Prospect Stacking Energy
“You can never have too much on the go”
Pipeline advice well meaning, if open to damaging misinterpretation (hint: process…), I was once given a quarter-century ago.
There’s crippling rolling powercuts in S Africa. The nationalised energy provider, Eskom, long fallen victim to “state capture”. Corruption and graft on a grand scale. I learn that Eskom’s debt presently tumours towards a staggering tenth of the country’s entire GDP.
The ingenuity of the hammered locals shines through. I myself have supported independent eateries sporting an “ESKOM MENU” chalkboard standing outside. The expertise in braai coupled with the blindeye turned to public naked flame making for many a delightful filling stop when candlelight the only lamp.
There is also the phenomenon of energy stacking.
Residents and businesses keep alternative fuel options stock.
Generators for the super wealthy, gas and paraffin for most others.
When the electricity goes off, it’s a strange existence. There’s no mobile phone signal. No internet. Not even robots (the local word for traffic lights). So despite if you’re one of the lucky growing herd of solar panel or wind turbine installees, or have an array of fully charged battery packs on standby, your two-and-a-half hour slot of darkness can be pretty tricky to turn productive.
Yes, there is a finite capacity at which our funnel can optimally function.
I recall that weird feeling having gained a client, when you’re a bit grumpy. Seeing it as more like losing a prospect, not winning a deal. Even when there’s a close prepped for the next call. In part because you must now go back to rinse and repeat afresh.
I once approached funnel building a bit like completing a stage of Tetris.
(note my previous blogs around this classic arcade game, on the tetris effect & the deals to escape soviet clutches.)
If you’re unfamiliar with the premise, seven different shapes, each made of separately constructed four-square (or pixel, if that’s simper to picture) blocks must be (rotated and) stacked as they fall from the sky so that horizontally made filled lines can disappear. I note wikipedia describes the premise a “tile-matching puzzle”.
Success often depending upon whether you’d kept a gap open for a particular ‘tetramino’ (I had to look that up) to happily inhabit.
My idea being to ensure progressing a spread of certain different types of potential project to help avoid overdue reliance anywhere.
Taking these tropes, are you too stacking the prospects ready for when the prime line of power goes blank?
Take it further even. As the original seven Tetris pieces have names. Or more precisely, letters; I, O, T, S, Z, J, & L. What are your seven or so types of prospect, and do you maintain a healthy mix of them for full pipeline protection and extra forecast energy?