Skip to main content

Closing the deal

I realize that many of you are thinking that this entry is about sales. It is not. Rather, it is about execution of a plan, any plan. Do you aspire to have that managerial job? Or perhaps you're eyeing that roadster down the block in the driveway with the "For Sale" sign in it. And is that a model that I see sitting two tables down from me in this restaurant?

Regardless of the situation, you need a plan if you wish to reach your goal. And the first stage of any plan is understanding exactly what needs to be done and what the potential risks are that would prevent you from succeeding.

In sales this is called qualification. Everyone else calls it discovery or, simply put, asking questions. And it is essential to do this or else you run the risk of making an avoidable mistake because you simply didn't know any better.

What about that model? "Who is she?" (Check Google via your smart phone.) "What are her interests?" (Again, Google it.) "What is she eating, and do I know a good wine pairing?" "Are there any paparazzi waiting around outside of the door that she needs to be aware of?" Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to approach her and sound intelligent enough to catch her interest.

You also need to understand the risks in each situation. "Is it true that she's married to Vin Diesel?" "Is that her lesbian lover that she's kissing?" Either of these are a show stopper, obviously, but if you weren't aware of her marriage to the esteemed Mr. Diesel and he shows up while you're hitting on his wife then it will probably be more than just a spurned advance that you'll receive in response.

There is a cliché that says, "you have to learn how to walk before you can run." My response to this is that before you can walk, you need to know not only where you're going but what the best method is to get there. Understanding the answers to these questions will provide you a head start in successfully executing your plan of action.

Popular posts from this blog

"Ni jiang yi yang de hua ma?"

Last week, I wrote about the necessity of having a clear message . Because this topic is so important I decided to follow-up with another entry on this general subject. This week we will approach it from another angle. (For the curious, the title says " Do you speak the same language? " in pinyin, which is a transliterated Mandarin Chinese.) Recently, a good friend of mine (who is Chinese, ironically) and I were playing pool. He had to bank the 8-ball in the pocket to win the game, and since it was an informal game and bank shots are my area of expertise, he asked me for advice. I told him, "you just need to strike the cue ball with medium speed so that it hits the 8-ball right in the middle." He didn't believe me so we marked the positions of the balls, and then he took his shot only to watch the 8-ball sail past the pocket. "A-ha!" he exclaimed. "I told you it wasn't that easy." But when we reset the positions and I made an attemp

It's Easier to Fail at DevOps than it is to Succeed

Slippery when wet Since the term DevOps was coined in Belgium back in 2009, it is impossible to avoid the term whether in discussions with colleagues or in professional trade magazines.  And during the years while this movement has gained momentum, many things have been written to describe what elements of a DevOps strategy are required for it to be successful. Yet in spite of this, there is an interesting data point worth noting: not many organizations feel there is a need for DevOps.  In a Gartner report entitled DevOps Adoption Survey Results (published in September 2015),  40%  of respondents said they had no plans to implement DevOps and 31% of respondents said they hadn't implemented it but planned to start in the 12 months after the survey was conducted. That left only 29% who had implemented DevOps in a pilot project or in production systems, which isn't a lot. "Maybe it's because there truly isn't a need for DevOps," you say.  While that

Is No/Low-Code the Key to IT Nirvana?

 Unless you've had your head in the sand for the past year or so, you've seen the phrases low-code  and no-code  bandied about quite frequently everywhere you look.  You've probably wondered if this is something new that's here to stay or just a "flash in the pan."  Although the terms have been in the fore of the IT trade publications recently, Low Code Development Platforms (LCDP) (and the corresponding No Code Development Platforms) have been in existence since 2011.  Their roots can be traced to the 90's with 4th generation programming languages and GUI-assisted programming paradigms, e.g. IBM VisualAge for Basic, which was discontinued in 1998. For those of you who aren't familiar with either, the premise is that these platforms allow someone to quickly build applications using a WYSIWYG interface and a "click and configure" paradigm to Isn't this the source code to Roblox? rapidly build full applications with little or no coding requ