Wit Wisdom and Whoop

An early lesson I learnt when dealing with customers was that invariably there is a Stated reason and there is a Real reason. Not always easy to even know such a situation exists and very difficult to know the real reason.  Over time I have realised that this behaviour extends to even strategic decisions of companies, decisions by politicians and sometimes even within family and friends. My most interesting lesson in this was in dealing with a giant multi billion dollar corporate where they needed an electronic consumer product “reworked”. The estimated size of the deal was hardly Rs 2 Million but someone two heartbeats away from the Chairman was talking to me and putting pressure to close the deal. Sensing that there was something I didn’t know – the Real reason - I doubled our price estimate, he agreed without batting an eyelid. I then said extras not included and he further increased price by about 15% and I had no choice but to agree. We did the work, didn’t lose money and ...