Little Hinges Swing Big Salon Doors

by Greg Milner on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Often, the tiniest of changes can make the biggest difference in any business.

After this week’s Road to Riches seminar for salon owners in Sydney, Jill and I hosted a special two-hour, closed-door ‘Masterminds’ networking and brainstorming session for Inner Circle members only.

It’s at these sessions that some of the biggest breakthroughs often happen, simply by listening in and swapping ideas with some of the most successful and driven salon owners in the business. And it’s proof that nobody has a mortgage on all the good ideas.

Many times, I’ve watched jaws drop and eyes widen as an Inner Circle member salon owner almost casually drops a ‘gold nugget’ into the middle of the table.

That’s the thing about entrepreneurs – always with eyes and ears open, always seeking, refining, tweaking, hunting down even the smallest of pieces of information which could make a disproportionately-large difference to their business, their sales, their profits.

In this particular closed-door session, one of our long-time members offered just a single jewel of information about how to collect credit card details, avoid no-shows and still be protected from charge-backs that had the rest of the room scrambling for pen and paper. For those members in attendance, this small but glittering gem could make a difference of many thousands of dollars worth of sales.

And just minutes later, a rush for copies as another Member showed the printed cards she uses to generate dozens of referrals every month….

Here at the headquarters of Worldwide Salon Marketing, we had a similar experience only a week or two back.

Every month, scores of salon owners around the world complete our online Pre-Application Survey. We take only a limited number of new Members each month, so part of the process is actually phoning each applicant to interview them and judge their suitability for the program. (And, not to be taken too lightly, thier demonstrated eagerness, enthusiam and willingness to do what it takes to be successful.)

But it’s astounding the number of people who complete a form and instantly forget they’ve even done it…or, despite being informed they’re going to get a phone call, are never available or simply don’t return messages.

So we made a tiny, simple change to the online form, inserting a field requiring the applicant to nominate a day and time they’re available to take a call.

Instantly, the difficulty of contacting applicants has almost evaporated, overnight. And as a result, our enrolment rate has shot up, and so has the quality of Members coming to us via our online lead generation processes.

Look at your own business. What tiny, zero-cost changes could you make, test, measure, implement? Do you make mystery calls to your own salon to find out how staff are handling calls? Do you mystery shop other salons to see if you can steal what’s working for them?

Have you read a book or looked at a rival’s website to see if you can pick anything up there? Is there a small reward you can give clients referring their friends… a small potplant, a cheerfully-wrapped box of chocolates?

Look for the tiny things. They are all around you. Little hinges really do swing big doors.

(NOTE TO INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS: These ‘closed-door’ mastermind workshops are available for all Members, directly after each Road to Riches seminar, but you MUST book with our office first.)

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.