Stop Apologising for Retail—Start Getting Paid

If you're treating retail like a side hustle, instead of a serious revenue stream, if you're recommending retail products like you're apologizing for an eggy fart, you are leaving money and client loyalty on the table. Today we are smashing retail excuses and digging into the mindset mess that's keeping you broke, and we're fixing it for good. Hello, hello, hello. Phil Jackson here, your queen of salons, coming in your ears again with another dose of Wise Owl Wisdom. How on earth are you achingly well? I hope. How's business? How's life? Here we are, middle of May. How's it looking for you? In fact, we're middle of the quarter as well, aren't we? Hearing mixed messages about May. Generally, things seem to be a little bit brighter. Better than Q1, but a few little patchy areas of concern. So how are things for you? How are we doing? Are we delivering on our goals? Are we slaying in 2025? Or have we got some work to do? And today, we are cracking open one of the juiciest, most loaded topics in salon life. We are talking about retail. And listen, I've heard every excuse under the sun from you lot over the years. I've heard, I don't want to be pushy. Or my clients can't afford it. Or I don't have the time. Or my favourite, I'm not a salesperson. And if I had a tenner for every time I heard those, well, I would still be ranting at salon owners to get the retail act together. But I'd be doing it from a private villa on the island of Mystique. So if you're ready for a little tough love wrapped up in retail gold, buckle up. And there's no advert or sponsorship for this episode. If you want to do something lovely for me, how about giving me a five-star review instead? Instead, it will take you less than a minute. And it makes me smile for, oh, rest of my day. So what's going wrong with retail? Well, we have a chronic case of retail apology syndrome in our industry. It's like you're ashamed to talk about these products like it's some kind of guilty secret. Well, newsflash. You're not just giving someone a haircut or a facial. You're shaping how they look and feel about themselves. And that extends way beyond the salon visit today.

Just ask anyone who's had to wait for their brows to grow out following a disastrous brow lamination service. Hint, hint. That might have been me. If you stop the care the second they walk out the door, you're not doing your job properly, especially with some of the higher end treatments that we're carrying out in our beauty salons now, where, to be honest with you, not making sure they're leaving with the proper retail recommendations isn't just lazy, it's downright negligent. You wouldn't send someone home with half a head of foils in. Why are you sending them out the door without what they need? To maintain their look. So let's start with, I don't want to be pushy. You think selling retail is pushy? No, my darling. Selling someone something they don't need is pushy. Recommending a treatment they don't need at the basins without any context, that's pushy. But if you want to see retail done in a non-pushy way, go to your favourite retailer, shall we? Let's go to Amazon and look at their recommendations. When you're buying something, or at least browsing something, a little section pops up with, other people have bought this item with this. Does that feel pushy to you? Not really. You either take it or leave it, don't you? Or if you buy something electrical on Amazon, perhaps you've noticed that there's very often the opportunity to buy an extended warranty. Is that being pushy? Not really. They're not forcing it down your throat. It's just a, do you want it or do you not? Well, my favourite analogy for this is, it doesn't really happen anymore in McDonald's, but it used to be if you were ordering your burger at the counter with a proper human being instead of a booth, then they would say, do you want fries with that? Was that them being pushy? No, I think they were just asking whether you wanted fries with that. They were giving you the opportunity to upgrade. Recommending decent aftercare to someone who's had a chemical peel, that's not being pushy. That's doing your bloody job. That's being a professional. And that's what retail is. It's about solving problems. And if your client's colour fades two weeks after your colour correction because you didn't talk to them about home care, well, it's not because you were avoiding being pushy. That's a disservice to your client. Or another favourite, my clients can't afford retail products. Well, you know what? Maybe some of them can't. But it's not your job to decide that. That's financial judgement wrapped in a shiny wrapper of fake empathy.

Your job is to offer the solution and let them make the choice. Because here's the thing, your clients are already spending, they're already buying those products from somewhere, and if it's not from you, it's from Boots or Amazon or their mate's dodgy multi-level marketing side hustle. How dare you decide a client can't afford something? What's in my wallet is none of your bloody business, darling. And I might be down to my last moth-eaten £20 note, but you can bet your boots I'd find the money for a decent vitamin C serum and some SPF. Or what about, I don't have the time? Ah, yes, my loves, the time excuse. Well, guess what? It takes no time because retail is not a separate appointment. It's baked into you doing a proper job. It's baked into the service that you're carrying out. So how do we do it? Well, we talk about the products while we're using them. And reinforce the benefits of those products. Tell them why during the service. And then if you need to, you can recap at checkout with zero pressure. If you want to keep this feel, if you want to keep this smoothness, if you want to keep that look, this is what I used on you today. It's not sales, it's education. Though don't sugarcoat it. Let's not call it something it's not. We want to be selling because selling is connecting people with a solution and it takes no time at all. And as I always said to my salon team, do your job first. Then you can talk about Celebrity Big Brother if there's time after. What I won't tolerate is people not doing their job, not talking about retail, not upselling, not recommending and me overhearing those Celebrity Big Brother conversations. That's just unacceptable. Well, here's the really juicy one that we hear time and time again. It's not who I am. I'm not a salesperson. Oh my goodness, this one's juicy. Darling, if you're someone who wants a thriving, profitable salon, then it is who you are. If you're someone who wants to offer their clients the very best in salon service, then it is who you are. I'm not asking you to morph into some shady, dreadful, cliched, used car salesperson. But you do need to stop hiding behind the identity of not being a salesperson. This is not an acceptable excuse to avoid stepping up and doing your job. People trust you. Don't abuse that. That's not what I'm asking for.

I'm asking you to retail because what retail is, is building on trust to create better results in the longer term. That's what retail is. It's continuity of care. It's about helping clients live in the look that you're giving them. It's not about flogging bottles. It's about solving problems. It's about strengthening results. And it's about showing professionalism. That's what salesmanship is. Every product you're recommending is a trust building moment. Use it, live it and believe it. So what do I want you to do this week? Well, first of all, I want you to reach out and let me know what I'm missing. I don't have all the answers. And I would particularly like to speak to you if you're slaying with retail in your salon business. Let me interview you. Let's share your story with my Build Your Salon customers, my Build Your Salon podcast audience, because I'm sure they would find some nuggets of information that you could add to their business, some wins that you could help them achieve. But in the meantime, just pick one product that you love, something that you would recommend to your mum. And this should be a tough choice, because to be blunt, if you don't love what's on your shelves, well, that needs looking at quite urgently, I would say. And then I want you to talk to every appropriate client about that product, not in a salesy way, just in a matter of fact way, and track how many people actually make that purchase decision. And spoiler alert, I bet you're going to sell more products than you expect to. So there we go, Salon Superstar. I want to hear what product you're committing to. Tag me on Instagram, philjacksoncoach, or DM me, shout it from the rooftops. Retail isn't dead, you're just scared of selling. But after today, that excuse has expired. Next week, we're going to challenge another, in fact, it's turning into Mindset May, darlings, isn't it? But next week, we're digging into pricing at the top end. So get your sass ready, get your calculator out, and I will see you then. Just seven short days until I'm coming in your ears again. Until then, take care. Sit down and see what's going on with the queen of salons. Hair, beauty, and more successful tips for business owners.

All on Build Your Salon.