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 improve sales in your hair or beauty salon.  They’ll thank you for caring and will come back time and time again in the future.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

It is one thing to learn everything there is to know about the health or wellbeing career you have chosen. Attending classes on new therapy techniques, sharpening your cutting skills or picking up that knowledge needed to become a better masseuse is a fantastic idea in a world where the best make the money and the rest fall behind.

But, when it comes to running your own personal business, you need to know more than just the best techniques. You need to know the business tactics used by big companies, the marketing aims successful to the most attention grabbing salespeople and the accounting skills of the IRS. You need to be the best not only in your trade, but in business.

Business training may be the last thing on your mind when you start out to run your own therapy salon or practice. The sales and marketing aspect are not at the forefront until you begin to see a decline in business or no incline at all.

You must remember business is just that, business. People are only going to see what you have to offer if you put it out there, in their face with creative marketing and sales plans.

No matter how much of an expert you are in beauty, massage, hair or whatever your chosen specialty is, your talents WILL go unnoticed if you do not provide the consumer with a reason to choose you over the competition.

There is hope though; there are lots of training school classes available to boost your business knowledge. Some of them are even specific to the health, beauty, therapy and hair industry. Even if you have never had a knack for business, there is truly no way to get around learning the tricks of the trade.

In today’s society, it is very unfortunate that the consumer often chooses the most popular over the best. They only know what they see and while you may have the talent to make them happier, calmer and more comfortable, there is no way for them to know your treatments or services are even there if you do not tell them (and tell them often).

Now lets talk about money… money can be the reason many people who run their own therapy salon do not market more or learn more about marketing. Let’s face it, business education is expensive and then actually implementing your marketing costs even more. DO not despair. The local Chamber of Commerce and local businesses will often hold classes or courses that allow you to apprentice for a short while in order to learn the marketing tactics needed to drive that next sale, the business savvy required to push your product and the accounting education to keep track of those increased sales.

Your talent is at the heart of your business, in the specific treatments and services you offer. But without the right business knowledge you will blend in to the crowd and no one will be able to take advantage of all the hard work and dedication you have given to your field.

Shout your talent from the rooftops and they will come flocking to your door.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits.  To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter?  This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

Isn’t it amazing that it’s July already? The year is just flying by. Which means that it’s time to take stock and make sure things are heading where you want them to be.

Something pretty big to check is whether you’ve organised yourself any other businesses in your local area that you work with to send each other clients? They are called Alliances or Host Beneficiaries and can be amaaaaaazing!

Basically Alliances are other businesses that serve your ideal clientele but whose businesses aren’t competitive. So if you have a Hair Salon, you might want to work with a shoe store but you wouldn’t want to team up with a Barber. Or if you offer specialist waxing, you might want to team up with the lovely restaurant on the corner but probably not the local laser hair removal clinic.

If you can find a business that can refer to you just ONE new client a week, it could make a WORLD of difference to your revenue (and to theirs if you also refer one client a week back to them!)

Let’s do the maths… If on average your clients come in once every 4 weeks and on average they spend $50 on each visit… that means that over a period of a year, your clients are each likely to spend $600 with you.

And if your Alliance Business sends you just ONE new client like that every week, then you will add $31,200 to your revenue (52 weeks in the year x $600 average yearly value of each new client).

Let’s do another example… Lets say you do more intensive therapy and you see your clients once a week for about 12 weeks, then they are cured. Well, if that’s the case and your clients are spending lets say $70 on each visit with you, then the lifetime value of each client is $840.

And if with this scenario you had 2 Alliance businesses each sending you 2 new clients a month, then you’d be getting 48 new clients a year at a total value of $40,320.

Isn’t that crazy! Imagine if you even had 3 or 4 businesses that you worked with? You could be booked solid within a few months.

Sooo… Take a look and see whether you are working with an Alliance business in your local area yet. If yes, what can you do to help them refer clients to you (ie give them some introductory vouchers to give to their best clients as gifts). If no, make it your mission to scout the local area and then pop in and introduce yourself somewhere.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

When practicing in therapeutics, many homeopaths, nutritionists, and holistic therapists aim to provide the best experience for their clients through the addition of alternative home care products to their therapeutic lines. These retail products can be used to support the given therapies to complete the regime of well being care. If you aren’t currently stocking alternative therapy retail products now might be time to consider how beneficial it can be for both your clients as well as the bottom line!

With the media frenzy in the world today, CDs, DVDs, eBooks and audio books in MP3 format are all fantastic possibilities as alternative therapy retail products choices.  Facial creams and shampoos needn’t be the only option for adding to your sales.  Through audio and video care, the therapy given to a patient or client can extend far beyond the office setting. Collaborative care has been shown to be the best choice for patients in a therapeutic setting and these medias will help to create a combination setting for the best possible end results.

Aromatherapy is yet another alternative to the traditional facial products most therapists stock. Selling holistic therapy products such as scented oils, candles, and home and body sprays can help to ease tension and stress.

By the way… if this isn’t something you are familiar with, aromatherapy is the art of using the 90 essential oils as a part of calming therapies. These 90 essential oils are not the same as the fragrant oils sold on the market today, so marketing a true essential oil will require a bit of research before applying the name “aromatherapy” to your product!  Once again, knowing your product is essential.

Another idea to think about is products books and printed supplements… When a therapist combines verbal therapy with printed therapy it gives the patient or client the opportunity to continue therapy at their own pace after leaving the office or practice. This form of self controlled therapy when combined with in person therapy can reap large rewards for the patient.

The books chosen can be written either by yourself or by others in the same field of care. When choosing the books to offer to your patients, it is best to choose an author that feels the same way about holistic and alternative therapies as you feel. This will boost the patient along the paths you are setting as a care giver.

The key to marketing alternative home care products is to think of angles to complete your current therapeutic choices with your patients and clients. Whole forms of therapy are idealistic in that they provide continuous support for the patient or client at a self guided pace. Books, eBooks, audio books, essential oils, candles, nutritional supplements, home sprays and body sprays are just a few of the alternative home care products available to supplement your current patient offerings.

Have a think about what you can be offering your clients that will both add to the results they see after their appointment with you and that will also benefit your business financially.  There are literally hundreds of options.  The key to success is to ensure it’s a win-win scenario.  For the highest sales whatever you stock needs to be of benefit to your clients as well as being something that you are enthusiastic about and that will add profit to your bottom line.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits.  To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter?  This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this resource box is included.

I received an article from a life coach the other day all about how we set our own limits in our minds of what we can achieve.

She talked about how whether it’s in our work lives or our personal lives, we all have pre-conceptions of what’s possible and what isn’t. And very often those limits we set ourselves aren’t the reality. They are just what we perceive to be the case.

And it’s so true. If we think that we personally can’t do something, we can’t… if we think our client’s can’t afford something, then they can’t. If we think they aren’t interested in rebooking, then they aren’t.

But on the other hand if we believe that anything is possible, it usually is. If we believe a client to be really interested in a product, they generally buy it. If we believe that getting more new clients is easy, then suddenly it is.

This was really hammered home to me last Sunday. I’d signed up ages ago to do a 10k run to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust (a big thank you to all of you who saw the post on my blog and sponsored me!) and Sunday was the big day.

I’d been worrying about it for weeks cause I’m not really a runner (I’ve never run 2km in my life, let alone 10!). But on the day, I turned up determined to get through it because the MS Trust means a lot to me. And you know what… I did. And not only that, I ran a major chunk of it and power-walked the rest to finish way faster than I thought I would. Plus, even though I’d built it up in my head to be this majorly difficult event, I have to admit it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

And that’s the same with business too. It’s all too easy when a goal means a lot to build it up in your head as being tough or difficult to achieve. But if you take the plunge and just try it, you may well find getting there is easier than you thought.

PS… That said, I have to admit my muscles were rather sore on Monday!! If you wanna have a sneak peak at a rather embarrassing photo of me and my sister just after we finished, have a nosey below…!

PPS… My Profit Soaring Secrets Home Study Course has been flying out the door like hotcakes since I announced the massive discount just for readers of my newsletter earlier in the week. If you’ve not got yours yet, there are only 50 at the discounted price available and once they are gone, that’s it. You can find out more about what it can do for your business and claim yours at www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/discountedcourse.

If you’d like to donate to the MS Trust, you can do so at www.justgiving.com/rebeccakepple. All money goes straight to the Trust. They are a really deserving organisation who do amazing things to help people with MS live full and happy lives so every little bit helps!

If there is one constant in the world of beauty, it is that the consumer knows what they want and expects to receive just that. But, what do you do in the health and beauty business when a new product comes around and you want to market that health product to your customer base? You learn everything there is to learn about the product and you convince your customer that this home car product is the BEST product for them.

Understanding Ingredients

It is important to start with the base of the product. When learning about beauty solutions, the ingredient list will be the heart of your marketing. Clients and consumers are more educated than ever before and they know which ingredients they want to see in their facial creams, lotions and make-up. Many beauty retail products are based on these ingredients, but some offer very little of an active ingredient to keep costs low and profits high. This fact is often masked by the term “proprietary blend”.

The ingredient list can be broken down into individual ingredients with each one holding a different marketing tactic. If the main ingredient has been shown to significantly reduce wrinkles, know that fact and present it to your customer. If there are secondary benefits, like younger looking skin and reduced chance of acne, tell them that as well. Your knowledge of the product must dig deep into the formulation and ingredients used to make that product.

Taking Your Knowledge a Step Farther

On the same lines as understanding your ingredient list, you should also take things a step farther and learn about the ingredients used in your products. Where are the active ingredients processed? What is the country of origin for the product? Who is the main manufacturer of the product and what other successful products do they manufacture? These simple facts will not only impress the client or customer, but make for an easier sale and that is what makes marketing worth the effort.

Knowing what the ingredients can do is just as important as knowing what the ingredients “do” do. Many health and beauty business marketing centers on testimonials, but knowing simply how the product can work and being able to present the real benefits of using the product to your clients will increase your sales and make for more return customers. You can increase your sales and boost your profit in one easy step…LEARN the PRODUCT!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits. To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter? This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this ‘about the author’ section is included.

There is a great deal of pressure due to the media and society as a whole to look and feel your very best. One way to do so is to turn to beauty therapists who specialize in an array of procedures. You may look polished and perfect but there is plenty going on behind the scenes to get you to that point.

Too many people though don’t know what a beautician, hairdresser, or masseuse has to offer them. They may think of the basics but there is much more. There are facials, spa treatments, manicures, pedicures, and more. All of them can help you look great and that means you will likely feel more confident about yourself as well.

In the health and beauty business though you have to be willing to really market what you offer. Otherwise you will be missing out on plenty of potential business. Your services also have to be very affordable. That is because as the cost of basics including gas for vehicles and food to eat go up people are cutting out other expenses.

Taking the time to care for yourself though is important. It is often women who want to have procedures done by the beautician, hairdresser, or masseuse but they pass them over. They may feel guilty spending their money on such things. Most feel guilty though for spending their time pampering themselves.

When you are marketing for the health and beauty business you need to incorporate all of this into your messages. By reminding clients how good they will look and how great they will feel they will be more likely to call you and schedule an appointment. Appeal to their emotions too and you will entice them to do something for themselves. For example remind them that by taking care of themselves they are going to be more physically and mentally ready to take care of everything else that will come their way.

Marketing for the health and beauty industry also needs to take the cost into consideration. People love to get something of value for a perceived lower price or better value. If you are a beautician, hairdresser, or masseuse you can offer a coupon for an added value offer for new clients. That is a great way to introduce them to all you offer. Chances are the will become a regular customer afterwards.

Don’t forget to take care of your current customers as well though. You can use them to market your health and beauty business. For example if they refer a customer to you that schedules an appointment they will get their name entered into a drawing for fabulous prizes. You can also provide them with special discounts and promotions for remaining a loyal customer.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rebecca Kepple specializes in helping business owners massively increase their client base and profits.  To get instant access to her free insider secrets report ‘The Top 7 Secrets for Massively Increasing Your Client Base’ visit: http://www.wellbeingbusinesssecrets.com/freedownload.

© Copyright Rebecca Kepple 2008

Want to use this article on your site or in your newsletter?  This article may be reprinted provided no part thereof is edited in any way and this ‘about the author’ section is included.