It’s Your DUTY to Make Money – and Save the Economy at the Same Time

by Greg Milner on 17/12/08 at 12:33 am

This is my last post till the New Year. So I want to leave you, and 2008, with some gentle advice, a little encouragement, and a dose of economic reality.

With most salons and spas bursting at the seams, appointment books full in the week before Christmas, I expect that most of this will fall on deaf ears. But I’m going to go ahead and say it anyway.

The “S” Word

The S word is the most feared word in the beauty industry. In salons and spas across the country, stylists, estheticians, massage therapists and nail techs turn their noses up at it. Feel guilty about it. Won’t do it.

The S word is:

Selling

And among beauty industry technicians, it’s a horrible word. It makes them feel “pushy”. Makes ‘em feel guilty.”I’m not a salesperson, I’m a beauty therapist” is the universal cry. Well, I’m going to leave you for this year with some thoughts that should help you feel proud to sell, happy to upsell, delighted to be doing more of it, with the reward that you’re not only making more money for yourself, you’re doing your patriotic duty for your country.

I have always been bemused by this antipathy in the beauty industry towards selling. See, we LOVE to buy things. We just LOVE it. And yet, and yet, we hate selling. I don’t get it.

As much of the world sinks into recession, governments across the globe are handing out gazillions, and exhorting us to spend, spend, spend. So there is now absolutely no excuse for being timid about selling to your clients. You actually now have official sanction and encouragement to do everything in your power to get your clients to spend more money with you!

In this time of economic crisis, thinking small serves no-one. Cutting your prices not only damages your own economy, it is now officially dangerous for the nation.

Think BIG.

“…Money has zero value in and of itself. It ONLY has value when it changes hands….”

No woman will boast to her friends that she “only paid $30 for a haircut”. But she WILL proudly show off her $200 Screen Star Makeover. Men are no different. I know, ‘cos I am one. It is a rare man indeed who would buy a $5,000 second-hand Korean buzz-box and rush around to show his friends. But a $100,000 red sports car with more bling than Paris Hilton? You bet, baby.

Here’s the thing: it’s not what you spend that matters, it’s how you feel about your purchase.

Selling is an exchange of value. You, the owner of the salon, are providing perceived value. For the customer, part of that perceived value is how they feel immediately after their purchase. And when people buy cheap, they feel cheap. It’s well known psychology. The MORE people pay for something, the better they feel, as long as they’re getting massive perceived value. (Inner Circle members: your Toolkit contains vast numbers of examples of how to add perceived value to your services.)

But there is now even greater encouragement for you to SELL, SELL, SELL.

Until something is sold, nothing happens. No income is generated. Therefore no taxes are paid. And if no taxes are paid, no schools are built, no roads constructed, no public services provided. Selling is the oil that keeps our entire society from creaking to a halt.

So my advice to you is:

Raise your prices. Substantially. But do it with a pulse, by adding massive perceived value with extras that cost you little or nothing.

Tell more, not less. The more you tell about your services, about yourself and your skills, about your products, about why your customer should buy you/them, the more you will sell. There’s a silly saying ‘less is more’. It is not. More is more.

Ignore the little voice in your head that’s making you feel guilty about your customer handing over that extra $20. No, your customer will NOT go home and carefully put that 20 bucks in the mortgage jar on top of the fridge. She WILL gleefully go spend it somewhere else, next week. It’s human nature. And it’s your DUTY to take that $20 from her NOW. And spend it on yourself.

Money has zero value in and of itself. It ONLY has value when it changes hands.

In 2009, it’s your patriotic duty to make sure that as much of it as possible moves from your customers’ hands to yours. GUILT has no place in this changed economy.

This Salon Owner’s Appointment Book is FULL for January & February 2009 – So What’s SHE Doing That You’re NOT?

This is Catherine Powell, long-time Inner Circle member, owner of the million-dollar Beauty on Rose in Melbourne. In an interview with Selling Like Crazy author Jill Groves today, Catherine detailed, chapter and verse, exactly how she keeps her salon appointment book FULL during the deadliest time of the year for salons & spas…the weeks immediately after New Year.

This recording will be mailed to Inner Circle members early in January, but the information Catherine delivers in the interview is GOLD – too good to keep from our Members when they could be proifiting from it, so FOR INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS ONLY, we’ve uploaded the complete interview to the ’sealed section’. Navigate to Member Interviews on the top menu, and you’ll find it in there. Listen, and be amazed.

Rating 3.00 out of 5

A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients.