For decades, training has been considered one of the most tried-and-true ways to improve beauty retail sales and increase customer awareness. An entire B2B industry of consultants, sales advisors, and expert educators has popped up to help beauty brands reap the benefits from smart training programs. And yet, in an industry that can be tight-lipped about sales data, it’s difficult for emerging brands to understand the ROI on training programs.
While training undoubtedly works, many emerging brands struggle to maintain sales momentum in the weeks and months after completing training. With hundreds of brands and thousands of products to remember, beauty advisors often push the brands that are top-of-mind. So how can brands continue to hold beauty advisor attention?
Educate Consistently :
For most of us, repetition is essential to our learning. We might not remember information we’ve only heard once, but by the third or fourth time, that information is stuck in our memories for the long term. This is why it’s so important to continue reinforcing information about your brand and products AFTER you train. By repeatedly exposing beauty advisors to the same information, you can ensure that your brand stays in their minds.
Connect Personally:
For too long, brands have failed to recognize the immense insight that beauty advisors can provide about what’s happening on the sales floor. With no open channels of communication, many brands never hear valuable feedback that customers share with beauty advisors. That’s why it’s so important to build and maintain a personal connection with beauty advisors in your training program. By connecting with BAs on a personal level, you can build a more meaningful relationship and glean essential insights from the people who speak to your customers every day.
Reward Engagement:
With training, you have the opportunity to convert beauty advisors into brand champions. But in order to do that, you need to show just how much you value their engagement and expertise. Gratis is an excellent way to do that. In a survey we conducted with beauty advisors at Ulta and JCPenney, nearly 71% of respondents said that sharing their personal experience with a product is the best way to convince customers to purchase it themselves. This shows just how important it is to give free products to BAs. Those beauty advisors that are most engaged with your brand should receive more than just the standard gratis offering: look for ways to reward them for going above and beyond.
How Landing International’s BeautyFluent App Is Designed To Help
We created BeautyFluent to make it easier for brands to execute smarter training programs. Our app helps beauty advisors learn about your brand on the fly and continue engaging with your education even when you haven’t visited their store.
By scanning a product barcode on their phones, beauty advisors can instantly pull up product info and demo tips so they can learn on their own time. Every time they train and complete fun quizzes, beauty advisors earn points to cash in for products they’re interested in trying.
Rewards get sent directly to the beauty advisors at home so they are sure to receive the products they really want to try. Plus, beauty advisors can send feedback directly to you–creating a personal connection between brands and the salespeople that influence their success every day.
And that’s just the beginning. Engagement data makes it easy to see how your digital training initiatives on BeautyFluent have resulted in a lift in sales. With BeautyFluent, you’ll never have to wonder whether your training program is really working.
To learn how to join BeautyFluent as a brand partner, get in touch with our team at brands@landingintl.com.