Holly’s Quest for “The Perfect Client”

Leon Valencia and Holly Mascarenas

After two years in the salon industry Holly Mascarenas, stylist at Headlines Salons in Pueblo, Colorado, had found she was working a lot harder than she wanted to and was no where near where she wanted to be in her career. Holly had stumbled into one of the most common pitfalls for salon professionals, too many “friend” clients.

One day, Holly decided to have 4 of her friends come in, after work for cuts and colors, thinking it would boost her sales, she worked a long 5 hours on them. Excited to see what she actually made she calculated what they gave her and what was spent on product and to her disappointment; she made $30 for 5 hours of work! Right then and there Holly knew something had to change. Holly began calculating her weekly average of what she was losing on her “friend” clients it turned out to be $104.00 per week, $416.00 per month, and $4992.00 per year! Those numbers shocked Holly into action.

“We are very business oriented at my salon.  I was introduced to the Top 20 Jump Journal my first day, we have development meetings once a month, and I have been to PTA. I had been really waiting for something like Step Up! Fast Track to Wealth to make that next step in my business, stated Holly. After the training Holly said, “Everyone at my salon is very supportive of the new goals I had, after attending Step Up.  Our salon mentor was very good at keeping my goals in front of me and helping me turn them into action.  It is very important to have someone you can talk to about your progress and having someone like Leon Valencia (our mentor) was a huge part of my success.  He would give me commendation just when I needed it.”

STCR/Service To Client Rate = Jumped to 1.98%
Perfect days per month after Step Up = 6

Armed with knowledge and support what is the biggest change for Holly? “The amount of ”friend clients” has gone down tremendously and the amount of referrals has gone up considerably.  Now my days are fuller and not with people who want discounts but with more “A” list clients and their referrals. The biggest change I have seen in those I work with and me, has been that we are all busier and we are learning that additional services make the world of difference!”

If you have a constant parade of “friend” clients visiting your chair, Holly has some advice for you, “A good starting point would be to talk with someone in your salon and come up with a script of what to say to friend clients. You will be surprised most of them will make the change from being friends clients to being perfect clients again without even knowing it. For those who don’t want to change, you can make up that time with a referral from another one of your A list clients.  Remember, A list clients send in other A list clients. Tell them you loved working with them and ask if they know others just like them, you would love having more clients just like them. They will remember the compliment and want to send in some of their friends.”

Holly self admittedly was a bottom 80 looking for her chance before attending Step Up! Fast Track to Wealth, where she was given the tools she needed to succeed and go to the next level. Holly’s last bit of advice, “As I said before, the results are almost immediate, but you have to want to change. Let the process take your business to the top. Remember you can only control what you are aware of. “