How team talk can boost your sales

Running a business requires you to use many skills, but the one that matters the most is communication with your team.
In order for hair and beauty salons to grow and flourish, you must create an effective teamwork culture that also encourages employees be good salespeople, and to do this you need good communication.

Your team must all be on the same ship and your role as leader is to bring them together, all working towards your business goals.

Meetings 101

Salon team meetings offer a foundation of good communication and gentle guided direction but they can feel daunting if they aren’t done regularly, or done only when something is not going as you had hoped. Here are some simple guidelines for effective team meetings.

Fight the fear and commit to doing them regularly.

Preschedule them into your appointment book even if you don’t know what your agenda is yet. Commit then figure out the agenda next. Start with monthly meetings and work towards making them weekly, even if only for a short period. Simply get started then give them time to evolve.

Pick the optimal time of day and week.

The earlier in the day and the earlier in the week the better. Staff meetings will lift motivation and productivity, so capitalise on that for the rest of the day and week.

Create and stick to your rules strongly so that the meetings don’t deteriorate.

For example, mobile phones should be on silent and it’s probably not a good idea to allow eating of food. Hair and makeup should be done prior if the meeting is in the morning, and you should finish in time to get the business ready before the first client.

Set a time frame and stick to it.

This means starting even if others are late and finishing the meeting on time even if agenda topics need to be forwarded to next week.

Take notes.

Make a note of any key decisions, who’s responsible for actions, and write down the dates for them to be completed.

Choose a chairperson, even if it’s not going to be you.

They are in charge of timekeeping and that the team stay on topic, which keeps people focused and on track.

Modes of team communication

Some weeks are crazy busy and getting everyone together or connecting with some people just doesn’t happen with client schedules. Thankfully you can utilise technology to increase individual or team communication.

There are a few ways to do this, like email or text messaging, but nothing is easier than using Facebook. Facebook allows you to create Secret Groups that you can invite your team to, in which you can hold conversations and communicate happenings to the whole team during the week. This is especially useful for sharing meeting notes, or letting everyone know if someone is suddenly away sick.

For private communication, you can use Facebook Messenger to communicate with individual staff members.

Everyone has a Facebook account, so you won’t need to ask your team to sign up to anything, and it’s much more inviting for collaboration than email is. Additionally, both Facebook Groups and Facebook Messenger will tell you who has seen your message and who hasn’t.

There’s no excuse for people who say they haven’t seen your message.

While there are many tools available at your disposal for team communication, they won’t be doing you any good unless they’re being used. Service- based businesses like hair and beauty salons are all about people, so to develop a culture where people come first, communication is necessary.

As the leader, it’s your job to communicate your business’s values to your staff. This is where salon team meetings are essential. You’re on a journey towards your larger business and sales goals, and on a day to day basis you need to communicate your vision to your team. This starts with regular salon team meetings, where everyone has the opportunity to be involved in the business goals, sales growth but also a place to voice their concerns. That communication needs a channel such as effective salon team meetings and utilising tools like Facebook to keep in touch.

More communication means less drama and more efficiency, less stress and a more sales. So get out there, and start commun­-a­-selling!