We asked one of our Business Experts, Liz McKeon, internationally renowned Salon Business Expert and Author, about what changes salons can implement to make a difference to their bottom line.
Every salon owner is looking for ways to increase turnover and profits. Consider the following equation:
- How many clients visit your salon on average every week?
- Let’s say between everyone on your team, 100 clients visit your business weekly.
- If everyone of those clients spent just an extra £10, that would generate an extra £1,000!
- And, if that happened every week for one year, that is an extra £52,000 added to your bottom line.
Therein lies the power of ‘Upselling’ and ‘Cross Selling’, both of which are possibly an untapped resource in your business. Upselling is “to persuade a client to buy something additional or more expensive. For example, if a client asks to purchase a cleanser, suggest she also purchases the corresponding toner”. Cross selling is “to sell a different product or service to an existing client”. For example, suggest a skincare treatment to a client who only ever comes to your salon for nail services. It simply means exposing the client to other options that were perhaps not considered.
Don’t forget about online add-ons. By giving your clients the option to add on additional services while they are booking their appointment online, they will be much more open to ‘upgrading’. There are times when your clients won’t be able to make it in for a session, but still need and value your professional advice – offering online consultations allows you to solve this problem, make extra money by selling homecare items while retaining your client.
Swap the tendency to give discounts and offers to adding additional extras instead. Every client likes to get a little more than they expected. It helps to make them feel special. To get started you may need to give your clients a little extra luxury at the same price. If the clients love the result of the bonus service, they are likely to book it for their next visit and pay for it, providing it is offered to them. Alternatively you could give away a taster of a new service and then upsell it to that client going forward.
With just a little effort, you can encourage your clients to spend more on services, invest in retail, visit your business more often and book a wider range of your services.
You can tell your team to increase their sales, or, you can teach them how to upsell and cross sell. Here’s an idea for a training programme to improve in-house sales, it involves daily 20 minute group training sessions, for one week:
Day 1: Product Knowledge – every staff member must know all the details about the full range of services available, the brands you stock, the features and benefits of every product.
Day 2: The importance of listening skills – plan to improve listening to clients in order to catch all buying signals.
Day 3: How to establish rapport and trust with every client, every visit – before jumping in to make the upsell or cross sell, slow down, establish a relationship. Remember, people buy people first.
Day 4: Don’t oversell – make sure all team members know to stop their pitch in enough time to give the client time and space to make a decision.
Day 5: Role play ‘asking for the sale’.
In-house regular sales training will lead to increased confidence with the team, happier clients and greater profits for the business.
For more information head to www.lizmckeon.com or to get in touch with Liz email: team@lizmckeon.com