Kissing cold, stinky fish on the lips on a daily basis, the fishmongers at Seattle’s world famous Pike Place Fish Market put on a show day and night on their fish market “business stage.”
Visit this truly unique market and you’ll witness how much crazy action goes on even when people are not buying fish. Actions that constantly engage and induce Pike Place visitors to start buying – including the signature moment when they get to see a big, slimy salmon get tossed from one monger to another – are key to their success. You never know; you might even be the one catching or kissing a scaly sea creature!
So, go ahead and head on down to your local seafood market to stock up on big, dead, smelly fish to sling around your beautiful tanning salon to generate lotion sales! Okay, maybe that’s not a good idea. Probably not the kind of action that would motivate your typical fragrance-conscious, bronze beauty-seeking diva.
The Tanning Salon/Fish Market comparison is a strange one for sure, but they have more in common than meets the nose! Both businesses sell to consumers (fish/skincare products). They offer either a service to enhance delivery of the product (the fish show) or a product that enhances the service provided (tanning lotions), and both businesses seek to engage with their guests on a personal level to create loyalty.
Your salon transforms guests and makes them feel and look beautiful. PPFM sells fish! Why is that business world famous and your tanning salon is not? Because they designate their workplace as a special place, a performance stage where the cast of workers deliberately acts and submerges themselves into the art of staging an engaging fish-purchase experience.
Here is the “fishmongers” blueprint for success immortalized by Charthouse Learning of Burnsville, MN.
Each of these four principles is an acting technique your team can use to set the stage and engage tanning salon guests in new and exciting ways.
PLAY: Yes, running a business is serious but it’s also about having fun with staff as well as guests. Salon guests love to have fun! They are inspired by watching other guests enjoy their experience, too; plus, cast members who have a blast and love their jobs exude infectious energy that is felt by everyone.
MAKE THEIR DAY: Your salon will always focus on the tanning guest – your “audience” – and your team should go to every possible length to create a great experience for them.
BE THERE: Be present in the moment! Forget about everything else going on outside the salon and focus attention on each and every guest.
CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: As the great Aristotle pointed out, acting is about making choices. We all act differently in front of co-workers, customers, family and friends. Not fake, but simply choosing the part of ourselves we want to reveal to whomever we are with at that moment.
Start staging a tanning experience for your guests every time they walk in and you will see a brand new form of economic activity begin to develop.
