"Plenty of time"...

My wife says I watch a lot of sports on TV.  A lot!  Recently, I watched 3 basketball games on one day; 2 NBA and 1 college.  They all shared one thing in common. 

In all 3 games the score was close as the 4th quarter was winding down. The TV commentators for all 3 games kept emphasizing that the team behind had, "plenty of time" to catch up. The commentator for one of the NBA games insisted 55 seconds remaining in the game was an "eternity". 

Know what? All 3 teams that were behind - lost.  As it turned out there wasn't an “eternity”.  Not even “plenty of time” to catch up. 

Since our childhood and the story of Cinderella we have been impacted by managing/missing deadlines at home and work.  Especially at work; especially in the technology industry: 

Golub's Laws of Computerdom 

·         Fuzzy project objectives are used to avoid the embarrassment of estimating the corresponding costs.

·         A carelessly planned project takes three times longer to complete than expected; if carefully planned, it will take only twice as long.

·         Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly manifests their lack of progress. 

Unknown Sage 

Even when drastic steps are attempted, our Unknown Sage tells us we will still run out of time: 

            Brooks' First Law 

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. 

In the sales profession December is synonymous with “Year End”.  Some salespeople tell themselves that they still have “plenty of time” to catch up on their quota.  Sometimes at “Year End” miracles happen.  Sometimes.  

Although I carried a sales quota for many decades, I vividly remember one year-end in particular.  After a premature promotion I found myself in over my head and time was running out.  That Unknown Sage warned me:

Axiom of Promotions 

What gets you promoted on one level will get you fired on another. 

As a last resort, I employed what I later coined the “Me-or-My-Successor” closing technique: 

After 26 weeks into my 2^nd year, I was put on a “performance warning”.  At the 39^th week, the Vice President of Sales was asking my Sales Manager to fire me.  Since my company had chosen to proactively promote me (perhaps a bit prematurely) at the start of the year, I asked my Sales Manager to give me 52 weeks to sell my annual quota. 

We agreed that at the end of the 52^nd week, if I was still below 100%, I would resign.  At the end of my 51^st week, I was at 75% and significantly behind the required sales dollars necessary to keep my job.  However, I had been working hard on a very large account. 

I called the executive at my prospect and asked, “Do you think you will accept our proposal?”  “Yes”, was his response.  “Excellent, thank you!”  I reacted.  And then I added, “Do you think you could place your order this week?”  When my prospect asked why, I said, “Because if you place your order next week, it will be with my successor.” 

And at the 52^nd weekly sales meeting, with the Vice President of Sales in attendance, I “roll-called” the second largest deal in the Region’s history; finished my 2^nd year at exactly 100% of my quota; and kept my job. 

In sales as in basketball when you find yourself behind - you're BEHIND!  Don't let anyone, not even me, tell you there’s still “plenty of time”. 

                                                            GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.