Salon Talk with Nancy

nancy: 00:01

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Salon Talk with Nancy. I'm Nancy, and I'm your host. Thank you for joining me for today. This is episode 4, and I can't believe it. The time is flying.

nancy: 00:14

So first off, anyway that doesn't know me, my name is Nancy, and I'm a business consultant. I've been in our industry for over 20 years. I don't know where the time goes. I have had the privilege of working with some of the most iconic artists, business coaches in our industry today. I've worked on both the elite spa side, the medical spa side, hair side.

nancy: 00:36

Done plenty of hair shows. I don't even know how thank god I was young when I did those. And, and I've worked on the makeup side. And I, to this day, still have a, bridal business. So I do, very much word-of-mouth.

nancy: 00:49

It's very elite, weddings. And I am a business consultant and I partner and work with L'Oreal Salon Centric team at this time of my life. It's a great team, great resources. All we do is beauty, and we do it very well. But this show is really important to me because I wanted to be able to kinda share all this amazing information that I've learned, that I continue to learn and continue to grow.

nancy: 01:17

And my personal goal is to, empower, inspire, and to elevate the beauty professional. I know that many years ago, I was inspired by a hairdresser that changed my life and helped me, inspired me to this awkward little kid that I was at one time in my life to, get into the beauty industry. And I'm telling you, I've never felt like I've worked a day in my life. This industry has brought me such happiness and joy, and, the people in it are amazing. And I truly believe that hairstyles and service providers are superheroes.

nancy: 01:51

We we help people to feel and look beautiful every day and we give them advice and they look to us. So I just wanna say with greatness comes great responsibility. You know, always really take into consideration the advice that we're giving to other people because they listen, and that could be good or bad. So, you know, I wanna say, how much I appreciate and adore industry and all the wonderful people in it. So thank you for joining me.

nancy: 02:19

Today, we're gonna kind of break down and go slowly with the 4 the 12 different languages of buyers that Christy Valenzuelos and I went over in episode 3. I'm gonna do the first four, and I'm gonna give some great tips on business tips on really how to market and talk to those buyers. So are you ready? Because I am.

Nancy: 02:40

Okay. Buyer number 1, savings and sales.

nancy: 02:45

Most people are actually this buyer. We can be multiple buyers, so I want you to think about how you buy and also think about some of your favorite stores and what draws you to them and what makes you go to a sale because we want to mimic that, as we grow our our mindset and, our salon and spa store and our own businesses. Right? So savings and sales. These people absolutely want to know what's on sale.

nancy: 03:10

They wanna know. They wanna know the savings. They wanna know the values. So first off, have you ever gone somewhere to get something and then they're like, oh, that was on sale last week. You know, like, what the heck?

nancy: 03:21

Why didn't I know about that? Well, it's a real thing. It happens. So communication is really important. So, I recommend I like to do 6 weeks.

nancy: 03:32

Some practices are 8 weeks to run a promotion, but you should be doing a type of sale every 6 to 8 weeks no longer than that and flipping it over to another one, and they will change for the season. And whatever product that or services that you, put on sale, you're gonna plan them the month before to execute them. You're gonna buy in your inventory, and then you're gonna launch, and they will always be relevant to the season to your client's needs. Alright? So we're gonna do sales and savings.

nancy: 04:02

These customers, definitely wanna know what's on sale, so I recommend, first of the year, starting to update your, client information with emails, cell phones, and, addresses so that you can really make sure that everybody's getting the right information. If somebody just wanna give it to you, it's not a big deal. Really, it's not a big deal. But most people will want you because they wanna stay informed. Say, hey.

nancy: 04:26

Listen. We're really up in our game this year. We wanna make sure people are informed. A lot of good stuff going on. I purposely signed up for I love Elemis, and I signed up for their, texting, and I've been so impressed with the way they text me and communicate with me.

nancy: 04:39

And when I text back, they actually respond to me, just so you know. But I've been kinda looking to see what makes me wanna buy, what intrigues me, and I've been, you know, really taking notes so that I can help my own customers. Alright. So making sure you're you're communicating that, on social media as a platform people know. Also, when I walk into the salon, I need to see signs.

nancy: 05:02

I need to know what's on sale. My front desk needs to tell me something's on sale. I need to know if there's a service on sale. So part of your, check-in process with your front desk heroes, I love them, front desk are heroes, is that they're communicating what is on sale, what's happening. And as they get to know the different languages of the buyers, they can speak to that particular person and maybe even put notes in your, client profiles.

nancy: 05:29

Okay. So clear signs, you wanna make sure that even the bathroom has it, the stations have it, and, of course, that your stylist and service providers have the product to use. I worked in a salon spa that they had a voice mail. So if you called, and this is not uncommon, and the front desk person was on the other line, she just would say, please hold. I'll be right with you.

nancy: 05:51

And then there was a voice mail letting me know about the different services that they were having and the different promotions and something really nice about it, what the features and benefits were. And that would create the curiosity. So especially if I was coming in to get my hair done, but now I just learned about a beautiful, like, experience up at the spa that's like, a warm body wrap, hydrate my skin in a massage for an hour and a half, I might consider it for sure. Alright. So email blast and also social media posts.

nancy: 06:21

You can definitely engage your team to, to do some fun posts with this, but you wanna make sure that it is, very clear on your website, your social media, the signage, and that you have a designated area that your clients know they can go to that will be your sale area, and it should be something that as soon as they walk in. You could even have a separate clearance area too. Alright? So I want you to imagine when you go into your favorite store, they always have a clearance area. They always have lots of signs telling me what's on sales.

nancy: 06:52

So I love Macy's. We have a really good Macy's in in Rhode Island and, you know, on the the different and there it's different departments or the different brands. And on top of the different holders, they tell you what the sale is. And then they have a clearance section, and they tell you where the clearance section is. So depending on what kind of buyer you are, are you gonna go directly to the clearance?

nancy: 07:14

Are you gonna go to the sale? Are you gonna go to the what's new? It depends on what kind of buyer you are. Okay. So there are some tips and tricks for that.

nancy: 07:21

And, again, you can do you can definitely have some fun with it. Include your social media. But the signs clearly stating what the savings is, what the value of it is, is really important for somebody that cares about, the savings and sales. Okay. Next type of buyer, majority rules.

nancy: 07:40

These people wanna know that it works. They wanna know that a lot of people tried it before and that it gets good reviews. So these are definitely your Google review readers and probably your Google review writers. So, again, they're important. You wanna make sure they have a very good experience in your, business and your establishment because they might be writing a review if they're not.

nancy: 08:01

So some of the ways you can communicate with these people is top seller signs. So they wanna know that a lot of people have tried it and that it works and that it gets good reviews. It saves them time. Why do I need to try 10 different products just to find one I like? If all these people have already tried and said that this is a great product, it's a top seller here, I'm willing to try it.

nancy: 08:22

And it's not gonna be about the price, it's gonna be about the performance. And I'm definitely a performance girl myself. Although I do love a good sale, I always get sucked in with buy 2 get 1 free. I know it's only 33% off but I get sucked into it and I end up buying 3. That's just how

Nancy: 08:36

it is.

nancy: 08:37

Alright. So there are gonna be top seller signs. You I would definitely do this seasonally and you can plug these in. These could be just layered in to your bi monthly promotion that you have. This can be layered in as a top seller.

nancy: 08:54

You just need to put signs up for it. You could put top, you know, run a report for your seasonal sellers and let's say, for example, it's winter here in New England, and so everyone's hair is gonna be dry and they're gonna need hydration. So, like, you can run a report to see what your top sellers were for last year or you could,

Nancy: 09:19

pick,

nancy: 09:21

like, ask your team to do a meeting and kinda decide what are what's 1 or 2 products that could be top SKUs that you can plug in for a seasonal solution. Maybe it's a leave in conditioner, maybe it's a leave in detangler, maybe, you know, maybe it's something that gets sort of static electricity. You should be tying in services with your promotions as well. So this, you know, making sure that you're putting in what your top sellers are for these people because they wanna know. They don't wanna have to try 50 products.

nancy: 09:55

They just want they wanna know that it works. That's it. That's how it works. It's that easy. Okay.

Nancy: 10:01

Highly recommended. Alright? So

nancy: 10:08

this client, when they're talking to you let's say you're having a consultation and they so this is how I do a consultation. I wanna have a whole episode on consultations because I'm gonna tell you a consultation makes or breaks that guest experience. It sets up the expectations. So your consultation so let's say I'm having a consultation. My client is talking about their hair and maybe it's like the you know, it's summertime and it's really it's it's it's really dry and it's breaking from all the free radicals and the salt water and the sun.

nancy: 10:44

And I'm having a consultation. I'm and you're telling me about how horribly damaged your hair is.

Nancy: 10:49

And I'm gonna say, well, you know, you know, we have a treat we

nancy: 10:53

have a treatment that I can use on you today that's gonna help repair the hair. And they're gonna say, they wanna know they're gonna say, well, is that what you recommend? So I want you to keep listening for that because when you're consulting with them and they're gonna say, well, is that what you recommend? Do you recommend that? Or you're, like, showing them the product, like a leave in treatment, and they're looking at it and they're like, this is the one you recommend.

nancy: 11:21

Right? Is it this is the one you you used on my hair. This is the one you recommend. So they're you they're gonna keep saying recommend. So you're gonna say back to them, yes.

nancy: 11:31

This is what I recommend for you to repair your hair. Remember we talked and you you said your ends were splitting? And now that we've done that treatment, you can see how silky it is. Well, this is the leave in treatment that's that I recommend that's gonna prevent the future damage and has heat protectors, yadayadayada, whatever it might be. Alright?

nancy: 11:49

So that's highly recommend. Alright. So be aware of your verbiage with these people. And these people would be a great one to do like a, I like, when I was listening to this, I could think about, like, a stylist TikTok, like, something fun where they're, like, you know, they're doing, like, a before and after and they're just talking about what they recommend. And so it can be something fun like that with, like, your before and afters or just something cute.

nancy: 12:17

So, that is definitely something as a professional stylist, you're gonna be drawn drawing in people that are that type of buyer that want a recommendation from a professional. Alright. So I hope that helps. Let's go on to number 4. Number 4.

nancy: 12:38

They're the trendsetter. They wanna know what's new. Alright? So

Nancy: 12:45

these are the people that come in and if a trend starts, they're on it.

nancy: 12:51

They're on it. The second colors change in a trend. The second the warm tone started coming in for your hair color, your blonde instead of all that icy color. They're the first ones to sit in your chair that that say I don't wanna be icy blonde anymore. I saw such and such and they have the x, y, and z golden blonde hair and I want that.

nancy: 13:11

So they're the they're the first ones to get the new iPhone. Alright. So they're the trendsetters. They want it before anybody else gets it. They wanna be the 1st to have it.

nancy: 13:20

They wanna be right on trend. So they wanna know what's new. So how do I speak their language of love? Alright. Again, another layer on top of it.

nancy: 13:31

So we're gonna have a sign that says what's new. So let's talk about that. What does that look like? So let's say it's my favorite because again, I'm working for manufacturers pretty much my whole entire career. They change formulas.

nancy: 13:45

They update their formulas. If you haven't had an updated formula, there's a problem. So, like, brands should be updating their formula, adding things like hyaluronic acid to hair. Like, they should be keeping up with consumers are wanting and asking for. So what's new could just be, let's say, your favorite face cream, Just they added, a different type of peptide to it.

nancy: 14:07

That's what's new. So now it's new and it's innovative. Or, what's new might be a look, like a coloring trend or formula. So you could be offering like lazings and and different types of, formulas. It might be a brand new product extension.

nancy: 14:23

So

Nancy: 14:25

let's say let's say my that same customer that had the needed the damage had the damaged hair. Let's say, I've always had a treatment for and now there's

nancy: 14:41

a retail product for it. And it's their favorite treatment to get every time they come in, but now I can offer them a leave in treatment or or a take home mask. So this is the what's new, what's, you know, just in kind of verbiage. So when there's a new line extension or a new superstar product that comes out, Again, keep it relevant to the season. You could have this as a featured item and it could just say, what's new?

nancy: 15:08

Could be at your front desk. Literally at your front desk with a little cute little tastefully made sign that says, what's new? Just in. Alright? And you can get people pumped for this prior to it even hitting the the salon and spa.

nancy: 15:24

So if you know you're gonna be getting it in that it's coming, you could be planning with your, your brand partner, your business consultant, whoever you're working with. And, you know, usually, imagery, you can get imagery from the professional sites. Sometimes your consultants will have them because, like, I work closely with my brands. I mean, I have somebody to talk to all the time that represents the brands. And they can get me they can get me images.

nancy: 15:48

They can get me all sorts of stuff. So you could do an email blast saying what's coming, soon to arrive, late you know, what's new, and do, like, an email blast like that. And so, those are the the type of marketing, let's say, or communication that that customer is gonna react to. So if I have somebody that wants something new, they're the what's new person and I'm showing them, you know, something that's been around forever, they're not gonna care because they probably have already tried it. They wanna try the new version of it.

nancy: 16:26

So I just wanna let everyone know. Okay. Please make sure a couple tips here. Please make sure that when you're and I do think I said it, but I'm gonna say it again because this is how important it is. You know, when your guest checks in, please make sure that you invite your guest to shop around.

nancy: 16:46

Not sit and get a magazine, but please feel free to shop around in our salon and spa store area. And they will. They love it. We like you'd be surprised the stuff I see. The stuff I see.

nancy: 17:00

Alright. And I want you to know I personally lived all of this, and I can tell you this stuff works that I recommend. We just have to actually implement it and do it. Okay. Let's do some formulas.

nancy: 17:13

I know. Nobody likes formulas, but numbers tell a story. And one of the things that is very common when I'm doing a promotional planning with a salon owner, so or a spa owner is they get a little nervous. They don't know how much to buy. So, you know, as creative people, a lot of times we're emotional decision makers, and I wanna be clear on that.

nancy: 17:34

Most creative people, not only are the kindest hearted people, but they usually make decisions that are emotionally based. And they'll may say things like, well, I feel like And the second somebody says that to me, I understand that they're making a decision from their heart. And I have to be clear and show them the path on why we have to order x amount. Alright. So I just Let's start there.

nancy: 18:02

So let's say we're running a 6 week promotion. Alright? That's a minimum. You might do an 8 week promotion, but we're gonna use the example of a 6 week promotion. And you as a salon are open 5 days a week.

nancy: 18:17

So I have 6 weeks times 5 days. That's 30 opportunities. So it's 30 days,

Nancy: 18:25

alright? 30 days, I'm open with my team and these are opportunities.

nancy: 18:32

That this doesn't even count how many clients I'm gonna see in a

Nancy: 18:35

day. Now I'm

nancy: 18:37

gonna look at how many stylists do I have. Let's just say in a perfect world, I have 5 stylists that all work 5 days a week. If they don't, which is the norm that they don't, that you have some part time, just do an average. You can do an average of like 3 days a week that you're open. Okay?

nancy: 18:55

If you have some part time, some full time. But let's just say in a perfect world, I have 5 stylists that work 5 days a week and we're gonna run this for 6 weeks. So I have 30 opportunity days that I have guests coming in, and out of those 30 days, I've got 5 people working every single day. If every stylist were just to sell one unit that's on sale

Nancy: 19:25

for the 6 weeks, I would be at a 150 units. Okay. I'm gonna say that again and then you can pick yourself up off the floor.

nancy: 19:34

So in a 6 weeks,

Nancy: 19:37

alright, 6 weeks, have 5 days that I'm open

nancy: 19:43

and I have 5 stylists that are working, I've got a 150 units. Remember, the 30 day opportunity was a 6 weeks plus the 5 days I'm open, that's 30 opportunities of guests coming in. Five stylists work at each day and if each stylist just just did their job, consulted and talked to their guests about the product, I would need a 150 units.

Nancy: 20:12

Now, we know that that's not really

nancy: 20:17

realistic. Because everybody has different clientele and they have different hair types. And if I have, let's say, a leave in conditioner that has sunscreen in it for the summer, it doesn't mean that it's gonna be the right one for everyone. So I might wanna have a repair one, one for color protection, and one for, like, frizz control. Now I can actually get a 150 units because I'm addressing all 3 different issues that happened to hair in the summer.

nancy: 20:46

So I could, but that's not always the case. So one of the suggestions Christie had suggested, I thought it was absolutely genius. So, Christie, if you're listening, I just wanna give kudos to you. She had asked she had suggested that you ask your team how many a week per person do you would can you commit to? So if I look at my team and there's 5 of them, they all work 5 days a week, and I say, okay, Sue.

nancy: 21:16

What do you think you could do? What are you committing to

Nancy: 21:18

a week? And she says 3. Okay. Fine. So does this make sense?

Nancy: 21:23

Yes?

nancy: 21:25

I can write it down

Nancy: 21:26

for you. Trust me.

nancy: 21:28

Okay. So there's a real math when it comes to actually purchasing. And you normally if you're working with a consultant, you're gonna take and pass on the savings from what's on sale. So I'm gonna tell you that let's say it's an April catalog, they're gonna be putting things on sale that are on sale for the summer. So you're gonna purchase let's say it's 30% off, let's go to those leave in treatments, and your brand has leave in treatments on sale 30% off.

nancy: 22:01

I'm gonna make my promotion. I'm gonna buy the appropriate amount based on the team and the weeks that I'm gonna be doing this promotion and the amount of days that I'm open, and I'm gonna buy appropriately. I'm gonna get the signs. I'm gonna talk to my 12 types of buyers, I'm gonna make sure that my team knows this is where I have the 2 weeks. Myself, I like the 2 weeks in between because I

Nancy: 22:23

like to do a team meeting, a kick off, an incentive, keep get it going, make it have fun. And then we're gonna launch it. Alright? So do know there's a formula to buying. Some of

nancy: 22:36

the reasons why people, like, don't they basically stop making professional recommendations is because this the owner doesn't buy enough product or they don't repurchase their product appropriately. So I always try to I always recommend that you are purchase reordering no more than 2 weeks. So if I sold, you know, 10 units of product from my store in 2 weeks, I'm going to replenish the 10 and I might add 2 more. So if some if something sold out before the 2 weeks was over and I was at 0 with a color care shampoo, before 2 weeks, I'm gonna make sure I'm adding 2 more of that. You never wanna be on 0.

nancy: 23:26

That's the worst thing is to

Nancy: 23:27

be on 0. People are losing money on 0.

nancy: 23:32

It's missed opportunity. And what happens is the customer, if they come in and they buy something, and now they come in 2 months later and they need the shampoo and conditioner again and you only have the shampoo and you didn't think to reorder conditioner, they might give it a week and call, but they're not gonna keep buying if they come back again and you still don't have it. This is why people go online because they know they can always get it online. So, again, I'm here to empower the the professional. I'm I promised I'd be authentic right from the get go, and I see a lot and I've worked with the most elite salons in the world and I've worked with suites.

nancy: 24:15

I've done everything in between, and it doesn't matter if

Nancy: 24:19

you are the best of

nancy: 24:21

the best and have, you know, 200 employees or if you are just you and a suite. If if you have 200 employees and nobody's selling retail because nobody knows what about signage and consumers and branding and marketing and reordering, it doesn't matter. I have a suite plenty of suite owners that kill it because they they follow instructions, they keep it on a budget, they order appropriately, they do the things that I share with them, and they have a very profitable salon store within their suite. So it doesn't matter the size. It it what does matter is your willingness to try something new, to grow and to understand.

nancy: 25:06

I can tell you, I did some research. You You know, I hear pea some people say a lot of signs, oh, retail's down, retail's down. I can tell you the beauty industry is in the next 2 years is gonna, like, grow in, like, double digit 1,000,000,000 of dollars. So people are spending money on beauty. They said the average amount per month is a $100 that a woman spends on beauty.

nancy: 25:31

A $100. So my question is, are they buying it from you? And if not, why? And you can't use the excuse online because I buy online, I buy from my service provider, I bought I buy with the communication that comes to me. So if you just wanna, you know, if you want to get in the game of owning a retail salon store, I'm here to help you for sure.

nancy: 25:57

There, you know, I there are so many things that we can that you can do. Try that's why I'm breaking this down with just, you know, the first four. And then next episode, we're gonna do 4 more. Look at these. Identify within yourself what kind of bar you are.

nancy: 26:14

Think about your favorite stores that you like to go to and what you like to purchase and why do you purchase it. And then just try 1 or 2 of these implementations. So, again, quick recap of what we talked about today. We talked about the sale, the person that loves a good sale and savings. So, again, that's you should be doing every 2 months tops, something on sale, passing on the savings.

nancy: 26:40

Then we talked about the majority rules. The person that might be busy, she doesn't wanna try 10 products. She just wants to know what works. So she wants to know what are your top sellers. So identify your top sellers.

nancy: 26:51

Those people are naturally gonna be drawn to that because they see it's a top seller. And then we talked about the client that wants to know that it's highly recommended, so they're really looking to you as a service provider, as a professional. They're gonna use the verbiage, well, do you recommend this? And you're gonna say, yes. I recommend x, y, and z.

nancy: 27:14

Alright? And then on our 4th one, they were the trendsetters. They were the people that wanna know what's new. They get it before anybody else gets it. That's all they want.

nancy: 27:25

They wanna know that they're they're trying the latest and the greatest. So I hope this recap was great, and very helpful to you. I hope that you got something out of it. Please check out my social media. I'm going to be posting these, on my social media, and, I'm really looking forward to people, getting something out of it and responding and reacting.

nancy: 27:50

Please share your ideas with me. So share your pictures. Share and show me and share with others and show each other what you're doing for your displays and the signs. Some of the resources are Canva. I love Canva.

nancy: 28:03

You can create you can create lots of, marketing pieces on Canva. You can also go to the professional sites to take the, get images from them. So I hope this was helpful. Thank you so much. Please make sure you subscribe and share if you like this.

nancy: 28:18

If you got something out of it, please go to Salon Talk with Nancy on social media on Instagram, and it's Nancy Bogler on Facebook. And I look forward to hearing from you, and, till next time, enjoy. Thank you.