october 2009 - Stylist and Salon Newspapers

Goodbye Summer, Hello Retail Opportunity
Retail Matters
Steve Sleeper
The dog days of summer have come to
an end. As we watch the last remnants of
summer from our salon windows, it’s easy to
see the darkening sky as a metaphor for the
turbulent economy. But instead of recoiling
from the darkness, let’s rejoice in the opportunity
just around the corner – the holiday
purchasing season is soon to be in full swing.
For those of us who have felt the pinch
of 2009’s under-performing economy, now
is the time to – take a deep breath – reflect,
assess, plan and take action – and…exhale.
REFLECT – What financial goals have
you set for your business in 2009? Have you
met them? How can you modify your business
plan to finish the year strong?
ASSESS – How many products do you
have sitting on the shelf collecting dust from
one month ago? Two months ago? The
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beginning of the year? Is your salon team
making product recommendations to each
and every client? Do they have the product
knowledge to make the sale? What can you do
to make recommending second nature?
PLAN – How can you capitalize on the
spirit of the gift-giving season? Where does
your product line fit into the market? How
can you capture the attention of savvy holiday
shoppers?
TAKE ACTION
– The first step to
creating any action plan
is research. Today’s
beauty professionals
understand the world of
beauty retailing is a vast
landscape full of twists
and turns, dead ends,
and road blocks (for us
beauty professionals, those road blocks take
the shape of a multitude of mass retailers luring
the attention of strapped consumers with
shiny product displays and promises of deep
discounts.) But we aren’t giving up that easy.
The beauty industry recently got a
boost for retail morale this past July when
the Professional Beauty Association (PBA)
released its consumer research report, the
Business of Beauty: Maximize Your Profitability.
This holiday season is the perfect time to start
utilizing some of its findings to create your
action plan.
Business of Beauty looks at beauty retailing
from a number of different perspectives
– from stylists and consumers to the industry’s
major competition.
Perhaps the most surprising information
coming from the report for this holiday
season – the optimal time to start rethinking
your retail strategy to capture the attention
of the droves of consumers who will soon
be hitting the salons to prepare for holiday
parties – is that 71 percent of salon clients
weren’t given a product recommendation
on their last visit. Further, a staggering 83
percent of customers never or rarely buy
products from salons but 44 percent say they
would purchase products if a recommendation
was given – what a missed opportunity.
While the report outlines “Eight Steps to
Retail Success,” created from a multitude of
interviews with some of the industry’s highest-earning
best-practice salons, salon owners
and managers searching
for new strategies
to enhance retail for
this holiday season
may want to focus
on three of the eight
steps: Recommending,
Creative Promotions
and Education and
Training.
Get your salon
team engaged in the selling process by holding
interactive training sessions on your latest
and greatest products. Not only will it arm
them with selling points on the products
you carry, it will help boost team morale and
strengthen your in-house camaraderie. Then,
use those holiday gift packs and promotions
to your advantage by encouraging stylists to
not only make product recommendations,
but also to make GIFT recommendations.
Don’t stand back and watch while
consumers stock up on products from mass
retailers. Be part of the movement toward
increasing consumer awareness of the advantages
of buying products from the professionals
they know and trust.
To learn more about the Business of Beauty:
Maximize Your Profitability report, visit www.
probeauty.org/research.
83 percent of customers never
or rarely buy products from
salons but 44 percent say they
would purchase products if a
recommendation was given.
Steve Sleeper is the Executive Director of the Professional Beauty Association
(PBA), which is made up of salons and spas, distributors and manufacturers
dedicated to improving their individual businesses and the industry as a
whole. For information, visit www.probeauty.org or call 1-800-468-2274.
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Build Your Business Online... continued from page 7
online, clients can see their availability and
book an appointment right then and there.
No phone tag, no missed bookings. After each
client books online, salons can have the bookings
sent to them in an e-mail or put them on
their websites, if they have one. Plus there are
e-mail alerts to remind clients of upcoming
appointments. Some of the best tools are free,
so there’s no risk in trying them out. You can
find one such service at Genbook.com.
Step 3: Talk About Yourself. There are
hundreds of websites specializing in topics
of new styles, treatments, and salon business
practices; many clients and stylists visit them
frequently. Whether it is an advice page or a
forum discussion, there are many places where
you can leave comments and join in a discussion.
Use the space at the end of an article or
blog to make a response that is relevant to the
topic and reference your salon. A few good
sites for this purpose are About.com, Yahoo.
com and Answers.com.
It can be that simple. Even if your salon
tries just one or two of these techniques, you
can find your businesses attracting more attention
than ever before. And with each of these
techniques being free and not requiring even a
website, there’s every reason to give it a try.
14 | OCTOBER 2009 | TEXAS STYLIST & SALON