3 Steps to improving your business and your life

As the summer is upon us, we have a unique opportunity to create a different level of service that can foster amazing results for our guests as well as our team. Conditioning treatments are the most overlooked service in the salon by stylists and the most beloved by our guests. Every guest loves for their hair to be luxurious and healthy, but most don’t understand how to accomplish these results. I believe if we follow three simple steps we can help our guests feel and look their best and improve our lifestyle in the process.

 1) You cannot drive a Honda and sell a Mercedes.

I have been doing one-on-one training with my team and asking them if they are experiencing conditioning treatments every time they have their color done. The answer was an overwhelming “no” and I would venture to guess that this is a common response from hairdressers. If I had a penny for every excuse I have heard over the years as to why people don’t offer services, well, I would be writing this article from my own private island. The number one excuse is that, “I am an artist, not a salesman.” I believe this has everything to do with experience and nothing to do with sales. Think of your last amazing vacation—when you returned home, you talked about it for weeks! Why? Because you loved it. If you want your guests to experience services such as the Awaphui Wild Ginger treatment, you must do it first, fall in love with it and simply share your story.

2) Tap in to the real reason “Why.”

I have always said that you should treat every guest as if they were your mom. That is, if you like your mom (a lot!). Once I was having a challenge with a young hairdresser who told me that they were an artist and didn’t feel right upgrading their guests, so I told them a story that drove home my point in an extreme way. I asked them to imagine the person they loved most going to the doctor, and when the diagnosis came back, the doctor knew how to cure the ailment but opted not to share this information with the patient because he or she didn’t think they could afford it.

Let the guest make that choice. It is our responsibility to educate our guests on what will be best for them.

3) Link it mentally to something that is important to you and that will positively impact your life.

I sat with one of our stylists at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas yesterday and asked her how much her car payment was. When she told me I took the number of guests that she saw over 8 weeks (which was 90), and subtracted the amount of conditioning treatments she did (which was 6). We came up with 84 guests who didn’t receive a conditioning treatment. And are you ready for this? We took that number, 84, and multiplied it by $35 which is the cost of an AWG treatment in our salon. The total was $2940 in service that was missed. Commission on that would be around $1400 conservatively, and that would mean $700 per month which took care of her car payment, insurance, and left her with about $150 to put in savings. This is where I drop the mic.

To be truly successful in any aspect of our life we must create behaviors that ensure these results. When you experience something, you become a storyteller and no longer a salesman. Your reason why must be at the core of what you do and you must link these behaviors to something that is important to you. Let’s not just look at this summer as a time of promotion—let’s see it as an opportunity to create behaviors that will ultimately change our careers and our lives.