On this episode of The Salon Marketing Q&A, we discuss how to ensure that you hit your salon targets again and again.
The Salon Marketing Q&A: How To Stay Focused And Hit Salon Targets Transcript
All right, we’re live. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new episode of the Salon Marketing Q&A. My name’s Chris Brennan. This is brought to you by Phorest Salon Software, where every single episode you ask a salon marketing question and we answer you live on Facebook.
Now, as always, if you don’t have time to literally watch this live as we’re talking, I’m going to be posting this on Facebook after the fact, so you can catch up with it later. We also put this on YouTube as well, so there’s many places that you can actually catch up on today’s episode.
If you have any questions that you would like to ask us that you’d like answered in regard to salon marketing ideas, Facebook marketing, Instagram or even in-salon promotions, please let us know. You can drop your question into the comments of this actual Facebook post, or you can hit us up at Letsgrow@Phorest.com, or you can hit us up on Facebook as a private message, or on Twitter after the Phorest word. There’s many places that you can hit us up so you can have your question answered on Facebook Live on the Salon Marketing Q&A.
Before we get to this episode’s question, I just wanted to let you guys know that on Wednesday, which is tomorrow, we’re going to be kicking off our very first Salon Manager Development Series hosted by Valerie Delforge. The topic is going to be How to Run Your Staff, How to Ensure that Your Staff are all Focused and Targeted at the Same Goal. That’s going to be really interesting. It’s a once-off series, so there’s not going to be a repeat. We really urge you to check out this one. Then the next one coming after that is going to be November 6. You’ll get more information on that as it goes. But just so you know, if you’re available tomorrow, this is going to be an amazing webinar. It’s going to be a great Master Class. I hope you guys can attend.
That being said, let’s get into today’s topic. Our question that we received today is, “How do I keep myself and my staff focused on our goals so that we can grow?” That’s a really interesting question. It’s nice to actually not just go into straight up, “How do I run this campaign and how do I run that campaign?” This feels like it’s a more embedded in the DNA of the business kind of thing.
I totally understand. There’s so many businesses out there that they spend a lot of time just kind of putting out fires as such. You’re so busy trying to get people in your door, and make sure they’re happy, and it’s always like you’re going fast forward, that you never turn around and go, “Okay, we’re kind of just dealing with situations as they come, but we’re not really strategizing for proper growth.
That’s how I read this question. I wanted to answer it in that kind of step one kind of stage because, again, I can give you a couple of ideas for campaigns, but they’re kind of once-offs that can help in that week-to-week basis. But really, if you’re looking at sustained growth, it needs to be going right back to the fundamentals of your business.
When I say that, what I’m referring to is your mission statement. This is where we want to get back to. I love mission statements. If you don’t know what a mission statement is, it’s basically what you aim for your business to be about, and what your goals for your business to achieve. This isn’t a marketing exercise. This is not for clients to actually see. This is for you and your staff.
Usually, business owners set up a mission statement at the very beginning, before they set up their business. It just so happens that so many times we always get so deep and focused on actually setting up the business, that we kind of forget to sit down and in writing describe why we’re doing it and for who. This is going to be crucial for whenever you’re looking for sustained growth. I know it sounds so simple, but why can’t it be?
What we want to look at today is we’re going to set up your mission statement and then afterward we’re going to tell you what you can do at that point. Your mission statement is, again, for you, for your team and not for your clients. If they see it, sure they see it, but it’s not something that you want to put out. It’s to kind of keep your business on track, keep yourself focused, and ensure that if you’re not abiding by your mission statement, then what are you doing?
A lot of times, again, we can find ourselves working really hard and really focused and a lot of effort. But maybe it’s going into the wrong place. If it’s not specifically aimed at making your business grow and providing the statement for your mission, then I think we should re-reflect on it and see what we’re doing wrong.
I’ve written down a couple of ideas for what should be contained in your mission statement. After the fact, please feel free to rewind this and check it out, and then ensure that when you’re writing your mission statement, make sure that it has these elements to it. If you already have a mission statement, fantastic. Great job. You’re on the ball. Let’s see if you actually have hit these bullet points. Now, this isn’t like universal. There’s many different ways to write a mission statement, but we always find that these points are important to put into your statement to ensure that you’re covering all your basis. Cool? Sweet.
Right away, who is your company? Who are you? Now, that’s a very broad question. You can interpret that however you’d like. I can give a couple of hints on that. What is that feeling that you want your company to represent? Who are your company? What is it? What is the brand? What are you representing? Is it just you opened a salon and you hope people come? That’s not what it is. That’s not what we’re doing here. What does your business do and why do you do it? We’re getting in very easy questions. But when you start thinking about it, you go, “Wait, why am I doing this? Who is this for? Who’s to benefit? What’s the purpose of this?” Once you know these answers, you have very clear, clean focus.
Do you want to make enough income to make a living, or is profit more important? That seems to some people like a kind of a stupid question. But funny enough, they have already decided, so it’s actually an easy enough question. A lot of people out there, they are more than happy to just kind of keep going. It’s the service and the company that keeps them afloat. While others are actually determined to keep growing their business and profits and they’re really focused on the figures. If I said that, and you immediately jumped onto one of those, either make a living or make a profit, go with that because that’s already what you decided in your mind is kind of the purpose of your business.
Who is your target client base and audience? You’re not targeting everybody. You’re targeting a specific demographic, right? Even if it’s a bit broader than other salons and spas, it’s good to know who you’re talking to. That would be the age range, the gender, the interest. If you’ve followed us on our Facebook webinar, you’d know that this is actually we create our target audiences. We do it by gender, location, age range and interest. That’s a good way to start when you’re actually looking at who you should be talking to because that changes the tone of voice as to how you’re presenting your business and your brand.
Do you solve a problem for your customers? I find a lot of times in salons when it comes to marketing, a lot of people, they kind of lead with what the salon will get out of it. They’ll say that they have a loyalty thing so you can come in and get one free and they do discounts. But it kind of always angled more so at what the salon benefits from, rather than what the client will benefit from. I think it’s important to understand what is actually the problem that your business solves? Make sure you have that in your mission statement.
Finally, what is the internal work environment you want for your employees? Absolutely crucial. Do you want to hire people who are going to be active and work together to push your business to the next level? Or are you looking for people to kind of just show up, do what they’re supposed to, and then leave at the end of the day? What kind of culture are you looking at?
When you wrap all of this stuff up, all of these points, you’ll actually have a mission statement. Then once you have that mission statement, you now have the foundation for how you can actually execute your tasks and set your goals, so that you can sustain growth permanently. Again, it’s not about just why don’t you send out this SMS and you’ll get a couple of people in next time. It’s deeper than that. It’s, again, embedded in the DNA.
I would say that today, or this week or this weekend coming, you sit down and you work out what your mission statement is going to be. It won’t be enjoyable at first, I promise that. But when you have it done, you’ll be thrilled.
I read this thing about writers just this morning where it’s like writers don’t like the idea of writing, writers don’t like to write, but there’s a sweet spot after just written, that’s where we’re about. I loved that. That was a good point. You kind of go, “I’ll do it later.” Then when you talk about it, it’s like, “Yeah, I love it, but I still don’t want to do it.” However, when you just finished it, that’s amazing. Think about that when you are sitting down to write your mission statement. You might not feel like it’s going to be enjoyable. It might be to some. But really, it’s going to feel amazing once you have it done. Once you have it done, that’s a huge step.
Let’s say that you finished your mission statement. What do we do next? What’s the next point? What we have to do is we have to invite our team and your employees and everybody who’s important to your business, crucial to your business’s success, and invite them in on the mission statement. They have to know what this company’s about and what you’re trying to achieve.
I would even say that you should print this and leave it in the back room, whether it be like the break room or maybe your office. Make sure that it’s on display so you can always kind of look back at it and go, “Am I really on the right track, or have we have just kind of gotten distracted putting out fires as they say?” Print that out. Make sure people all know the goal. Make sure they’re all aimed to achieve that goal that you set forth because that’s how we grow.
This is basically going to be like your blueprint for success. The most important thing to do now is now that you have your mission statement, it’s time to start putting goals and tasks ahead. Big achievable goals that you can do either annually, but I would say once a quarter. Invite your team in on these goals. That’s going to be what you try to achieve. These goals have to stay with the [remeants 00:11:48] of your mission statement, so you’re always focused on what you’re trying to achieve, who you’re trying to achieve it for, what problem you’re solving for the customers, and how you’re going to grow your business. Make sure it’s achievable. Make sure the whole team focuses on it because that’s how you grow as a team. That’s how you’re going to see sustained growth. Once you get your team on your side, you’re going to go flying.
I wanted to give you guys a couple of ideas now about what kind of goals you can set out in the next couple of quarters or so. The first one would be to raise the client retention rate to the industry standard, which is 58%. If you’ve attended our Client Retention Master Class, you might know this formula. We go through it. We no longer do that master class, but we do have video versions. We’ll drop that into the comment box. If you’re interested in checking out the Client Retention webinar, it’s fantastic.
I could give a lot more information on this exact topic, but for now, let’s say that your goal would be to raise your client retention rate. You can find out what your retention rate is right now if you’re a Phorest client. In the reports, there’s actually a report that says Client Retention. You click that, and immediately it’ll tell you what your current retention rate is.
If you have paper and pen, you’d have to work that out manually. This is crucial. Find out where you’re at, and then your goal is to match the industry standard and then eventually exceed it. However, if you did find that you are already at 58%, great job. Good job. That’s a huge achievement. Let’s aim for more. Why don’t we say this quarter’s goal is 65% in client retention rate? This means that everybody who comes in, you want to get them back in again.
That’s how you grow your business. This would be your goal. It’s going to be inline with your mission statement. You would have worked with your team and your staff to actually get to this point. Now, the goal is this. Set a deadline where you want the rate to actually be hit. You want to hit your 58% or your 65% depending. Keep your staff updated constantly on the progress. Don’t just hit them at the end by saying, “We didn’t get there,” or, “We did.” Make it communal. Make them feel like they’re going to be rewarded. You know what? Reward them afterward if they hit it. It’s great for your business. It’s great for morale. That’s one.
Another goal you can have is your client reviews. With the Phorest System, you can actually send out requests for reviews where we can track your average review. A lot of salons might be like 4.1, some are like 3.8, this kind of thing. Some are 4.8 and beyond. I would say, again, check out what your average client review is out of five and then make 4.8 your target. Now, if you’re already at 4.8, go to 4.9 or five. But let’s try to see if we can get your client review average out of five to be something like 4.8.
Then invite your staff to get involved. We’re going to really push this because what happens is when everybody’s involved in trying to push this figure up, then what they’re doing is they’re going to be delivering exceptional customer service. Then that will be encouraging people to come back more. That will help growth. Word of mouth will spread that you’re running this amazing, amazing business that just delivers unbelievable experiences for everybody who walks through the door. It absolutely counts.
Finally, another goal you can have doesn’t have to be about the figures and the clients. I know salons that have done this and once they started doing this, they were like, “We should have started doing this years ago.” Every quarter, they would actually pick a topic. Then they would train their team onto that specific topic. I thought that’s such a great idea.
For example for the next quarter, one of your targets, one of your goals, could be to train your entire staff up on how to sell retail. That might involve booking and paying for classes. That might involve organizing sales reps of products that come in and teach your staff how and why those products are useful and beneficial to clients so your clients will then be able to hear why they should buy stuff.
A lot of times, we’re fearful of the hard push on retail. That’s, again, because we have it in our mind that we’re selling to them, when in fact, what’s the benefit of this product for a client? When you think of it that way, it’s not hard selling is it? It’s not even selling. You’re providing a benefit. You’re providing a value.
If you pick once a quarter, you’re going to train … Or maybe twice a year. It’s up to you. If you pick topics to train your entire staff up in, you are going to see an incredible surge in enthusiasm and in profit, and your business will grow because your staff is educated now. They understand the goals. They’re really to shoot. They’re going to go forward because they know what to do and they understand what they’re trying to accomplish.
I’ll finish it with this quote. Some people would say, “What would happen if I trained everybody and then they left?” John DiJulius would say, “What would be happen if you didn’t train them and they stay?” I love that quote. I thought that was fantastic and it’s right. Just because you’re fearing that they might go somewhere else doesn’t mean that they’re not going to help you as they’re here. You know what the best way to keep staff? Invest in them. Show them they’re important. They will by far show you how important you are to them.
Okay, guys. I hope you enjoyed that episode of the Salon Marketing Q&A. If you have any questions for next week’s topic, please let me know. I’d be delighted to answer them. I hope you enjoyed our new purple background. I just installed it today. Kind of thrilled about that. I think I’ll call it a day, guys. Thank you so much. Let’s grow.
I’ll finish it with this quote. Some people would say, “What would happen if I trained everybody and then they left?” John DiJulius would say, “What would be happen if you didn’t train them and they stay?” I love that quote. I thought that was fantastic and it’s right. Just because you’re fearing that they might go somewhere else doesn’t mean that they’re not going to help you as they’re here. You know what the best way to keep staff? Invest in them. Show them they’re important. They will by far show you how important you are to them.
