We all want to make our clients happy, but there is always one client, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, nothing will ever please them?

They aren’t your ideal client.

Yet, there are some clients you could sneeze on and they would probably thank you for it. They love you THAT much… They are your ideal client.

“Everyone is my target audience” – this is probably the most common line used among business owners. You may have a product or service that everyone needs. That doesn’t mean that everyone needs it from you. You want to focus on attracting more of the clients you LOVE and who love you in return.

How do you do that? – It’s all in your marketing and branding.

I really want you to think about that client that you could sneeze on.

What is it about them that you absolutely love? Do you know the type of services do they come in for? What do they do in their spare time, where do they work?

Now take a look at your business, do you think your businesses personality appeals to that client that you love? (It probably does, that’s why they come to you!) Have a look at what you’re putting out in the world and who it’s speaking to. Your ideal client is going to see what you are posting on social media, will they like it?

It’s so important to attract the clients that you love and that love you in return because that’s how you create Raving Fans, Repeat Business, Amazing Testimonials & Referrals. Who wouldn’t want that for their business?

With your marketing and advertising, talk specifically to who you are wanting to attract. This will organically help you grow.

How to find them

Talk to your staff, find out the kind of people and clients they like to see and work with. Do their wants, needs, and desires align with yours? If you are all working toward a common goal it will improve your relationships within the workplace. If you find that your team members have different strengths and ideas of their ideal client, that’s ok too, you can work with that.

Find a balance between your ideal clients, something that they all might have in common and use that to focus on.

Create magic in your business and appeal to the people who are going to be loyal and devoted to you. You will start to know exactly who you are trying to appeal to, it will become second nature for you.

Keep an eye out for the next blog, I will talk about creating raving fans and how that can help your business.

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Hi, I am a complete stranger. Give me money!

Let me guess, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Um…no.”

Well, this is exactly what you are doing if you are not building relationships with your audience and prospective customers. Think about it – would you rather buy from someone you know, someone you feel like you can trust – or a complete stranger?

Relationship marketing creates a safe haven for consumers. It gives the illusion that the business knows them – their wants, needs, and desires. A trust is formed. If a business suggests a product, the customer knows they are suggesting it because they truly believe it will benefit them.

Which would you prefer: to build a long lasting relationship with someone that sends you a coupon on your birthday, an email that your favourite brand published a new product, or that the item you wanted was back in stock – even though you didn’t ask for the reminder?

OR build a relationship with a company that slams your inbox with a newsletter, email, coupon for every item in their inventory, every podcast, or every blog post?

Let’s see how fast you find that unsubscribe button!

The objective of relationship marketing is to create a long-term relationship filled with loyalty and retention.  You want to be the brand name that a consumer loves, believes in, and most importantly – recommends!

Relationship marketing is more of a courtship than transactional marketing. Things are taken slower, there is more nurturing, caring, and developing before making an offer. You allow the time for the customer and company to get to know each other.

Understand, you can only build a relationship if the customer is willing to provide the information. Are they willing to opt-in, answer a few segmentation questions, or provide demographic information in the form of a profile or survey? This information allows a company to gather details in order to mold a campaign around individuals so that their needs are met and voices are heard.

Why do we care about relationship marketing? One word – competition.  

If your customers have a loyalty to you, they are less likely to price shop when they are ready to buy. They are less sensitive to price increases if one needs to happen, and more accepting to changes to your blog, website, or business such as appearance, adding or removing features, new ventures, and so on. They are committed to you – they are not interested in “seeing other people”.

So you may be asking, “Is that it? Gather a couple of details, show that I care, and I have a customer for life?” No, if it was that easy – everyone would be doing it and we would all be rich.  

There are many elements to relationship marketing beyond customising to the individual customer.

One element to consider is customer service.You can have the best selection, the most outstanding information, the most informative podcast – but if you have the worst customer service, no amount of relationship marketing will help you.

Customers care about how they are treated, just as much as they care about how well you know them. Make sure they feel as if their opinions matter, their complaints (and compliments) are validated, and their suggestions are taken into consideration. If they feel as if it is their company too, they are more likely to protect it.

Lastly take a look at your social media. Is every post you make about a product, blog, podcast, or something directly associate with your company? You are getting to know them, how are they supposed to get to know you?

Use social media as a means to help make your relationship stronger with your customers. Post items they can share, content that makes them think, and give them opportunities to see the company as place of people rather than a vacuum sucking up their money.

Be true to you, be authentic and have fun, it is worth it.

The post Relationship Marketing appeared first on Salon Owners Collective.

I was talking to a salon owner that had contacted me over the weekend about some issues in her business that she needs help with. One of her major issues is that she feels very intimidated by a staff member. She often feels like she is treading on eggshells and she is constantly giving into demands, so there is no confrontation. Now this salon owner is feeling really down.

She is working on the floor full time. She is a wife & also a mum to 3 kiddies. She is the busiest out of all the staff in the salon.

She wants to be able to offload some of her clients to her team so she can have some time to focus on building the business but doesn’t feel confident that her staff will look after them like she does. She knows that when the cat’s away the mice do play! She also knows the salon is capable of so much more but she just feels like giving up because it’s all too hard.

Where did it all go wrong?

How did this salon owner go from being the boss to being owned by the staff?

As salon owners, unfortunately one of the major issues is that we desperately want to be liked by our staff members. So we find ourselves saying yes to every request we get!

• Can I have this day off each week?…. yes sure!
• Can I take this Saturday off for this thing I have on?…. yes sure!
• Can I take a week off in our busiest time?…. yes sure!

You know what I mean, right?

So what happens is that it starts to become expected as there are no boundaries in place from day one and if you say no then hell breaks loose. It is ok to be friends with your staff! I am still to this day very close friends with my staff from my salons that I owned. I have been invited to their Engagements, Weddings, New Years Eve parties, 21st birthdays and girlie weekends away.

The thing is that your staff need to know that when they walk through that salon door to start work that it’s showtime! It becomes very hard when there are no policies and procedures in place from the beginning.

If there are no salon rules set in place from the beginning and if the goal posts change all the time then there will always be issues.

Many salon owners that I speak to do not have a policies and procedures manual in their business.

Many salon owners that I speak to and also help have big issues when it comes to staff.

Do you have rules & boundaries in your salon?

Are you having issues with staff?

Do you have balance?

Along with the salon owner mentioned - I can also help you get your salon back on track. Book a free discovery call with me and we can chat about your concerns, goals and action plan to move forward.

Book a Free Discovery Call

The post Do You Tread On Eggshells In Your Own Salon? appeared first on Salon Owners Collective.

It's time to do some financial year preparation and get proactive with your new goals coming into the next 12 months so you can review how far you’ve come.

Tax time can be daunting and frustrating – but so rewarding when you see growth.

So many business owners set goals at the start of the year or at the start of the new financial year, but so rarely do they go back and review their progress or put actionable steps in place to achieve their goals. 

At the start of each new year calendar or financial, however you choose to direct your focus; Set Goals. 

An action plan is the most important element to achieving these.I recommend choosing a maximum of 4 main goals. They may be financial, growth focussed, or material based. 

 

1. Get a blank piece of paper and in the middle of the page write down your goal & the date you want to achieve it.
2. Now, on the right-hand side of the page come up with a MINIMUM of 25 reasons WHY you want to achieve that goal.
3. On the left-hand side, write down all the things you need to do to achieve that goal or that’s going to get you closer to achieving the goal.
4. On another sheet of paper, prioritise your action steps in descending order of importance... For example - Most important: Daily Action e.g. Follow up clients.
5. Then with all of your other action steps, decide when you are going to work on them. I like to create 3 lists: Daily > Weekly > Monthly

In each column, I write down what I need to focus on and when. I even mark it in my calendar so I hold myself accountable and complete the actions.

Make time to achieve your goals. Don’t just write them down and then a month later forget what they are and wonder if you achieved them come the new year. MAKE IT HAPPEN. 

Stick these 4 goals & actions up on your wall where you can see them every single day and make time to achieve them. The reason I recommend not having more than 4 main goals is you don’t want to be focussing on too many things at once.

By having only 4 main goals, you have an even split of time throughout the year to achieve them. Quarterly. And yep, you guessed it. Each quarter, have a meeting with yourself and analyse how much progress you have made toward achieving your goals and adjust them as necessary.

Send an image of your action plans to: 
@salonownerscollective on Instagram. 

I can't wait to see what you come up with - Happy New Financial Year!!! 

Get in touch with Louise

Book a Coaching Call with Louise 

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