Low Hanging Fruit, Is it Real?

What is the easiest way you could increase sales by 20%?

Warning: This Blog is confronting – Only read on if you have the appetite for a harsh truth. You have been warned. If you proceed past this point – I urge you not to shoot the messenger.

When performing due diligence or preparing a business for sale, this simple question sits amongst the most revealing I ask. The answer we receive is extremely informative. Clearly, as a small business owner, the question opens the door to a whole lot of thoughts and, regularly, it just simply perplexes the business owner. Very seldom do I get a simple response.

The notion of “low hanging fruit” has become something of a business cliché. We hear it bandied about in meetings, mentioned casually over coffee, referenced in strategic plans. The idea seems straightforward enough: somewhere in your business, there exists easy revenue just waiting to be plucked.

But here is the truth. If increasing your sales by 20% were genuinely riskless, you would have already done it.

I ask myself this question about my own business regularly. I am always trying to increase my revenue without working harder, though I do not always succeed. The exercise forces me to confront where I have grown complacent, where I have settled, and where I have stopped looking for opportunities that might be staring me in the face.

When I pose this question to business owners, the responses fall into three predictable paths. Some retreat into defensive explanations: the market is saturated, competitors are cheaper, and customers are too price-sensitive. Others launch into elaborate fantasies about marketing campaigns they might run or markets they could enter. A third group simply sits in silence, genuinely stumped by a question that should be central to their thinking every single day.

All three responses tell me the same thing: the owner has not done the hard work of examining their business with clear eyes and asking “What are they prepared to sacrifice?”, to change, to risk in pursuit of value and growth.

What Are You Prepared To Do?

What I am truly asking is not “what could you do?” Rather, I am asking “what are you prepared to do?”

When you honestly consider how you might increase sales by 20%, the answer could lie in one domain; or it might be present in multiple domains: operations, marketing, pricing, cost management, product development, customer service, sales process, market expansion. There are indeed 101 things where the answer might be found.

Some opportunities might genuinely be low hanging fruit. Perhaps you have been undercharging for years out of habit rather than market reality. Perhaps you have a database of past customers you have never bothered to contact. Perhaps your website makes it difficult for people to purchase, or you close at 5 pm when it could meaningfully be 6 pm.

Lets put “low hanging fruit ” in perspective. Every change has a cost. It requires effort, courage, or both. Raising your prices means risking customer pushback. Contacting dormant customers means accepting that some will have moved on. Extending your hours means changing your personal schedule.

Low hanging fruit is real only if you are prepared to reach for it. As the old adage says…“You get nothing for nothing and very little for sixpence!”

When business owners tell me about the easy ways they could grow, I listen carefully to their language when they speak of costs. The point I am trying to make is that low hanging fruits are defined by Low cost – High Returns; Low hanging fruit does not mean No Cost – High Return.  

The owners who struggle have not yet made peace with the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. The fruit remains unpicked because picking it costs something they are not yet prepared to pay – and I am not referring to dollars.

The Real Obstacle

When you ask yourself how you could increase sales by 20%, are you prepared to back it up with action?

Often the answers lie in operations, a willingness to systematise, to document, to train, to potentially let go of people who cannot meet higher standards? It may lie in marketing; investing time or money, creating ways to measure the witnessed results, to persist and modify even when initial efforts fail? If it lies in pricing, are you willing to prepare for conversations with customers who question you or outright object?

Yes, low hanging fruit exists in nearly every business I examine. But the willingness to harvest it is far less common than the existence of the fruit itself. If it lies with you, are you willing to get out of your comfort zone… scrutinise every expense, to make cuts that feel uncomfortable, to challenge assumptions you have held for years?

Your business needs you

Over the coming hours genuinely look for answers to this question: What is the easiest way I could increase sales by 20%?

Then ask yourself the harder question: what are the costs that stop me from doing this right now?

Firstly – put aside those ideas that involve external factors, they are beyond your control. Market conditions, competitor behaviour, customer preferences are all factors you must navigate, but they are not evidence of low hanging fruit.

Second – put aside fear, inertia, comfort, or a simple lack of detail in how to execute.

You can now take action, or you can back down and accept that your current trajectory will continue indefinitely. There is no third option. Wishing for change without acting on the opportunities in front of you is not a strategy; it is a fantasy.

Action Plan

When it comes to “low hanging fruit” … You and I both know it exists. Yes, the pursuit might not achieve the result you sought.

But if you find yourself hesitating, unwilling to commit, then you have learned something valuable about yourself. You are not yet serious about value. And until you are, no amount of advice, strategy, or market opportunity will make a difference.

If you would like to discuss what genuine growth looks like for your business, or if you are preparing to sell and want to ensure you are capturing maximum value, contact Kevin Lovewell directly on 1300 551 757. We are here to provide the objective analysis and strategic insight that separates businesses that grow from businesses that simply hope.