Latest / Salon Success Secrets — The podcast for salon owners who are done hustling harder and ready to break their revenue ceiling. / Stop Marketing Your Salon Until You Fix This

Transcript

Stop Marketing Your Salon Until You Fix This · Salon Success Secrets — The podcast for salon owners who are done hustling harder and ready to break their revenue ceiling.

• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: What if I told you that getting more guests into your salon might actually be costing you more money?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds completely backwards because when your books aren't full, what's the first thing you think?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: We need more guests.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so you start posting more on social media or maybe you run a promotion, maybe you even spend money on the advertising.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when those new guests start coming in, you think, okay, it's working.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the question nobody seems to be asking.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: What's happening to those guests after they walk through your door?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, at one point in time, my salon was bringing in over 200 new guests every single month, 200.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we had, you know, more than 20 service providers.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were giving new guests gifts and incentives to come back.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We were doing all the things we thought we were supposed to do, and yet we weren't growing the way we should have been.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I eventually had to face a really uncomfortable possibility.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: What if we didn't need more new guests?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: What if we needed to stop losing the ones we already had?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And Lindsay, if you think about it, it's such a common problem, right?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because marketing is often the first, excuse me, solution that salon owners reach for.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: But here's what's interesting: like you can be doing a great job attracting guests and still have a business that's like struggling to grow.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I know we discovered that this truly connects to one of our biggest ideas in the book, think and get rich as a salon owner, because almost every problem in a salon comes back to three underlying problems.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And the one that we're talking about today is connected to something that a lot of salon owners don't even realize is happening.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to show you how to find out whether your salon has this problem, what it could be costing you, and what needs to change before you spend another dollar trying to bring in more people.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're also going to act out two different ways to have a rebooking conversation.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one's going to sound probably pretty familiar, and the other can completely change how your guest thinks about coming back.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and stay with us because before we finish, we're going to give you a simple calculation that might change the way you look at your marketing budget forever.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And because sometimes the greatest way to grow is not to get more, it's to stop losing what you already have.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, this situation really arose from a few years back where I had a team of more than 20 service providers, and we were bringing in over 200 new guests a month.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we had that three incentive, three vis return visit incentive program designed to really encourage those return visits.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so from the outside, the new guest numbers looked like a sign of success.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you would be excited to get more than 200 new guests a month, you can probably relate to that feeling.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like it looked successful.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And but truly, we were doing all of the work to attract those new guests, but the growth in our company didn't match the volume of new people coming through the doors.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, when I think about it, I don't know that there was actually a specific moment where I realized something wasn't adding up.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I did start pulling some reports, you know, we were growing and that's exciting.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought, gosh, you know, when I was doing the math to figure out we're having all these new guests, like, and you know, we're hitting that couple million dollar mark.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really we could be way bigger.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that started to get me thinking about what does that retention look like?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because a few years back, people weren't really talking about retention at all in our industry.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I remember when I started, it was hard because there wasn't even reports that you could pull in your booking system at that time.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of booking systems have added that in now, and you can easily pull that report.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were going in manually counting to see, you know, were these people coming back, looking at their sales history and starting to realize like, what is going on?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, because we thought we had all the right pieces in in place, but we hadn't nailed the mark yet, you know, and it was really truly before we had all of the systems that we do in our salon.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it started to be a conversation that we had.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, I was able to find some industry statistics at that time, and they're still really similar to what they are now.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, 21 to 24% seems to be a varying rate that happens in our industry for a new guest return rate.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And ours was right around there, you know, like, and it depended on the service provider.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: There was like 18% was kind of where we were seeing things, you know, and as a higher price point, that could be part of it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But like really, when you're starting to deliver that value, you know, that's what it started to help us uncover.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is the missing component for people?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think about um when you think about poor retention, Lindsay, like we can keep the math simple today.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: We'll math it out just a little bit today.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you let's say hypothetically a salon is bringing in a hundred new guests in one month.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and if you have a 25% return rate, that means that 25 out of the 100 guests would be returning.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of gives me the oops, there's some opportunity there, right?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: But when you think about it, if you had a 60% return rate, that means that 60 guests out of the 100 would be returning.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be 35.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do the math right?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: 35, is that right?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 35 more guests.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and let's just say for um for fun, let's just say the your average ticket at the salon is$85, and that six visits a year.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: You guys, when you do the math of that, that's$17,850 just by keeping those 35 uh uh 35 guests to keep coming back.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, that's that's a guaranteed gain.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when you think about that, man, that just creates so much more opportunity for not only the salon, but for the guests as well.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: That creates win-win because the guests are having their best hair ever.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're continuing to come back, and then the team is winning because they are getting to increase their income.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and honestly, Jen, that was, you know, we obviously have a calculator that our salon owners are able to use to show people on their team what that even means for them in a commissioned space.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one of the um people on my team, uh, we went through the exercise and I showed her, hey, like if you were even able to like double your new guest retention, how much more money she would make a year, and it blew her mind.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what was really cool is this is a very driven person, and um, she's a great implementer.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, her new guest retention when we had that conversation was 12%.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: 12.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: You guys, it's a real results that we're sharing.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's most salon owners don't want to admit where they start sometimes when they start to notice stuff, but it was at 12%.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys, one year later, she was the person that we were celebrating who had had the most growth at our yearly salon celebration for the team and awards ceremony because she grew to 45% new guest retention.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I should have pulled the numbers on that before we hopped on the call, but like, I mean, her income increased so much.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: She was just shy of hitting$100,000 that year.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um, she wasn't, she was a level three um beauty pro on our team at the time.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like she was at the top, but I mean, she that obviously unlocked the thing that then started stacking all the promotions and all the things.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is just incredible what it can do for an individual, but for the entire salon.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And just think about like all the different tools and stuff that somebody implemented in order to get those guests returning and back in again.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you think about it, if you let's just say you spend$40 to acquire a new guest, that's something that we always talk about as well.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that, you know, if you're spending that and 75% never return, like you're spending 30 out of every$40 acquiring guests who never make a second visit.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's if you get really mathy at that, it looks like that's$3,000 in acquisition spend for to um have a hundred guests.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, Jen, that sounds really low.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds really high.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just painting the picture for you with so stay with me.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, of which that$2,250 is allocated to those 75 one-time visitors.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Those first visits, they still generate revenue.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that$2,250 isn't automatically a financial loss.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the point is that most of that acquisition spending isn't producing the repeat business.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the key, the repeat business that you're hoping to build.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you think about it, how many owners are increasing their marketing budget when they really need to increase what they really need to increase is their retention rate.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is so true, you know.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Jen, it really makes me think about the true obstacle here, which is that your team thinks selling feels pushy.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, so many beauty pros believe that if they recommend retail or ask a guest to rebook, they're being salesy.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to pressure someone, they don't want to sound like they're trying to increase their ticket.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they say very little, or they wait to the end of the appointment to ask the guest the question and they aren't prepared to answer, you know?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is just something great to try to uncover for yourself.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why does recommending something feel uncomfortable for some service providers?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the difference between selling something a guest doesn't need and recommending something that helps them achieve their goals, you know, because oftentimes when someone feels like it's being pushy, it's because they're thinking about them and not about the guest that they're serving.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, what truly does happen when we leave a guest to figure out their own hair care plan, you know, they don't have all the knowledge and expertise that so if you know what your guest needs and you don't recommend it, are you really serving them at the highest level?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And truly that's something that we also focused on exploring so much during that time where that Beauty Pro had that great increase in her new guest retention.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, when we're able to connect the recommendation to the diagnosis stage of, you know, our guest journey, that's how a great consultation establishes like what matters most to the guest, you know, what's what's the what does the professional discover through that diagnosis?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how does that translate to the guest then?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, what can be accomplished today, and then what truly the future look requires for that guest.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So then the recommendation is simply the next step in the plan.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because someone who beauty is important to, they want to have some sort of a plan to what's gonna happen next, you know.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, Lindsay, let's do a live demonstration.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, two ways to rebook the same guest.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So um let's pretend you're my guests, you just had your hair colored, and now we're finishing up your reservation.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um okay, so you ready to be the guest?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, okay.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Lindsay, your hair looks beautiful.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to go ahead and uh book your next appointment?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: I am kind of getting busy, it's the holidays and everything.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not really um sure what my schedule looks like, so I'll just call you.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that sounds great.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Have a great day.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that, I disappear into the world, never be seated.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing like I didn't do anything terrible.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was friendly, you know, I asked about rebooking, so that gets me a little couple points, but I never gave her a reason to say yes.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, remember when we were talking about like all the stuff before, like that gets totally left out of the whole experience.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's flip it now.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's try something out.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh Lindsay, today we're creating the beautiful foundation, and the next step in your plan is going to be a gloss in about six weeks.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's November the 7th.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's going to refresh the tone and keep the shine.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then at your following visit, we can start like adding a little bit more brightness around your face, like we talked about that as well.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that way we're working toward the look you want without compromising the health of your hair.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go ahead and reserve that gloss appointment so that we can keep your plan on track.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, perfect.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's do that.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Lindsay, what felt different for you?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first one you asked me if I wanted another appointment.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second one, you helped me understand why I needed one and you connected it to something that I had already told you that I wanted.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's the difference between asking for another appointment and recommending the next step in someone's beauty plan.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so truly, in that first version version, the guest has to decide whether she wants an appointment.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the second one, the guest understands what the next appointment accomplishes.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's no pressuring the guest.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're using your professional expertise to make a recommendation.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, this works best when that recommendation is genuinely personalized and made with the guest needs, their budget and their preferences in mind, you know, because if it was somebody who wanted to spend a lot of money, or not necessarily a lot of money, but beauty was the most important thing to them.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm going to be there every five to six weeks, you know?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: But if someone says they're lower maintenance, still coming up with a plan.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: So stop asking your guests, you know, if they want to come back and start showing them what they're coming back for.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, at the beginning, we mentioned almost every problem a salon owner experiences can be traced back to three underlying problems, which is not enough team, not enough guests, or a team that doesn't know how to sell.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you're not training your team on how to set up that next reservation, no wonder your new client retention is where it's at.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we have some fun work because it's homework, but it's fun.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: To find your salon's real retention number.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: So just pull your new guest report from a um certain period.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: So you can look at it from a 90-day period, but far enough in the past to measure return those visits fairly, and then find out how many of your guests return for a second visit within your chosen, your your chosen measurement window.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so, of course, you're gonna take the new guest you return return divided by the total new guests and times 100, and that's gonna give you your new guest retention.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm gonna invite you to just ask some questions to yourself, like how many guests did we attract?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, Lindy said her one time they were at 200.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: How many came back?
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: She said her um, was it 24%?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: So 24% of 200 is 40 something.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So 48, thank you.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then what would be an improvement in retention?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: What would an improvement in retention mean for your business?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, we did that math.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: So you cannot improve a number you're not willing to look at.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, so here's what we want you to do after today's episode.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Before you spend another draw dollar trying to attract more new guests, go look at your numbers, not just how many guests you did last month, look at how many actually came back, like Jen just mentioned.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we invite you to imagine what would happen if you started keeping more of the guests you already are working so hard to attract.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, imagine a team that doesn't just do beautiful hair, but they know how to create those relationships.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: A team that knows how to diagnose guest needs, how to make confident recommendations and help the guests see what's possible for her hair over time.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine your guests leaving with a plan there and they're excited about their next appointment because they know exactly what they're working towards.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of constantly feeling like you need to find more people, you're building a guest space that keeps coming back.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very different way to grow a salon.
• 18:13
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if you pulled your retention numbers or you're about to, and you're in what you need to change, that's a great place to begin reading the book.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Check out the show notes to see where you can find that copy.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we want to leave you with this.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Your next level of growth may not be waiting in your next marketing campaign.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: It might be sitting in your salon chairs today.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: A guest who wants to trust you in your salon, a guest who wants to feel understood, a guest who's looking for someone to help her see what's possible.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So before you go looking for more guests, ask yourself are we giving the guests we already have a reason to come back?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next time on Salon Success at Secrets.