Dry cleaners tell me all the time, “I don’t have time to market my business…I’m too busy pulling clothes out of the washer…people find us on their own, we don’t do marketing…” With 15 years of experience helping dry cleaners prosper in ways they hadn’t dreamed possible, I’m well aware of the harsh truth in this industry: The best dry cleaning plant in the world is worthless without an ongoing marketing effort that creates a constant stream of qualified customers who buy over and over again. The fact is 15%-20% of people in your neighborhood leave town, move or die each year. When you don’t do marketing, how will you fill this gap?
I once delivered a workshop to a group of dry cleaners 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 spending, 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 (prospect, shopper, customer, client, advocate) by 20%.”
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 8 in 10 people who will file their notes from my talk and forget about it — and never realize the same business potential as the 2 out of 10 who would.
Over the years I’ve learned that no matter how many marketing ideas I give dry cleaners a mere 20% implement of what I tell them to do… and those are the businesses 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 implementation dilemma.
Why Dry Cleaners Procrastinate Marketing Their Services
I recently researched to find out why people procrastinate and create obstacles to their success. I found that procrastination is a “fear that their 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 you 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 Dry Cleaner
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 – 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 – pulling clothes out of the washer, managing employees, going to the bank, answering e-mails, and setting aside a few minutes a day to work on your marketing plan, then on marketing itself. 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: 1) They have a plan which leads to their ultimate goal and, 2) 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 your 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 “2 in 10” club of dry cleaners who plan their work, work their plan and enjoy the rewards.