I had the rather interesting experience of buying a new telly yesterday.

The salesman was great, he let us do our browsing and then when we looked like we were ready to get serious and pick which TV we wanted, he just appeared quietly in the background so he could answer any questions we had. Fantastic... so far...

Then the salesman asked us:
... Do we need insurance? - A good question but no thank you.
... And did we have a stand to put it on? - Yes thanks, we’ll use the one we’ve got from our old telly.
... Do you have a DVD player to go with it? - No, that’s alright thanks, we just want the TV.
... Well, no TV is complete without a surround sound system? - Honestly, we’re quite happy with just the TV thanks.
... And were you requiring a games console? - No, just the TV please.

Believe it or not the conversation carried on for about 5 more questions (I had no idea how much stuff you could get to go with your telly!) until I politely said, “Thank you ever so much for your help however we just want the TV today. Are we able to pay for it now?”

The lesson in all of this is that an excellent sales process can turn sour very quickly by not listening to the client.

The first two questions were perfectly reasonable and in fact, quite helpful. If we didn’t already have home & contents insurance, we would almost certainly have purchased the TV insurance from him. And if we’d got home and realised we didn’t have a TV stand we would have had to go all the way back to the store to get one which would have been quite a pain.

So those first two questions were the mark of a great salesman who was paying attention and who clearly cared about us and our purchase. But the rest of it was him not listening and not paying attention to what we really wanted (which was just the TV).

Offering clients in your salon one or two additional items that you know they might need is really GREAT. In fact, its excellent service. But continuing to offer items that they don’t need is NOT.

Tip for this week is to take half an hour to look at what treatments or services you offer in your hair or beauty salon and think about what your clients might need or appreciate at home afterwards.

But when you come to offer them to them, LISTEN. Ask them questions to find out what they need. Listen to what they are saying and then only offer them solutions that are going to be genuinely beneficial.

Doing this will ultimately help you get more regular clients and improve sales in your salon. They’ll thank you for caring and will come back time and time again in the future.