The Business of Beauty

As I travel around the world speaking about beauty salons, I get to visit hundreds of different salons every year. One of the most common questions asked of me is, “how can I establish a point of difference over my opposition?” Owners discuss new equipment with me, they talk about different product brands, varying their services, changing their price menus and even redecorating the salon. Now all of these things may help you to achieve a point of difference in the short term, but sooner or later your opposition will follow and you will be searching again. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do all of these things regularly, it’s just that I have discovered a cheaper, easier and longer lasting way of being significantly different to everyone around you.

You see, nearly all of the salons that I visit perform a “good” service. On average I am satisfied that they served me well. But the point of difference I am talking about is when a salon is anything but average and they serve me with extraordinary excellence and expertise.

I believe that the greatest point of difference we can establish in this industry is being recognised as an expert. That’s right an expert – Someone who is perceived to have greater knowledge, experience or skill.

The best part is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to walk and talk, act and sound like an expert. The primary difference between a salon of excellence and an average salon is their attitude. I firmly believe that the vast majority of our customers want to be directed in their skin care. They want their therapist to sound confident and be up to date with the latest treatments, technology and information. It’s our role as professionals to inform, educate, direct and nurture our clients, assisting them to improve the look and feel of their skin. So here’s how it can be done:

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As a marketing consultant, I tend to study the business whose services I use as well as those I help. Obviously I am always looking for good advertising, the presentation of their premises and staff, how I am greeted and the degree of service that I experience. However, I am constantly amazed at how much time, money and effort is wasted on advertising that just doesn’t work. The really astonishing part of this statement is that many small business owners don’t actually know if any of their advertising endeavours are working for them, nor can they tell me the results of each of the various campaigns, that they undertake.

Let me give you an example. I recently went to a new local hairdresser to have a haircut. I had noticed her new shop signage as I drove down the main street of my suburb. Once, inside, we started chatting about how expensive it is to advertise. Like most salons, there was literally thousands of dollars worth of advertising including:

• Yellow Pages
• Shop Signage
• A-Frame chalk board for footpath
• Local paper ads
• Flyers for mail drops
• Brochures
• Price lists
• Business Cards
• Motor Vehicle Signage
• Chamber of Commerce / Networking Club members fees

I agree that these require thousands of dollars worth of advertising, which is very expensive but necessary in order to entice new clients to the salon. My next question was, “So what has been the most effective way to attract new clients?” Her answer wasn’t unusual. – “I don’t know.”

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Over the past few months I have been all over New Zealand doing a series of retailing seminars. An integral aspect of my message is the importance of conducting a thorough skin analysis for clients as part of the retail sales process. The obvious connection is that by telling and showing the customer what the condition of their skin is like, then they will want to buy the products you recommend to improve it. However, I believe that by conducting a skin analysis you are actually doing and saying a whole lot more.

Let me explain…..

Become an expert.

Beauty therapists are experts in the skin. There are very few people in your community that know more about the condition and care of the skin than you do. Certainly we know that our customers don’t. They don’t know the difference between dry or dehydrated skin, what is healthy oil flow or not, they have no idea what is causing their acne and they turn to us for help. This makes you an expert. One of the easiest ways to demonstrate your expertise is to conduct a full diagnostic skin analysis. It immediately places you in a position of expertise and control.

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How often have you walked away from a sales person shaking your head in disbelief because you barely understood a word they said? In our high tech world of computers, chemical compounds and acronyms for just about everything, it is all too easy to be lost in the jargon that surrounds purchasing even everyday items.

Those who know me, will know that I am an avid Apple Macintosh Computer user. I have owned Macs for years now and find them wonderfully easy to operate and incredibly reliable. Yet, I can’t give the same high praise to the sales representative that greeted me recently when I inquired about upgrading my current model.

Yes, I was greeted warmly.
Yes, the showroom was presented beautifully and;
Yes, the salesperson was enthusiastic to serve me.
But as soon as I muttered the word “upgrade”….I was whisked away into the far off world of computer speak.

Now, I don’t consider myself a fool, but I was lost after the very first sentence of gigabytes, RAM, DVD – ROM / CD Drive, and Fire wire. If this young man was trying to impress me with his knowledge, he was doing a great job. But if he was trying to sell me a computer system, he had no chance at all. You see, I had no idea what he was talking about, nor did I care. I felt a mixture of foolishness and anger. The salesperson wasn’t interested in my needs, my lifestyle, or my understanding. He was too busy impressing me!

Consequently, I chose not to purchase from that particular outlet.

Jargon in any field of business can kill sales. Doctors who presume we have a degree in anatomy or mechanics who think we can do more than put petrol in and change a tyre. Even cook book writers who believe we all grow exotic herbs and Asian vegetables. Or worst of all, beauty therapists who talk about active ingredients that other than industrial chemists no-one else has heard about and how they work on layers of the skin with really strange names. To make it worse, many of these products have French names that many of us cannot even pronounce correctly, let alone understand.

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There are many varying opinions of what the word “professional” means in today’s modern salon environment. Certainly it is true that in the beauty industry there are ever increasing demands on therapists as the industry is in a constant state of change. But what are reasonable expectations for an employer of their professional staff in terms of adequately preparing for their day to day role.

In it’s purest sense the word professional simply means to be paid for services and knowledge. What I’d like to discuss is the contentious issue of what should salon owners and managers expect in return for this payment.

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