Lessons from the bathroom
Do you know The Slight Edge?
This is the book by Jeff Olson which propounds that theory that you only have to do just a little bit more to get big results. It came up in an email from one of my team who challenged my new practice of knocking five minutes off my 30 minutes a day for every extra Prize Draw form I managed to get completed - “Extra” meaning one that was filled in when talking to someone in a shop, standing in a queue etc rather than during the official half-hour a day.
And it’s a good p0int. Shouldn’t I be talking to people in queues as well as offering people the Prize Draw in the street?
Well all I can say is that it works for me. It’s a carrot; like promising my son he can watch Scooby Doo once he’s tidied his bedroom. The Slight Edge comes in afterwards, when he decides to delay Scooby Doo for a couple of minutes so he can pick up his clothes from the bathroom floor as well.
Of course that doesn’t happen. But me – I do the extra five minutes anyway… and get the extra benefit of feeling doubly virtuous!
| Date | Time | Venue | Minutes | Asked | Appointment | Callback |
| 24.05.12 | 1002 – 1006 | Woodbridge Car Park | 4 | 7 | ||
| 1006 -1013 | 7 (11) | 2 (9) | Yes | |||
| 1013 – 1016 | 1 (12) | 1 (10) | ||||
| 1016 – 1021 | 5 (17) | 4 (14) | Yes | |||
| 1021 – 1026 | 5 (22) | 7 (21) | ||||
| 1026 – 1031 | 5 (27) | 1 (22) | Yes | |||
| 1031 – 1034 | 3 (30) | 2 (24) | ||||
| 1034 – 1039 | 5 (35) | 4 (28) | ||||
| Total | 35 | 28 | 2 | 1 |
Total for May: Prize Draw: 5hr 54 mins. Customers: 5. Distributors 5.
Well yes,but you must admit that incentives work – and sometimes in the most unusual ways…
Today we were out in the car park filming the new videos for the Cold-Market Academy: A new script demands a new video. If you are a graduate of the Academy you will have witnessed me standing by the car park for 22 minutes and getting 62 “No’s”. That just doesn’t happen any more. With the new script I very rarely get past ten of fifteen and sure enough, today we were all done and dusted in 35 minutes – with two appointments to show for it.
But here’s the thing: I had allocated the whole morning for this. I had an empty diary yawning ahead of me. The prospect of a long walk by the river in the sunshine seemed a reasonable prospect and certainly the dog would thank me for it. But what did I do instead: Just one more form. I only had to ask five more people to get a “Yes.” It only took five minutes – and best of all, because it did not lead to an appointment, the law of averages now owes me an extra one.
It’s all down to the way you look at things, isn’t it?
Hi John,
I’m a graduate of the CMA, and would be very keen to hear about this new script that is working so well. Are you going to pass it on to previous attendees?
Thanks,
Tony.