Apple Store, Chick-Fil-A, Tesla Motors … other than the fact that these are all extremely successful brands, do you know what they have in common? Here are two things: limited product offerings and simple sales presentations.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I LOVE practicing Jiu Jitsu – it’s my passion. I believe it is one of the most difficult and fulfilling activities anyone can do, very challenging both physically and mentally. In Jiu Jitsu, there are thousands of combinations of moves, escapes and attacks. HOWEVER, if you want to get really good at it, you don’t utilize your time trying to learn and practice all of those thousands of moves. If you want to get really good at Jiu Jitsu, you utilize your time to master a few moves, escapes and attacks that you’re good at or that fit your body type. You become so good at those elements, they can’t be stopped by your opponent.
I would say that Jiu Jitsu imitates life – or in this case, tanning lotion sales.
There are hundreds of tanning lotions, hundreds of tan extenders and body washes, dozens of self-tanners, dozens of facial products that are available for you to sell to your salon customers. And just like in Jiu Jitsu, if you try to be good at selling all of them, you end up being bad at selling the majority of them.
Typically, the salons that produce the lowest retail product revenue will go with the “one of everything” model. At the very least, they carry one unit of every single product that a particular brand offers. And if they aren’t exclusively selling one of the industry’s “Big 3” brands, they will actually bring in one bottle of every lotion created by ALL THREE brands. Having that many skincare products to learn the key features and skincare benefits of can be confusing for the people most important to your business: your customers and your team members.
What do you think is easier to master – ten skincare products or 100? Either I’m lazy or dumb or smart (honestly those who know me know I’m all three), but I would definitely go with learning and mastering ten products versus 100. Learning the ingredients, benefits and scents of 100 different lotions is a daunting task, to say the least!
A confused mind always says “NO” or chooses the cheapest option.
But even if somehow, you’re like Mr. Miyagi and the greatest educator of all time, and your students (staff) can actually master the art of presenting 100 different skincare products, you still have to consider your salon guests. They have to hear about all your tanning beds, your spa services, your memberships, and now look at and try to decide which of the 100 lotions you are displaying will most enhance the results of their tanning/spa session. A confused mind always says “NO” or chooses the cheapest option.
Maybe, just maybe, we might be making it more complicated and confusing than it needs to be.
Having 100 different bottles of lotion on your shelves is gonna get you more “No, Thank You’s” or “just give me the cheapest one” – not the triple-digit MSRP lotion sales you need.
If you want to sell more $100+ lotions, then you need to do what the best lotion revenue-producing salons do. Most of them pick about 6-12 lotion SKUs and they MASTER everything about them – ingredients, benefits, scent profile – and offer their personal testimonials about the products.They know more about the product and how to present it than the chemist who created it! Then, they round out their offerings with maybe 2- 4 tan extenders, a face lotion or two, maybe a leg lotion and possibly a few sunless tanning products … and that’s basically it.
In all, salons that excel at selling tanning lotion might have 20 total product units on display. They have five times less products displayed, yet oftentimes, produce five times better lotion sales numbers.
In conclusion, if you want to take your salon’s lotion sales revenue to the next Level, don’t be like the Cheesecake Factory, where it takes 45 minutes to read the menu. Be like Apple, Chick-Fil-A and Tesla: strategic, sexy and simple!
