It’s easy to become discouraged in a time when slow season combines with a slow economy. If you, as a salon owner or manager, are feeling unenthusiastic about showing up at work every day, imagine what the standard salesperson or staffer is going through. Sometimes—in their eyes—the slim likelihood of making a sale is not worth much effort. But that outlook is certainly not going to help your business thrive—or even survive—which is why you must take a proactive approach to ensuring that your employees stay motivated.
Avoid 'What Should I Do Now?'
Salon employees have to do more than just sell. Most are responsible for cleaning equipment and the building, answering the phone and performing a myriad of clerical tasks. Many employees are great at multi-tasking all of these duties during busy season, but can become lazy when business slows. To counteract this, you should post an employee job description and a prioritized order of tasks somewhere behind the front counter. This gives employees a checklist to follow during their shift and keeps them from complaining they have nothing to do. As an added bonus, this can help prevent employees from becoming overwhelmed during busy season, and subsequently encountering mental gridlock and decreased productivity.
Have A Commission Floor
Commission-driven sales jobs often bring many candidates out of the woodwork, but after they’re hired, some can have the tendency to slack if they’re content with what they’re making. A commission floor will keep this from happening. If employees know they have to meet a certain overall goal to collect any of their commission, they will aggressively strive to meet—and often, exceed—that standard. It’s best, though, to think of this measure as a safeguard or minimum. (But beware: If you set a standard that no one is able to meet, no one will want to work for you.) You also might consider placing commission on a tiered system. This means that if someone sells $500 in a month, they get a 3-percent take-home, as opposed to someone else who sold $1,000 and gets 5 percent. Also, if you’re really plugging a certain lotion or a new service, offer your employees a higher commission for selling that product or service.
Friendly Competition Never Hurts
As long as you don’t think it will pit your staffers against each other and disrupt team selling, you might consider a monthly contest to reward the best performer(s). For example, if you have a large staff, the top five sellers can receive perks like baseball tickets, concert tickets or gift cards (for a smaller staff, the number of winners might be only one or two). Even if the reward is small, the additional incentive gives the salesperson something tangible to shoot for.
Make Sure Everyone Is Comfortable With Selling
Sometimes salon owners and managers assume their employees are deft salespeople and tanning experts after one week of training—but it may take longer than that. You should observe your employees and make suggestions regarding their sales technique. You also can try role-playing before and after customers are around. Sometimes, the salon owner should pretend to be the customer and other times, the salesperson. The latter will give you a chance to demonstrate your experience, and employees can learn how you handle—and would like them to handle—certain questions and situations. While doing this, remember to dole out the praise and make tactful criticisms.
Have Employees Set Individual, Daily Goals
Consider implementing a system in which employees write a sales goal for themselves as soon as they walk into the salon for their shift. This puts the pressure on them to meet their own expectations, and the process of actually writing it down enforces accountability. Of course, you might need to guide them as to what’s lazy, reasonable or overly ambitious, but once they find a goal that’s on target, they have purpose for their next six, eight or 10 hours at the salon.
The bottom line. Employees can make or break your salon business, which is why it’s so important for you to ensure they stay motivated. For more creative ways to motivate employees, log on to TanToday.com and chat with other salon owners.
