{"id":43208,"date":"2025-12-23T17:40:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/?p=43208"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:40:28","slug":"an-end-of-the-quarter-dialog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/an-end-of-the-quarter-dialog\/","title":{"rendered":"An End of the Quarter Dialog"},"content":{"rendered":"

This same conversation occurs hundreds of times,\u00a0<\/span>all around the world every year!<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA man who carries a cat by the tail learns something\u00a0<\/span>he can learn in no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2013 Mark Twain<\/p>\n

\n

It was December 27, and I was working in my office\u00a0<\/span>when the phone rang. I picked it up and said, \u201cGood morning\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

The voice on the other end greeted me saying,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cHi, this is ___ with ___.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>I want to check in with you regarding your interest\u00a0<\/span>in our software. Did you receive our proposal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I responded. \u201cIt\u2019s a thing of beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat,\u201d he said. \u201cIs there anything else you need?\u201d<\/p>\n

I answered, \u201cWell, not that I can think of\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He tried another tactic, \u201cHave any of the vendors\u00a0<\/span>been eliminated?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d I replied, \u201cbut you\u2019re lookin\u2019 good\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you close to a decision?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely!\u201d was my response.<\/p>\n

He pivoted slightly, \u201cShould I be optimistic?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly \u2013 as I said, you guys are lookin\u2019 good…!”<\/p>\n

He grew more direct, \u201cCan we close this\u00a0<\/span>before the end of the quarter?\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cI don\u2019t see why not\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounding slightly relieved, he asked,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIs there anything you need to move this forward?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, nothing that\u00a0I<\/i>\u00a0can think of,\u201d I said, \u201cbut perhaps you might have some ideas\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

He hesitated and then the words I\u2019d been waiting for\u00a0<\/span>came tumbling out, \u201cWould a discount help?\u201d<\/p>\n

I smiled and replied encouragingly, \u201cYes, I believe so\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n

He offered, \u201cHow about a five percent discount,\u00a0<\/span>then, on the software\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

I rapped my phone on my desk and\u00a0<\/span>then picked it up again, responding,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m sorry; must have been a bad connection!\u201d<\/p>\n

He got the hint and tried again,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cHow about ten percent?\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cDeeper, deeper\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty percent?\u201d He asked, timidly.<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cMake it a twenty-five percent discount\u00a0<\/span>on the software plus free training and you\u2019ve got a deal!\u201d<\/p>\n

Relieved, he said, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll send over an updated proposal shortly\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Moral: Your prospect\u2019s Critical Date is not YOUR end of quarter.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find more stories like this in \u201cSuspending Disbelief\u201d here! https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/yc7rsrmy<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This same conversation occurs hundreds of times,\u00a0all around the world every year! \u201cA man who carries a cat by the tail learns something\u00a0he can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-43208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","tag-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43211,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43208\/revisions\/43211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatdemo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}