Sovereign #16: The 80/20 Rule Applied to Selling

Welcome to Issue #16 of The Sovereign Seller. A weekly email with practical tips on how to use inbound + outbound marketing strategies to generate leads, and get the attention of, and appointments with … your most in-demand prospects.

Sunday

December 21st, 2025

7:11 AM

Indianapolis, IN

One January Saturday a few years ago, at Worthen Arena in Muncie, IN, during a men’s rivalry game between the Miami of Ohio Redhawks vs. the Ball State Cardinals, I left the game in the second half to walk around campus.

Walking through our campus that Saturday afternoon, nobody seemed to know an NCAA Division 1 basketball game was even being played.

I saw more students wearing IU gear than anything with a Ball State logo.

Not a single TV in any public space was tuned to the game, even though it was broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network.

The arena itself, with a capacity of 11,500, barely held 3,000 fans.

Maybe 50 students came.

One year athletics tried to bribe students with free beer to attend games - not even that worked.

The band didn’t even show up.

At one point the band director asked to be paid to play at football and basketball games.

I kid you not.

I spent the past weekend in Chicago with college friends.

All of us are big sports fans, we watched basketball and football all day, ate great food and drank many beers.

We all graduated from Ball State … and a 30 year recurring topic among my alumni friends is … there’s no sport to really get excited about as a Ball State alum.

Most of our alumni live within 2 hours of campus and 99% will never go back because Ball State is not good at football or basketball. The two sports that “move the needle” for sports fans.

I graduated with a degree in Journalism. I grew up in the area. I spent 8 years overseeing corporate sponsorship sales there.

In my view, Athletics is treated as an underfunded afterthought.

And university leadership has persistently failed to grasp the potential of being good at even one sport.

Let’s break down this lack of success in sports using the 80/20 principle, then apply the same concept to sales strategy.

The 80/20 Principle

The 80/20 Principle, also known as the Pareto Principle, originated in the late 19th century when Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that roughly 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population.

Over time, this pattern proved to be remarkably consistent across economics, business, and productivity, revealing that a small number of inputs often produce the majority of outcomes. In a business context, this means that a minority of customers, products, or actions typically drive most revenue, profit, and results.

The power of the principle lies not in the exact ratio, but in its core insight: impact is rarely evenly distributed.

British entrepreneur and former Bain consultant Richard Koch transformed Pareto’s observation into a practical business framework through his bestselling book The 80/20 Principle.

Koch demonstrated that high-performing companies deliberately identify and concentrate resources on their most profitable customers, products, and activities - while minimizing or eliminating the rest.

Rather than spreading effort evenly, he showed that strategic focus on the “vital few” leads to simpler operations, higher margins, and disproportionate growth. Koch’s lasting contribution was turning the 80/20 Principle from an abstract concept into a repeatable strategy for maximizing profitability by doing less, better.

The 80/20 opportunity for Ball State Athletics

Let’s assume university leadership will never invest heavily in sports.

Fine, then focus on one high return investment sport.

And this return on investment is infinite - even benefitting non-revenue sports:

• More tickets sold
• more sponsorships sold
• millions in free media exposure,
• more alumni donations,
• a swelling endowment,
• increased enrollment,
• more community and civic support,
• NCAA bonuses for advancing into championships …

For a mid-major school, without much money, the 80/20 play is to focus on basketball. In Indiana the sport is culturally significant, and cheaper to be consistently good at.

Take the millions being spent (and lost) on football, and reinvest into becoming a mid-major basketball powerhouse.

A crazy idea, right? But consider this…

Ball State Football could go undefeated and they will never make the College Football Playoffs - even if it’s expanded beyond 16 teams.

The reward for millions invested in football is appearing in forgettable bowl games played on a weekday afternoon in December.

But in basketball, there is a golden ticket. A guaranteed way to make the NCAA Tournament. And that is to win your conference championship.

This is a less expensive, more achievable, higher return on investment play.

And therein lies the resistance to “active” 80/20 application.

You have to make choices.

Tough choices.

You have to ignore other seemingly worthy causes to be successful.

You have to take a risk.

And while women’s basketball has surged thanks to players like Caitlyn Clark, you have to recognize success in Men’s basketball generates a higher return on investment. IT has to be the focus initially.

And while Football is popular, it’s extremely expensive, with huge rosters, scholarships, and travel … along with a more limited upside.

It’s been 25 years since our Men’s basketball team has made the NCAA tournament.

THAT appearance in 2000 (I’d argue) was more significant than the 6 forgettable bowl games played since.

80/20 In Sales Sovereignty

Ball State’s leadership lacks the courage to commit to an 80/20 strategy in sports.

They continue spreading resources across every sport producing mediocrity.

But there are plenty of successful pioneers who’ve already paved the way.

Just look at schools like Marquette, Dayton, Butler, Seton Hall, Xavier, Gonzaga.

All thriving by prioritizing basketball over football.

Most salespeople and sales leaders have the exact same problem.

You know who your best prospects are.

You know which activities actually generate pipeline.

You know what’s working and what’s theater.

But you won’t act on it.

You keep calling on everyone because it feels safer.

You keep doing low-value activities because they keep you busy.

Let me show you what happens when you actually apply 80/20 to your selling motion.

My 80/20 Evolution

When I sold newspaper advertising in the 1990’s I called on everyone - any business - because we were the only paper in town and there were few other choices.

But times changed, the internet came along, social media came along. Advertisers had more choices. Media sellers had to get more focused on who they were selling to.

When I sold TV advertising in the 2000’s I only called on businesses who could spend $10k per month and had a wide geographical reach. I ignored every small local business that walked through the door. My close rate jumped because I was only working deals that actually fit what TV could deliver. My income doubled because I stopped wasting time on small advertisers.

When I sold sponsorships for Ball State Athletics from 2017-2025 I focused entirely on selling our two most popular sports - Football and Basketball - because those were the only sports sponsors cared about. The only sports where I could deliver an audience.

But I was criticized for not trying to find sponsors for non-ticketed sports.

For not showing “support” or going to those events personally.

But to me it was simple, every minute spent outside of my 80/20 was time and effort wasted on a smaller opportunity.

How To Find YOUR 80/20

Stop guessing. Pull the data and identify your vital few.

Look at your closed deals from the past 12 months:

• Which 20% of accounts generated 80% of revenue?
• What do they have in common? Industry, company size, decision-maker title, specific pain points?
• What was the average sales cycle for your best deals vs your worst deals?
• Which 20% of your prospecting activities generated 80% of meetings booked?
• Which prospects moved fastest from first contact to close?

Now look at where you’re actually spending your time:

• How much time are you spending on prospects that look nothing like your best customers?
• How many hours per week are you doing activities that generate zero pipeline?
• How many “opportunities” in your CRM have been there for 6+ months with no real movement?
• What percentage of your day is spent on busy work vs high-impact selling?

The gap between these two lists is your problem.

The Courage To Ignore

Here’s the part that separates high performers from the perpetually busy: you must actively ignore the 80%.

This is what Ball State won’t do. This is what most salespeople won’t do.

“But what if I’m wrong about my 80/20?”

Then you’ll learn fast and adjust. That’s better than the alternative - staying busy working everything and wondering why your numbers aren’t where they should be.

Here’s what you need to stop doing:

• Stop working deals under your minimum viable opportunity size
• Stop prospecting to companies that don’t fit your ideal customer profile just because they’re “in your territory”
• Stop attending every internal meeting that pulls you away from selling
• Stop responding to every RFP that comes across your desk
• Stop trying to save deals that should have been disqualified months ago
• Stop ignoring your existing clients and maximize every opportunity to sell them more

Every hour you spend on the wrong opportunity is an hour you’re not spending on the right one.

That’s the real cost of not applying 80/20. Not just wasted effort - it’s the opportunity cost of what you could have built instead.

What if you stopped trying to be everything to everyone and became the obvious choice for your vital few?

That’s the 80/20 strategy in selling. That’s sovereignty.

I hope you enjoyed Sovereign #16.

To your success,

Shane