A customer asks what he should be using. He is handed the most expensive thing on the shelf, buys it because it would be awkward not to, uses it twice and never asks again.
He would have bought something every eight weeks for years. One recommendation that felt like a sale ended it.
The checklist
Do these and product becomes a service rather than an upsell.
1. Ask what they use now
Before recommending anything. Half the time the product is fine and the application is wrong, and saying so builds more trust than any sale.
2. Ask how long they spend
Because a product needing five minutes of work fails somebody who does thirty seconds. It is the question that determines the right answer.
3. Match it to the hair, not the shelf
Thickness, texture, oiliness and length. A recommendation that ignores the hair in front of you is a guess with a price on it.
4. Match it to the style
Hold, finish, whether it should look touched or natural. Customers describe a look and need the product that produces it.
5. Explain how to use it
Amount, wet or dry hair, how to distribute it and what happens with too much. Most product failures are application failures.
6. Demonstrate it in the chair
Because a customer who has seen the result on their own head buys it, and one who has been told about it does not.
7. Say when nothing is needed
For somebody whose cut works without product. It costs one sale and it is the reason they take your recommendation seriously next time.
8. Offer the cheaper option honestly
Where it would do the same job. Recommending down is the single most effective trust building act available at a chair.
9. Explain how long it lasts
So a customer can judge the real cost. A tin lasting six months at a higher price is cheaper than a cheap one used constantly.
10. Explain the difference between types
Clay, cream, paste, powder and spray, and what each does. Customers buy by name and have no idea what they are choosing between.
11. Cover beard and skin products separately
Different needs, different routine, which belongs with beard and grooming service questions before booking.
12. Publish the range and prices
On the website, so customers can reorder without visiting and so a recommendation can be acted on later.
13. Offer to post a reorder
Because a customer who runs out between cuts buys elsewhere, and a message and a payment link keeps the sale.
13b. Keep the shelf small
A wall of tins nobody can choose between defeats the purpose and ties up money. A short range covering the common hair types, each with a clear purpose a barber can explain in one sentence, sells considerably more than a comprehensive display customers stare at and walk past.
14. Tie it to the consultation
Because the right product follows from the right cut, which is the ground in specific style and consultation questions, the same guided fit as frame selection and styling questions in practice and personalising product recommendations with a chatbot.
Getting started
Publish your range and prices, recommend from the hair rather than the shelf and take reorders at any hour. SpideyChat for barbershops answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.