ist magazine September 2021

Epic Sales

By David McFarland Details Matter

The best part about writing this column is that it’s been a platform for me to share what I’ve seen during many years out on the road working with staff at salons just like yours. These inspiring moments just unfolded organically as I worked with tanners alongside salon teams across the country. The best lessons were always just simple moments when I realized that this one little piece of knowledge could potentially propel sales upward for years to come. While working directly with guests, most teachable moments occur within the broad and sometimes over-generalized subject of “customer service” and “in store experience.” While many things can affect the in-store experience (e.g. products, prices, store environment, etc.), customer service is always going to be a top factor that impacts not only how tan ning salon shoppers perceive your salon, but also how much money they are willing to spend on the products you offer. Here’s a beautiful lesson I learned a while back as I worked with a team of the most efficient note-takers I ever encountered. By “notetaking,” I mean that in each customer’s profile, they had kept very detailed notes about them, both past and present. Like clockwork, as each tan ner was greeted and checked in, the notes were used as a sort of script to help staff customize each and every tanner’s visit.

It was a lotion-seller’s dream come true! With a quick glance, they knew everything they needed to know to help openmore sales opportunities at that moment – like a cheat-sheet with exactly what to say to each guest. Info like: where they were headed on vacation, what lotion sample they had tried a week ago and loved. I saw one note in a tanner’s profile that just said “addicted to raspberry lol.” The point is that this salon manager took notetaking to another level and as I worked with the team, I realized they had taken a really simple concept and ran with it. It became clear that this was taught to each employee, practiced and perfected. Team members greeted each guest as they walked in, took a moment to glance over the notes and then, began to tailor the conversation based on those notes. Then, during the rest of the visit, the team member added to the notes based on the visit results, the guest’s comments, what was purchased, sampled, etc. By the end of a night working with this team, I realized this was much more than just an exercise in good “customer service” or another sales tool. This was a confidence boosting, report-building sales secret weapon that every salon should be using! They say that necessity is the mother of invention and when I asked themwhy they decided to commit to this extreme notetak ing process, they told me it was because the staff were always saying they didn’t know what to say to create conversations with

guests, so they figured that the perfect solu tion was to keep a detailed log that basically tells them how to direct the conversation… and it worked beautifully! What I love about customer service/ experience is that you can create, craft and control it. You may not be able to control the weather, a pandemic or your competi tors, but what your team does and says while working with guests is something you surely can control. Q service” or another sales ɽɁɁȢӗ ɽȃȈɰ Ȉɰ ƃ ƺɁȶˎ ǁljȶƺljӸ boosting, sales secret weapon that every salon should be using! More than just an exercise in good “customer

About the Author: David McFarland is a National Educator for Sun Evolutions, offering brands including Supre Tan, ProTan, Hempz and Fiesta Sun. He

is a face-to-face sales and beauty product fanatic who gauges his success solely on his effectiveness at selling real product to real, live salon customers.

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September 2021

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