business, we always look to optimise every single department.

Sales - how can we squeeze out another sale or two?

Marketing - how can we decrease our acquisition costs?

Operations - how can I automate another time-consuming task?

Fulfillment - how can I deliver world-class results every time?

However, with this change in perspective, it challenges us to double down on our strengths and forget about our weaknesses.

I link this to the very popular Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule, focusing on the 20% that deliver 80% of results.

We have to focus on what truly matters in our business, and forget about the rest.

Arguably, you can approach this with questions like :

• What can I eliminate in business and service delivery that adds no true value?

• What do my customers find a nuisance that they actually do not care for?

• What one metric is of key importance, and what metrics am I wrongly putting too much focus on?

Consciously underperforming in certain areas of your business, could then be a method to drastically increase your client base, client results, and profitability.

Of course, downsides to this approach, but a perspective I have not put much thought into before.

I don’t see this as a principle that will apply to every business, and it’s not something I am ready to advise my clients to pursue, but it definitely provides an insight that could be invaluable to the right person.

Read, study and implement more my friends.

The phrase, ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ feels very real right now.

My questions for you today…

Have you considered this approach before?

Is this new to you?

Are you applying this currently?

Would love to know.

Comment below legends <3