Checkpoint Knockout

"This is a checkpoint and if I don't get past this, there is no future"

Whilst not an avid fan of the circus that is heavyweight boxing, the occasional personality, rivalry and bout gains considerable cut-through.

For a while, Anthony Joshua earned this media spotlight. His relative young age, escape from wayward youth and one of the finest Atlas specimens pugilism had enjoyed for a long time all helped.

Yet after reaching the summit, set to bestride the division for a decade, the Olympic gold and then two-time world champion's plinth crumbled. Maybe its in the old jibe that when you sleep in silk pyjamas you're less inclined to get up in the middle of the night and go for those essential early morning runs.

Something for us all in that.

His latest of several attempts to rekindle his potential is this weekend.

And given the authoritarian, prohibitive venue, it's fair to say he seems very much drinking in the last chance saloon.

A discussion I've had many times down the years within Enterprise salesteams revolves around qualification.

In the sense of their approach to continuing to work on a piece of prospective business.

Pretty much universally, they'd answer that yes, they're strong on qualifying.

It turns out, usually they are not.

Instead of a forecast, they run themselves a hopecast.

If they have an ideal customer profile there's no guiding ideal prospect profile.

Dazzled by deal demographics, without interrogation of the psychographics.

I've blogged on these aplenty.

The pre-fight line at the top caught my sales ear as the contender accepts where they're at.

A defining time.

One of the fundamental tips I was ingrained with early, was to be a brutal qualifier.

All deals must justify why they stay in my funnel. Taking up valuable time that could be used to work on other opportunities requires serious reason.

At each stage, and not just for any formalised gateway progression, your default must be to qualify out.

Too many of our trade do the opposite. Always leaning to why they can keep them qualified in.

The rotation of slant is often the difference between the superstars and the also-rans.

Rather than the 'day of reckoning' facing the fighter here, how many 'everydays of reckoning' do our bids have?

Such stark dawning appears to have enlightened the boxer here. Has it on you?