In this Strategy...

• So You Want it ALL?

• Seattle, Washington Road to Riches Super Conference - April 21

• SalonCentral discussion forums go live next week

• Inner Circle member Gets 15 Prospective Staff in One Week

• Back Issues

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Greg's Weekly Rant - So You Want it ALL? Interesting...

These answers provide us with an insight into what I call the "Outcome/Input" ratio - the relationship between the expectations of the applicant, and the amount of effort he or she is prepared to put in to achieve that outcome.

Here's a typical answer:

"I want an annual three month vacation in Europe with my family, a new BMW for me and one for my husband, a beach house, two or three investment properties...and I want to work only two days a week..."

Er...fine. Win the lottery, or be smiling sweetly, in the right place at the right time, when rich old Uncle Mort falls off the perch.

Reality check: it ain't going to happen. At least, not without a stunning amount of ACTION first. It never ceases to amaze me that so few recognise the law of nature that ties success to....well, there's no other word for it, work. And by work, I don't just mean actual manual labour, I mean the work involved in educating yourself in the knowledge of what works in business, and then applying it, implementing it, testing it, and applying it again and again and again.

Example: this week I took a call from a spa owner who was desperate for success. In fact, she wouldn't survive unless she took MASSIVE ACTION. I explained to this spa owner that success was NOT about doing one thing, waiting for results, and then trying something else.

I explained to her that to be successful she would have to take a huge leap - and implement dozens of strategies, ALL AT ONCE!

Here's just a partial list of what you could and should be doing to generate BIG results - and this is assuming that you already have in place the appropriate infrastructure, ambiance, sales processes and operations systems in your salon:

Re-inventing what you sell - in other words, Sales Thinking

• You should be actively and energetically re-inventing what you sell to more closely match what your customers want. No woman ever woke up with a start, nudged Norm in the ribs and declared she just had to get hot wax poured over her inner thigh and have the hair torn out by the roots. What she wants is smooth, sexier thighs... so why advertise 'Waxing'?
  What it means is a huge amount of work, forensically examining everything you sell and re-packaging, re-inventing, re-naming, adding sex appeal, adding value, creating products and services they cannot get anywhere else.

Planning your year's marketing ..and implementing it, relentlessly. And that means a massive amount of work, at least in the early stages. Here's just a partial list of what you should be planning, writing, doing - ALL AT ONCE.

• Direct mail to get old 'lost' clients back. In the Toolkit, we call them the Raise the Dead letters. Religiously, every three months.
   

• Client appreciation evenings
   

• a MONTHLY - not bi-monthly, not quarterly, but every month - client newsletter
   

• Text message campaigns - short notice, militarily planned and executed, to fill empty chairs or treatment rooms on a short term basis. Probably one of these every week
   

• Special event campaigns - eg Mothers Day, Easter, Christmas gift vouchers - by direct mail, email, text message etc
   

• Referral programs - regimented, systemised, with staff trained on how to  implement
   

• Regular - probably fortnightly - staff sales training sessions, with role playing, incentives, accountable outcomes
   

• web site - you should be actively, regularly working on your website, putting up new copy, getting it optimized for search engines, putting your newsletters up there in pdf format, special offers and so on.
   

• Implementing a system of getting client contact details... every single client, new and old, multiple contact points (email, phone, cell phone, physical address) - this is your GOLD, the real value in the business. And that means every single prospective client who walks in the door. Offer them a bribe to give you their details if necessary.
   

• Mailbox flyers (if its legal in your part of the world - much of the USA its not) to attract new clients. Compelling flyers, with an offer, a headline, scarcity, a guarantee, etc etc. It's direct response marketing 101.
   

• Product packaging - grouping products together so there's an incentive to spend more
   

....and that's just a partial list. Sounds overwhelming? Well, do you really think the new BMW, the holiday house, the investment properties and the three month vacation on the French Riviera is going to miraculously land on your doorstep if you just plug away at it the way you've been plugging away for the last ten years?

Resource: Okay, so now you know you need help. That's what the Inner Circle program is for. Go here to apply for a 30-day Test Drive and see for yourself.

Announcing: Road to Riches Salon & Spa Marketing Super Conference in Seattle, Washington - April 21.

John Uhrig, host of the Seattle Road to Riches Salon Marketing Super Conference

Any salon or spa owner on the west coast of America who can walk, drive or fly should get themselves along to Seattle on April 21 when John Uhrig of Spa Marketing Solutions hosts his first Road to Riches super conference.

John is the Worldwide Salon Marketing man on the ground in Canada, and a super-experienced marketer, spa advisor and conference speaker. He's been a star drawcard at marketing seminars in several countries.

As we know from our experience with the Road to Riches events in Australia, they sell out quickly - and will do so again when John releases tickets for this event.

Certainly, our Inner Circle members in the USA should get on the phone right now and call John to put their names down for early-bird tickets...

Call John's office in Vancouver, BC on (604) 850 3416

SalonCentral discussion forums to go 'live' next week!

I just sent emails to 50 hand-picked Inner Circle members, asking them to help us do a 'see if you can break it' test on the new SalonCentral discussion forums.

For months, people who speak in strange tongues to each other - and to everybody else, frankly - have been beavering away in our back office, staring wall-eyed at computer screens and grunting dismissively when anyone dared open the door to their dank and steamy dungeon to ask silly questions like

'any progress boys?'

Apparently, they've made some. Assuming our testers don't manage to break anything, next week when you wake in the middle of the night and need an answer to that burning question about your salon business...right now... you'll be able to get one by logging on to the Forums.

Stay tuned.... we'll let you know when it's ready to go.

Update on our new Staff Finder service

Last week I reported on how one of our Inner Circle members had created a flood of interest from prospective staff members, using our unique new Staff Finder service.

Since then of course, many other Members have jumped on the bandwagon.

In a nutshell, here's how it works:

Step #1: You book a lead generating ad in your local newspaper beauty jobs classified section, or as Rachael did, on a popular jobs website. Instead of the standard, dull-as-dishwater "Hair Stylist - great pay, fantastic team, call 000 000 000" it reads something like this:

 Attention Hair Stylists (or Beauty Therapists)! FREE Special Report - valued at $29 - reveals the crucial questions you MUST ask - and get answers for - BEFORE you sign up for any new job. Go to www.saloncentral.com/yourtown.html

Step #2: Your prospective staff member types in the web address and gets to a page that looks like this:

Step #3: When she completes the form on the page, she gets re-directed to a new page where she can download the free report...which is a thinly-disguised sales document for your salon. And YOU get an automatic email with the prospective staff member's name, email address and mobile phone number.

Try it Yourself

To test this yourself, go to www.saloncentral.com/staffsearch.html

Complete the form, and you'll be redirected to a page where you can download an actual sample of a member's special report, in this case Rachael's.  (This is a dummy page - Rachael won't get an email with your name and details, it'll come to me instead).

Why do it this way? Because advertising for staff, sifting through the applicants (if you get any!), interviewing them, short-listing them...is a pain in the butt, time-consuming, and costly.

This way, you get a list of names and contact details before you have to talk to any of them. But with their email address and phone number, you can market yourself to them, and get them excited about working for you. You just can't do that with a few lines in a standard classified ad.

It's FREE for Inner Circle members

Inner Circle members wishing to use the service should email us, and we'll send you the Free Report template you can edit appropriately and send back to us.

Or you can simply download the Free Report template here:

Non-members: $195
We'll convert your report for you, upload it, create your own special web page on Salon Central, create the name-capture form that goes with it, set up the automatic email system that sends the prospective staff member's contact details to you. All while you sleep.

It's $195 to have your name-capture page on the web for 30 days (while you run your classified ads in the job section of the local paper) and we'll give you an extra 30 days free in case you need to repeat or extend the ads.

Contact us to arrange it for you.

That's it for this week.

Greg Milner,