Creating A Killer Retail Culture
Download MP3We go, sister. It's recording. I'm so excited. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Salon Talk with Nancy. I'm your host.
nancy:I'm Nancy, and I'm so excited to share information today. We're gonna talk about the 12 types of buyers. If, you did not get the opportunity to, watch part 1 with kristi Valenzuela of creating a kick butt killer retail culture in your salon. This is part 2, and we're gonna talk about the 12 different types of buyers. So let's see.
nancy:kristi, can you tell us a little bit about yourself for all the viewers that didn't get the opportunity to watch part 1?
kristi:Yeah. For sure. So, first of all, thank you for having me, Nancy. Appreciate it. I always love jumping on things like this and meeting cool people that you know that I don't know, and, hopefully, we can be all friends after this.
kristi:Mhmm. So I am currently a co owner of Summit Salon Business Center, and I've been a co owner of the company for over 20 years now. Prior to that, I owned a, coaching company called Crystal Focus Salon Coaching. And on on that actually, owned them. There was a little bit of overlap at that at that time.
kristi:So I owned Crystal Focus and Summit at at the same time. But Crystal Focus really focused on the front desk and customer service and sales for the front desk and support supporting service providers and growing their business from the front desk and grew that company for 15 years and 7 trainers, and we were global. Yeah. But before that, I worked in a salon company and was a service provider in a salon company servicing a full time clientele. And so and my heart today is really to be with the service provider or, you know, with your stylist and, you know, really focusing on them because, you know, part 1, when we talked about sales mindset and inventory and things like that, that was all salon owner talk.
kristi:Now we're gonna do stylist talk and, you know, what I would love to do of course, we're gonna talk about the 12 buyer types. But, you know, at some point, I'll probably talk about the top three mistakes that stylists make when it comes to selling retail. So that'll come out of me, bubble out of me somehow.
nancy:Probably, Nancy. Yeah. It's all good. It's all good. So, I've made a I've made a commitment.
nancy:I'll tell you a quick story before I ask you my two questions. Mhmm. So I had a live Instagram talk show last year, maybe the year. It it's was I probably did about 12 episodes. It was so fun.
nancy:I loved it. So it might have been a year and a half. And one of the things I I started it because I I was scared to do lives. And so whenever I'm fearful of something, I literally tell myself, now I gotta do it. So whenever I catch myself saying, I'll never do that.
nancy:So another example, when all the high fashion hair color was coming in, and I remember that, you know, all the brands are trying to launch, like, these high fashion hair colors, and I thought, I would never do that. And the second it I it didn't even come out of my mouth all the way, and I thought, Yache, now you have to. Now Oh, I love it. When I believe in having an open mind, evolving, growing with especially in this industry. Right?
nancy:So my husband, I got married. I had rose gold hair. Yep. Yep. And, so I've I've and I learned to love it.
nancy:I actually loved it. I was, like, kinda sad when I went I did something else. I was, like, fine, whatever. But I am married now. So on occasion, I have to make a piece then.
nancy:But I did the live talk show because I wanted to challenge myself. I said I was scared. Right? So, one of the things you can't retake do a retake online. And I learned that so much fun.
nancy:So one of my commitments to anybody that's listening is that I will always be authentic and there's no editing. There is no editing other than a filter to make me look beautiful and youthful and young. There is absolutely no editing to my podcast. So I wanna put that out there now because now that the universe knows it, I'm committed to it. So I will hold myself accountable for that.
nancy:But, anyways, that's how this whole thing started and I totally lost track. See, there you go. That's what that's what happens when you don't edit. So okay. I'm gonna ask you some questions.
nancy:Are you ready, Christie? My two questions. So our Nervously ready. Our listeners can get to know you a little better. So one, what is the most unusual hobby you've ever had?
kristi:Unusual hobby I ever had? Let me think about this for a second. I feel like I've had a lot. Unusual. I don't know if it's unusual, but it's not a hobby a lot of people have, and that was stained glass.
nancy:Oh, that's nice.
kristi:Stained glass art. Yeah. Cutting cutting stained glass and fusing it and yeah.
nancy:Really? Mhmm. Do you have pieces that on your wall at home that you
kristi:I used to, in in a house that I owned in Michigan. Above every door, there was a transom window that was, gosh, whatever, 3, 4 feet by, I don't know, 18 inches. That when I bought the house, it all they had a stained glass artist lived in the house prior to me buying it. And over the transoms, she had made these pieces. Well, there were she didn't finish the work.
kristi:And there were 4 pieces that were and I went and priced that out to see if I could get get an artist to do it for me. Yeah. And it was something like $800 or $1,000 per transom. I'm like, oh my gosh. That's, like, $5.
kristi:And I thought, I can I crafty? So I went and took a class.
nancy:This is how I feel about my own hair. I'm a licensed hairdresser. And I'm like, I have a license. I can give myself a trim today. I'm okay.
nancy:Right? I can do this.
kristi:But yeah. So that's why
nancy:I Okay.
kristi:That's why I did it, and I loved it. It was great.
nancy:Yeah. That's a really interesting one. You're artistic. I love it. You're not just business smart.
nancy:You're creative.
kristi:Okay. Creative. Mhmm.
nancy:You are? Okay. What is the one thing on your bucket list that you're absolutely determined to check off your list in 2025? Oh, 2025? Because well, at the end of 2024.
nancy:Well, if you have something for 2024, like I
kristi:didn't I I have I have one. So Ireland is a bucket list item, and I am going to plan that for summer next year. Yes.
nancy:Nice. Ireland. Uh-huh. Our daughter went there, and she loved it. I wanna go to Italy.
nancy:It's on my bucket list. I get a we're my husband and I are just starting to travel, the last years. We have 6 daughters. Yes. No.
nancy:I don't take sympathy cards, anyone. No. It's okay. I have 6 daughters, and they're just getting engaged and married one after another. It's crazy.
nancy:But so we just started traveling and then Italy is one of them because I am a cleaning, which is like Italian. I am a Connecticut Italian though. So I wanna see where I came from. It's on my bucket list. And living in Rhode Island, it's predominantly, you know, it's founded by Italians.
nancy:So I have a lot of people I know that actually have houses in their lingo all the time. So they said when we're ready to plan it, they'll help us to kind of put it together. I just need to do my ancestry and find out, like, where my family came from. So before my dad passed, he knew that it was something I wanted to do. So he left me as many clues as he could.
nancy:He's like, here's your great grandfather's, like, eulogy. So you have the date of birth, his last name, like, all that, like, who his relatives were. He's like, I think that will help you. And I'm assuming that's gonna help me. Right?
nancy:I'm guessing. So alright. Alright. So alright. Here we go.
nancy:So we're gonna talk today about the 12 types of buyers that would like to, you know and I want I'm in my head when we totally identifying myself. Now are we all account it's like the 5 languages of love. Are we all a combination of, like, a primary and then a secondary? Alright.
kristi:No. And with the 12 types of buyers, it just depends on the person. I find that when I do this live, most people have 3 or 4 buyer types out of the 12 that live inside of their buyer type DNA, if you will. And but I'm 9 of the buyer types. So I'm I'm a super buyer.
kristi:I'm I'm 9 of the buyer types. So it just depends. If you'll find yourself I'm I'm definitely 9 of the buyer types. Yeah.
nancy:Interesting. So we can be a combination of things, and you have it categorized where all of a sudden it becomes a suit. This is really cool. I love it. I love it.
nancy:I'm I'm intrigued. And then I'm of course, is that I over analyze everything. I just wanna warn everybody now. So I'm gonna be, like, asking questions as you teach me. Okay.
nancy:Twelve type of buyers coming into your salon. They're already your clients. Right? Or they're family of clients, like, you know so these are your clients and we the episode before this, we talked about creating a killer retail culture. And so this is definitely something that you're serious about your retail, which I can get into some statistics about the beauty industry.
nancy:It's booming and it's only growing. And it was, like, in the like, it was going from, like, $500,000,000,000 to, like, $900,000,000,000 by 2027. So if you think people aren't buying beauty products, I'm telling you, it's you need to get out of your box, out of your little four walls. You need to go take some classes, network with some other salon owners that are actually being successful with it and get some new ideas. Right?
nancy:So now we're gonna learn about better understand the clients we already have, what motivates them to buy. So talk to me. Let's about the 12 types of buyers, and I'm taking notes.
kristi:Well okay. So I and before I get into the 12 buyers, I wanna talk about the genesis of where this came from. Right? And so if I go all the way back, oh my gosh, probably 8, 9 years ago. How this all came about was I got a phone call from a salon company in, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and, they said I have been up there several times working with that salon company.
kristi:They have, about 18 locations. And, so they said, Christy, our team loves you. They love the scripts that you bring. They love your content. We wanna bring you back in for an event and, be part of our big event.
kristi:We're gonna give you an hour. You're gonna be on stage. Now there's 450 employees in these locations. K? 450 employees.
kristi:It's a big room full of people. And the request was, we want it to be about retail, but we don't want you to teach anything. We just want your script. You know, we want your off the cuff scripts. So we just want people to stand up and ask you questions about what you would say if a salon client said blah blah blah.
kristi:And I'm like, I I don't normally get speechless or scared, and I was both of those things. I was like, that sounds terrifying. All I can think of is a spot.
nancy:Why you had to do it. Right? Why you had to do it? I'm scared to push yourself in. I'm scared.
nancy:Oh, damn it. I'm doing it.
kristi:Yeah.
nancy:What's the matter gonna happen?
kristi:And I thought to myself, like, what if I don't have an answer? And, you know, and and then what if there's another question and I don't have an answer? And I'm a prepper. So I so I I first of all, I said, I don't know if I want that job. And they were they were like, no, come on.
kristi:We have faith in you. So I said, okay. And then for months prior to this, I'm like, what in the world could they ever ask me? And so I started just being audience members and writing down everything I could think of that they could ever ask me and how I would answer it. So what happened was what what happened was they would ask a question, and then I would have to go into the character of the client.
kristi:Right? So if a client said this, what would you do? And and I realized that it all went back to what type of buyer they were. And that's how this all came up. So we talk about 12 buyer types.
kristi:There's probably 20. We landed on 12. But, I think they're really specific, enough that it gives us the idea that there that people buy for different reasons. And we call these people consumers. So, Nancy, you're a consumer.
kristi:I'm a consumer. What do we consume? We consume getting our oil changed. We consume going to the grocery store. We consume going to the restaurant.
kristi:We are consumers. No matter what country you live in, on God's green and blue planet here, it you we are all consumers. We buy things. How we buy, changes might it it might change depending on what you're buying. But, those I
nancy:would think too the stage of your life too.
kristi:It could be the season of your life for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It could be it could be about how much money you have in your life. Yeah.
kristi:So that also and I have to tell you one more backstory, and then I promise we'll get into the
nancy:talk there.
kristi:The other backstory is that as a coach, I would go into salons with the topic you know, my specialty has always been customer service and sales, equal parts. Customer service and sales, equal parts. When you do both as equal parts, the customer will never feel sold to. And so we have to do it in a way that's beautiful. We have to do it in a way that's luxury language and so forth.
kristi:But when I was coaching salons, just like when I I'm about to go into you know, talk to an account that that that you have, and you saw me do an interview or a discovery session with them, and I have a lot of different questions with that. But before I go into a salon, I collect numbers. I wanna see their sales rhythm, their past, you know, their past history so that I can help them. Most of the time when you go into a salon as a coach and you look at past sales history, it looks like cardiac arrest. There's highs and low extreme highs, extreme lows, everything.
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:Rarely do you go into a salon that's just cruising along at a upper level of retail sales. So then it causes me to ask a lot of questions. And not only do I ask the owner, but I also like to ask the team. So when I have an opportunity to go early and maybe hang out with the team before the session starts, I'll I'll say, hey, in April, I saw your retail sales were really high. What was going on in April?
kristi:Inevitably, the team would say, oh, we had that spring, you know, spring savings sale, and we sold a bunch of hairspray. And I'm like, oh, okay. So they're like, yeah. Yeah. We had the sale.
kristi:I'm like, okay. And then your sales went down in May. What happened in May? And they're like, oh, we didn't have a sale. I'm like, okay.
nancy:Or even took an education like a class, and they brought on a new line. Like, any there's so many
kristi:Exactly. Exactly. There's some kind of excitement or sale going on. So what the the bottom line, what I'm trying to say is when identified highs and lows, this is what the team said, the high was because of the sale. The low was because we didn't have a sale.
kristi:The high was because we had a sale. The low so here's what happened. I realized that the majority of our service providers that are out there think that the only time their clients buy is because there's a sale. So the only time they talk about it is when we have a sale. So if we don't have a sale, we're not saying anything.
kristi:Here's and and there's a big myth that we need to bust because I'm a I love a sale. Everybody loves a sale. But I don't always buy because there's a sale. I buy because I want it or I need it. It doesn't need to be on sale.
kristi:So what I realized through the Halifax thing that happened and my experience of coaching salons that they think that they only buy when there's a sale. I'm like, we have to show the industry that there are multiple types of consumers and multiple reasons why they shop. And until we can break through the mindset of a stylist that thinks their clients only buy when something's on sale, we're never gonna get out of cardiac arrest highs and lows. The only way you can get to high steady retail sales if we're selling and and the team understands that we're sell there's multiple types of buyers. So we can that that's the genesis of why this came out.
kristi:And I think it's really valuable to understand the why behind it is is to break through that myth.
nancy:And and I wanna really wanna, repeat back The mindset part of it is is, you know, because, of course, I'm around stylist all day long, you know, and them saying, oh, my my clients don't wanna buy, you know, they buy here, they buy whatever their reason is, it's a mindset. And if you can educate them, inform them, to help them to better understand, then then the light bulb goes on. Right? Awesome. I'm ready.
nancy:I'm so ready for this conversation.
kristi:Right.
nancy:Hey. Zanu, let's go.
kristi:Alright. So if I if you want me just to go in and teach the session of 12 buyer types, let's do it. So what I would ask you to do and everybody listening to do is take a piece of paper out and label it 1 through 12. Just put it on your paper 1 through 12. As I give you the buyer type
nancy:name I wanted to learn as we go.
kristi:As as I give
nancy:you as I give you the
kristi:buyer type name, I'm going to also describe the buyer type. Okay? So you can take notes if you
nancy:like to.
kristi:I'm gonna talk about maybe the clues they give you, maybe what they say, what we should say back for each buyer type. The other thing I want you and your listeners to do is to circle the buyer type that you think you might be. So, like, I revealed before that most people have 3 to 4 buyer types in them. I have 9. Everybody's different.
kristi:A lot of people have 7. Some people have 2. You're not right or wrong. But when you identify with a buyer type, I want you to circle it. And then even if you don't buy like that all the time, it's like, sometimes I buy that way.
kristi:Circle it. Okay? Alright. We ready?
nancy:I wanna launch something. Before we go, anyone that's gonna listen to this because I'm gonna post this on social media when it when we're ready to launch and stuff. When I do post it, I'm gonna call the action. People watch it, listen to it. And then my social media, I'm going to start asking questions.
nancy:And the people that have the right answer, the first, like, 3 people that answer it right or the first one 1st person answers it right or whatever. I'm gonna be doing something. So after with this, anybody that's watching this from the time that I that I actually, like, air it, I'm going to be doing a social media post, so you're gonna have to follow me at salon talk with Nancy on Instagram. And I'm gonna ask questions, and I'm gonna have giveaways. So the right person that gets the right, like, fire type.
nancy:Okay. That's my both that's for my dog. Hold on. I gotta let him out. Hold on.
nancy:David, I'm doing a live post. Sorry if you do hear that. I wish I could have done that. I committed to myself. Yes.
kristi:I did.
nancy:Unfortunately, my husband came home for lunch, and now my dog wants to be out. He's not even outside, so I can't even let the dog out. So, anyways, I'm gonna have a giveaway, but it'll be on social media. So more to come. Okay.
nancy:I'm ready.
kristi:Alright. Buyer type number 1 is, special savings or sales. We're just gonna knock that one out right now. So, that is the buyer that's really attracted to sales. This is the buyer that walks in the salon.
kristi:They see the sales sign. They walk right over to whatever's displayed. They're gonna they might give you a clue by, you know, just actually walking over and picking up things that are on sale. They also might give you a clue if you maybe you notice something, that they're wearing and you say, oh my gosh. I love your shirt.
kristi:And they go, oh my gosh. I just got it. It was 50% off. You know, they reveal that they love a sale through things that they say. I was just in an elevator, and this woman had on these really fancy, flip flops that were all blinged out and I said, I love your flip flops and she said, Walmart.
kristi:So, this is the type of buyer that likes a deal. So when you're talking to your salon clients and you're just in casual conversation, they're gonna give you clues. And so, automatically, I want you to think like, oh, they love a deal. This is the perfect person to talk about hairsprays around sale. So, they're gonna give you clues, and what you need to do is be you know, put that into, you know, just your your conversation.
kristi:The other thing the buyer types are going to allow you to do is they're allow they're going to allow you to have conversations rather than sales scripts. Because when you can meet them where they're at, what they're thinking about in their buyer type, it doesn't feel like sales to them.
nancy:Right.
kristi:Alright. Buyer type number 2 is majority or majority rules. This is the type of buyer who will wait to buy it till everybody else has it, and it's been proven that it works. This is the type of buyer that is attracted to sales signs that say top selling item or, 5 star reviews. This is this they wanna know that other people like it, love it, use it, and and they'll wait they'll wait till it's been proven.
nancy:Buyer makes so much sense to me. This is crazy. Okay.
kristi:Buyer type number 3 is highly recommended. Highly recommended is somebody who the clue they'll give you is as a stylist, is this is the person that sits in your chair. And anything from a style to, you know, like, how how you're actually doing their hair, they're gonna say, what would you recommend? We hear that all the time. What would you recommend?
kristi:I need volume. What would you recommend? I wanna wear my hair curly. What would you recommend? That is what the client is saying.
kristi:Now these are things we hear all day long. We've never thought of them as a as a as a buyer clue. Right? A sell buy clue. But when somebody says, what would you recommend?
kristi:Their love language is that word, recommend. So what you would do after you hear that script is go into the conversation using words like, what I would highly recommend or what I've been educated on or in my professional opinion. Because they're looking up to you as a specialist or a professional. So use all the the words. I would recommend, in my professional opinion.
kristi:The classes and education that I've taken would tell me this. So, that's when you say that to that buyer, it is do you see how we took sales out of all of this?
nancy:Yeah. And I'm also looking to see why so many people are being told no. Because if I I wanna know what you recommend, but you're you, yourself, personally, as a stylist or or a special savings and salesperson, and you you go over and you show them a hairspray, and they say, well, do you you the first thing you say is, oh, let me show you this. It's on sale. They're probably gonna go, well, do you recommend it?
nancy:And they're gonna be like, oh, yeah. But not it's not authentic. Right? Because Exactly. Exactly.
nancy:Recommendation based on their own love language. Okay. I love this. You Exactly. So I just want you to know, I even think you're more genius now.
nancy:Prior episode. I love you, and I am so happy that we're working together. Okay. I'm ready for number 4. I told my husband I texted, said, please come get the dog because I'm not I'm doing it, Eric.
nancy:And you're home and you let the other 2 dogs out. He's feeling upset.
kristi:Oh my gosh.
nancy:Sorry, everyone. Okay.
kristi:Well, Nancy, your Your dog your dog might get my 2 going because they're quietly laying at my feet, but I'm not sure how long that will last either.
nancy:Better if he does. He can bark at lunch. Okay.
kristi:Number 4. We're on buyer type number 4. So buyer type number 4 is the new or trendsetter. So I use both those words there. It's the newer trendsetter.
kristi:This type of buyer wants it first. They don't care how much it is. They'll wait in line to buy it and be at the and they love to say they are the first to have it. So the clues that this type of buyer could give you is it could possibly what be what phone they're talk they're they're holding on to. So if they're holding on to, like, the the latest iPhone or the latest Android, they did not get that thing on sale.
kristi:So Nope. Right? They probably paid full price. They they waited at the Apple Store overnight in a sleeping bag, and they went and got it. So do that.
nancy:Or, like, the Black Friday stuff. Like, they're like, they wanna be first in the door for some I used to remember when people would wait outside of a store to get, like they just want I can't. I can't. I can't. Okay.
nancy:Well, that would actually be a sales shopper, not a what to know.
kristi:Yeah. I think that's a I think Black Friday would be more of the sales shopper, but remember that there's many buyer types that live in you. So the sale one that you've just mentioned
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:That one lives in all of us. Like, you can just check that that lives. But the point being is that Yeah. It's not the only way people shop. There's 11 more buyers.
kristi:Right?
nancy:Okay. So
kristi:the newer trendsetter could be holding on to the latest technology, or it could the other clue that it could give you would be, that person could give you would be there might be in their fashion, it could be the they're holding on to the latest handbag or they want trendy fashion color or the trendy cut that's going on right now. Those are people that want to lead the pack in what's new. And so our language, when you have a feeling that this person's a trendsetter or likes new you know, the new thing before anybody gets it, they don't care about the sale as much as having it first. So here's your verbiage. Your verbiage would be, let me tell you what's hot, what's new.
kristi:Let me tell you what just came in. It does not need to be on sale. And this could be anything from dry shampoo to, you know, to the latest hair hair product. It's the texturizing hair product or something like that. Of course, you're gonna sell them what they need, but imagine what they need.
kristi:But if they're giving you the trendsetter vibes, that's your language. Let me tell you what's hot, what's new.
nancy:Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
kristi:The next buyer type, what is this? Buyer type number 5 would be urgency. So an urgency buyer is the buyer that's very motivated by sales signs that say limited time only, only a few left, 24 hour sale, 3 day flash sale, limited supply. This is the type of buyer that that is scared that they are they're not they're gonna lose out on their opportunity. It's FOMO.
kristi:Right?
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:Now the urgency buyer will is one of the buyers that will also stock up. So it's like, oh my gosh.
nancy:I was just about to say
kristi:Yeah. They'll stock up.
nancy:A great deal. I want, like, 10 of them. I'm just having I'm just thinking about my own, like, my own clients in the way that they're like, you know, the things that they're drawn to or they'll be like, you know it's just interesting. I'm really associating with this. This is so helpful.
nancy:It's just so interesting. I love it. I love it.
kristi:So another, sign or something you could say to an urgency buyer is, oh my gosh. You don't wanna miss out.
nancy:Oh my gosh. You don't want you're calling that on their phone now.
kristi:Alright. So buyer type number 6 is self. Now self is a lot like highly recommended, but it's different enough that we did allocate its own category of a buyer type. Self is somebody who sits in your chair, and let's just pretend that that that client has naturally curly hair. And you have naturally curly hair as a stylist.
kristi:And today, you have it in just the perfect curls and the perfect style, and it's just gorgeous, this person is gonna say to you, oh my gosh. I love your hair. How do you do that? This person wants all the things. They don't want one thing.
kristi:They wanna know what you started with in the shower, what you shampooed, conditioned, treated, heat protected, style like, you you they want your whole regimen. So when somebody says, I love I want what you're having, they they don't want just the fries. They want the burger, the fries, and the shake. Okay? This buyer wants to know your regimen.
kristi:They wanna know all the things, and they probably will buy multiple items.
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:Now our verbiage back would be, first of all, thank them. Right? So thank you so much. I and then and because they use the word love, I love your hair, I want you to say that back multiple times. Oh my gosh.
kristi:I love the products that I'm using my hair right right now too. I can't wait to tell you about what I love because I know you're going to love them too. Do you hear how many love love bombs I just did there? So, you're just really matching their energy, matching their verbiage, and so forth. Okay.
kristi:So that's self. The next one is the buyer type that and we've all seen this customer. She walks in. She's comes in and is looking at the the store shelves. Right?
kristi:So the the the all of your products and your beautiful store, and they Yeah. She's shopping and she's picking up an item. And as she picks it up, she turns it around and is reading the back of the bottle.
nancy:I saw my food.
kristi:So what's on the back of the bottle? Mhmm. Directions and ingredients. Right? Or in other words, features and benefits.
kristi:So the name of this one is features and benefits. This is the person that wants to know what it is and how to use it. And if they have eyes like mine, they're gonna have to pull out a set of glasses like these and put them on and actually, you know, read the back of the bottle. Now this is a clue. When they're reading the back of the bottle, they wanna they wanna know directions, ingredients.
kristi:They wanna know is the is this right for me? Now notice that they didn't turn it upside down. They're not looking for a price. They are reading it. So it doesn't make sense that we would approach this person, whether we're a front desk professional or we're a service provider, and we would walk around the front desk and go out into the store, stand next to them, and say, I see you must be looking for a certain solution.
kristi:Tell me a little bit more about what you're looking for. I'm happy to help. So you're they're looking for a solution to their problem. Right? They're looking just to read about this.
kristi:Now if you would like, I when you communicate with this person, they're reading the back of the bottle. So you can grab another one of the same and read it to them. You're now speaking their language because you're in the conversation. You're reading it. You're pointing out ingredients that may, you know, be the the the key thing that this
nancy:product does.
kristi:This is for somebody who's who cares more about is this gonna work for me than it being on sale.
nancy:I'm one of these people too.
kristi:Yeah. So features and benefits, we we saw the clue. Right? We know our love language to be able to go out and talk to them. Now the next buyer type is called awareness.
kristi:This one's a little tricky. Okay?
nancy:Okay.
kristi:The awareness customer consumer wants to know all the things about all the things. They want
nancy:The other ones have so many questions you're like, I don't know. I don't know what
kristi:They they would a clue would be they have a lot of questions. Right? Well, what about this? Well, what about that? Well, what about this?
kristi:This type of customer wants to know how to do their hair straight. They wanna know how to do it curly. They wanna know how to keep it healthy. They wanna know how to do it when they don't wash their hair for a few days. They wanna know all the things about all the things.
kristi:The great thing about this type of buyer is they also will buy multiple items. The tricky thing about this is if they're not asking questions, they're totally silent. And if we don't help them, then they can get offended. So it's tricky. What do you do with somebody that's not giving you any clues and they're totally silent, but you're you're absent you're you're you're not trying to offend them, but you're you're offending them because you're not telling them all the things.
kristi:This is the type of client that wants the tour, that wants to know you do nails, that wants to know that you do deep conditioning services, that wants to know that you do makeup touch ups, that wants to know they can get their eyebrows shaped today, that wants to know they can you can put color on their eyebrows, that this is the type of person that wants to know all the things. This is the type of person that's coming in for a haircut and color, and you tell them all the things that you can you can tell them about your salon company. They wanna know about why you're dedicated to Redken and Pureology. They wanna know all the things. So what do we do with this?
kristi:Yeah. We the only way around this is to treat every customer as if they're an awareness customer, which means this is you need to always bring your 5 star customer service. And doesn't everybody deserve that anyway? So if you bring 5 star customer service and you're and you think about it, a client comes in for a haircut and color, and you're telling them about your nail department. You're telling them about eyebrow shaping.
kristi:You're telling them about your, open house you have coming up for the holidays. You're telling them about, you know, the the brands that you specialize in. You tell them that you're scalp certified with, BIOLOGE ScalpSync. Right? Like, you're telling them all abundantly about you, and and this isn't about what your dog ate this morning.
kristi:This isn't about that. It's about being professional and telling them all about the salon.
nancy:Right. Which I love what you said about, doesn't every customer deserve to be treated like this? Because I agree with you and I it's, you know, with all the changes in roles that have happened, within our, organization, I, you know, I've had I've been very blessed to work with a a lot of new clients and and and very elite clients. And I believe and I learned this a long time ago from a consultant. Her name is Carrie.
nancy:And I remember when I was in education and that we would go see her clients. And she treated everyone like a 5 star client, whether you bought wax sticks from her or you were head to tow her brand. And I noticed it. I remember saying something to her. I go, you know, Carrie and I've told her this many times because she was she actually embedded this in me.
nancy:It was one of those things that you never know what you're saying to somebody that inspires them to wanna be more. And I wanna be really clear on that. That's why your words are very powerful. Because she had said to me, but, Nancy, everybody deserves to be treated with the same type of kindness, respect, and customer service in my mind. And that has stayed with me from the second she said that, which was many, many years ago.
nancy:And I remember when I when I came over to the consulting world about 7 or 8 years ago with the company, and I she's on my team, and I remember just getting to spend time with her. I was like, here, I just have to tell you, like, how much that sentence, your response to me meant that I have lived my life that way ever since. And I so when you said that, I a 100% agree that regardless of if you just get a haircut, if you just get a wax, or you just get your nails done, or even whatever the situation is, you know, every customer deserves to be treated like a 5 star customer because that is gonna I'm telling you, that is gonna be your point of difference because most people do not live their life that way. So thank you for sharing that. It is a big inspiration, and I hope it is to many other people.
nancy:Okay. Sorry to interrupt you. I can't
kristi:Oh, that's okay. Where are we at? So, alright. So the next one is loyalty. This is the type of customer that loves reward programs.
kristi:And, so I travel a lot with what I do. I fly Delta mostly. I stay at Hiltons or Marriott, and I usually choose those even if they are a little bit more expensive than maybe another airline because that's where my points live. I get perks. You know, I get I set up front first class a lot where
nancy:I would
kristi:never pay for it. So this is the type of personal points to be appreciated. And our loyalty programs, our reward programs can do that. And haven't we heard before, like, oh, I buy elsewhere because they have a reward program. Reward programs are easy to do.
kristi:They're part of our POS things. Most of the time, we just have to turn them on. Or sometimes so this is the this is the sad news. Many times and many times, salons have reward programs, but their clients don't even know about it. Because they turned they they launched the reward program 4 years ago, and they gave it a birthday party, and they never talked about it again.
kristi:The front desk doesn't talk about the points. We're not we don't have signage about it. It's not anywhere on the social media. It's not on your website. So when I when I talk to a room full of people, salon owners, in my room, I'll say, how many of you have a reward program?
kristi:And some and and watch their hands go like this, and they go kinda like a half. And I'm like, I already know what that means. It means you have one. You're not doing anything with it. So the truth is Or
nancy:you don't even know how it works. Right? Because It's totally.
kristi:It's it's like nobody knows about it. So if if you have any more program
nancy:You know, the owners again, and I I I'm using I don't you know, this is just a reality. This is why I called Salon Talk. I we've seen it all. Right, Christie? And it's where it's it's identifying a behavior and then making I want to make people aware of it so that we can be aware of it.
nancy:Right? So we can change it. That's what this all about. Not about picking on anyone because I love my best friend is one of them. So it's about, like, we think even, like, when you're branding yourself even when you're branding yourself or you're talking about a sale, we tell people once and we think that's it.
nancy:We only had it tell them once. We have to be so sick of talking about it. That is when people are just starting to understand it. Right? Like, you just have to make sure people understand it.
nancy:They know about it. They're signs. I'm with you. Once isn't cutting it.
kristi:Exact exactly.
nancy:Right.
kristi:So, what we wanna do with this customer is with first of all, you need to be really proactive in this. If you have a reward program, please put it on your website, talk about it on your social media often, Talk about it on your voice on hold. Talk about it you know, review the points system with your team so they're clear clear. Review
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:The scripting with the front desk so they're talking about the points. Because if your customer doesn't know you have one, then they're shopping somewhere else with where they do have one, and then we get mad about it. And here's the truth.
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:You've lost the right to be mad at it. You're you've lost the right to to be mad at your clients or frustrated or annoyed when you're doing nothing about it. Yeah. So stop being sad that they're buying elsewhere when you're not really promoting it yourself. Right?
nancy:Right.
kristi:Oh, and when when somebody says, oh, I buy elsewhere because they have a reward program, what you don't wanna do is go, well, we have one too. You know, like, that's so gross. If if you have to say we have one too, you're not doing the right stuff to get proactive about it. You wanna your clients need to know you have one before they sit down. So, anyway, I'm gonna move on.
nancy:Yeah. Because you I would think a good response would be, well, tell me what you like about it. Because there's actually a really good opportunity to, like, learn and maybe update what you currently have in place. And just, again, it's always about awareness. So
kristi:that would be hard. Most of the time, it's you've got you've got a sleeping system and and Yeah. That's No. No. That's what we have to do with launch it again.
nancy:Yeah. Yeah. Remaunch it. Creates a whole new excitement.
kristi:Yes. Okay. We have 3 more, and I know we're running out of time. So, we have senses is next. Senses is next.
kristi:So the, you know, 5 senses we have as human is sight, sound, taste, smell, touch. Right? My I I have too many in there. Anyway, the 2 that we really use in the salon would be smell and sight, like before and after. We could even do is we could even say touch because, you know, after, like, a wonderful conditioning treatment or blowout, your hair feels silky smooth.
kristi:So you can put that one in there. But as it relates to retail, which is what we're talking about, we would talk about a a salon customer coming in, and they're in your store. So remember, we're stand we're we're now shop we see somebody coming in. They pull an item off of the shelf. But instead of reading the back of the bottle, what would a sense this customer do?
kristi:They would Smell it. The top open and smell it. Do you see how the clue is completely different?
nancy:So I just say something because I I'm not a sense person when it comes to this. I'm a performance person. Number 1, I wanna know it works and I wanna know the ingredients. Right? And I joke with my customers because whenever, like, we're talking about a product or something and first thing they do is they go, like and I mean this sincerely.
nancy:People that know me know. I when I actually really like someone, I kinda nudge you and pick on you because that's how my dad it's sincere to me and it's very loving to me, like, because my dad used to, you know, be like he used to my nickname was dingbat, which is, like like, you know? And he did that was endearment. So, like, he would always, like, nudge me. You know, we always spend a lot of time.
nancy:I was a baby in the family. So, anyways, I whenever customer, I give them a prize, and the first thing you do, they go like this. And I go, oh, you're one of the crazies. Just like that. And I start laughing, and they're like, yeah.
nancy:I love the snow. Then I go, yep. You're one of the crazies. And then I tell them about the the the actually, like, that's a buying person, and I tell them I'm a total performance, which to me is, like, total, like, clashing. Because they'll go, I don't care how it works.
nancy:I care how it smells. I go, yep. Right there. You're one of the crazies. Just kidding, though.
nancy:It's, like, funny. Right? So the scent is a smell thing. They don't even care how it works. Look.
nancy:They're like funny because it smells good. They don't care about their hair tight.
kristi:The other thing is is that sometimes people are smelling things because they're super sensitive to it. They might have allergies. They're looking for something with a low scent. So what we would do is we would walk out to this customer and say, I I see that you must be looking for a certain scent or possibly something with a low scent. Tell me a little bit more about what you like and don't like.
kristi:I'm happy to help. So we can walk into that conversation, meet them where they're at, which is smelling, and, and just really help them along with that decision. Because sometimes it it's it's I I want to make sure it doesn't smell earthy or flowery. I actually would rather have it have very low smell. So, so that's the senses.
kristi:And the thing is is that recognizing I'm gonna use you as an example because what you just you just set me up perfectly. So if you're not a senses buyer and that's not something that's naturally in you and how you shop, if you're a stylist and you're shampooing somebody and that person is a Senses buyer and you're not, that person could go, oh my gosh. That smells so good. If you're not a Senses buyer and you don't know the 12 types of buyers and how to step into that clue, you could totally miss it. And you could say, have you what have you been watching on Netflix?
kristi:And totally missed the opportunity because you don't you're not picking up on on their clue. So Yeah. If even if you're not a senses type of buyer, when somebody says that, you can go, oh my gosh. A lot of my clients love that scent as well. Let me tell you more about it.
kristi:So what you're smelling are blah blah blah. So you're stepping into that conversation, and you're helping create that sale because you're you're stepping in and you're drawing that that love language into your conversation. And we are
nancy:going to exhibit 12 different love languages?
kristi:Yeah. Yes. So this is all and
nancy:then you can be, like, written by Christy and Nancy or Craig. Can I hit some of that? Because it really is just like the love one hit.
kristi:I hate to tell you this, but we've already been marketing that for 8 years. So
nancy:What Yeah. So retail innovative is fine.
kristi:Is the 12 buyer types and learning how to speak people's retail love language. Yep. Sorry. That's already been taken.
nancy:Okay. But Maybe that's where I heard it from, and I'm just it's just now moving forward in my sub subconscious. Okay.
kristi:Okay. 2 more. 2 more. Okay. The last 2.
kristi:So, the second of the last one is convenience. This is the type of buyer that is in your chair, and the clue is this. We've all heard this before, so write this down. They say, drum roll, do you have that here? That's what they say.
kristi:Do you have that here? And so with that, there's a couple there's a couple things that I wanna say about that. First of all, that is a client that is a customer that doesn't care about a sale. They like what you're using. Do you have that here?
kristi:Means they want it now. They don't want it tomorrow. This is somebody who is a a convenient shopper. I don't wanna wait for it online. I don't care if it's 10ยข less somewhere else
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:Or a dollar less or $2 less or divert it, whatever. I want it now. And so, but a lot of us will make 2 mistakes. 1 is, not knowing how to answer that. So you could say, you know, yes.
kristi:We have it here. Right? That's okay to say. But what if we said, oh my gosh. Yes.
kristi:This is one of my favorite products. We all we usually always have this in stock, and, this is this is a current product here that you'll you'll find in our store. So, yes, we have this in our store is the correct response. Now Yeah. Let me talk about one of the mistakes that stylists make.
kristi:One of the mistakes stylists make is using product on their station today that's not available in the store. If you have a Volumizer that you love and it lives on your station, don't use that Volumizer today if you're out of stock. Choose a different Volumizer that's in stock. Maybe you'll fall in love with it. Right?
kristi:So use on your station today what's in stock. So when the convenience shopper comes in and they say, do you have that here? What the worst thing you can say right now is, yeah, we usually carry it carry it, but it's out of stock right now. I'm not sure when it's coming back in. That client is so annoyed with you thinking they're not gonna say this, but why did you use that on me if I can't get it?
nancy:I'm I'm this is a yeah. I'm a buyer like this when I go get something done. Like, if I'm getting because I get facials and stuff, you know. And and I wanna get it's like, if you're telling me I need this, like, I'm gonna get it. But don't tell me that you have to special order it or I can't.
nancy:Like, I why would you use I agree. I'm actually, like, I'm so this fire. Right? Because busy people don't have a lot of time. They have money to spend and and they know what they like.
nancy:If they're in there and they set time aside to make an appointment to be with a professional, and you're trying something on them and I'm asking questions and now you're telling me you don't have it, I actually think that's why did you use it on me. And then what do I do? Go Find it.
kristi:Now I'm annoyed. Totally. Yeah.
nancy:And you wonder why people are not buying it from me. Right?
kristi:Okay. Exactly. Exactly. I was gonna say something else, and I I totally lost it. But, anyway, let's go to the last one.
kristi:It is lifestyle. So, lifestyle is someone who buys items specifically to make their life easier. So in the salon, we're talking about shampoo, conditioner, styling, and so forth. Right? So I travel a lot.
kristi:Sometimes some months I'm gone more than I'm home. So since I travel a lot, what do I need in my life as far as product goes? I need mini size. I need TSA friendly because I try to pile up only a carry on, and that needs to be able to to go through. Right?
kristi:So my shampoos, conditioners, stylers, hair sprays all have to be in the mini size.
nancy:Yep.
kristi:Okay. A great example of this is, I when I lived in Michigan, I had a stylist, and, she knew what I did for a living. And she would follow me on Facebook and whatnot. And when I would come in, she would say, oh my gosh. You you've been to so many different interesting places, and she would carry on a conversation that way.
kristi:And then she mentioned at the end of my service, she's like, Christy, I know you travel a lot. Are you know, do you need to restock on any of your minis? And I'm like, oh my gosh. You are speaking my love language. Yes.
nancy:I need to Jackie.
kristi:I need to stock up on hair sprays. I always need hair sprays.
nancy:Yeah. I know. Because they don't last that long. Just taking hair sprays. Right?
kristi:So I love them on the whole side of things.
nancy:Dry shampoos. You're gonna get anything stuck up on hair space, enjoy shampoos. People that travel, those are the 2 things they go through the fastest.
kristi:You know, another it it's funny that you say that because the same stylist so that day, she sold me the mini sizes. Right? The next time I came in, she's like, Christy, I've been watching you a lot on Facebook and Instagram. And, you know, I I see that you were home a lot. Like, she was my stalker.
kristi:So she could say, I saw that you were home a lot, And I love watching you because, you know, you're always hiking or golfing or fishing, and you're always outdoors. And when I see you, you always have your hair pulled back and you're in a baseball hat. And I said, that's right. And she said, what do you do with your hair on those days? And I'm like, I don't know.
kristi:Put a hairband in it and a baseball hat. She goes, have you ever tried x y z dry shampoo? I'm like, oh my gosh. Tell me more. So guess what I left with that day?
kristi:Dry shampoo. Dry shampoo. Yeah. Because she she she was interested in my lifestyle. If now if somebody has long, luscious, really thick hair, they probably need the leader sizes.
kristi:Right? Because they're gonna go through shampoo more. So that's lifestyle. So there's your 12 types of buyers that will have
nancy:to be too. This is why I said, you said that you can be so much more than just 1. And I remember a few years ago, when all our all our daughters were teenagers, because they're all within a like, we have a 23 year old, 2 24 year old, to 25, 27, and 29. So imagine teenagers from, like, 12 to, like, 17. My lifestyle was leaders.
nancy:Like, I needed leaders. I needed lead so it's like that's like another example. People think, oh, you know, they don't take advantage of the leader sales. And I'm like, I need you to really think about your customer. If you have people that have teenage kids or they're going to college, yes, you do.
nancy:What do you think they're buying? Of course, you do. I'm like and, you know, my favorite one was the Biolash Cooling Mint, which is now the, Deep Clean one, because it dissolved oil because they all had oily stuff and every one of them could use it. It all smelled good. They all loved it.
nancy:I had it at my husband's house and I had it at my house. We weren't married back then, but, you know because we waited till 6 kids moved out of the house, then we got married. We've been together yeah. But yeah. It was a lot of girls.
kristi:That's a lot of shampoo.
nancy:It was. We just shampoo it. I'm serious. The leaders and bylaws, the oil can absorbing one is I don't care the gender of that teenage that greasy teenager. It is the greatest shampoo and conditioner ever made.
nancy:That's great. This is amazing.
kristi:Okay. So let's somehow
nancy:let's put a let's put
kristi:a bow around it. So we asked everybody to circle the the buyer types as we went. We went through the 12 buyer types. So now what we need to do is add up how many buyer types you are. Okay.
kristi:So, how many buyer types are you, Nancy?
nancy:1. I'm the definitely the convenience. I know awareness of what the one that's the oh, the features and benefits. Hold on. I feel like I'm being tested.
nancy:I know. I need a test. 1, 2, and I'm I'm definitely lifestyle. I'm 3 for sure. I am number 1 number 1, I have features and benefits because I care about what I'm putting in my hair, in my body.
nancy:So I'm that person. Right? Like, if I have to pick between 2 products that perform the same, like, when I'm at the you know? If you tell me you're recycled, I'm buying you. I don't care about the price.
nancy:Does that make sense? So I'm a I definitely care about the story and the ingredients. Convenience fire all day long, which ties into my lifestyle, which is why those are my top three. What are you?
kristi:I'm 9 of them. So
nancy:Oh, hell.
kristi:Yeah. I'm 9 of them. So you I I I'm gonna sense that you're probably way more than 3, but I'll I'll I'll go with 3. So here's the thing that I want everybody to understand. No matter how many buyer types you are, whether you're 3 or 9 Yeah.
kristi:Those are your selling strengths. So whatever buyer type you are, lean into that as your seller strength. So if you love senses, then talk about the fragrance all the time. If you love sale, talk about the sales. If you love future benefits, always talk about directions and ingredients.
kristi:So you can your superpowers are how you actually buy laundry detergent or how you pick a restaurant and things like that. Your reward programs, your, you know, picking a restaurant. Do you wait for 5 star reviews? That would be that would be your majority rules.
nancy:So think about what
kristi:kind of consumer you are out in the world and lean into that. Now if you're 3 buyer types, you have 3 to lean into. That means, Nancy, if you're only 3, then you're not 9. That means you have to study these 9 and
nancy:make sure that I'm adding awareness because I think we're getting to know each other well enough that I like to know everything about everything. Like, if I'm, like, it's something new that I know is gonna benefit people, I wanna be the expert always. So I did add that. I'm like, wait a minute. I do have to add that one.
nancy:So Okay. I agree with you. So that so just being just being self awareness, and then you have it's easy to identify what you are and then identify it in somebody else. Right? Birth of the same feather.
nancy:But then you hit a really good point that it's imperative to know every other one of these personalities to be able to communicate. Because at the end of the day, I I never believe that no mat like, a true professional, whether as a service provider, as a consultant, whether you're whatever your industry is, you can I mean, I think we've all experienced this? A real somebody that really, like, that has some is is either a little more seasoned or just really wants to truly believe in giving the best to the customer and believes in what they do. Nobody's ever trying to sell you anything. They're always trying to listen, understand what your need is, and I think this just takes it to a whole new level of being able to communicate with them and understanding you even better as a buyer, my, you know, my customer, my client, to make your experience so much better.
nancy:Because at the end of the day, they need products from us, and I know a lot of slot like, they you know, people are saying retail's down, retail's down. And again, I can show data that shows consumers are buying, and they're spending a lot of money in the growth in the beauty industry. But we need to change our mindset, and we need to do something different, and we need to understand our customers' needs. It's always evolving. And who is our customer?
nancy:And try to talk to them so that we can make the professional recommendations because everyone needs hair, shampoo, and conditioner of some sort. Right? And we know if you got hair color by me, I take it really personally. It's my responsibility to to inform you and educate you, which is why I know I'm an awareness consumer. That's why I was like, wait.
nancy:I actually have awareness as well because it's important. Any thoughts on that?
kristi:No. I totally agree with you. And so I wanna lead your customers to our website. I also want to talk about Retail Revolution, the online course.
nancy:So
kristi:if you loved what we talked about, this is one of 7 lessons that we teach in Retail Revolution. So that's a course that I teach out in the world, that you'll you can go to our website, see upcoming events and what cities all of us are in and what's what we're all teaching. You could do that or you could get Retail Revolution on online course right now
nancy:Yeah.
kristi:By going to summit salon.com. And Retail Revolution has all of the different modules and so forth. It does come with a download. So when you purchase the course, you get materials that go along with it that you can follow along with. And, at the other one, the another really great one that's in there is the 15 point checklist for salon owners.
kristi:So I know we we talked a little bit about that on a previous episode, but please, check that out. You can also get our app. We have a brand new app. It's called Summit online. You can get it on Android.
kristi:You can get it on iPhone. Of course, you can always follow me on Facebook or Instagram at christy valenzuela, are is my handle. So it's just my name on Instagram or on Facebook, but it's been such a pleasure being here with you.
nancy:Thank you so much. And if, any if people have liked this episode, please make sure you subscribe. I'm gonna be, getting it on, like, Spotify and, you know, Apple and all the places. This is, you know, early on in it, but I'm getting it all done. So please subscribe, and I'm gonna you know, really excited about this and and excited about sharing all the wonderful resources.
nancy:I have the privilege of working with people, and I think I work with the greatest people in the world, just so you know. And I I definitely wanna share it and and make a difference in our industry. And when this podcast does post, I'm going to be please make sure you follow me on social media on Instagram at salon talk with Nancy, and I'm going to be actually, asking a question, and I'm gonna do some giveaways. So it's gonna be fun. I've got a whole garage full of stuff to give away.
nancy:No. So yeah. No. This is great. Thank you.
nancy:I always appreciate you. I always learn something, and, I'm very excited. Thank you so much for your time, Christy. I appreciate it.
kristi:Oh my gosh. Thank you for having me. Have me back anytime. I'd love to talk with you and your listeners.
nancy:Absolutely. And I'll let you know when I post this. We're gonna I'll share it with you so you can share it on your platform as well.
kristi:I would love that. Thanks.
nancy:Thank you. Bye. Bye.
