Copyright: TX 6-180-770
Volume 4 Issue 12
June 25, 2008

Andrew Finkelstein, Editor
Published Bi-Weekly

In This Issue
Editor's Note
Tips and Techniques
Recommended Resources
Personal Reflection

When was the last time you met a business owner/manager who told you they didn't want to attract and retain more clients? The right kind of clients that is.

Unfortunately, most owners/managers spend a lifetime of frustration never realizing the “Holy Grail of Client Retention” is within their reach. All they have to do is grab it.

Naturally, you may ask yourself what’s standing in their way. How can there be a Holy Grail of Client Retention? Isn’t that a bunch of hooey? No, not at all, if you think about it as the following.

The Holy Grail of Client Retention is very much like “The Secret.” Why? Because it’s available to everyone—yet few see it clearly and fewer still act on it.

You’re an enlightened manager/owner who knows that simply having an idea or knowing about something (a system, method, or process) is not enough to make it happen in your business. You realize you have to take certain actions to make something come alive.

So when it comes to client attraction and retention, please, don’t let whatever preconceived notions you may have stand in your way. Read this week’s feature. Who knows, you may even have a big breakthrough.

PS: I'm sure you know “The Secret's” BIG SECRET lies in the execution your taking action.

“Unlike grownups, children have little need to deceive themselves.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1794-1834

Introducing the Marketing Action Group Program You don't want more marketing information. You want a breakthrough—a breakthrough in your ability to attract more clients! What's wrong with most marketing programs? They fill your head with a ton of information, strategies, and tactics that you'll rarely use. Sure, the information may be good, but you'll be hard-pressed to know exactly how to apply it to your salon/day spa business. The Marketing Action Group is an advanced marketing program designed to give you what you're looking for—breakthroughs in your ability to attract more clients. The class size is limited so don't delay! Click here to find out more.

The Holy Grail to Client Retention

Let’s face it, your clients, like most people, resist manipulation. They’ll stay away from your door if they feel you’re trying to do that.

However, they do want you to lead them. They want you to show them the way to the outcomes they want. Once you've informed them, they then want you to offer them the opportunity to choose.

It’s as simple as remembering that when you show the clients a path to enhance their physical appearance, you’re actually offering them feelings of greater certainty and confidence, and an enhanced feeling of confidence gives them the results they’re looking for—richer, fuller lives.

That’s why the world’s most successful salons/day spas lead through education and advice. These operators understand and design their businesses around the idea that:

• Clients want expertise
•  Expertise leads to knowledge
•  Knowledge is power
• Applied knowledge leads to results
•  Results are what people want

Your first objective in leading your clients is to discover the results they’re looking for. Salons/day spas do this through client surveys and technicians do this through consultations.

Once you discover what they’re looking for, you’ll want to recommend and advise them as to how to get those results. However, you'll want to give your advice in a well-designed way (your advisory system).

Why? If you’re coming from a place of “holding the client’s best interest at heart,” you’ll want them to take action on the advice you give. It’s through giving them well thought out reasons (the benefits) for taking your advice, when they’ll actually say “YES.”

This is the “Holy Grail of Client Retention.” Totally immerse yourself and your team in the idea that your clients WANT leadership. Do this and you’ll transform your salon/day spa.

Why? Because it’s only natural that you’ll adapt your marketing, advertising, and promotional focus to reflect this idea.

Next, just as day follows night, you’ll redesign your consultation system to ensure you lead each client to a progressively higher level of certainty.

Remember, this higher level of certainty brings to your clients something that no other salon/day spa in your market place gives to them—the ability to make an informed decision.

Book Review: Thick Face, Black Heart: The Warrior Philosophy for Conquering The Challenges of Business and Life; Ching-Ning Chu

As a leader, you know that operating in today’s business environment requires you to be mentally tough. You achieve that mental toughness by adapting to a mindset and then acting in concert with that mindset.

“Thick Face, Black Heart” gives you a formula that Asian businesspersons use—combining the “natural law” and spiritual behavior with absolute achievement.

Don’t be deceived by the book’s strange title. The contents will not be foreign to you; however, the results you’ll achieve after living “Thick Face, Black Heart’s” philosophy are the type of results that will astonish you.

“Deliberation is the work of many men. Action, of one alone.”
—Charles de Gaulle, 1890-1970.
 

Clients tend to get bored with the same old, same old. So be on the lookout for something new and exciting that you can introduce to them.

Create a “swipe file” filled with clippings you take from magazines and newspapers. You can also create an online swipe file. Check out Art Plus’s Easy Note software, www.artplus.hr.
 

A couple of days ago my wife and I were taking a walk in our neighborhood. Taped on one of the lampposts was a flyer for a personal trainer with the headline—“Want to get into the best shape of your life? Work out with the Push-up Warrior”—former army guy…

My wife turned to me and said, “I’d never try someone just from a flyer in the street…imagine the type of gym you’d find yourself walking into! Or even worse imagine inviting someone into your home and they haven’t been recommended by anyone you know…”

Well I couldn’t disagree with her on that one. Wearing my professional marketing hat, as opposed to my husband hat, and despite the catchy tag line, Push-up Warrior, I agreed with her. The reason? Simply that referrals (third party endorsements) really are the most powerful way of attracting more business.

Wouldn’t you know, yesterday morning, over a cup of coffee, I open the paper and lo and behold what do I see? A two-page spread entitled “We try out New York’s toughest trainers.” There, on one full page with text laid out over his full-size photograph was—you guessed it—the very same “Push-Up Warrior.”

So much for the notion that people get publicity out of shear luck. The Push-up Warrior’s came from very smart guerrilla marketing!

To Life!

PS: A good tag line will be noticed; however, when combined with a third party endorsement, it’s bound to get clients!

PPS: I’ll be teaching marketing at the IECSC in Las Vegas on Monday June 30, 2008. So come to the “Controlling Costs and Gaining Market Share Seminar,” Room N116. Registration fee required.

Andrew Finkelstein, President of the Beauty Resource, is a successful New York City-based entrepreneur, author, speaker, and coach who helps professional beauty businesses make a ton of money. Andrew's E-zine The Finkelstein Report is the beauty industry's #1 marketing resource with free articles, marketing tools, and valuable advice for salons and day spas owners. E-mail Andrew at Contact Andrew's Assistant, or call him at 212-831-2421 x202.

Author's note: You're welcome to use this article as content for your own e-zine or web site! Just make sure the article remains complete and unaltered (including author information and copyright line at the end), and send a copy of your reprint to Contact Andrew's Assistant.
 

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