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When I ran the marketing and sales operations for the Schwarzkopf organization, I often ran focus group sessions for individual salons, involving just a few of their clients…with salon staff present too. At these meetings we would discuss how clients felt about 1. Receiving styling ideas from staff, 2. Being given product recommendations for home use, 3. Having staff suggest salon services that had not been asked for, and 4. Knowing when to return for the next salon visit. All of these ‘issues’ were critical to the success of clients, the staff and the salon owner, and yet there would be constant arguments within salons about whether recommendations should be given in the various areas listed (‘we don’t want to be pushy’). I should also add that these salon issues had a big impact on our business too, as a supplier, because if salon services and products were not recommended and sold, then our sales would suffer too. At the meetings, which lasted about one hour, we would have coffee and other refreshments, plus the salon would show its gratitude to clients by giving them small gifts. I would initiate discussions on the subjects and to cut a long story short, the clients were always unified in their strong belief that they wanted all the ideas the staff could offer, but only if they were well intentioned and aimed at helping the clients to look better and feel better about their hair. The clients added that while they might not agree with some of the ideas, or they might not always have the time for other services, or they might not be able to afford some of the recommendations, they loved it when staff offered good ideas, and they liked to be ‘told’ when to return for their next visit.

Since I went to quite a lot of these meetings, I began to know more about salon opportunities for growth than our customers did…plus I was motivated by client comments about how much they liked ideas. This meant that my ‘selling-in’ ability was helped enormously, simply because I was able to help salons with ‘selling-out’ ideas. None of our competitors ran such meetings!

It is an unfortunate fact of business life, that most companies have very limited measuring motivation. The usual items to be measured are ‘how much does the customer buy?’, ‘what more could we sell to the customer?, ‘is business with this customer profitable?’, etc. All of these areas are important to know about, plus they are simple to measure…however they do little or nothing to help suppliers to improve critical knowledge about the markets they serve, and the mutual opportunities’ within those markets.

The bottom line of what all customers care about, even though most will not raise this subject with suppliers, is…improved results. Everyone wants and needs to achieve consistent success, at all times. The questions then are ‘do you know how to measure the path to success for your customers?’, and ‘are you prepared to sell success to your customers, rather than just trying to sell your products or services?’ One way to measure success paths is to talk with your customers and their customers, and another excellent strategy is to talk to your most successful customers…because they represent the benchmark for success. For example, if I looked for and found a salon that had very high retail sales, then I would know what is possible for most other progressive salons…plus if I asked the right questions of the high-achievers I would know how other salons could reach higher retail sales (other customers rarely reach the benchmark levels of success, but they always improve their performance…and therefore their purchases!). This kind of intelligence must be handled sensitively and responsibly, for example you don’t give the information to direct competitors of the high-achievers, plus you feed the high-achievers with success information they need too…in other areas.

My largest customer back then was Steve Ackerie (owner of the ‘Stefan’ salon chain), and I learned an enormous amount from him about how a salon could do better. Additionally, I was the only supplier allowed to do seminars for his managers, because Stefan knew that I knew the path to salon ‘success’.