Certainly one of my favorite places in the world is definitely the barber shop. Although that wasn’t always the case during my long haired mid teen years, being a little kid I loved my barber. Bill had been a great guy. He had enough sense around the time I turned 10 to listen for a few things i asked for when it comes to a haircut, and what my mother told him to accomplish. And for the most part both of us were happy with the results, although my mother had some abnormal obsession in me not having any bangs, but that is beside the point. It also didn’t hurt that he had one of those particular old fashioned coke machines and I got a dime to obtain a bottle of soda after my hair cut was done. Obviously this is within the days when the family-run service station still ruled the countryside. And quickie marts and corporate monolith gas and grocery marts hadn’t moved too far through the cities. – barbers in greenbelt md
Over time, my childhood barber scale back his hours. He had experienced a long and successful career plus it was actually a one chair kind of shop in a small South Western Pennsylvania town. Eventually, I went away to school and when I came back he had retired completely. I had to go to find someone else to reduce my hair.
Since I had a few extra bucks inside my pocket, I used some of the fancy salons. Sure that they had these wonderfulcandles and couches, and all of these other luxurious services. Which were nice, which were adding income and margin to their businesses however it wasn’t why I showed up there to begin with. Not unlike lots of customers on earth, I knew a few things i wanted. I’d pay attention to new ideas but after the morning I had a darn good idea of the items my problem was. In cases like this my hair was getting shaggy and long and that i have around three wicked cowlicks on the front of my head alone. Because of that, I’m the type of guy who knows how he wants his hair cut. I’m not trying to find a new color and style. If I’m trendy or cool, i don’t care. I knew what I wanted, made an effort to communicate it clearly plus it never once translated directly into a repeatable output. They’d be too concerned about the skill of their profession. It wasn’t like I purchased an unsatisfactory haircut; I simply didn’t get the things i wanted. After a number of years at places like this I went the chain haircut strip mall route.
There are chain hair cutting places all over. They cost a lot under the fancy salons. Instead of overstuffed couches, there are plastic chairs inside the waiting area. The list of additional services was limited, but then again all I wanted was a good haircut done my way. Sadly, despite being easy to find, plentiful and well priced, the caliber of their work was hit or miss. As a customer, not knowing what outcome to expect is simply frustrating and it doesn’t make for good customer service. I really could never obtain the same person twice in a row. There was clearly no consistency. The poor kids cutting hair there have been new. New isn’t exactly bad. But when they had a license to hold around the wall, most had just finished school before several years. There’s nothing wrong with being new, all of us have been at some time or any other. Like many people who have just finished school, they had the fundamental concept of what you can do however they were missing the knowledge of how to refine things. There was not a mentor there to assist them in the process. Nobody truly skilled, that may offer insight and an experienced perspective.
Eventually, I wound up inside a little old barbershop with 3 guys cutting hair inside it. Two old guys and the “new guy”. In cases like this, the brand new guy was one of the other guy’s sons and he have been cutting hair for 22 years. Sure I wasn’t out in the nation anymore. And also by the standards of my childhood barber shop it absolutely was huge. In the end, there have been three barber’s chairs. Including the new guy had experience and had over time enter in to his very own. Not really that his original mentors didn’t still tell him what he was doing wrong. Soon enough he had developed their own perspective and was the main one I waited for over and over.
So what does any of this have to do with business and selling? If you look at it right, everything. Was the $60.00 hair cut six times much better than the $10.00 one? No! Price alone didn’t make it better, because it wasn’t what I wanted. Had any of the people in the process given me what I wanted and not the things they thought I needed, I’d certainly be paying reduced for his or her service. I also probably would have bought to the other high margin things every once in awhile along the way. Were the strip mall $10.00 haircuts equal to the $10.00 barber shop cuts? No! Even though the price was exactly the same, the client experience as well as the quality varied greatly.
Instead, I found somebody that listened and did what I asked. Even when you ask what your prospects want have you been really hearing what they are saying? Or are you hearing it from your perspective and failing to meet their demands? Odds are there are a lot of corporate buyers and business owners saying what they want and if you’d only listen to them and truly work to meet their solve and needs their problems then there is more business to be had than you would have ever imagined. This isn’t about fancy questions or dazzling sales moves. It’s about asking a few pre-determined questions, comprehending the person you’re speaking to and their real needs. Only after taking all of that in could you apply your knowledge, perspective and expertise to produce a good outcome on their behalf.
So, when I moved 5 states over a few years back and had to give up my barber yet again, I went about things differently. I drove beyond the half 12 newly sprouted chain places, beyond the ornate and glamorous ode’s to beauty which were very popular and discovered a simple little old shop in the middle of town with three old chairs and three barbers. Before, it fit my needs and also this one did too. Your clients are no different. Sure along the way there will always be the temptation to try something different, but most people won’t do that unless what they have isn’t really what they want and need.
Back in the barber shop I was the only guy under 50 in the place the first few times, but that didn’t matter because they cut my hair right and delivered that same predictable result time after time. Ultimately as increasing numbers of new people relocated to my town the typical customer age came down, so now they have got guys much like me who can hopefully certainly be needing haircuts long after the youngest barber retires. Recently they raised the price from $11.00 to $13.00, but as far I’m concerned it could have gone to $20 and I wouldn’t have flinched. They may be giving the identical great service as well as the same predictable quality every time I’m there. As a matter of fact, i’ve sent at least six guys there who are now regulars. Even though you’re not obviously in sales there is nothing quite like referrals.
And in case you’re not listening you’d better start before they find someone else that does. – barbers in greenbelt md
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