Selling retail is a crucial component to salon success, but getting your stylists to feel comfortable selling can be challenging. Your stylists are your clients’ beauty experts, so their recommendations are important, or those clients wouldn’t be sitting in their chairs.
Incorporating retail sales into your beauty business is a good way to get more clients involved in your new services and business offerings and increase your average hair salon revenue.
Plus, your salon clientele trusts your salon services and expects that they’ll help them look their best. To help you and your stylists get more comfortable with selling products—and do it more successfully—use these nine salon retail tips.
1. Make a great first impression.
When it comes to selling retail in the salon, first impressions matter. One of the most important salon retail tips is that the look of the salon needs to be clean and professional. The product displays should look beautiful and organized and be well-stocked.
Also, it’s important that the stylists look put together as well. Your clients want to know “how you do it” so they can take beauty advice from someone that they admire.
2. Know your products.
You cannot confidently recommend or sell retail products unless you know their use and value. If you haven’t already, encourage stylists to take some time to research your products and try them out.
Consider offering product knowledge classes for your staff members to help them understand the products better, so they can better serve their loyal clients. In training, be sure to go over all the professional products, organic products, and new treatments using those products that you offer, as well as the price lists for each.
“Taking time to learn about the products that you are using is important to the success of the recommendation. Not only should you be aware of each product, but make sure you are paying attention to the current trends and what your guests are interested in. The main point in confidence is not to stress…and certainly don’t let a “no” affect your ego. It’s not a rejection or anything to take personally–your client may just not need shampoo today!” says Tatum, an accomplished hairdresser and the Creative Director of Paris Parker (@loveparisparker).
3. Provide a professional consultation.
Before you start any service you should provide your client with a professional consultation. During the consultation, ask probing questions to find out about their lifestyle and their wants and needs when it comes to their hair.
Most loyal clients have a beauty goal to achieve when they visit salons. So even if a consult is time-consuming, it’s an important opportunity to collect client feedback about what products they want, which will help you retain your salon’s customer base.
As you ask about their beauty needs and goals, make sure you listen carefully to their responses and document them. The more you can learn about their routine the better.
4. Make product recommendations as you go.
Once the consultation is complete, you’ll begin your service. As you go through each step, highlight the products that you are using and lay them out in front of your client. As a salon owner, this shows that you are building a customized routine for them based on their unique wants and needs.
Delivering a personalized experience and product recommendations demonstrates excellent customer service. It also establishes you as a beauty expert and helps you build trust with both new and existing clients at your salon business.
5. Educate clients about your retail.
As you’re providing services to your guest, make sure you’re explaining why you’re using each product. You can highlight why the product is superior to what they may be using at home and explain the difference they could feel and see if they switched.
Take this opportunity to teach them how to use the product too. You can show them how much to use, and even let them practice with your guidance so they can recreate the look when they get home.
6. Provide recommendations at the end of the appointment.
Finally, at the end of the service, recommend any additional products that may benefit your client, even if they didn’t fit into the service you provided. If there are tools or other products that you know could help them based on what they said during the consultation, now is a great time to bring those up.
For example, if they complained about dry hair, you may want to mention a hair mask product and how it would benefit them. According to Tatum, “Every guest should use something for body, moisture, and shine. Not every guest needs something for volume that adds body, but maybe something that tames the tresses. Always, always, always talk about the trinity.”
7. Take the risk away.
If someone seems on the fence about moving forward you can always take the risk away by letting them know you offer a satisfaction guarantee.
8. Get creative with promotions for existing clients.
Another great way to sell more retail in the salon is to get creative and run promotions throughout the year. People love a good sale, and if purchasing more than one item will help them save more money in the long run, they may be enticed to stock up or buy products for their friends and family.
Test different promotions, and track how successful they are so you can repeat what works and abandon what doesn’t. You may also want to consider a loyalty program for new and existing clients to encourage more customers to come to your salon business and buy retail when they do.
A referral program can also help you target new customers looking for a salon with retail products. You can even offer referred customers extra perks to help increase your salon revenue and retail sales.
9. Leverage technology.
Once your client is ready to check out, leverage technology to take notes on the visit. Capture notes about the client’s hair goals and challenges, the service, the haircut and/or color, the products you recommended, and any products they decided to take home. Keeping a record of this information also helps you track other important aspects of your salon business, such as cash flow and business costs.
SalonBiz, for instance, can record and save your product recommendations in a client profile. As a benefit to the client, the recommendations appear on their Pocket Salon app for a truly personalized experience. Next time they visit, you can review these product recommendation notes, ask how they liked the products they took home, and offer to supplement additional products on their list.
Online booking software that is tailored to the hair salon revenue model is another example of technology you can leverage to increase retail sales.
Many online booking methods allow customers not only to book appointments online, but also let them view or even pre-pay for retail products as they book and pre-pay for services. Letting new clients see your product offerings, loyalty programs, and other perks as they book is a great way to get them to choose your salon over a competitor.
