Outside, a soft blanket of snow silently covered
the campus. It was bitterly cold and the wind chill made it well below
zero. Inside, however, the situation was entirely different. The gym
was packed with colorful, face-painted screaming fans yelling at the
tops of their lungs.
The atmosphere was hot, tense and noisy. It was
exactly as advertised… two closely matched and, as yet, unbeaten
basketball teams were in the second half of a battle for first place in
the conference.
Late in the game, the visitors began to pull
away. The point spread widened with each possession. At the 3:45 mark,
our team was down by 15 points and the outcome seemed hopeless.
Then a miracle happened. At that moment,
“Big Mo” entered the game. He joined our team with a
backboard-shaking, rim-rocking slam-dunk, which brought all the home
fans to their feet… cheering, clapping and throwing high-fives to
everyone within arm’s length.
Fortunately, Mo stayed with us for the final
three and a half minutes, during which time he gave us a series of
steals, blocked shots and a number of three-pointers capped by a
long-range buzzer-beater which led to a tie score at the end of
regulation.
Momentum, or “Big Mo,” is a funny
thing. If you can manage to catch it and then keep it going it’s
almost unstoppable. In the end, our team won by 17 points in overtime.
That’s incredible considering we were down by 15 with just over
three and a half minutes remaining.
In fact, once the team caught the momentum, they
scored 42 points in the final six minutes of competition while holding
their opponents to only six points.
Your cleaning business can experience momentum,
too, just like sports teams do.
Generally speaking, momentum in business is
brought on by a specific event. It rarely happens on its own or just by
accident. In much the same way as a key play or shot will turn the tide
in a sports contest, your business can be affected by the specific
actions you take to make your sales grow.
It can be the direct result of a mail campaign or
a sales contest or a raffle — anything that stimulates
sales. When it happens, though, the key is to keep it going. It’s
like rolling a huge ball. If you stop pushing, the ball will stop, but
if you keep pushing, it rolls rather easily and requires very little
effort to keep it rolling.
A common tendency with many cleaners is to ease
up when things are going good. This usually happens at the beginning of
the fall or spring seasons. Store traffic picks up, sales begin to
increase and before long the cleaner quits his marketing program, stops
advertising and puts the brakes on all promotion. After all, why spend
money for work that’s going to come through the front door
anyway. Right? And why offer discounts and incentives when you can make
full profit on every transaction?
Being in the promotion business, I see this sort
of thing all the time. One month a cleaner will be hot to run a
promotion to generate new sales and build his customer base and the
next month he’ll put a halt to everything simply because he
begins to experience success. Unfortunately, he doesn’t
understand the concept of momentum. He doesn’t know how easily
momentum can be lost or even turned against him. In addition,
he’s forgotten how hard it was to get the ball rolling in the
first place. In many cases, to start it rolling again will take extra
time, a lot of effort and additional expense.
The truth is, once you begin to experience
success and momentum is on your side, that’s when you should
strive the hardest. In sports, when you have a team on the ropes,
that’s when you should push the hardest and try to put the game
away.
You’ve seen it dozens of times. In fact,
you’ll probably see it this weekend on TV because it happens in
every sport. A team gets a lead in a game and then loses its intensity.
The players and even the coaching staff feel they’ve got the
upper hand and, as a collective group, they decide to coast to victory.
Very often, the opposing team will score, gain confidence and before
long they’ll be in the game and very often will snatch victory
from the jaws of defeat.
There are many ways to build momentum and just as
many ways to lose it. Among the momentum killers are poor quality,
excessive claims, indifference at the counter, a lack of enthusiasm
among the staff, ignorance as to the direction and goal of the
organization and a general lack of connectedness among the workers,
just to name a few.
On the other hand, think for a minute. How can
you build momentum in your drycleaning business?
One of the most obvious ways is to recognize a
positive sales trend. When you have a record day or week or month, do
you talk it up with your staff? Do you get everyone involved and
celebrate? Do you recognize and reward exceptional achievement? You
should. Doing so will add to your staff’s momentum and give them
energy and inspiration to do even better. It gets the ball rolling.
Do you keep a comment box in your store and
encourage customers to give you suggestions and feedback? You should.
And you should share these comments on a regular basis with your entire
staff. They should know when they’re doing things right and where
they need to improve. It will give them direction and add momentum.
Make each staff member feel they are a vital part of a winning group.
This will make the ball roll even faster.
Catch an employee doing something right and
immediately praise them. This can be in any area of the plant or at any
location in your network of stores.
When someone gives good service on the counter or
turns out top quality in your production area, recognize it right away.
Take that person aside, tell them how much you appreciate their
contribution and how valuable they are to the organization.
It’s like giving the ball a gentle nudge.
Momentum builds, the ball rolls faster and faster and before you know
it “Big Mo” becomes almost impossible to stop.
