Intro: Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hair stylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen?
Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you aren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer.
Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit, just working in your business and start working on it, join us here, where we share real success stories from real stylists.
I’m Britt Seva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist Podcast.
Britt Seva: What’s up you guys, and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host Britt Seva, talking about a topic I know you’re going to absolutely love: 5 big, income reducing mistakes that stylists are making today. Now, I know you guys love, love, love it when I talk about that money stuff and I love talking about it too. So I’m really excited to dive in today.
If you didn’t know this about me, I’m a really tricky consumer to serve. Not because I’m difficult. Actually, if I sat at your table at a restaurant, or if I sat in your chair at the salon, you would think I was such a great client because I’m very gracious and sweet and kind. I’m always a generous tipper. I’m a great client.
However, what people don’t realize is I’m scrutinizing every little thing that happens and not in a way that I ever complain–very rarely–but in a way where I’m always looking at what is going on in the service industry today, what it feels like to be a consumer today, and how can I take those lessons and bring them to y’all and help you to build and grow your business.
And so, I happened to have been in a consumer moment really recently where somebody literally lost thousands of dollars from me because of a two second mistake. I didn’t–I bite my tongue in those moments. I know that I don’t walk around the world with the position of teaching people. I can’t just open my mouth and preach anytime I want to.
As she said it in my mind, I was like, oh my gosh, I wish I was in a position to coach you right now because that was horrible. You should never say that to people. But I didn’t, I just bit my tongue and said, oh, okay. I’m going to end up spending my money somewhere else. But it was such an unfortunate situation for this person and I don’t ever want you to be in that position.
Let’s start right at the top of consumer experience and journey. One of the very obvious mistakes you might be making without realizing is not being upfront about your prices or making your pricing overly confusing. Here’s the challenge with pricing. Often, we are too deep in it to see what is confusing about it. You’ll look at your pricing and you’re like, this makes obvious sense. Well, it makes obvious sense to you. You’re the person who wrote it. I should hope it makes sense. If it doesn’t make sense to you, we really have got problems. But of course it makes sense to you. You’re the one who created this price menu.
Your client is not a stylist. They don’t speak stylist. They don’t understand openly what something means when they see it written down. Clients aren’t stupid. They just don’t speak the same language we do. They’re not in it the same way that we are.
Often we look at something and we’re like, I don’t understand why they don’t get it. You should understand why they don’t get it. You live and breathe this every day. They see you four, five, six times a year. It’s so not the same.
When I say your pricing is confusing–you guys, my personal friends will text me and be like, Britt, I need to get my hair done. Remind me again, what is the difference between a partial highlight and a balayage? They don’t know, and we always make the assumption that consumers today know. That is so generous of you guys to give them that credit. They don’t know. They’re asking people like me, who hasn’t worked in a salon in six years now, what it means. They don’t know, and you need to break it down. It is your job, your job as a service provider to make it super simple.
How would you feel like this? You went to a restaurant and there were names of dishes, but there was no explanation. One of my favorite sandwiches to order at a local restaurant, I love it’s called the Full House. But imagine if you went into a restaurant and there were all these sandwich names; there was the Full House. There was the Big Kahuna. There was the Simple and Sweet, and that was it. The waitress or waiter came over and was like, okay, well, so what would you like? You’re like, well, I don’t know. What’s in the Simple and Sweet? They’re like, oh, that’s perfect for you. You’ll love it. Let’s just get you that. Well, no, I don’t know that I want that. I have no idea what’s in it.
That’s why when you go to a restaurant and you’re looking for your favorite sandwich, there’s a description underneath it. It says, included in the Simple and Sweet is it’s just a veggie sandwich. There’s no meat. It’s gluten-free, whatever. There’s always a description.
Do you guys realize that when clients are looking at your pricing menu, they often have no idea what you’re talking about? They don’t know what the specific, nuanced service that you’re calling it includes, what it means, if it’s right for them, if it’s wrong for them.
I want you to think of it that way. Would you go to a sandwich and order something off a menu if you had no idea what you were ordering? Probably not. You could totally be turning people away just by not being clear. Here’s another mistake. It still shocks me a little bit, that stylists aren’t putting their prices on their websites, but I know that it happens. So let’s just talk about it.
Would you ever order a sweater online without knowing the cost? You’d find a cute sweater on a website, add it to your cart, enter in your credit card information with no pricing. Imagine that the company has no pricing. I know they do. You and I both know they do. It says the sweater is going to cost you $47. I see it. But imagine it didn’t. It was just like, yep. We can ship that to you in two days. Go ahead and enter your credit card information. You’d be like, ah, wait, what? Is this sweater $47 or $497? You’re not going to tell me how much this costs? I just have to enter my credit card and hope for the best? You’ll send me the sweater, but I don’t even know how much I’m going to pay in the end?
You would never do that. So why are we not up front with our pricing with our clients? I’ll tell you some of the reasons why: we’re scared. We’re scared our pricing is going to scare them away. What if I’m too expensive? If you’re too expensive, they should not come in to see you. We want to repel the wrong people with our prices. We want people to be like, oh my gosh, $300 to get my hair done. No thanks.
You don’t want to have to discount yourself to meet somebody else’s budgetary requirements. You want to be attracting the right clients in that sweet spot price point and being transparent about pricing is part of that.
Another part of the reason that we’re not transparent about our pricing is because we don’t know. I don’t know how much I’m going to charge you until you get in here. Ooh, dangerous, very risky. So you’re telling me I’m coming in and the total could be $200 or $370, and there’s no real way to know for sure?
Now I’m a realist, and I know that sometimes with some services, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I don’t know, am I going to have to be lifting through box color? What do you have going on in there? Sometimes you truly don’t know those things until somebody sits in your chair.
But there’s other things that you can do with pricing that allow you to be upfront with your prices and not just having to be vague and saying, I don’t know, we’ll figure it out when you get here. Those are some of the things we cover in Thrivers Society. You can be transparent about your pricing, still make sure that you protect your bottom line completely, but not blindside your clients either.
Have you ever been in this position? A client comes in for a consultation. You see what’s up, and you’re like, oh wow. Okay. So yeah, we can definitely get you there today. We’ll probably be a two-visit appointment and we’re looking at about $300 today and the next time it will be like $220. They’re like, oh my gosh, my budget was $140. Raise your hand if you’ve been in that situation.
You know whose fault that was? Yours. It’s your fault that the appointment got that far to the point where they blocked out time, you blocked out time, and they came in to talk to you and see you for you to find out that their budget was 50% of what you would charge. Your fault.
There was a lack of transparency at the jump and there’s different ways we can do transparency. It doesn’t just have to be like, well, how do I account for every single scenario on my website? You can’t, you’re absolutely right. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to be transparent about pricing.
Something that you should ask yourself: am I being super clear about what each service I offer is, how much it would cost, and being realistic with my clients about that before they get to the salon? Then once they’re at the salon, are you also being realistic, transparent, all the things? So that’s just the first mistake.
The second mistake is discounting for longevity. Let me ask you this. How come Jill pays the old-timey prices from 2007? How come Jill doesn’t have to pay what Alyssa pays? Alyssa is a new client. Jill’s an old client. Why don’t they pay the same thing? How come? Well, I want to reward Jill for her loyalty. Okay. Well, you can be extra sweet to her when she comes in, but there should be a value on your time.
Can you imagine… I’ve been a Costco consumer since I was a kid. I’ve been shopping at Costco since I was probably eight years old. So should I pay the prices from 1996? I’ve been a consumer there for a long time. Should they honor the 1996 prices? That’s when I started going. Uh, no. I’m going to pay today’s prices, cause that’s the value of them.
It’s the same with your business. I know you’re afraid to lose Jill because she’s been paying the old-timey prices for a while. So you’re like, well, yikes. I’ve already got her in this position. How do I get her out of it? Okay. Maybe I’ll make two separate price points: the long-term price points and the new price points. At some point they’ll merge.
That’s a mess. What other business do you know that runs like that? Where there’s six price points and it’s dependent on all these things. That’s not effective. If we’re being the true CEO of our business, we can’t run it that way. We have to navigate our way out of that. We can’t discount for longevity.
I’m all about loyalty. I’m all about rewards. I’m all about celebrating client longevity. There’s ways we can do that that doesn’t take food off your family’s table. That’s what gets me fired up is doing the things that allow your clients to feel celebrated, special, and valued without taking away from your personal lifestyle. Okay. That’s number two.
Number three, the retail mistakes. These ones I used to see in the salon and it was like nails on a chalkboard. If you wanted to see me go red, you could make one of these mistakes. Our salon was fantastic. We actually had a great setup. It was multilevel. My office was in the back and downstairs, so I didn’t even see clients. I didn’t work the front desk or anything. I didn’t even see clients sometimes for a full day. But if I was sitting at the desk for a specific reason, we had an upstairs desk and a downstairs desk. If I was sitting at either, I had full view of the retail shelves. So sometimes I would just hang out there, just be kicking it. Just like, oh, she’s just here. People get so nervous. If I was out from my cave, out from my office, everyone was like, oh no, what is she doing? Something’s not good. But I was often being a spy.
Sometimes I was being a spy and listening to the retail conversations and there were two phrases that would make me go red. One was, “Did you need anything today?” Doomsday. You never ask your client “Did you need anything today?” when it comes to retail. Horrible sales presentation.
Let’s be real. I’m not about the hard pressure sell. I don’t like the hard pressure sell. I don’t actually want you to be a salesperson. I want you to be a service person. But saying, “Did you need anything today?” is actually almost an aggressive conversation and certainly not effective. It takes you out of the driver’s seat and puts the client in it. I’m all about empowering your client but friend, this is your business. You need to stay in the driver’s seat. We don’t talk to our guests like that. So “Did you need anything today?” will totally sabotage your income growth and potential.
Here’s the worst of it: “You didn’t need anything today. Did you?”. What if they did want something today? What if they wanted the shampoo you talked about the last visit, but you actually just shut down the sale. “You didn’t need anything today. Did you?”.
As I say that, some of you were like, oh my gosh, I would never say that. Listen. Listen around your salon at how many people say “You didn’t need anything today, did you? You didn’t want to try anything today–different today–did you? You’re all set today, right?” Anything like that. “You didn’t want to pre-book today, did ya?”
Any of those comments where it’s, “You didn’t want to…” is a sales killer. First of all, highly unprofessional. Second, it doesn’t empower your client to make educated choices at all. And third, you’ve just taken away all of your buying opportunity. All of it. You shut it down before it even started.
One of the things we cover in Thrivers Society is a program called Retail Therapy. I think it’s a 15 module, 15 lesson program that really walks through how to effectively sell retail without selling and getting away from phrases of, did you need anything today? You didn’t need anything today, did you? Was there anything you wanted to look at today? I’d love to talk to you about these two–All of those old school sales methods, we really want to step away from, but I want you to make sure that you are being empowered at the retail that you offer and not hindered by it.
Retail isn’t a bad thing. Retail is a beautiful thing. There’s all of those sayings about why would you buy a Ferrari and then fill it up with vegetable oil to drive it down the street? You wouldn’t. You’d put premium gasoline in there. It’s the same thing. Why would somebody spend quite a bit of money on their hair and then shampoo with Pantene Pro V? They shouldn’t. But the reason they do is lack of education, lack of sales knowledge potentially on your part, and lack of opportunity. We have to make sure that you’re providing every opportunity for them to purchase that retail.
Now, for those of you saying no Britt, you’re wrong. The reason why I can’t sell retail is Ulta, Sephora, and Amazon. Actually, you’re wrong. That’s not accurate. Those places don’t have 100% of the retail market and, funny story.
In March of 2021, I ran a retail project with my Thrivers Society alumni. It was an internal contest where I gave them some tools and strategy, and then I empowered them. I was like, why don’t y’all try and increase your retail sales this month and we’ll choose two winners to win a prize pack. People were increasing their retail sales by $3000 in a month.
It’s hard for me to hear, oh, you can’t sell retail in the salon anymore. I’m like, I don’t know. I see it every day. I don’t think it’s that you can’t sell retail. I think it’s that the techniques that worked six years ago don’t work now. Let’s just get with the times and help our guests. I still invest in retail when I go and get my hair done or when I go and get a facial. I almost always get something if I’m in the need, and so I really want you to reshape your perspective on that.
Number four is going to be chickening out at the checkout. How many of you have been like, oh my gosh, I can not in good faith tell Caroline that her total too is $410. $410 will never roll off my tongue. I can’t do it.
How come? How come you’re so scared to charge your worth? That was the cost of her services today. She came in asking for something, you gave her what she asked for. Why should you take a loss? Did you not do her hair properly or did you do everything you said? Because if you did everything you said, why would she pay less? That doesn’t make any sense.
Are you feeling nervous about the $410 because of problem number one: you weren’t up front about your pricing from the start and your service menu is unclear? Is that why? Is it because of number two, you like to discount for longevity, or is it a different reason altogether? You just want to be a servant mindset, which I totally understand. We want to take good care of our guests. You don’t want to be ripping them off.
If your service pricing is accurate and adequate, you’re never going to be ripping somebody off. You’re going to be charging what your time is worth and giving them the services that they asked for.
So when I go to the grocery store and I’m looking to buy bread, if I’m looking to buy sourdough bread from a specific brand, all the loaves are the same price and it’s not negotiable. Even if one of the loaves is a little bit browner than the other, and one of them has 18 slices and one of them has 17. The price is just the price. It’s the same for you. The price is just what it is. The cost of your services over X amount of time using XYZ product. It just is what it is. It’s not like, oh, I guess that you can’t afford this today so I’ll make the bread 50% off. That doesn’t make any sense. You have to get really clear on your pricing and find that confidence to charge your worth.
It’s funny–charging your worth is a funny thing. Once you get good at it, it’s like a rush and it’s–Like anything else, one of my favorite quotes is that confidence comes when you put in the work. You’ll get confidence in charging your worth when you say, okay, Caroline, and that’ll be $410 today and she goes, okay, awesome. Perfect, and can I put tip on credit card too? And you’re like, yep! Great. Caroline doesn’t even balk at the $410. You were all in your feels about it and for Caroline, she’s like yeah, great. My hair looks great. This is awesome.
You can’t project your fears about money onto your clients. You need to get clear on what you should be charging and charge it. That’s what it comes down to. I know that takes time and confidence. I’m certainly happy to help you get there, but we do need to get to that place in your business. Listen, like I said before, I’m not a fan of scammy, spammy, raise the ticket price as high as we can kind of business in our industry, but I am a huge fan of you charging your worth and doing it right.
Last but not least, and this is the crescendo for me. “Well, we can, but it’s going to be really expensive”. Okay. This is where the story time comes in. So I have been getting facials, I’ll go every couple of months. I’ve been going for a few years. Confession, sorry to the women in my family, but I’m going to keep it 100 with my podcast listeners: the women in my family don’t age super well. We have very fair skin and it doesn’t do well in the sun. We are susceptible to crazy wrinkles and discoloration and all these things. For a long time, even when I was a teenager, I have been really focused on sunscreen and moisturizer. I got my first facial when I was 17 and it’s always been something I’ve been into.
So I was talking to a woman I’ve been seeing for facials for two or three years now, and I asked her about microneedling cause I was super into it. I was like, Hey, can you–and she offers it! I was like, can you tell me a little bit more about microneedling? I just want to know exactly what it is and what it entails and if I’m a good candidate for it and if it’s something I should consider.
The first thing out of her mouth was, “Well, we can talk about it, but it’s really expensive.” I was personally offended by that. That comment, I don’t know if you can tell my voice, it pissed me off. That made me so mad. I felt so judged in that moment. Expensive to whom? You don’t get to decide what’s expensive to me or not. I asked openly. I was curious about a service that I genuinely am interested in getting, and you basically told me it’s too expensive for me. How dare you? How dare you make that judgment about me? I was really upset about it.
Not only was I upset, but I said, well, that’s okay. I would still like to hear about it anyway. She explained it to me. She was like, actually I think you’re a great candidate for it. I think what you should do is a series of three treatments. It takes time to see results, blah, blah, blah. She explained the whole thing to me and she told me how much it was going to cost. She was like, but I warned you, it’s really expensive. At the end I told her, I was like, okay, well I’ll think about it, then. I’m already pre-booked to see somebody else for it.
She lost my business. I actually took it personally. My feelings were hurt. I was like, you could have just told me how much it was going to be and let me make that decision. Don’t pass judgment on me and say things like, well, you can do this, but it’s expensive. We could do that, but it’s going to take a long time.
So what? What if I don’t care that it’s going to take a long time? What if I don’t care that to take my hair from box dye black to platinum blonde is going to take six visits. Don’t talk me out that. Talk me up to it. Build up my confidence. Show off how bad-ass you are and that you can take me there. Be honest with me, be upfront with me, but don’t try and tell me what I can and can’t do.
That’s something that I see the service professionals do all the time. Get out of your client’s wallet. Get out of their pocket book. Get out of their feelings. Let them make their own empowered decisions. It’s not for you to decide what’s too expensive for somebody, what is worth their time, and where they find value in their life.
So I hope this has been empowering for you to find your worth. Always make sure that you’re getting what you need out of your days behind the chair. You work hard and you deserve to be compensated for it. You guys, so much love, happy, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
