Timing

Ask any competent comedian and you’ll learn that “timing” is one of the secrets to good comedy. That may be true, but timing can be critically important is many other areas as well.

Consider this business meeting where the client and the vendor concluded their normal business when the client asked if the vendor could do one more thing. The project seemed simple and straightforward enough, so the vendor replied that this task would not be a problem. The vendor then asked when the client needed this new project completed. After a moment or two of silence, the client replied, “Actually, we needed it yesterday.”

The vendor smiled and said that he didn’t think he could meet that deadline, but he could get something back to the client in a day, or two at the most. Realizing that he had asked the impossible, the vendor’s response sufficiently satisfied the client and they moved forward. True story.

When tight or even unrealistic deadlines are requested, the backdoor response vendors like to keep to themselves – which is not entirely inaccurate – is, “You can have it fast, accurate or cheap – pick two.”

“I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.”

— Billy Joel, American singer, songwriter and pianist