We ask a lot of our customers:
Follow us on social media
Engage with us on social media
Read our emails
Click on our emails
Leave us a review
Sign up for text messages
Click on our text messages
Visit our website
Watch our videos
Learn techniques on our YouTube channel
Sign up for our events
Visit us at our offsite events
Tell your friends about us
... and come back soon!
Let's say the foundation of your marketing message is: Come back soon and bring a friend! There are three channels to convey this message:
1. Digital: social media, emails, texts, website
2. In-studio print/visuals: signage, fliers, posters
3. Person to person: staff and customer interactions, or "conversational selling"
What is the most effective way to get your Come back soon and bring a friend! message across?
Conversational selling.
This is where you can let your staff shine. They will need coaching and guidance, and you may not realize it, but you've been training them on conversation skills every time you work together:
- Lead the way. Be the example of how you want your staff to talk with your customers. Be natural, laugh, have fun - all while working your marketing message into the conversation (and you definitely want to be on our email list because the last one sold out quickly!) or how Google reviews are helping more locals find you (and we'd love yours, too!) and then show them the QR code to sign up for emails or leave a review.
- No one likes salesy, forced approaches. Your studio is already a natural conversational-type setting, so play up small talk and learn more about your customers*.
- Listening is key: these conversations are not about the staff, but the customer. Ask questions, learn and discuss. It's authentic engagement.
- Let the staff know you heard them! When they work marketing into a conversation (sign up for event, join our email list, etc.) recognize their efforts.
- Remind them they'll be discussing a lot of the same things over and over, and that's the idea! The more they do it, the more natural the delivery is.
- Have them pay attention when they're shopping in a new place: is there any conversational selling? How are they indirectly selling you on future visits?
* One of my pet peeves is employee conversation domination, as shared in a FB post from earlier this year. Side note: I haven't been back to that store, not because of what happened, but *maybe* because she didn't sell me on ONE reason to come back!
With any responsibility you give your staff, you'll have expectations. For your staff to meet those expectations, you have to give them the tools and training they need to succeed. Not everyone is comfortable with small talk or getting a conversation started, and positive reinforcement is key. Encourage your staff to support each other - they know who the talkers are, and who isn't. Celebrate the small victories as they grow in their comfort level with conversations.
But what about the signs we have (literally) everywhere promoting (literally) everything?!
Undoubtedly, print signage and posters serve a purpose in your studio, and they must be there. But the reality is, signs are easy to ignore or just not see - or they're seen AND ignored. A beautiful sign can list every benefit to that customer to following your studio on FB, but nothing is like a simple ask from a staff during a conversation at the table. That's where the marketing action happens.
Signs reaffirm what you're selling; your staff converts those messages into sales.
This is engagement on the highest level. This is conversational selling. And when you have staff that do this well, make sure they know that they're doing a really great job.
The confidence to do something new and/or uncomfortable grows by DOING. Continue to be the role model, support your staff and recognize their achievements.
PS: need help with QR codes for your signs? I'm here for that, member of not, just drop me a note : )
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