A 4th point should be added underlying the previous 3, constant monitoring. This is of both the vendors and your own IT department The biggest challenge with virtualization is that it is so easy to make changes to your IT infrastructure that you can get into a serious non-compliance situation and only find out when it's too late (usually in the middle of a vendor audit)

You make a good point about the difference between entitlement and license but there is a 3rd element that must also be considered, Deployment. I your example Utah may be licensed for 100 but might only have deployed 50. Although for desktop it will be the 100 that will be relevant for many server based products it will be what is deployed (installed and running) It is already difficult for Producers to track license entitlement given the complex resellers agreements and license models, couple this with a frequently changing organizations (Utah merges with Europe) we should not expect a change any time soon

The observation by Bossidy on "truth over harmony" is so relevant to project management. As the PM you are trying to get the project done, but through other people. It is all to easy to fall into the trap of avoiding "robust dialogue" in a misguided attempt to keep everyone happy.

Good interview. Some very practical advice from John relevant beyond pure sales. I'll be trying out the tip at the end about highlighting the contacts of your contact.