Infographic for "Lessons from Bob Fifer".

Leadership & Culture

A company's culture, driven by strong leadership, is the foundation for profitability.

  1. The primary goal is to be the best: Nothing motivates employees more than the clear and simple goal of being the best in the industry. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  2. Profits are the ultimate measure of being the best: Profitability is the most accurate indicator of how much customers value your products and how efficiently you operate. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  3. Never apologize for focusing on profits: A profitable company can better reward employees, invest in growth, and create exciting career paths. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  4. A leader's commitment to profits must be absolute: Doubling profits requires a leader who is focused, consistent, tough, and fair. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  5. Toughness combined with competence earns respect: Employees will respect a leader who is both firm in their decisions and competent in their role. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  6. Create and maintain a sense of urgency: Important tasks should have tight deadlines to encourage efficiency and focus on value-producing activities. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  7. Words must be translated into action: A strong corporate culture is built when leadership's words are followed by decisive actions, leading to results and rewards. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  8. Many managers are not truly motivated by profits: They are often sidetracked by desires for business growth, harmonious employee relations, or personal perks. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  9. Being the "best" means never being satisfied with the status quo: Always strive to improve and achieve more. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  10. Communicate constantly that the company is a meritocracy: Communicate constantly that the company is a meritocracy. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  11. On Process versus results: "An over-focus on process is the refuge of weak or mediocre managers." — Bob Fifer, quoted by Lucas Ballasy

Cost Management

Fifer advocates for a ruthless and strategic approach to cutting costs.

  1. Assume every cost can be eliminated unless proven otherwise: The burden of proof should be on justifying a cost, not on eliminating it. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  2. Cut costs first, ask questions later: If a cost is cut and it proves to be essential, you will find out quickly. If you spend too much, that money is gone forever. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  3. Distinguish between strategic and non-strategic costs: Strategic costs directly bring in business and improve the bottom line, while non-strategic costs are all other expenses. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  4. Outspend your competition on strategic costs: Invest heavily in areas like effective advertising, productive salespeople, and commercializable R&D. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  5. Ruthlessly cut non-strategic costs to the bone: Be unwavering in your suspicion of every non-strategic cost. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  6. No cost is too small to worry about: Scrutinizing small expenses demonstrates a commitment to cost-consciousness that will influence larger spending decisions. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  7. Set arbitrary, non-negotiable budgets: This forces managers to be creative and find ways to operate within new constraints. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  8. Make spending money a difficult process: When employees have to justify expenses to a discerning boss, they become more critical of the costs themselves. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  9. Declare across-the-board freezes and cuts to suppliers: Send a formal letter announcing that you will not accept price increases for a period of time. — 3G Capital and the Fringes of Cost Management // Summary of Bob Fifer's 'How to Double Your Profits in 6 Months or Less' - Right Attitudes.
  10. Never let your purchasing person negotiate the final price: They often develop personal relationships with suppliers, making them less effective at hard negotiations. Use a "bad guy" for this role. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  11. Never pay a bill until the supplier asks for it at least twice: This can significantly improve your cash flow. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  12. Eliminate excess paperwork: Reduce reports, statistics, and copies to save on time and resources. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  13. If in doubt, cut more and spend less: The natural tendency in organizations is to spend, so a strong counter-force is required. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  14. On Minimizing waste: "Never write a memo if telling someone will do, never call a meeting if a memo will do, never call a four-hour meeting if a one-hour meeting will do, never have two meetings if one will do, and never set up a process if two meetings will do." — Bob Fifer, quoted by Lucas Ballasy

Sales & Pricing

Sales and pricing strategies should be directly tied to maximizing profit, not just revenue.

  1. Price has nothing to do with cost: You should price what the market will bear. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  2. The goal is to get each customer to pay the most he or she will pay: This is achieved through price discrimination and understanding customer value. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  3. Maximizing customer satisfaction leads to bankruptcy: The goal is not to maximize differentiation, but to provide the differentiation that customers are willing to pay for. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  4. Invest heavily in your sales force: No other investment is likely to yield a greater return. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  5. Ensure salespeople spend their time with customers: Free them from administrative tasks by providing adequate support. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  6. Compensate salespeople based on profits, not sales: This aligns their incentives with the company's primary goal. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  7. Hire salespeople who know how to sell and make a profit: Product knowledge is secondary to sales and profit-making skills. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  8. Tailor your offering and your pitch to each customer: Customers differ, so a one-size-fits-all offering and sales pitch leaves opportunity unused. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  9. The selling process is your best opportunity to showcase your company's capabilities: Selling is also the attraction business: people buy from people they like. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  10. Always try to raise the price as high as you can without forcing a "yes" or "no" answer: Phrase questions to lead to "yes" or "yes, but at a lower price." — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  11. Let the customer know you don't want to negotiate on price: Be dignified and firm. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  12. Focus on your most profitable customers and products: Consider price increases where they are justified. — Double Your Profits Summary of Key Ideas and Review | Bob Fifer - Blinkist.
  13. Use target pricing: Set your price based on the value delivered to the customer, not your own costs. — Double Your Profits Summary of Key Ideas and Review | Bob Fifer - Blinkist.
  14. On Asking for more in sales: "The simplest sales rule of all is to ask for more: more than you’ve gotten before, more than the customer’s talking about, more than your insecure self thinks you deserve." — Bob Fifer, quoted by Lucas Ballasy
  15. On Humanizing sales: "Always remember that you are selling to a person, not a company. Always get them to tell you the real reason they want to buy the product or service you are offering, not the rational, on-paper reason, which is rarely the real reason." — Bob Fifer, quoted by Lucas Ballasy

Employee & Personal Effectiveness

A focus on individual performance and merit is crucial for organizational success.

  1. Run a true meritocracy: Rewards (financial, career, and psychic) must be based on performance, not seniority or likeability. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  2. Meritocracy Versus Seniority: In a meritocracy, the bottom half of performers complain; in a seniority system, the top half complains. You will always achieve better results by keeping the top performers happy. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  3. There must be wide disparities in salary: Compensation should directly reflect the differences in performance and contribution to the bottom line. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  4. If you never fire an employee, you can't have an excellent business: A true meritocracy requires making tough decisions. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  5. Maintain a scarcity of resources: This is the only way to force people to distinguish between value-producing tasks and those that are not. — Double Your Profits PDF Summary - Bob Fifer - 12min Blog.
  6. It's cheaper to give out fancier titles than raises: Use titles as a motivational tool when appropriate. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  7. Do not give regular, non-merit-based bonuses: They lose their motivational effect and become an expectation. Give them on an ad-hoc basis when truly deserved. — Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley.
  8. Be stubborn: Know what you want to achieve and the way to get there, and don't let anyone or anything deter you. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  9. Sort your daily tasks into three lists: 1) Tasks that directly impact profit, 2) Tasks to keep the business running, and 3) Tasks others expect but add no value. Never start the second list until the first is done, and throw away the third. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  10. Avoid paralysis by analysis: Superb managers are instinctual and make the right decisions most of the time with limited data. — 3G Capital and the Fringes of Cost Management // Summary of Bob Fifer's 'How to Double Your Profits in 6 Months or Less' - Right Attitudes.
  11. Only quantify what is essential: Don't waste time and money quantifying a problem when the solution is already clear. — Double Your Profits PDF Summary - Bob Fifer - 12min Blog.
  12. Doubling profits isn't rocket science; it's simply a matter of resolve: The commitment to the goal is the most critical factor. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  13. Keep human resources scarce: This is the most effective way to promote efficiency and eliminate unnecessary work. — Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner.
  14. On Meeting intent: "Never call a meeting to discuss; call a meeting only to decide." — Bob Fifer, quoted by Lucas Ballasy

Learn more:

  1. How We Saved $27,000 in Two Weeks: Cost-Cutting in a Creator-Led Business - Forte Labs
  2. Double Your Profits In 6 Months or Less: 78 ways to cut costs, increase sales, and dramatically improve your bottom line by Bob Fifer. - Daniel Scrivner
  3. Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less Book Summary - Colin Keeley
  4. Double Your Profits PDF Summary - Bob Fifer - 12min Blog
  5. Double Your Profits: In Six Months or Less by Bob Fifer, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
  6. 3G Capital and the Fringes of Cost Management // Summary of Bob Fifer's 'How to Double Your Profits in 6 Months or Less' - Right Attitudes
  7. Double Your Profits Summary of Key Ideas and Review | Bob Fifer - Blinkist
  8. Double Your Profits : In Six Months or Less book by Bob Fifer ...
  9. Double Your Profits In Six Months Or Less Chapter Summary | Bob Fifer - Bookey