A lie is helping me live longer.
Maybe.
Like I’m sure a lot of you, my visits to the dentist used to go like this:
Well, that was me, until about two years ago where I read that people who floss regularly live about seven years longer than those who don’t.
The thing is, I’ve never been able to find a proper source for that story. I first read it in an infographic in a magazine, I decided it was true, and at least one day every week I’m tempted to skip flossing, and a little voice in my head whispers “seven years…” and I get to it.
It might be a total lie, but it’s a factoid that makes sense when you realize the number of heath problems (including heart disease) that can start with your teeth, and there’s really no harm in believing it, at least that I can see. And even if it’s a lie I now tell myself, it gets me out of the bi-annual lie that I used to tell the dentist.
I was reminded of this last week when I was looking for a source to a report that something like 80% of salespeople never follow up with a prospect more than once or twice, but 48% of the sales are made by the 2% of people who follow up at least 5 times.
(Those numbers are approximate, but I look forward to someone quoting them as fact…)
I first heard the story as attributed to “a study by the National Association of Sales Executives,” which as far as I could tell didn’t exist, or they didn’t have any internet presence, which suggested it was a really old study. Then some more digging started showing it as a study by *a* national association of sales executives, which is nice and vague. Later I saw it listed as a study commissioned by McGraw Hill and possibly some other group, but the source data never appeared in my 20 minutes or so of searching.
And after 20 minutes I realized it didn’t matter. Well, it did a little, because I don’t like to post things that aren’t sourced properly, but even if it wasn’t a data point I could share as fact, it drove home the point that, like the flossing thing, some stories are better for you if you just believe them, and in this case, I might as well try following up with prospects in a more systematic matter, log my results for my market, and get some data – and hopefully profits – while I do some real world research.
In the world we live in today, especially online, we’re exposed to way more information with way less depth, and it’s natural that we get a little more cynical in the bargain. But turning off that internal fact checker in cases where we can’t really lose by believing something might be the best thing you can do.
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