SELL, SELL, SELL!

With sales being a crucial part of your salon’s success, each team member plays an important role, according to salon business expert Liz McKeon

If you want a successful salon business, selling is vital. It is literally the bedrock upon which every fortune is built. Whatever you do to make yourself prosperous will involve selling, be it selling ideas to your team, teaching your team to sell, selling your skills or selling your products. You simply cannot make money without selling.

Selling is defined as ‘the exchange of goods and/or services for money’ or ‘to persuade in accepting an idea’. It is the process of reaching an agreement to shift goods and services from the hands of those who provide them into the hands of those who will benefit from them.

There is no necessity to ever sell your clients a product or service they don’t need or want. In fact, all we want to do is to make recommendations, encouraging them to purchase from you and not your competition.

Achieving sales volume goals is one of the biggest challenges any salon owner or manager faces. There are a number of factors that can affect that final sales figure. One manageable factor is the people in direct contact with your clients on a daily basis – your staff, who are also your sales team. This is why good client service is crucial for increasing retail sales and services.

Each person working in your salon is crucial to growing the business. Set an overall company goal, so you all know what you want to achieve collectively. Look at the big picture as it relates to that goal, and then itemise the plan and what needs to happen to reach the sales goal. It is critical that each staff member knows and understands where exactly they fit into your plan.

Some salon owners ask everyone on the team to meet the same sales goals. However, not everyone is capable of achieving at the same level. Some people have a natural ability when it comes to retail, others work best with a certain type of client. Since you can’t ignore these variables, you should learn to master the art of flexibility. Clever salon owners work with each person on their team to discuss what is expected of them to keep their column profitable. Ideally, each employee should be evaluated based on their individual skills, experience, knowledge and training.

Individual meetings Commit to one 10-minute individual meeting per staff member a week. Begin the weekly meeting by thanking the individual for their effort and service to the salon. Review how they did with their sales last week (services and retail). Then ask what they might improve on next week. Hopefully, you will be pleasantly surprised by some of the creative answers that emerge. Use all of the information discussed to move forward with new goals for the coming week, which will then be reviewed.

Let the team member be in control of their goals by asking what their income goal for next week will be. Break that figure down into reasonable daily goals. Again, have them commit to their belief in that goal being achievable. Motivating your staff is instrumental to increase retail sales.

Before finalising the meeting, talk about promotions, events or special offers that you are running, so they can work them into their weekly sales plans. It is your job to help and to motivate, so always end by asking what you could provide along the lines of product knowledge, or sales skills training to help them to continue to grow and achieve their weekly targets.

This type of personal involvement in setting and implementing achievable goals for your team members will work in your favour. You will get to understand what each individual believes they can do. In turn, they will know what you hope they will achieve.

In addition, when each team member knows that you care enough to help them set individual personalised goals, they will then do their best to meet your expectations.

Training sessions When it comes to salon sales, everybody makes mistakes. It’s up to you to to run in-house training sessions to make sure your clients are buying what you are selling. Consider holding five day-long ones:

• Day 1: Product knowledge
Every staff member needs to know every detail about all your services and products.

• Day 2: Don’t oversell
Make sure they stop their pitch in enough time to give your client the necessary space to make a decision.

• Day 3: Listening
Try to find out what the client is asking for. Beyond that, find out what they need.

• Day 4: Establish rapport and trust
Before jumping in to make a sale, establish a relationship.

• Day 5: Role play time
This will help the team to practise and improve their sales strategy and skills. PBHJ