June 2008
By Wayne Grund
Editor’s Note: This is the final piece of a five-part series on business coaching. You can find this motivational beauty industry expert’s ideas in the previous parts that appeared in our earlier issues.
In our previous article, we shared the first three of the Grund five keys to unusual success. They were 1. Get your chair full, 2. Communicate effectively and 3. Do great work consistently. We discussed how to use these keys so I encourage you to review the previous articles available at www.StylistNewspapers.com. The five keys are all about the process of our business life—the actions we take or choose not to take on a daily basis to assure we are not blocking our success.
Remember, these keys have proven successful for companies large and small, in everything from urban areas to small rural communities. So now let’s get to it, the last two keys to your unusual success.
Be sure your client can replicate their look at home—this is the fourth key to success. Fact: clients want to look great at home; they want to use hair, skin and nail products that work, they believe they are worth it and are willing to invest in quality.
The keys to selling are:
Know what you are selling. Know the science, know the uses, know the results of all your products on all hair and skin types.
Be excited to provide these products to your clients and recommend whatever it will take to have them looking and feeling their best. Rule number one in recommending is to recommend all the products you would give a dear friend or loved one if they were not paying for them, and to recommend all the products you would be using if you were your client.
Always tell the client what product you are using on them, why you are using it and what its benefits are. Then write the name of the product on a prescription pad.
At the end of the service, review what you have used on the client, product by product. Then let the customer choose; if they ask which they need the most, list what you feel is the order of importance and let them decide.
Why should you learn to successfully identify clients’ needs and sell the products to meet and exceed those needs? Because you care—and because a satisfied client will return. In fact, a client who purchases three items on their first visit has a 90 percent chance of returning for their second visit. A client who doesn’t purchase anything on their first visit has less than a 10 percent chance of returning. Too few service providers create a point of difference. Too few meet and exceed all the needs of their clients. The primary reason why a client doesn’t return is that they feel the service provider didn’t listen, they didn’t care. Show you care.
One-hundred percent client retention—this is the fifth key to success. Think of the last client you served, what was the wow element of the service experience and quality of service that you provided? When they left the salon and got into their car was their inner voice saying, “Wow, I love going there and seeing her. I always look and feel so good when I leave, I can’t wait to go back next time. I am so glad I have my next appointment booked.” Or did they simply have an average experience and jump in the car and drive away with no dynamic reason to return? Average is quite simply the best of the worst or the worst of the best. Never settle for average, always wow them.
After wowing them with your communication skills, your enthusiasm, your great work, your great styling and home maintenance information and your detailed instruction for using the professional only at home products you recommended, you must pre-book their next appointment. If you wait until the client is at the desk and ready to leave before offering to pre-book them, they will no longer be thinking about their hair or skin and probably say no. You must pre-book for them, presenting reasons for them to pre-book if necessary, while they are still in your chair and thinking about themselves—before they are thinking about where they are off to next.
Your unusual success has been the goal of this series, are you ready for it? Here’s hoping you are, and that you are willing to adopt the awareness, the responsibility and the process necessary to achieve your professional hopes and dreams, as we’ve discussed in this series.
So one last time I leave you with the question: Life, have you signed up? Thanks for joining me in the Power to Elevate Yourself to Achieve Unusual Success series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.