Purchasing that new piece of equipment is a dream come true for many salon owners.
They’ve saved the money, done the research, read all the literature, talked to various manufacturers, checked out their competitor’s offerings and tested the equipment to ensure it works as promised – all the boxes have been ticked, and now they’re ready to sign on the dotted line and introduce the exciting new technology into their salon
But hold on a minute.
Have they really ticked all the boxes?
Unfortunately, the answer is a BIG ‘NO’ because they’ve skipped over the most important step and that is…
Finding out if their clients want the new technology-based treatments and, more importantly, will pay for them.
Just because the salon owner really loves the results the new technology delivers, it usually comes at a pretty high price and that means a higher price point for the client treatments also.
Now, this might be perfectly fine in some salons where higher priced services are already being offered to clients and are selling well, however, in many lower price-point salons it can result in that shiny new piece of equipment ending up sitting in a corner gathering dust for most of the time instead of returning that amazing revenue that the equipment suppliers promised it would.
So, what should you do before you commit to buy?
In a word – R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H. You need to be 100% certain that your clients will pay the price to have these new high-end treatments. This means surveying your clients in depth about any new and more expensive treatments you intend to introduce.
And it’s no good simply relying on the fact that the other salons in your trading zone offer these types of treatments because their shiny new piece of equipment might also be sitting in a corner gathering dust.
Ideally, ask if you can borrow the equipment for a week or two and then invite your key clients to experience a treatment. You can then survey them as to whether they would:
- Have this treatment on a regular basis, and most importantly
- Pay the required price to do so.
It’s also necessary to spend a little time doing your return on investment calculations.
You need to know how many treatments you have to deliver each day/week/month to, not only cover the cost of the equipment repayments but, also deliver a reasonable profit for that investment.
And it’s also important to keep in mind that new technology is hitting the market place at a rapid rate and that means if you have to repay your equipment loan over a long period of time, chances are your equipment is going to become outdated and therefore the treatments will be much harder to sell to your clients.
So, no matter how desperately you want to offer the latest whizz-bang technology to your clients, you have to be realistic and honest with yourself about whether your clients want it enough to pay the required price.
And if it’s out of their price range, resist the urge to ‘risk it’ and look for an alternative salon treatment that is affordable and will sell.