The importance of sales to our success in the beauty and barber business cannot be stressed more. After all, without sales, we don’t have a business. In this industry you can’t just be a haircutter, you need to also be a salesperson. You might not like hearing this because you became a barber or stylist to cut hair. But at the end of the day, you are responsible for getting your clients and retaining them and you are responsible for your own income. Barbers and stylists don’t generally get paid a salary like typical office workers. So your income can be both stable and variable. So as a hair professional it’s important to think like a business person.

When we think of sales we often think of someone being pushy and annoying. But sales is not always so direct. One way you can influence your sales is to specialize. What does this mean? It means specializing in one specific task. In the words of Ivan Zoot, in today’s world you are more defined by what you will NOT do instead of what you will do.

Do you do shaves? No

Do you do color? No

Do you do perms? No

So what do you do?  I cut hair.

I cut women’s hair.

I cut short women’s hair.

The more specific you get, the more specialized you are. Why is this profitable from a sales standpoint? Because…

If you are Everything to Everyone, you are Nothing to Anyone.

According to the long tail concept, when given a choice, most people will choose choice. What that means is, everything doesn’t fit everyone anymore.  People are seeking things that are highly specialized because we have more choices than ever before. And more often people will choose unique and special choices that they feel fit themselves and their lifestyle.

As a hair professional, according to Ivan Zoot, if you’re going to do world class haircuts for world class prices in a major city, you can’t do hair color. There is just too much to know. Coloring hair has become very complicated and so has haircutting. In order to specialize you must say no to a whole bunch of things so you can say yes to something that you are passionate and enthusiastic about and you can be the best at it. You business will grow bigger, better, faster and farther when you start to specialize and started saying no to everything else.

You can look at your business at two parts:

• What are You Selling
• Who are You Selling to

WHAT You are Selling:

You are most effective if you focus your sales efforts where you are the best. It’s like sharpening a spear. When you can hone in on what you selling in a specific way, you are specializing. Specializing in perms would be one example. Or like Ivan Zoot, he specializes in short, men’s military haircuts. For others it may be updos or color. Choose an area that you are good at and like to do.

WHO You are Selling to:

The second part is who are you talking to. Who are the best customers for everything you offer? Who is your target market? Is it for older people, women, men? Think about the hours you are open and your pricing as this can dictate your target market as well.

When you figure these two things out, you can have a recipe for specialization success. So if you’re ready to specialize, take everything you just read to heart. The more you can position yourself as the best in any given area, the more you can charge for it because people will pay for the best services. And that’s right…the more sales you will have. To watch a video by Ivan Zoot, click here.