International No Diet Day And Your Cold Call Snack

Pop culture was busy gobbling up this confection (for the 23rd year no less) on the 6th of May.

One journalist couldn’t help filing a few hundred words, labelling it “amusing, faintly ridiculous, without much purpose”. Yes, we do chuckle at the crazy celebrity diets that have been promoted, like these dozen. Some barely need explanation;

grapefruit – liquids-only master cleanser – ice – watercress soup – placenta pill – baby food – apple cider vinegar – cabbage soup – macrobiotic

…whilst others do;

air (apparently from the French Breatharianism movement which focuses on fasting) – five hands (as in only five handfuls of protein/energy per day) – seven day colour (each weekday only one colour of seven allowed in rotation)

International No Diet Day seems to promote ‘normal’ body shapes and a criticism of the diet industry. They feel many a study appears to suggest that, in the main, diets don’t work.

Anecdotes abound, such as from the above article quoted about weight loss suddenly occurring once calorie counting ceased. Overall, reasons for diet defeat are manifold.

One is that diets mean you must stick to a discipline. Do something specific every single day.

In Sales we have our own “diets”. Yet they too often fall by the wayside.

I thought first of cold calling.

How many managers do you hear say things like ‘make an extra cold call every day and that’s 200 over the entire year … imagine the extra deals…”?

Indeed, I once read a self-appointed canvassing ‘expert’ claim ‘amazing’ results from phoning four ‘extra’ numbers each day. Two before first thing, and two on the journey home. Whilst his delivery and mechanics may be suspect, the overall message is not. 800 ‘more’ calls could be equivalent to about a solid fortnight’s office bound calling. Quite the impressive uplift opportunity.

For those not in the hunter’s jungle, think of speaking with someone ‘new’ touched by your wares inside a customer every day. Perhaps as part of your “regular customer care” regimen. Can you picture the further profit that may emanate from knowing in person how they are impacted and what they think about today and, crucially, tomorrow?

There are plenty of tangents here for just about any sales-improvement tactic. From raw frozen dialling to simple identification, qualification or propulsion of the hallowed ‘one extra’ across any selling domain.

(A renowned sporting force springs to mind – from Clive Woodward’s rugby world cup winning “do 100 things 1% better” mentality, to Dave Brailsford‘s Olympic cycling dominance through “marginal gains”.)

If you’re a manager running a team, ask about the weirdest diets your people have heard of. Show a slide with a picture of an ice-struck New York ‘sidewalk’ like the one poor Dr Atkins slipped to his untimely demise on. Or a size zero model with a single bizarre food item alongside. Namecheck diets. Get the team thinking. And committing. Gain vital impetus for the slight tweak in your daily selling routines that will, come the end of the year, add up to a huge impact.