Friends of Dave #19: Don't Listen To Mick Jagger
WARNING: despite what Mick Jagger sang, time is seldom on your side when it comes to getting a deal done.
I'm going to apologize upfront to readers of FoD who are solely in it for the odd quirky stuff. Over this past week I was reminded of and/or quoted the old sales axiom that "Time kills all deals" in different situations both in my personal and professional lives. It was too prominent of a thread throughout the week for me to ignore, so there is going to be deal talk in this space for a second week in a row.
You see, time is a resource. It is something that can be borrowed, spent well, or easily wasted. When you are trying to get something done on a deadline, there never seems to be enough of it. When you are having fun you can say time flies by. When you are bored, it elapses in slow motion. And when you are raising kids, time always seems to go by so much faster than you ever imagined it would ($50 to anyone who looks at their Facebook Memories and doesn't think this).
When it comes to any negotiation, deal or sale, make no mistake: time is the enemy. Time allows people to second guess. It allows people to consider other offers or candidates. It allows people to get inside their own heads or be influenced by outside forces. Time allows people to take what was once a logical course of action and convince themselves it was illogical. Budgets can change. Circumstances can change. People can change. So the longer time goes by from initial handshake to ultimate consummation, the chances of a deal getting done that is acceptable to you will decrease significantly.
This is why urgency can be your best weapon when it comes to closing any deal. Urgency provides you a measure of control. It allows you to maximize the resource of time by compressing decision making and objections into a shorter window while minimizing the chance that outside factors could cause a logical deal to go off the rails. By introducing urgency into a negotiation (particularly one that has a limited number of involved parties), it doesn't guarantee it will end favorably -- but it does mitigate the risk that outside influences, introduced by the passage of time, will kill the deal. It also ensures you will get to the final result as soon as possible.
So whenever someone insists on more time to make a decision or tries to create more time to make a decision, be aware that the end result will less likely be in your favor than if they decide today. In these cases, forget what Mick Jagger says. Time is not on your side -- it's out to kill your deal.
And with that, it is time to let you get to the articles I have selected for you this week. If you have not read or heard about the recent Fyre Festival debacle, you really owe it to yourself check out the Vice takedown included below. Long-ish, but fascinating. Also, strongly recommend the Gen-X article included as the last word. The fact that my wife suggested it for inclusion has no bearing on my recommendation....
It's Kentucky Derby day. Wear a crazy hat and enjoy your weekend.
XOXO
Dave
Think on This...
Facts are not always more important than opinions: here's why When it comes to facts versus opinions, just remember that not all facts have been true, and not all opinions should be dismissed either.
What Makes a Genius? — www.nationalgeographic.com
Some minds are so exceptional they change the world. We don’t know exactly why these people soar above the rest of us, but science offers clues.
For Your Day Job...
The Dirty Secret About Predictive Analytics
Despite years of optimism, the analytics market is still dominated by visualization and business intelligence software. If predictive analytics is the next best thing, why isn’t everyone using it?
Analyzing the spectrum of corporate innovation from R&D to VC — techcrunch.com
Over the coming decade, ongoing corporate exploration of the incubator, accelerator and venture capital models will expand the reach of "innovation" in the larger company and allow it to compete with the upstarts.
How Much to Compensate SaaS Sales Teams for New Sales, Renewals and Expansions — tomtunguz.com
Happy customers buy more products, remain customers longer and enable SaaS startups to scale rapidly and efficiently. Interesting look at how developing the sales motions, customer success sophistication and compensation structures to enable this type of growth is an essential skill of enduring SaaS businesses.
This Is What Behavioral Finance Is All About — www.mauldineconomics.com
It’s easy to be wrong if the whole herd is wrong. There is nothing worse than being wrong and alone.
Whether you are picking stocks or handicapping the French election, it is better to be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian than consensus for the sake of being consensus.
Your Weekly Dose of Randomness...
The Fyre Festival Dumpster Fire (long read) — news.vice.com
“Let’s just do it and be legends, man”
A bunch of Vineyard Vines wearing Millennial bros, armed with some money from some rich old people, decided to team up with a rapper to put together an "epic" musical event in the Bahamas in under 6 months. Really, what could go wrong?
Love wildlife photos? There’s a good chance they weren’t shot in the wild — qz.com
I thought something was amiss when I saw a panda doing "Blue Steel" in the last National Geographic....
And The Last Word....
Forget Millennials And Boomers. Gen X Will Save The Workplace Today, all the chatter in leadership development is about millennials and retiring boomers. Let's be honest: for most organizations, no millennial is going to be tapped for a top job, yet many of these organizations are spending money on understanding their millennials and helping boomers feel good as they retire. As usual, Gen X will be there to clean up the mess with little fanfare.
Got feedback? Questions? Suggestions? Email me: dave@slingstonegroup.com