How to Get Over Your Fear Of Selling Retail

Hello, friends. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. So today, we're gonna be talking about serving your clients. Yes, serving your clients, making a bigger impact in their lives, all of those amazing, beautiful, fantastic things, the reason why we got into this industry, right?

I know, you probably clicked the title of this episode and were not expecting me to say that. Here's the thing, friend. I truly, to the core of my being, believe that retail, selling products, being a salesman in our industry is absolutely essential and a part of our job if we want to make an impact in our clients and make them feel beautiful, not just the day that they leave our chair, but every single day until they come back. So, if you're ready to dive deep into it, then let's go.

Let me guess. You are a hustling, bustling hairstylist behind the chair working so hard to build a beautiful career for yourself, one that gives you time, freedom, and energy to spend with yourself, your family, and your friends. But you feel like you're always working in your business even when you're not behind the chair. My name's Hunter Donia, and I help you automate your systems and implement really beautiful strategies so you can grow your business without the overwhelm, and this is the Modern Hairstylist Podcast.

Okay, so I think that recently in the industry, as we've all become a little bit more educated, we have, um, social media obviously, we have a lot more access to just all of the things now, and as we're all really seeing this massive shift towards independent, uh, s- hairstyling, right? Independent business ownership within the industry, and as we are also seeing people kind of moving away from brands and branded education, I think that there is a little bit of a push towards kind of fighting retail, right? Um, and making it not as big of a thing as it may have been previously, because as we know, right, if you're in a commission salon or even a booth rental salon that profits off of retail... Sorry if you hear my cat jingling in the background, um, with his cute little bell.

If you have been in one of those team environments, then you know that... You know what the pressure of having to sell product is, right? You know that feeling, and you may have gone independent possibly because you were so sick of that pressure and you... Maybe that was one of the pressures that you had come down on you and, uh, was weighing on you as an independent beauty professional.

And so now that we're seeing this big, massive shift and blossoming of independent stylists going into suites and even just going into booth rental salons and carrying their own products, or ev- even opening their own salons, right? Um, now we're seeing us kind of, like, push away from those things that we used to have to do, and, um, I think that nobody loves to feel salesy, right? Nobody loves to get salesy. Nobody loves to pressure anybody.

Nobody loves to feel like they're doing something inauthentic, right? And I think that, um, the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality is a really stale one, and I've been saying this for the past, like, two years. I, I, I really believe that, like, the "fake it 'til you make it" mentality that we have been told in this industry since beauty school is a very stale one, and I think in the time, day, and age that we live in now, authenticity, it rules all. There is so much power in you showing up as your best authentic self, especially in your business, but also, of course, in your life with yourself, with your family, and with your friends.

And it's been a common theme throughout my entire life that whenever I leaned into my authenticity, I was able to show up ten times better. So, I think that when we don't have a why or a strong, genuine, authentic passion behind whatever we are selling to any human being, that's when it can really weigh on us. We can get anxious. We can feel depressed.

We can, um, feel really, really bad or just icky about what we're doing or what we're forced to be f- doing, right, or what we feel like is the right thing to do. I am here today to try and shift your mindset to make it so when you are selling product that you are coming from an authentic place in which you actually enjoy doing it, okay? It is 100% possible for you to actually start to enjoy talking about product and selling retail to your clients. It just takes some mindset shifts.

It takes systems in your business and having a consistent client experience. It takes being passionate about what you're actually selling and being educated about what you're selling, and also a little bit of the right verbiage too, so I'm gonna be breaking down a lot of that today. So if you're ready, I'm going to dive deep into it, so let's go. So first off, mindset shift.

So, here's the thing. Susie loves when you... when, when she gets to come to the salon and see you. She loves when you give her a silk press or when you give her the curls that she loves or when you give her a roller set, whatever it may be.

She loves how she feels when she leaves, and that makes us feel so good. How often have you spun your client around in the chair after styling them, after they were all dry to see the results of everything, and w- you just shot up with positivity and love and great energy because your client was so happy and they felt beautiful about themselves? That is a gorgeous, beautiful, magical thing, and the power that we wield as industry professionals to be able to do that and make that impact on another human being is sacred. It is beautiful.

It is gorgeous, okay? And, so therefore, Suzy feels great when she leaves, but does Suzy feel great in between the appointments? Does Suzy have the equipment and the education to wake up and feel beautiful in her day-to-day life? Because for me personally, my friend, I don't want my client experience to end when they leave my chair.

I don't want the experience of them loving their hair and loving me, right, for being their amazing hairstylist... I don't want that to end. I want them to go home with the products that they need, AKA, the tools that they need, to accomplish that same feeling in their own bathroom in the morning every single day or every single week w- however often they wash their hair, right? So, I think it's really important that if we truly care about making an impact and if we wanna raise our retention of somebody coming back and seeing us as the trusted authority of our craft, that we start to realize the power in retail and what difference it makes in your client's experience.

For me, it has nothing to do with the added income as far as my passion and why I'm doing it. It has nothing to do with that, at all. However, it is a damn great bonus to see at the end of my day and at the end of my year. So, therefore, I really want to encourage you to come into this with an open mind if selling retail is something that you are currently uncomfortable with, or maybe you are already comfortable with selling retail, or you're in a good routine of selling retail with your clients, bringing it to the next level and making it more of a passion project so you sell even better, more authentically, okay?

So, I want us to kind of realize i- with your beautiful open minds and with your heart of somebody who loves to make an impact on your clients and make them feel beautiful, that you not recommending retail, you not educating your client, you not selling them a service and a product is doing them a disservice. For whatever reason, we love selling our services. We are totally down to sell our services. We're, like, all over our stories, all over our, our, uh, Instagram feeds.

We're posting all the things. We're saying, "Come book the balayage with us. Come get a full row of extensions for a million dollars. Come, come get the silk press," like all of these things, right?

We are n- we have no problem selling this shit on our stories, on our Instagram, on all of these platforms, but when it comes to a bottle of shampoo that is literally a sixth or less of the price of your client's actual total services, all of a sudden we get so scared. What is that? What is that? The product is a part of the service that you're selling.

It's a part of the duty that you have as a hairstylist to make sure that your client has every single thing that they need to feel gorgeous and beautiful and iconic every single emming, effing day after they leave your chair. I want my walking advertisement to be lit. I do not want my walking advertisement to be frizzy, under a ball cap, not looking cute. I don't want it to look ratty, right?

And in order for my walking advertisement, AKA, your clients, my clients... In order for them to be walking around and getting asked about, "Oh my God, your hair is so beautiful. Where do you get your hair done?" it takes educating your client, and it takes using the right tools.

So, considering that you also want referrals in your business, right? You want word of mouth referrals, a lot of word of mouth referrals, they don't come from your clients being incentivized by a referral program. They can, but they don't most of the time. Most of the time, it's a random interaction.

It's a friend who asks your client about their hair because it looks so good and they think that you did a really great job on it, and they had the education to wake up in the morning and make it look beautiful. So, not only are you doing a disservice to your client because you're not allowing your client to feel beautiful in between your visits, you're also doing a disservice to yourself. Now, in this episode, I'm not gonna be really talking about strategy as far as how to actually sell the retail efficiently, but what I am gonna be doing is making sure that you are equipped...... with everything that you need to know to start to get passionate about it because we can't start to sell anything successfully unless you actually care and you're passionate.

So, you just heard me talk about all of the mindset shifts and how it's really important that you, mm, uh, are serving your client fully and retail and education and products are a big part of that, but you're not gonna be passionate about selling the product unless you are passionate about the product and you are knowledgeable about what you're selling, right? So therefore, I wanna ask you, I want you to reflect, do you love the products that you're using right now? Do you want to scream off the top of the rooftops the, the product that you're using right now, the brand that you're using right now? Do you wanna scream about how amazing the brand is, how awesome the ingredients are, how great it smells, how efficiently it works, right?

How it aligns with you and your core values as a hairstylist? Does it also, does it align with your ideal client and your target market? Is your ideal client somebody who would really enjoy having this product line because of possibly their packaging, their smell, their aesthetic? Um, what kind of hair they're tailored to, if that, if that is a thing, um, and what their core values are, right?

So consider what retail line you're actually using. Is it one that you love? And then if it is one that you love, are you educated about it? Are you picking up the same three products and using them on every single client?

Are you sticking to, like, maybe, you know, like, like, like a couple of the products that you have in the salon and just using those because they feel safe and comfortable? Or are you going out of your comfort zone and using different things on different people all of the time? Because that's what's gonna keep you passionate as an artist, number one, is changing things up every now and then, but also getting the education from the brand that you need to feel knowledgeable enough and confident enough to take a risk and, and choose something different and use different things on people all the time. Because when we sell a product to a client for the very first time, they're eventually gonna get bored after a couple visits and they're gonna wanna try something new.

It's just the nature. So therefore, we should be switching up their services as we, as we go through their consultation and their, uh, cycles and their seasons with us. Um, then we should also be changing up what retail we're recommending to them through the seasons, through the different looks and hair that they have, different problems, whatever it may be. So you need to be educated with your own product line about all of the offerings that you may have and that you have access to to be able to properly, um, you know, be passionate about and knowledgeable about what you are offering, right?

So a couple things to consider when it comes to your retail line. Number one, do your core values align with the retail brands, the product brands that you're carrying? Does it l- align with their core values? So for me personally, the product lines that I carry, um, and really I only mainly carry one, but I have a sprinkle of another, um, they very much align with my core values, like to the max.

So I am all about sustainability. I am all about, um, d- anti-diversion, so I'm very much big on product lines and product brands that don't sell to the general public and only sell to hairstylists and support us as a service provider and beauty industry. I'm very big on, um, clean ingredients, right? So I have and made sure that all of my products are l- are aligned with those core values.

Therefore, I am 10 times more passionate about speaking about them and my core values align with my clients' values, my ideal clients' values. So when I'm speaking about it and when I'm excited about those things, my client is gonna get excited with me and it's gonna make sense for them to want to have those products at home and be using those instead of the toxic shit that doesn't align with their core values, right So number one, consider what are your core values in your business as a human being and the things that you're using, and does that align with the product l- line that you're using right now? 'Cause if not, no wonder you're not passionate about selling it, right? And a lot of the times it doesn't even have to do with the bottle of the f- shampoo or the product.

A lot of the times it actually has to do with the brand and how the brand shows up, what they stand for, what they believe in, what their messaging is. So don't look into, like, the products and, and, like, what they do and how they align with your core values. Look into the company. Look into the brand.

See what their core values are and then consider if they're align- if they're in alignment with yours because that's where you're really gonna find the magic, okay? Have you sought out the education that you need to be super freaking passionate and confident when speaking about the products, right, or the brand in general? So I personally, uh, am still at this time a brand educator for my product line that I carry, right? And, um, I would not be a brand educator for them unless I fully believed in what, in their mission, and I have yet to find a product or brand to their caliber, like of how in alignment they are with me, what I believe in, and what I need for my clients.

And because I'm a educator, I have had to get educated a million times about these products and it never fails that no matter how many product knowledge classes I take, no matter how many n- product knowledge ha- classes I teach, I always learn something new in every single classSo let's say you got one product knowledge class or you watched one product knowledge video just once for your product line, or maybe twice, right? Or you only watch, like, the new stuff that comes out. Friend, I'm going to encourage you to go back and get a 101 class multiple times, maybe even once or twice a year. 'Cause I promise you, it will re-inspire you, you will be reminded of the features and benefits, and you will get the m- more knowledge actually impacted into your brain around that product line that you may have forgotten or not been aware of before.

Every educator teaches products differently, every educator gives you different tips and tricks for each brand. And so get a product knowledge class from a different educator if you've gotten one before. Like make sure that you are continuously going back and getting educated, because I promise you, you will learn something new and valuable every single time. It takes you showing up multiple times to be able to retain all of those things and get new passion and- and knowledge about those things too.

And I wanna ask you, are you using the products that you use on everybody else on your own body and hair at home? Are you, like, walking your talk, right? Are you able to tell stories about, like, "Oh my gosh, me and my boyfriend, we have the most sensitive skin, and this shampoo is also a body wash and it has 98% pharmaceutical grade aloe vera in it. And so we literally have a shampoo liter of it at home, because it's the only thing that we can use on our body that actually soothes our irritation and doesn't break us out in rashes.

And it has changed me and my boyfriend's life, so if you're experiencing any, like, uh, itchiness or if you have sensitivity to fragrance, whatever it may be, I think that not only is this- this shampoo gonna be really good for your hair, but also for your body as well. And if you would like to look into the, uh, bigger size, we can totally look at the price difference and how much money you would save." Right? Like that, I just told a story to my client.

I related what my situation was to theirs, and I was authentic and real. I had a genuine, authentic story because I actually use it. I'm not bullshitting. We don't have to bullshit.

Stop bullshitting. Okay? Stop trying to fake it 'til you make it. All you have to do is tell the truth.

But you're not gonna be able to tell people's stories or testimonials or, um, or even tell them the truth about, you know, the brand and the ingredients and- and w- that you actually really love it unless you start to use it, and unless you start to educate yourself, and unless you actually love it. So I would suggest to you, friend, with your discount, right? With your pro discount, get that shit wholesale for yourself at home and start using it if you aren't already. And if you don't have a product line that you feel, like, really is, like— a- all engulfs every single need that you need for, like, every hair texture, every person, then that's a problem.

You can't have, like, five different retail lines in your salon. It just looks messy, it feels messy, and it's not gonna motivate you. I get it, you feel like there's your favorite from this and your favorite from that, but that's not committing to a brand. That's not committing to passion and a mission.

That is just feeling unorganized and chaotic. So I want you to make sure that you are using a brand, maybe two, pushing three, that you actually really love, that you're using not only on your clients, maybe possibly on yourself, and that you've seen true results with. So that way you can start to sell- tell stories and be really authentic when you're actually speaking to your clients about it instead of having to come up with this BS sales pitch, right? So we're gonna be talking about actual strategy and, like, how you can actually efficiently, confidently, and consistently sell retail behind the chair a little bit easier, um, in another podcast episode.

So don't worry, friend. I have that coming for you at some point. But right now, before we even get into the strategy, I want you to reflect and do some research, um, and possibly, you know, maybe look into changing your retail line if you feel as if you're not really passionate about it right now. Make sure that you try and get the education first.

Talk to your rep, l- reach out to the brand. Um, if you're- if you're unsure about where to get education from your brand, you're probably not w- with the right brand, right? And- and product knowledge classes should be intensely accessible for you. So friend, I want you to take some time, if you feel like you are very un-passionate about selling product, serving your clients to the best, I want you to try and shift your mindset, take all of these things in consideration, and take the steps that you need to re-spark your passion for selling some product and giving your clients the tools, equipment, and education to love their hair at home.

Okay? So I hope that you enjoyed this episode of the Modern Hairstylers podcast. I hope that we were able to shift your mindset and get you a little bit more fired up about selling products behind the chair. Um, if you liked this episode, I would very much appreciate if you left a testimonial, a five-star review, and if you subscribed and followed on whatever platform, uh, you are listening to it on.

And connect with me on the IG @hairbyhunty, H-U-N-T-Y, and I hope that you have a blessed rest of your day, and I will see you in the next episode. Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2022 Hunter Donia LLC.