12 minute read
Discount’ Is Not A Dirty Word By Chrissy Alger
‘DISCOUNT’ IS NOT A DIRTY WORD
By Chrissy Alger By Chrissy Alger
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Hello everyone, I am Chrissy Alger - Senior Coach and new recruit for The Zing Project, Salon Coaching… I thought I would introduce myself, given the provocative title of this article- before I explain myself...
I am a Salon Owner, Salon Marketer and Salon Coach having successfully ran my own Salon business from start-up- NOT as a technician and purely as someone addicted to business… I am actually a Psychologist, who decided to do something different and venture into the salon industry space under the guise of wanting to do more to promote health, wellbeing and self-confidence (all the things we get when we spend time in a Hair or Beauty Salon).
Start Up Businesses, are hard work. Especially when you cannot do the work yourself. So, over the years I have had to learn all of the business strategy known to man to keep my business afloat and to stop myself from going bankrupt!
Not only was I able to scale and grow my Salon Based business exponentially, but I have been able to help other Salon Owners do exactly the same. My methods can be controversial (hence the heading) and are often not liked or slammed in the industry as a “bad idea” or “devaluing service”.
But I am here to help you think differently about sales and marketing and to change ‘regular’ thought patterns amongst the industry… Call me a ‘pattern disrupter’ if you like.
But my main message is “what got you here, won’t get you there”, so if you want to continue to grow your business and yourself for that matter, you need to be open to new ideas. So here goes…..
Slammed as the single quickest way to attract a “bargain hunter” or not an “ideal client”, discounting services in order to attract new clientele has often been frowned upon by the Salon industry elite. “NEVER DISCOUNT” was something I heard time and time again when I first started my business.
But the problem was, my business was drowning. I had no clients coming through the door, I had no services really being provided that could actually be considered as “devaluing” as quite frankly, there was no-one to even service!! So, I had to think differently.
I had to develop a way to attract clients through the door, and my marketing research told me my ‘offers’ had to be absolutely irresistible in order to entice people to come through my front door.
So, I learned all about “Low Barrier to Entry Marketing” and from there, everything changed.
Low Barrier to Entry Marketing is simply a way attracting new clients by limiting any possible barrier to the client getting to know your business. Whether the client barrier to accessing your service was price point, not understanding how the service would benefit them, believing the service would not benefit them, client indifference or the service access simply was put in the “too hard” or not enough “time” basket, there are a number of reasons why clientele may not access services from you.
The Low Barrier To Entry style of marketing aims to reduce all of these typical client objections to make your marketing offering virtually impossible to refuse.
Reducing Price Point AKA ‘The Discount’
The Low Barrier To Entry Marketing Model (LBTE) would prescribe that providing a service for a fraction of the amount you would typically offer this service, is a certain way to attract high volumes of new clientele. It would not be unusual to offer a blow dry for $7 or a colour service for $99 under a promotional offer such as this.
The price point is SO unbelievable, that clients are compelled to attend your Salon, it’s a “nobrainer” type of offer.
But this is where most business owners get it wrong. The low value price point aims to simply have you “break even” on the service e.g. cover the costs. Your aim, is to make it profitable via upgrading the service and selling retail.
you secure this client as a life time client. But often, due to poor sales consultations, underperforming staff and lack of preparation and understanding of the strategy, none of these objectives are reached and the strategy is often deemed “not to work” or as a failure.
The reality is, LBTE marketing with price point CAN be a highly successful way of bringing large volumes of clientele through your door, and quickly, in order to grow and scale your business.
Now, there will always be the D Grade client that attend as a result of this type of promotion. But the aim is to consult and service as many clients as possible in “seeking” the right clientele for your business. With a robust consultation, skilled staff and sales strategy, you will find this your ideal clientele by engaging in this style of marketing.
Education- Does Your Ideal Client Know They Need You?
Another LBTE marketing strategy can take the format of resources and education, as you do not always have to compete in the market with price point. Often one of the biggest challenges we face with our prospective clientele, is that…
1. Our prospective clients do not know we exist 2. They may not know why they need our service or 3. They may not understand why our service is better than others document that educates, helping your market solve a problem by offering a resolution is a sure-fire way of securing a prospective client’s business.
Often presented in the format of a “Sales Funnel” this resource or form of education is deemed to be a first “touch point”, that is the first point of contact that a prospective client will have in getting to know and understand your value proposition as a business.
From here, you can effectively “funnel” the client into other more meaningful forms of contact with your business, such as via email, SMS, consultation until finally, they are ready to make a purchase.
What you are doing here, is “warming” the client to make a purchase, as rarely does someone simply just make a purchase from you without knowing or understanding the value that you can offer them.
THE FAILURE
The negative connotations attached to discounting services as you would in a LBTE style promotion or in giving away “free” stuff, is often derived from not understanding the objectives and the strategy of the LBTE style of marketing. Salon Owners who are not familiar with this strategy are often quick to dismiss or deem this strategy to be too risky or not worthwhile.
I had also found that for those that have been brave enough to take the plunge into LBTE style marketing, have had significant vulnerabilities in their business exposed as a result. For example, if your team cannot provide a strong consultation, often they cannot upgrade or retail to the client.
Commonly, LBTE marketing is “blamed” for issues such as these. Statements such as “the marketing only bought bargain hunters” or people that were unwilling to purchase or rebook. The reality is I have tested it, over and over again and the strategy does attract high value clients, if they are treated and serviced in the right way.
For this issue in particular, businesses including my own that have strong consultations and team suitably trained in sales, we were able to win these clients over. Other businesses who did not have such foundations, could not. But the issue was never the marketing, it simply unveiled a pre-existing issue. That the business had team members who were not consulting effectively and were not trained in sales.
Regardless of the client (new or existing), it was likely that their existing clients were probably leaving money on the table as a result of this problem as well. The reality is the LBTE marketing strategy is “hard work” but hugely rewarding. It will unveil every vulnerability in your business, but the savvy business owner will seek to close these gaps and build a business that is stronger than ever as a result.
For more salon strategy, email me at chrissy@ zingcoach.com.au, listen to ‘The Salon Hustler” podcast on all your major podcast platforms and follow me on Instagram; @chrissyalger_zing and Facebook: @chrissyzing
THE MOST ESSENTIAL STEP TO BEING A CEO
By Larissa Macleman
Do you ever have those periods of time where you feel completely unmotivated? You know there are things you need to do, but you don’t feel excited by these things, and you don’t really know why you’re even doing them.
This happened to me not too long ago. I was sleeping in late, watching Netflix in bed, and was completely unenthused by the prospect of getting up and working on my business.
I started to make every excuse under the sun: “it’s cold,” “I’m tired” ... I’m sure every business owner has found themselves doing this at one point or another. And what’s worse, is that I knew this wasn’t a great place to be in... but I couldn’t figure out how to get myself out of the rut, or why I was even in this rut in the first place! I still loved my team, loved the owners I was working with and loved my life, but something just wasn’t right. ….and then it hit me! The 1 thing so many Salon Owners are missing... let me tell you more about it.
WHAT’S MISSING?
I realised that what had happened was: I had crushed my previous goals and wanted to push ahead more, but got stuck because I hadn’t identified what that next step actually was for my business. Instead, I was busy being ‘busy’ and I’d lost sight of where it was all going, why I was doing this and what it was all even for. And without the “where” “why” and “what,” there was no way I was possibly going to be able to achieve the “how.”
Do you ever feel this way? Like, you have periods where you’re absolutely #killingit in business… you get up early feeling motivated to work on your business because you’re so pumped for what’s to come.
Your business is moving forward at a rapid pace because you’ve identified what ‘moving forward’ actually means for you and you know what the destination is. But then you have these down periods, like I had. Nothing is clear, nothing is happening in your business and you feel stuck.
See the common denominator here? It’s the clarity of knowing where you’re going and what you need to do to get there. When you have this clarity, you have focus and drive. You have a purpose and you feel energised and excited to tick off your to-do list at pace! This type of clarity is the key factor in bringing about growth in your business. It’ll seriously set you free and allow you to fully get into that CEO mindset. But growth comes with its own challenges...
THE THING ABOUT GROWTH…
Growth breaks things. Have you ever experienced this in your business? You’ve just hit a massive period of growth, and things are flying along nicely. Finally, you can see your dream start to unfold… then suddenly, things start to go wrong! Everyone is too busy to do anything, life gets messy and what worked before now starts to fail… And that means you’re likely to be once again pulled out of CEO mode and into Manager mode or even back to being a stylist. Your attention gets diverted because you’ve got to put on your Mrs. Fix It hat and mop up other people’s errors. It doesn’t have to be like this!
The reason why growth breaks things, is because what once worked- when your team was smaller and your Salon was quieter- is now no longer going to work. You’ve grown, and that means that what got you to this point probably won’t get you any further… and that’s OK! What you need to do is be prepared for this before it happens and plan ahead.
It may feel like your team is falling short, but it’s actually your responsibility as CEO to be ahead of this growth and have a plan in place for when things may start to break. And if this is your first salon or business, then you probably won’t be able to recognize what’s coming ahead of time. It’s OK to get it wrong the first time, but make sure that you remember the lessons learnt for next time, and plan ahead to avoid them. I know, easier said than done...
YOU ARE NOT YOUR BUSINESS
You’re probably wondering… “If I’m kneedeep in shite, how am I meant to even think about planning ahead or gaining clarity on what’s next?!” Maybe you can’t figure out what’s going wrong or why this is happening. I get it. You probably aren’t connecting the breaking to the fact that you’ve been growing and that it’s always going to happen if you’re unprepared! In this circumstance, I recommend you take a step back and regroup. As business owners, I think we can become so immersed and intertwined with our business that we lose our sense of perspective. Remember that you and not your business and that it’s important to remove yourself from the fishbowl and look at things objectively.
What you need is time to think. And I don’t just mean taking a 5-minute walk… I mean completely removing yourself from your business for a decent period of time (a holiday is great!) Giving yourself time to think will allow you to leap over those obstacles you thought were invincible and really get past those mental blocks in your head… trust me, it really works. Again, you won’t always get it right the first time off! I used to find myself in a tough spot quite often actually. I would watch too much TV, drink a little too much wine, blurt things out to my team in frustration, snap at my kids, and think everything was going wrong and that I was a terrible business owner. But now I’m able to separate myself from my business and recognise the process of growing and breaking, and so I’m able to plan ahead for it. Now, I want to help you do the same and save you, your team and your families from a whole lot of unnecessary pain!
MAKE A PLAN
After I mentioned my roadblocks to my team and we sorted through them, we were then able to formulate a strategic plan for what’s coming next. We met and planned out our focus for the next quarter and even started planning for 2020. And guess what… things are already starting to happen! Because we first gained clarity, and then made a plan, we were able to then take action and really gain momentum. I’m now getting up early again and going to the gym at 5:30am. I then arrive home at my desk with a clear plan for that day and actually feel excited to crack into the day of work.
