Salon professionals need to stay abreast of the latest haircare product innovations and services with an eye on your ‘return on investment.' Alan Benfield Bush created YHS ~ Your Haircare System to help improve a stylist's work and a salon's profitability.  Here Bush offers some tips for how to evaluate your product mix and how to set measurable retail goals. 

Consider All Economic Values: Look at the exclusivity and distinctively different ingredients as much as the economic values when searching for a new professional haircare system. Today, you do not need to carry brands that are also offered at over the counter retailers and the big box stores. Look for brands that offer you the best return on your investment for each bottle you sell as a top priority. Look for product lines that will help you achieve maximized profitability for you as the hairdresser, as you are professionally introducing it to the public. Test the performance of each potential new brand on your salon services with certified organic, natural and vegan brands. Avoid harmful ingredients.

Successful Retail Strategies & Goal Setting: Take the time to set a series of qualitative objectives and quantitative goals for yourself and your salon team. For example, your qualitative goals will help you determine if your retail products will help you meet your mission to be a green and natural salon or to be respected as one of the top salons in town with the most exclusive products and services. Your quantitative goals will help you measure specific sales and profitability with very simple financial record keeping. These quantitative goals can be in dollars and/or percentages. If you are a salon owner, you can teach your team how and why to set these objectives and goals, while also adding some exciting incentive based contests.

Simple Retail Sales Goals: No matter how many clients you average every 4 to 6 weeks, one goal may be to sell at least one product to each client. You can also set a more minimal goal to sell at least one product for every 3 clients. Meeting minimum standard measureable goals like these will potentially ensure enough profitability to pay your rent or mortgage. This is relatively easy with a professional product line that offers you a rewarding R.O.I. Set new goals for yourself that are a stretch, yet still very achievable.

Track Retails Sales With Action Plans. Begin to record your daily retail sales on simple charts. Create a list of daily, weekly, monthly and annual actions, promotions and plans to meet your goals. Keep track of what products you sell to each client. By tracking this information, this will give you the incentive to sell more while keeping a record for additional future sales to the same clients. Your clients will always be open to buy haircare products from you, once you educate them on the specific features and benefits for their needed home haircare regimen between salon visits. By checking your records before each visit, you can remind them by saying: “I am sure you must be out of our special XYZ Shampoo!’ We must remember that our clients visit a grocery store weekly, yet may only visit us once every four to six weeks. Your professional reminders will be appreciated.

Create Education Based Haircare Consultations: Don’t sell; educate! 95% of your clients will buy what you recommend. Ask each client a series of simple questions, like: “How has the condition of your hair been?” and “How have you liked the products I prescribed for you?” Take time to listen before you personally prescribe products for each individual client’s needs. Share tips for how to achieve multiple looks by explaining how to use each of the products. Share how concentrated they are and how they are versatile when mixing as haircare cocktails. Let your clients know they will get their investment back with each retail product purchase to properly maintain their new haircut and salon service. Enthusiastically explain each product’s positive benefits, while noting, “I guarantee your new hair design if you use these products that I recommended today.” Your shared client consultation and communications need to be presented in a manner that will help separate emotions, feelings, facts, figures and logic.

Add New Retail Products With Higher R.O.I. Potential: Research exciting new product lines, their unique benefits, special ingredients and marketing strategies. Watch the professional beauty trade magazines, social media and the Internet for top new brand introductions recommended by proven professionals. Look for products that offer you the opportunity for a maximized return on your investment with maximized profitability. Understand that only you will have complete control of your attitude each day.

Your Haircare System:  Pronounced like “Yes”; the YHS Haircare System is sold directly to salons and licensed hair designers.

For more information about YHS Haircare, call 707-217-2700 and visit www.YHSHaircare.com. Contact Alan Benfield Bush and the YHS Team at: Info@YHSHaircare.com.