Frustrated when a client tells you they are using a supermarket brand moisturiser?

Do you ever get frustrated when a client tells you they are using a supermarket brand moisturizer and that they are very happy with it? Looking for ideas on how to handle such a situation?

What I have done in the past is try to educate the client about the differences between supermarket and professional skin care brands. Because this approach did not always work for me, I looked for other ways to approach this situation.

I now have tried a slightly different approach which has been working for me. When my clients tell me they just love their product and I come in and say, but mine is better and yours does not work as well, the ingredients are not as good etc etc etc. they feel like you are just trying to sell them. Their barrier goes right up and they shut down to any suggestions.

Something I learned in self-defence is, if someone grabs you and tries to pull you in one direction and you try to pull away in the opposite direction they are ready for it, they just pull harder or get more aggressive. Instead what you should do is go with them, move in their direction and this will throw them off balance. It will surprise them.

So to instantly overcome any barriers and to show them they can trust me and  that I am not judging them for their choices, I agree with them. I say, wow that's fantastic that you are looking after your skin, your skin will thank you for it. What your skin needs to get the results you are after is perhaps just a few tweaks to your routine. 

What I suggest are one or two products they can add to their existing routine that will make all the difference. For example an active serum, eye cream, active night cream, neck cream, corrective cleanser, resurfacing exfoliant - choose one or as many as the client needs that will make that difference in their skin. I fill their skin care gaps with other active product and once they see the results, they eventually come back and will be more open to using other products. 

When they purchase the corrective products, this is where I plant the seed for a moisturizer by giving them a sample and suggesting that they use this moisturizer one day to two days with the active products they purchased to see how they feel. They always notice a difference and it works every time.

I don't believe in pressuring people into buying, instead, I like to educate - after I have earned their trust. When they trust me and are willing to listen, I show them results and they keep coming back for more.

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Beauty Salon Business Tips - How To Boost Sales Leading up to MOTHER’S DAY

Mother’s day is the second biggest event for beauty businesses each year. Successful businesses start planting the seed to purchase gifts and vouchers at least 6-8 weeks before Mother’s Day.

Here’s how to make your Mother’s Day the biggest event of the year in your salon.

Plan Ahead 

Begin your planning process first by analyzing the previous year’s Mother’s Day promotion to determine what worked and what didn’t.

What did you find sold the best? Was there any particular treatment package that was more popular than others? What was the average dollar spend on gift vouchers? When was your busiest time selling gift vouchers?

Did you run an in-salon event such as a buying evening for your VIP customers? How did that go? What worked, and what can you do better this year?

Team Meeting

Have a team meeting and discuss your previous Mother’s Day promotions and what they think worked the best. What suggestions do your staff have for this year? They may have received feedback from customers or may have seen an event run elsewhere that was successful and can give you valuable feedback. Involving your staff in the planning and running of the promotion will have them take it on board, take ownership and responsibility for the success of the promotion.

Gather Feedback

Talk to your customers, tell them that you are planning this year's Mother’s Day promotions and ask for feedback. Ask your customers what they would like to buy for their mother or for themselves as a treat. You can do this research directly or indirectly through social media. I have started asking people on social media what they would ideally like to spend their gift vouchers on, if they received one. This kind of research can give you some valuable ideas for designing promotional packages and offers. 

Theme

Decide on a theme for your Mother’s Day promotion. What colors will you use in your posters, displays and marketing material? What message will you try to convey? Is it going to be an offer of pure luxury, high tech treatments or a more natural organic approach? Are you trying to take your clients on an imaginary trip to Paris, New York or an exotic tropical island?

Chocolates and roses are a terrific inspiration for Mother’s Day. Can you offer a chocolate facial, or a body scrub? Roses make a beautiful addition to marketing materials and displays for Mother’s day. How about a rose petal pedicure or therapeutic spa bath? The possibilities for creating a theme for Mother's Day are endless, and once you decide on a theme, naming packages, creating headlines for your marketing material, choosing color schemes and display materials makes it that much easier. A theme will set your business apart, create excitement, stir their imagination and engage your clients.

Offers & Packages

Decide on the offer and the type of packages you can create that will fit within your chosen theme. I suggest offering at least three packages for different budgets, a package for under $100 for example $79, a package over $100 around $139 and a premium package of $199 or more. Some people that are on a budget or are purchasing a gift voucher in addition to another gift, may choose the cheapest option. Others - especially men that wish to give the best offer you have available, will choose the top package.

Make it easy for men to buy

Men love quick and easy purchases. They don’t like to think things over for too long when they come into the “female domain” such as a beauty salon, and to spend too much time thinking about what they will buy. In my experience, when men come in to buy a gift voucher, most of them want to be in and out as soon as possible. So make it as easy as possible for them to make a quick decision that the special women in their lives will absolutely love. Have a list of packages ready to show them, so even if they don’t purchase a package, they get a general idea of how much to spend on a gift voucher.

Structuring your packages

Most buyers will choose the middle package, not too cheap and not too expensive, so design this package carefully so that when the receiver of the gift comes in, you have the opportunity to offer upgrades and add-on services to the client on the day. What I am suggesting is, don’t include your most popular upgrades and add-ons as part of this package, you can do that with your premium package to reward your clients. If you are stuck for package ideas, have a look at some of the responses I have on my Facebook page The Beauty Business where I asked people what packages they would buy for themselves.

Supplier offers

Start talking to your suppliers about what they will be offering for Mother’s Day. Suppliers usually launch offers two months before Mother’s Day. The reason for this is because suppliers know very well that your customers that are most likely to purchase special offers are your facial clients, and your facial clients come in approximately every four to six weeks. This means they will see your promotion and product offers once or twice before Mother’s Day. Leaving Mother’s Day offers to just a couple of weeks before the event will result in lost sales for your beauty salon. So be sure to start promoting Mother’s Day specials and packages two months before the event.

Delegate & outsource

If you are short on time or not sure how to design marketing material, I suggest you outsource the design of posters, flyers, email, newsletter and posts for social media. You can always contact me if you would like help, I love coming up with new ideas that stand out and make sales for your beauty salon. This can save you a great deal of time so that you can keep working on clients and making money.

Whether you choose to utilize my marketing services or another graphics designer, we can make up a concept for you in a few days and it is not as expensive as you may think. We can make up all your marketing material ahead of time so you have it ready to promote the event over the next two months. Your local printer can print posters, banners and fliers at a reasonable price, so shop around. Some printers have in-house designers as well.

Displays

Decide on a window display and book a professional merchandiser or delegate the window display to a creative staff member. Gather materials for window display and in-salon display hot spots. Products and gift voucher samples can be merchandised around your salon to create interest. Have all this ready to go up two months before Mother’s Day. 

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Top Tips For Remarkable Retailing

Guest Post By Lynne Baker 

1: Don't think of it as "selling". Your clients want to buy, but they don't want to be sold to.  It's recommending the very best product for your client.  Listen to your client and recommend the product to solve their problem.  

2: "In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king".  Your clients come to you because you know more about skincare/hair care/makeup/nails than they do. They look to you for advice and guidance on the best products for their individual condition.  Don't disappoint them; make sure you DO know more than they do.  Everyone’s an Internet expert these days!

3: Believe!  If you believe in the products you can sing their praises to your client.  Use the products yourself and tell your clients how brilliant they are!  You will lose any shred of credibility if you can’t genuinely tell your client what the products have done for you.

4: Understand the products.  Once you understand what the products are, what's in them, what they are for and how they work, you can convey that to your client, and prescribe with confidence. Make it a goal to learn at least one product every week until you are confident about the active ingredients.  Your distributor will have details – just ask for them.

5: Realise the earning power!  It's free money!  You buy it, and you sell it for more.  If you sell a product to every client your bottom line will improve drastically, with no extra effort required.  You will rarely make enough money for a decent living unless you increase your revenue with retail.  Aim for a minimum of 30% of your total revenue. For every hundred pounds you take in your till £30 of that should be retail.

6: Involve your receptionist! He/She can be an invaluable sales person.  Make sure you include them in any product training sessions so that the correct recommended product is placed in front of the client for them to purchase.

8: Catch the moment! Always make sure you have stock of the most popular products - if your client has to come back for the products you've lost the sale.  When you’re setting your budgets ensure that you factor in retail products.

9: Display your products beautifully.  The display should be clear, bright, clean and FULL!  If you have display stands it looks awful if they’re half empty, dirty and dishevelled.

10: Keep accurate records of what your client has bought.  This serves several purposes.  When your client returns you can ask them how they’re getting on with x,y,z product, and they will be impressed with your thoroughness.  You can’t assess the effectiveness of a product if you can’t remember which one they bought! If your client wants to buy it again you have a record of which one it was – invariably they’ll say, it was the one in the white tube, red pot, clear bottle…

11: Invest in sales training for you and your staff.  Do not think of it as a net cost; it’s an investment in your business, and if you listen and learn from it it will pay you back in spades. Your distributor may offer this – ask them.

12: Do not take it personally if your client doesn’t buy.  You have no idea what’s going on in their lives to make them either unable or unwilling to make a purchase.  If you recommend a product and they refuse this is the point where you give them a sample.  They may never buy from you but they’ll always remember that you were still generous with them.

13: Don’t close your client’s purse before they’ve even opened it! Do not judge people on the way they look/dress/speak.  “You don’t get rich by spending it” is a useful thing to remember!  Some of the wealthiest-looking people are the stingiest…

14: Recommending the correct products for your clients is part of your professional responsibility.  You are failing in that responsibility if you don’t.  You wouldn’t expect to go to your GP and for him to say, “yep, you have an infection.  See you next month…” You would expect him to tell you what’s wrong, and what’s going to fix it.  It’s the same in our industries too!

Lynne Baker

UK Distributor of SwissDermyl

www.calladistribution.co.uk

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