How Many Manhattan's Is Your Iceberg?

One the five largest icebergs ever seen by man appeared this week.

The finger of land that curls towards S America from Antarctica saw the giant float free from (‘calved’ in the lingo) the Larsen C ice-shelf and drift into the Weddell Sea.

Called A68 (after the Antarctic quadrant of first sighting) it is less the name and more the vast size that attracts headlines.

I learned of this through London-based news. So here’s the three different comparisons offered up from various reports there;

• a quarter of Wales
• a bit bigger than Norfolk
• twice Luxembourg
• a Trinidad & Tobago

I also read Nasa’s terming; nearly the size of Delaware.

Before then hearing an “expert” explain that he thought ‘bergs are normally described in terms of New York’s most famous island borough, Manhattan. Making A68 equivalent to about 100 Manhattans.

I’ve noted similar thinking applied in salesrooms.

Some plainly “banter”, others powerfully underpinning the direction of travel.

Where you have an ideal customer profile say, evoking the name and proportioned factor of a treasured client ascribed to the size, attractiveness or likelihood of a prospect can be a helpful anchor.

The application of this can bloom as full as your imagination.

You needn’t always seek the trillion tonne monster, wonder whether 4/5ths lurks below the waterline or label something one hundred times bigger. But you can keep a murmuring check on hopecasts and wasted selling time.