Link to 2024 Promo Plan: https://heatherpod.ck.page/c33c065299

00:00:05

Welcome to the Hair Hustle Podcast. I' m Heather Podlesney, your salon coach dedicated to helping stylists master the business side of beauty. Whether you' re starting your journey behind the chair or you' re a seasoned pro looking to level up, this podcast is for you. Each week we' ll dive into the tips and tricks you need to run a successful salon business with topics that will change the way you work and earn. From budgeting hacks to help you keep more of what you make to time management tips that will keep your schedule stress-free and the strategies for boosting your retail sales and nailing that next promotion. Get ready to build your dream business without burning out. Together we' ll cut through the noise and get to the root of what makes your salon thrive.

00:00:47

So grab your shears, turn up the volume, and let' s hustle. Welcome to the third episode of the Hair Hustle Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. I am your host, Heather Podlesney. So we are getting started today with maximizing retail sales in your salon. I' ve got five quick tips for you. As you know, we like to keep these episodes short and sweet. So if you love this, we are going to dive deeper into each of the tips in episodes in the future. So come on, let' s get ready to talk about one of my favorite subjects, which is retail sales in your salon. We' re going to start with the five tips. I' m going to begin with a pre -tip, we will call it.

00:01:33

And it' s simply that choosing a brand. It' s choosing a brand, choosing the full portfolio, having a belief line, and really going with whoever the brand is that matches all of your values in your salon company. This may take some interviewing. I worked for a distributor and in corporate America for 10 years. And so I totally understand the importance of matching a brand that is the right fit with your salon. So we' I' m going to start by saying, finding a brand that you would like. Okay. I don' t work with brands anymore, so I get to kind of go on whatever we say, but I just want to make sure that you have a brand that when we give you these tips, you don' t have like a cherry- picked line of five different brands and nothing of the same, because all of these tips, you really need.

00:02:25

A full portfolio of a brand and you need multiple of each in order to really make this. So it may be an investment for you, but that' s where you need to get started. Okay. So let' s get into tip number one, promotional calendar. So when I say promotional calendar, you might be like, oh my word, that just sounds like a lot. Honestly, what we' re going to do is we' re going to break a promotional calendar down into six promotions a year. So that' s every other month, we' re going to have a product promotion, a service promotion, and then we' re also going to have a team incentive. Okay. So that' s going to be for your staff. This can work for independent salons and commission salons.

00:03:04

You can actually grab a free, I will actually put the link here in the show notes. And I actually have a promotional calendar example already made up for you from now until the, get you to 2025. So, please feel free to go grab that because it literally has every single tip and trick that you would want to get started. Okay. So, that' s what you' d need if you' re not getting started. So all' s you need promotional calendar, six promotions a year. You can find out what your brands are offering. You can start offering your own. It' s great to sometimes go with the brand on what they' re offering. So, if they' re giving 20% off leaders, then you can actually come up with a really fun tagline for that and then move it on just as an example.

00:03:45

Another great one for right now is because we are approaching October is pick a pumpkin. You can go grab some either pumpkin Reeses' s or something along those lines, right? 10, 15, or 20% off. So 20% off on the back of them. Every single guest that comes in, picks a pumpkin and that' s what they get off their retail purchase today. So there' s a fun couple of different, really fun trick or treatment is also a really great one for a service promotion. We' re going to get that going and we' re going to kick that off every other month. That' s tip number one. Tip number two is product knowledge. And that just does not sound fun. What I like to say is selling is telling. So that' s it.

00:04:20

So we want to make sure that when we kind of like start this relationship with the brand that we re going to have in our salon, we want to make sure that they either have an online portal that they have, um, that they can send artists in to train our team. We want to make sure that they know degree of heat protection that the thermal protection goes to. We want to make sure that they know that it has 72 hours of frizz control. So all of those little tips and tricks are really important. And to be honest with you, one product knowledge class will not do. So yes. When we get a brand, we' re going to have one big product knowledge class, but you also want to make sure that you' Rehaving at least two per year or one per year at the very base, because we always know that we' re not going to learn everything all at once.

00:05:13

So great little touch points, inviting your brands in to be able to say, ' So then this way, when we' re talking to the person in our chair, when we' re talking to our guests, all we' re doing is telling them about it. And we' re teaching them how to do it. Let' s start with the best product knowledge class. How to solve their problems. That' s it. We don' t have to get crazy. We don' t have to be these little robots that know everything. We just need to know those little tips and we just have to share them. That's it. Tip number three on maximizing your retail sales. Oh, are you ready? Creating a retail experience.

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I have so many of you over the last 10 years of coaching people with their retail who have said, oh, I hate Ulta. Oh, I hate Sephora. And we do not want to say that. I understand that they offer an experience. And my challenge to each of you who want to say that is to go in and understand why the consumer is buying. Because they' re offering an experience that people literally cannot help themselves. They want to buy something. And we can take tips from that in our small business and we can put those tips to work in our retail area. Another great tip is to actually create your silent salespeople. Are you ready for this? What' s a silent salesperson? That' s your displays. That' s your signage.

00:06:32

What are your mirror clings? There are literally a hundred ways, maybe not a hundred, but pretty close. There are so many ways to create an environment where consumers can know and understand what the deal is by a sign. So keep that in mind. Also, if you have the budget to purchase or a brand even has these available, then trial sizes are really a great way for a guest who' s already said no to actually offer them a sample. Key is, I said, they already said no to the full- size investment. We could gift them a sample to try, and then they could bring that back in for 20% off the full- size front. Okay. So create the retail experience that people know, love, and desire is tip number three.

00:07:19

Tip number four is in maximizing, salon retail is soft selling techniques. So what does this mean when we talk about soft selling? It' s also consultative selling. When we talk about consultative selling, we simply are saying that we' re taking things in the consultation that we heard needs, desires, and problems in the very beginning of the appointment. We listened and we know that possibly our guests, I' m giving an example, maybe our guests at the very beginning of the appointment, they' re not going to be able to sell their products. They' re going to be able to sell their products and they' re going to be able to sell their products and we' re going to help them take care of their own hair.

00:07:54

But in the beginning, during the consultation, I do not understand why my hair is so frizzy right now. When we start to approach this, we can simply say, Oh my word, we have a new product, or maybe you have an old product. It doesn' t matter what it is. We have a product that helps prevent frizz for up to 72 hours. I would be so happy to show that to you. Bam. Right there. You are solving their problem that they had a frizz. We are giving them the solution. Also in consultative selling, one of the biggest problems I have ever seen, and no one ever thinks that they' re guilty of this, but they are because I have seen it hundreds of times, probably even thousands of times, is the biggest opportunity to talk about product is at the shampoo bowl.

00:08:44

And I have witnessed so many times a stylist shampooing a guest' s hair, the guest literally saying, oh my word, that smelled so good. And the stylist literally said nothing. They simply would say, ' Oh yes,' and then would keep telling their story that they were telling. And I want to be like, ' That was your opening line.' So if you did nothing, you actually hindered them from wanting to purchase it. And now they' re going to leave the salon being like, ' That shampoo smelled really good.' I wonder what kind it was. And then they' re going to start shopping somewhere else. So sometimes it' s our fault that they didn' t buy is because we were too busy talking.

00:09:28

So always, always, always make sure at the end of the appointment, you wrap up, you go through all of the problems that they were having because we are hair problem solutionists. I don' t even know if that makes sense. As a thing, but that' s what we are. So we are solving all the hair problems of the world. And that' s why our guests come to us. They want great hair, but then also, they want great hair, not just when you do it. They want to be able to do their own hair and have it look great. Tip number five is track sales, set goals. This one is kind of tough sometimes, but that' s okay. I' m here to help you.

00:10:05

So one of the biggest things that we can talk about when it comes to tracking your sales and setting your goals is having team incentives. And sometimes I think we get really stuck on the number of sales or setting the sales number goal. Should it be 10% to retail to service? Should it be a certain dollar amount? Should it be a certain unit? So, number one thing that I' m going to say to this point right now, and we will dive deeper into this in weeks to come, is that if you are new to selling retail in a serious way, you need to be in test mode. And as an owner or a manager, you have to constantly be thinking that you' re in test mode.

00:10:46

So, what that means is that, if your team may not be motivated by the contest that you did, but you can' t give up. So it So, same thing when it comes to actually offering the promotion to your guest, your consumer or your guest might not be interested in a percentage off. They actually might like a dollar amount off instead. So, same thing with your team. Your team may not love the fact that you just offered them this $300 blow dryer as an incentive. They might like it if you offered them a night out to one of the like hot restaurants that are in your area. So you have to do all of this homework, and in the promotional planning portion, this is when you' re going into test phase and you' re going to see what actually motivates your people.

00:11:35

But if something was not successful, sometimes it' s just one little tweak and then it could be the best promotion that you've had. It could be a tweak on your team incentive. It could be a tweak on how they perceive the team incentive. It could be that they like a big board in the back room or it could be that they like a sheet and they like to track it themselves. There are so many different ways to tracking sales and setting different goals and team incentives for your team, and sometimes it' s literally about trying one. If it worked, we write it down, we track it for the next year or for the next cycle, and then we' re going to try something different the next time.

00:12:16

So if you re new to this, just know that some of these tips or promotions or incentives, they might not work and it' s not because they' re bad, it' s because you just didn' t hit the right button on your consumer or your team. So another great point in tracking is sometimes you don' t always have to track dollars. You can track units. I know several teams who love it when you track units. So instead of saying you have to sell five hundred dollars, maybe it' s that you sell ten units. And maybe they sell ten units and they get something small or maybe they get entered to win something larger. Whatever that looks like. And then also there' s a couple other fun ones like the no game.

00:12:57

So you actually just track how many no' People get and the person with the most no' s or you get something, some type of a prize. And then also there' s even the three product challenge. This is one of my favorites: it is that you take three products. At the end of every guest, you take three products up to the front desk and you simply say, here are three products that I used on you. Please don' t tell me that you did not use three products because if you use a shampoo or conditioner, you should have at least used one type of styling aid or something on them. Yes, I' ve heard every excuse in the book if you' re wondering so. And that is simply they brought up three products and they get entered to win something.

00:13:32

They didn' t even have to sell a product. We know that when a service provider brings up three products that a guest is over 90 percent likely to purchase one. We know that when a service produc tcomars brings up three products, that a guest is over 90% likely to purchase one. service provider brings up three products they' re over 90 likely to purchase one what i know that is a crazy statistic so i just want everyone to keep in mind that selling can be fun and exciting your team can get super excited about it and let' Get everybody ready to rock and roll, especially you guys, for this holiday season! So don' t forget, free promo planner if you can' t start anywhere or you' re not even sure where to start, start there because it has all kinds of fun tips and tricks, and just pick one, pick one to start with. Thank you so much for joining me for episode three, and I can' t wait to see you maximize on all of your retail sales we' re going to dive deeper into each one of these tips in the following weeks. Thank you so much, have a great day! Make it a great day, and let' s go create some great- looking hair!