Liu Shuling, the winner of a women’s half marathon in Shandong, China has been stripped of her title when she was discovered to have brought in a ringer, be Wang Xueqin, to run for her.

Initially Liu Shuling was the winner of the 2010 Yellow River Estuary International Marathon, but video footage later revealed, that it was Wang Xueqin who did the actual running.

The Chinese Athletics Association has banned both Wang and Liu for two years, and it seems further punishment is in store for them.

But this wasn’t a special case for Chinese long distance runners.

It turns out that Chinese students obtain extra credit for their college entry exams if they excel in sports. So, some “creative” students bribed 30 runners at the Xiamen International Marathon. The ringers did the running, carrying the students’ time-recording devices, while the students disappeared to perform less strenuous activities. Then the students would return to claim their extra credit.

But this kind of bait and switch goes way beyond the Great Wall of China where the communist government has developed corruption, deception and the “taking-the-world-for-a-moron” attitude into an art form.

It’s pretty common in business development too.

Just imagine this situation…

You don’t feel well, so you go to your family doctor. You phone the clinic and set the appointment.

And then, horror of horrors, instead of your familiar doctor, you meet… the clinic’s salesman. Someone you’ve never seen. Someone who started medical school 20 years ago, but couldn’t handle it and dropped out. Then he sold bibles and vacuum cleaners door-to-door, dabbled into multilevel marketing and sold used cars.

And now, having previous medical experience, he is the salesman at a medical clinic.

You protest that you’ve set your appointment to see your doctor, but to no avail. First you have to go through the salesman’s pitch.

So, you agree.

Then the salesman asks a couple of leading questions and then starts closing you on a pair hip replacement prosthetics.

Why that? Because it’s expensive enough, yet, it’s reasonably easy to sell, so the salesman can make hefty commission on each deal.

But there is a problem. The salesman doesn’t know anything about medicine and he doesn’t care about whether or not the solution solves the patient’s problem.

Never mind that. He can make good money, and that’s what matters.

The patient can complain later, but first he must be relieved of the burden of his heavy bank account.

Realistically, buyers want to see subject matter experts, and do their best to avoid salespeople. Thanks to the Internet, buyers know almost everything about what they want to buy. They need to meet experts who can diagnose buyers’ situations and then together they can develop solutions. And most salespeople can’t do that.

Yes, conventional wisdom says you need to have great sales skills. Maybe. But if you do a kick-arse diagnosis, then you don’t need sales skills. Buyers buy from you because you are the person who’s diagnosed their situations, and the market’s perception is that he who can succinctly summarise the problem can also provide the solution.

So, if it all comes down to diagnosis, I think a doctor is the best person to learn the trade from.

So, enter the stage Dr. George Huang, the developer of “Client Conversion Mastery: The Self-Guided Program for Using Paid Introductory Sessions”.

It’s a step-by-step diagnostic-based process for how to efficiently handle initial contacts with potential clients, qualify their suitability for working with you, and showcase your talents and abilities; ultimately, once you master the process, you’ll see a jump in your conversion rates.

And the sooner you start, the sooner you see the improvement.

So, if you have a hard time to go beyond the first meeting, George may well have a solution for you. So, go and check it out before the next opportunity knocks on your door.

Go to “Client Conversion Mastery: The Self-Guided Program for Using Paid Introductory Sessions”.

Just this morning while shaving, I was thinking about the word and the concept of “tendering”.

In the late 80s, when I was laying the foundations of my English vocabulary, I knew one meaning of tendering.

And that was to make something, like meat, tender.

Later I learnt the other meaning that relates to contracts.

My distant ancestors, Attila and his Huns used to tender meat under their saddles. They would salt raw meat to prevent it from spoiling, and then put pieces of meat under their saddles.

Then they would ride on the meat for a few days, and the riding action and the heat from the horse would make the meat tender. Then they would spice the meat and eat it.

And from this method has evolved the Steak Tartar, which is raw beef tenderloin with all sorts of raw ingredients. I usually eat it on toast made of artisan bread.

But there is another meaning of tendering, and that relates to contracts.

The process is basically the same.

Buyers issue their RFPs and unsuspecting sellers respond to them. This is the equivalent of putting the meat under the saddle.

Then buyers sit on the submitted proposals for weeks searching for the lowest bidder. This is the tenderisation process, the equivalent of riding on the meat.

And after a good ride, the Huns would pull out the meat strips, spice them and eat them. In the contract world, after a few weeks, buyers would call the lowest bidder to discuss “some details” before awarding the contract.

Our unsuspecting seller goes to the meeting, and the buyer starts “spicing” him to make sure the contract tastes great for the buyer.

This is where buyers pressurise the lowest bidder to drop his fees and prices by another 10-20% to win the contract. And when the seller drops the price to the desired level and hopes for the signatures, the buyers brings in the next spice: You get paid net 120 days.

And just because this is not enough, the buyer brings in yet another spice: And you do the work as per our instructions.

Now, Steak Tartar is the closest equivalent of under-saddle tendered meat, and when you have good tenderloin (I almost always use organic free-range veal), it tastes amazing.

But unlike tendering for food, which is a good process, tendering for contract is a nasty process, and I believe IT companies should avoid it like the plague.

In my experience, top-notch buyers don’t tender because they are seeking top-notch experts not merely fungible vendors. They also know that only fungible vendors respond to tenders. Respected experts don’t.

The tendering process is in place to replace fair play between buyers and sellers. Buyers try to create an environment where they can pay as little as possible and treat sellers like some kind of servants. It’s a master slaver relationship.

Anyone who’s worked with government bureaucrats knows this.

So, on one side of tendering, go for it and try the Steak Tartar, but do your best to avoid the other kind of tendering. Tender-based contract work.