There’s a popular motivation program out there known as 212°. The metaphor behind it is that at 211 degrees, you have hot water, and at 212 degrees – just one degree higher – you have steam, and the power to drive a locomotive.
In a similar way, this program implies, that extra degree – in service, courtesy, effort, professionalism – will power you far ahead of your competitors.
Sorry, but I’m too much the science guy, and have too much business experience, to buy the metaphor. Just one degree is not enough. To attain real superiority takes tremendous effort. Of course, making that effort is well worth it.
Checking the science
What’s wrong with the 212° concept? It falls apart based on the facts. Yes, at 211 degrees you have only hot water. But at 212 degrees, hot water is still all you have. To turn that 212-degree water to steam takes something else very significant.
If you have one gram (or one milliliter) of water at 211 degrees, it takes just one calorie to raise it to 212 degrees. But it takes 540 more calories – something called the heat of vaporization – to turn that water into steam. In other words, it takes more energy to make the steam than it did to heat the water from 32 degrees all the way to 212.
And how does that relate to business? Well, doing just a little better, working just a little harder, won’t get you very far ahead. Think of your business and your best competitors as being around 211 degrees. Turning yours up a degree might mean answering the phone with a little more courtesy. Or washing the service vans one extra time a week. Or spiffing up your technicians’ uniforms. Those are all good things, of course. Your customers may notice, and your business may do better.
But those are also things your competitors can easily duplicate. So the edge you gain today can easily be gone tomorrow.
Applying the heat
No, to gain a real and lasting edge, you need to think not in single degrees but in terms of heat of vaporization – a large investment of new energy and resources that your competitors can’t or won’t match.
What might that mean in practical terms? Well, suppose you started by sending every member of your team, in rotation, to one major industry trade show every year. What if you brought in a director of training – whether full-time or on contract – to make sure every technician you send to the field is fully prepared?
Suppose you developed a planned maintenance program so compelling that your technicians could sell it on a high percentage of trouble calls, and every year turn dozens of Yellow-Pages shoppers into regular and loyal customers.
How about investigating your market for an important line of service that customers need, yet few contractors offer – then adding it and marketing it aggressively? What about creating an incentive pay plan in which technicians who sell effectively earn much more than is typical in your market – so you keep your good people and attract the best as you grow?
You get the idea. Now you’re doing things that take work, that take dollars, that take leadership. Now you’re creating space between yourself and your competitors, and it’s space they can’t close just by making a few small changes.
Seeing the rewards
If you do the big things, as well as the cosmetic things that make your company look, feel and act more professional, you set yourself apart in a serious way.
The point is: Don’t be fooled by simplistic concepts. In winning at business, as in heating water, you don’t get something for nothing, or a lot for a little. Building a big edge takes a big infusion of energy.
The good news is that big energy can bring big rewards. The effect on your revenue, on your prestige, on your satisfaction as an owner, on your profits, may be like, well, the difference between mere hot water and steam.
