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10 Things to Do While You’re Waiting Two or three times a month I find myself driving or walking past one of two hair salons located near supermarkets I frequent. During the last few months, inevitably when walking past after 8 in the evening, these salons, while still open, exude the life energy of a vacant storefront. The lights are on, but nobody’s home. I see you there through the storefront, bored, reading magazines, hoping I don’t come in so you have to recount the till. That’s why I walk right past. One of the first lessons of retail is if you aren’t busy, look busy. Look purposeful. Your energy and enthusiasm for your place of business can help to draw people in from the outside. If things are slow, use the time to combat doldrums and accomplish all the things you always say you would do to build business “if you had time” while simultaneously sending people the message that you are OPEN for business, not waiting to punch out. Here are 10 things to do while you are waiting to let people know you are open for business: 1. Inventory. Yes, I am suggesting that you actually count the number of items you have on the shelves and compare those numbers to what your computer says you should have. But that would be too easy. For a real challenge, as you are working through the shelves, see if you can name 5 descriptive traits or client benefits inherent to each product that you carry. If you can’t, then take notes as you go through the process. Learning these will help when it comes to recommending products and selling through retail products to clients. Find at least one or two products in each category (shampoo, conditioner, stylers, cosmetics, moisturizers or lotions, accessories, etc.) that you can get really excited about endorsing. Learn which products have “green” ingredient basics and which manufacturers give back the most. Take some time to evaluate and understand why you carry the products that you carry beyond the color, functionality and space they fill on the shelves. 2. Merchandising. When you stop moving, rotating, highlighting, and changing your retail displays they become wallpaper. Very expensive wallpaper. You expect to see clients as often as once each month, so your retail displays should change in significant ways at least once each month. Alternating products that you feature with eye-catching shelf talkers, point of sale displays, station displays and even lighting will help clients to see things they haven’t seen before. Ask provocative questions and make bold statements to create eye catching signage. Encourage clients to pick up products (statistics show that touch starts the bonding process!) Set up creative try me displays. Use props and décor to highlight a strong gift option or holiday collection each month. 3. Update your electronic records. I know that there are still many stylists operating from a recipe card box when it comes to client records and contact information. In order to build a strong communications program you will need to digitize your records. If you take a few of the moments each day when things are slow to do this, you will pick away at what seems like a large task and you will lay the groundwork for building a good marketing and communications system. 4. Write thank you notes. It almost feels silly giving you the lecture and statistics on this, because you have heard it and read it so many times from so many sources. Write personal notes to your clients. Share a little of your inner spirit with someone who is in need of a pick me up. Tell someone who made your day that they mattered to the world in such an important way. Writing thank you notes does more than just make your clients feel good, it leaves you feeling good when you stop to remember those little moments that were so right or helped to pick you up during the day. It helps you to stay in a place where you live in a spirit of gratitude; focusing on those individuals that filled you up and replenished your spirit rather than those who depleted you during the day. 5. Create an educational plan for the coming year. Take an honest inventory of yourself. Review your abilities and skills against a list of all the possible services you could be providing. Identify gaps where you have not achieved the level of skill you need, or where your skills are becoming obsolete due to new technologies or products. Identify gaps between where your skills are and where you want them to be in the areas that you most enjoy working in. Using education options available from distributors, manufacturers and schools, create a blueprint of classes that will take you to where your skills need to be and take you to the level you want to be in your areas of passion. 6. Mentor one another. No one is the top dog in all areas. There is always someone our skills eclipse in some areas and whose skills or natural talents show us up in others. Lower your defenses in the salon and take advantage of slower times to teach, share tips, and practice with and on one another to transfer skills and demonstrate what sometimes can only be learned through natural ability, trial and error. In the salon, live in a spirit of generous community with one another. I guarantee you that your clients know whether your team works well together or has a high degree of distrust, dislike and unhealthy competition. Intentionally share what you have with one another when it comes to skills. Your clients all deserve to have the best! 7. Experiment. The last few months have giving us magazines full of style to work from with a myriad of photos and styles from awards shows for music, theater, television and the silver screen. Choose 10 styles from these pages that you want to learn to mimic and promote to your clients for the coming wedding, prom, and graduation season when special styles will be most appreciated. Invite a few of your best clients to come in and work as your ‘muse’ while you learn how to reproduce what you’ve seen in the fashion magazines. 8. Network. Make a list of 12 businesses who are close to yours in proximity or fairly close but who also share some of your “ideal clients” in terms of demographics. Create one idea for each of the coming 12 months where you would work with each business to create a shared marketing and communications plan to promote an offer to both sets of clients, or to hold an event. Approach these business owners and discuss your ideas with them during the coming months. See which businesses would trade marketing materials for lobby areas and which would be willing to present a special offer from you crafted just for their clients. 9. Dream. Dare to see the future as something bigger, better, brighter. Even if your dream is as small as remodeling or refurnishing your current salon, create a dream that can become a goal that you work toward. Be specific enough that you know where you are now, where you want to be at the end, and identify the major steps in getting there. Once you have listed the major components, begin to break down the tasks that must be done and milestones that must be crossed in order to make each component happen. Create a timeline and put these tasks and goals on your calendar, taking each thing one at a time as it comes, and marking progress along the way. 10. Create. Use what you have learned about products, skills and education, your clients, your business partners, your promotions, and your dreams to create a marketing and communications plan for the next 12 months. Use marketing display pieces to help to merchandise your retail products. Create email and direct marketing letters and postcards to alert your clients to great opportunities for services, retail or events. Create the basis for a more interactive, inviting dialogue with clients. Increase loyalty and client engagement through relevant, fun, entertaining events and promotions. Create and renew your own passion for your job, your salon and your industry. Show your clients, co-workers and the competition that you and your salon are alive and well, growing, fun, and “the place” to be!
“The bad news is time flies.  |
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| 12 Months of Marketing | Be InPulse Branding, Marketing & Design © 2010. All rights reserved. Elizabeth Kraus [email] |
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