National Clothesline

By Allan J. Katz

If only I had a dime for every time I heard a drycleaner say, “I don’t have time to market my business… I’m busy putting out fires all day… People seem to find us on their own…”

With 15 years of experience helping drycleaners prosper in ways they hadn’t dreamed possible, I’m well aware of the harsh truth in this industry: The best drycleaning plant in the world is worthless without ongoing marketing efforts that create a constant stream of qualified customers who buy over and over again.

Recently I delivered a workshop to a group of drycleaners on how to double their business within eleven months. I explained, “When you are able to break down your customers into categories based on their recency, frequency and monetary elements, and build a relationship with each one of those customers based on their personal criteria, you can double your business. Just increase each customer category by 20 percent.”

One of the attendees raised his hand and said, “That all sounds really good, but who has the time to do marketing? I need someone to do my marketing for me… to implement all of these ideas you’re giving us.”

Right away, I knew he’d be one of the eight in ten people in the audience who would ignore my advice — they’ll file their notes from my talk and forget about it — and never realize the same business potential as the two out of ten who would.

Over the years, I’ve learned that no matter how many great ideas I give drycleaners about marketing their stores and delivery routes, a mere 20 percent implement what I tell them to do — and those are the drycleaners who are going to take their business to the next level and prosper. The others do what I call “running up the down escalator,” rather than taking the steps necessary to put their businesses on auto-pilot and enjoy their personal lives more. They’re stuck in the marketing implantation dilemma.

Why people procrastinate

This concept of people spending money to learn how to market and then not following through really disturbed me, so I did some research to find out why people get stuck — why they procrastinate and create obstacles to their success. I found that procrastination is a “fear that their task performance may result in failure that would reflect stable poor abilities.” Also, even though some individuals permanently claim to “work better under pressure,” many times people avoid doing necessary tasks in order to experience a thrill-seeking sensation — to “jump start their desire to do the task.”

This explains why some people wait until an ad deadline to place an ad, write the promotion in less than ideal creative circumstances and then wait anxiously for the thrill of achieving a good return on their advertising investment. As most people well know, rushing does not always produce excellent results.

In a recent study of influences on behavior, it was found that “people’s behavior is heavily influenced by the behavior and expectations of other people, especially “important others.” This is especially true of procrastinators who are paralyzed by fear or negative evaluation or loss of money.

What’s a drycleaner marketer to do?

I know you’ve got tough situations to deal with at work: employee problems — stacks and stacks of old magazines and papers cluttering your work area; e-mails to answer — all of which leaves you little to no time to market. But you know what happens when you don’t market, don’t you? In short: nothing.

What’s the answer?

Michael Gerber in “The E-Myth Revisited” says, “pretend you are going to franchise your business,” cleverly “clone” yourself to develop a model of operations that will run without you, so you can concentrate on working “on your business,” not in your business.

It’s all about the power of focus. It’s about having a plan… a system… a program in place to keep you on track and focused on your goal. It’s about getting other people to do some of what you’re doing now — putting out fires, managing employees, going to the bank, etc, and setting aside a few minutes a day to work on your marketing plan. In fact, your marketing plan should be mapped out on a calendar so you know exactly what you’re going to do from day to day to bring more people into your business — and keep them coming back.

Seem like a daunting task? Get inspired by thinking about your goals and considering what people who are truly successful in life do to create and maintain abundance. It all comes down to two steps: They have a plan which leads to their ultimate goal; and they follow the plan, taking consistent and persistent actions to achieve the goal.

Fear of failure and success

The last element comprising the Marketing Implementation Dilemma is fear. People have not only fear of failure but fear of success. They think along the lines of, “I’m not supposed to be THAT successful.”

If you’re reluctant to boost your profits because you’re afraid of success, one of the best things you can do is acknowledge the fear and work your plan anyway. In other words, fight the fear with action! Test different marketing pieces to see which is going to work best in your market. Ask questions: Will this work? What has worked for others?

Don’t give up until you find the one thing that really works well for your area, your business, your life and your customers. Soon you’ll find yourself in the “Two in Tenº” club of drycleaners who plan their work, work their plan and enjoy the rewards.

Allan J. Katz, The Loyalty Coach, helps drycleaners attract new customers and keep them loyal. He is the author of the Ultimate Marketing System for Drycleaners, a turnkey marketing and implementation system for attracting and retaining drycleaning customers. A free marketing implementation calendar is available online at www.CleanerMarketingResults.com/implement" www.CleanerMarketingResults.com/implement, or by calling (800) 209-9058, ext. 2015.