With salon/spa owners and managers under tremendous pressure to attract and retain clients, it's no wonder many of them are feeling frustrated. Since they don't know what marketing strategies or tactics work best, they're continually looking for that "silver bullet."
But in frantically looking for a silver bullet, they're driving themselves crazy. Instead of developing a marketing strategy, they develop marketing mindset schizophrenia.
So what is a marketing mindset anyway? It is how we think about marketing. It's our attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, expectations, fears, fixed positions, assumptions, and limitations. You could say our marketing mindset is the "water that we swim in."
With a schizophrenic mindset, the water becomes muddy and clouds a manager's approach to marketing. As a result, they avoid most marketing activities. Those activities key to client attraction and retention.
That approach ends up looking like "bare bones" marketing—printing some business cards, putting up some posters, running a promotion or two—"bare bones" marketing leads to skimpy results.
Why does a marketing mindset affect a business so deeply? You see, as leaders, what we focus on, what we believe, what we think, and what we assume, shape our actions. So it's only natural if we have a case of marketing mindset schizophrenia that we see marketing as something bad, something to be avoided.
What are some of these thoughts or beliefs owners/managers hold near and dear, although they may know they're not necessarily true? Ask yourself, how many of them do you operate from as if they were the gospel truth?
Marketing leads to rejection.
- If I ask for referrals, it will sound like I'm begging.
- Marketing doesn't work for this kind of service/business.
- I don't have the time to market my salon/spa.
- Only salons/spas with sub-standard services need marketing.
- I can't start until I know exactly what to do.
- I'm not qualified (educated, experienced, etc.) enough yet.
- Marketing is a bother and an interruption to prospects and clients.
These are only the tip of the iceberg! In working with clients, I've discovered most attach themselves to literally dozens of thoughts and beliefs that lead to marketing avoidance.
Is there an antidote for the marketing mindset schizophrenia? Some people know the antidote is to start questioning their mindset even before they have any observable evidence that it just may not be true. This is a simple but extraordinarily powerful approach, as it undermines your attachment to the beliefs that may be holding you back.
Once you start to inquire into your mindset, with the intention of discovering the truth, you may surprise yourself and actually realize the opposite of these beliefs are just as true or truer.
Learning and mastering this process of inquiry regarding various limiting marketing mindsets can transform your outlook about marketing forever. For many people, this has turned their experience of marketing from one of struggle, effort, and poor results, into an experience of ease, engagement, and consistently good results. It's the antidote to marketing mindset schizophrenia.
By Andrew Finkelstein, Principal, The Beauty Resource www.thebeautyresource.com