Selling salon products can be a tough job: tough on the ego, tough on the energy level – which explains why it can be extra challenging to motivate your young cast members to face their fears, engage with every guest and sell each of them multiple tanning and beauty products.
No. 1 Undisputed Tanning Salon Fact: lotion sales performance is and will always be the most significant piece of the profit and loss pie chart. In other words, if you want to make more money, sell more lotion.
Motivate that young sales team to move the sales needle higher. Most top-earning salons with the highest lotion sales participate in some form of performance-based pay (PBP). Whether that is an hourly rate plus percentage of sales (commonly called commission) or some type of cash/prize bonus for hitting a sales goal … or both. All these are considered performance-based pay programs.
Call it what you want, but the top salons “share the wealth” by structuring creative, well-conceived PBP.
Call it what you want, but the top salons “share the wealth” by structuring creative, well-conceived PBP. The most effective programs can differ slightly from one salon to another but they all tend to follow some simple rules:
1. They implement daily, weekly and monthly incentives so there is always something to work toward.
2. They consider what motivates each staff member so that the bonuses/prizes are really enticing.
3. They balance individual incentive and overall team incentive to avoid creating an overly aggressive atmosphere that pits team members against each other.
Here is a real PBP program shared with me and used by a three-salon West Virginia tanning business (Thanks, Amber!):
We USED to pay a straight percentage (from 4-10% depending on the product type), but when our state raised minimum wage, we found it necessary to change things up. Our staff always earns commission on sales of EFT packages (anywhere from $5-$10). Product sales commission is based on LPPA (lotion per person average), which is found by taking the total product sold/total number of tanners.
LPPA of < $1.49 makes $0
$1.50-$2 = 4% of product total
$2.01-$2.99 = 8% of product total
$3-$3.99 = 10% of product total
$4-$4.99 = 15% of product total
$5 & up = 20% of product total
In this system, employees can make a tremendous amount of extra money, but they have to work for it. Those who “fly under the radar” are going to make very little or nothing at all. I post weekly LPPA updates on our team Facebook page, so that each person knows where their numbers are during the month, and where they stand within the team (because no one wants to be at the bottom of that list!)
Since converting to this system, we have paid out more on the whole, but have also made more as well. Our top-seller made just under $700 in commissions while selling $3,800 in lotion, as well as an additional $150 from teeth-whitening and EFTs.
We also do a monthly goal for the salons as a whole (based on the previous year’s total). For every $1,000 that we go over that goal, every team member gets $25 in “Bonus Bucks” to spend on lotion, upgrades, spray-tans, and basically anything within the salon. Last month, we blew our goal out of the water and they each earned $125! We’ve decided to change it up for this month and treat the team to a “fun night” – dinner, bowling or whatever they choose – if we hit this month’s goal.
Do it! Kick off your new PBP program now and watch sales soar to new heights!
