Interested In What Your Clients REALLY Want?

I felt the need to write this blog post because of what happened to me just this past week.  I was in a salon and I overheard two stylists talking about what their clients wanted.  One stylist said that most of her clients wanted just a “great cut”.  The other stylist said that most of her clients wanted a “great color”.

I then realized that many salon employees need some education on what their clients REALLY want.  By the way, there is a very important marketing lesson hidden deep within the answer that almost every salon owner is making.

Nobody wants a “great cut” nor do they want a “great color”.  What they really want is to get noticed, look younger, attract someone, make someone jealous, feel hotter, look thinner, etc.  In other words, they want to satisfy some emotional need or feeling.

Look, most clients have zero idea about how good the cut is.  Now, don’t get me wrong, everyone knows a “butcher job”.  But the average person doesn’t know the difference between an exceptional cut and a very good cut.  They really don’t!  And the same is true for a color.  Most clients can tell when it is garbage.  But almost nobody can tell the difference between an “A” color and a “B” color.

But what is really funny is that most salon owners continue to make the same mistakes when they try and “attract” new clients.  Let me give you an example.

Take a look at your website.  Is there anything on your home page that tells a potential client why they should choose you?  Now put yourself in their shoes.

What is the difference between these two messages?

Message #1:  We do high quality work, our stylists were trained in New York with the latest techniques, our salon looks great (hence the pictures), you will leave happy and satisfied.  Come on in and give us a try.

Message #2: Are you sick and tired of the same old look?  Are you interested in turning some heads?  Maybe it’s a guy or girl at work, maybe it’s your significant other, or maybe you just want to look and feel 5 years younger.  We can help.

Which message is more powerful?

This next statement, I will need to give full credit to a brilliant marketer named Eben Pagan.  Why do you suppose a diet book like “Skinny Bitch” was at #56 on Amazon a few weeks ago whereas a book like “A Thinking Person’s Step by Step Guide to Weight Loss” was at #437,317?

Was it because “Skinny Bitch” had better methods or techniques for weight loss?  I don’t think so.  Or was it because one author was thinking like a CUSTOMER whereas the other one was not.

Well, if you want to attract more new clients into your salon, you need to put together a message that hits their emotional hot buttons.

Now, I know some of you are saying to yourselves “I can’t convey that kind of message!”.  To which I say – “Why not?”

I will leave you with a line from a scene in the movie “No Country for Old Men”.  You may remember that the movie won Best Picture a year or so ago.  When the killer in the movie was talking to Woody Harrelson (another killer in the movie) just before he shot him.

He said “If the rules that you followed brought you to this point – of what use were the rules that you followed?”

Best regards, Steve Sampson

HairMax Salon Software is a product designed to be the best investment your salon has ever made.  It is not only the easiest and most powerful salon management software on the market.  It is from a company dedicated to becoming the ultimate VALUE source to the industry.