Cosmetics staff at stores like Sephora and Ulta help to bridge the gap between manufacturing and the end-user. Because a cosmetic’s store staff has the power to influence the success of your products by placing your newest releases directly into customers’ hands, how you educate these team members will greatly impact the overall success of your marketing strategy.
It can be hard to pass off the responsibility of customer interactions to cosmetics staff, but this article will provide three tips used by successful cosmetics brands in their education strategies to make this transition easier.
Tip #1: Get to Beauty Stylists First
Send members of your education team to educate stores’ new beauty stylists as they are hired -- don’t wait until they have been educated on your product by the cosmetics staff.
Don’t take the assimilation of new cosmetics team members lightly, especially if you’re talking about sales people in the Ulta or Sephora realm. The importance of someone in the Sephora Cast Member position appreciating and recommending your product in a genuine manner cannot be overstated.
It’s possible that new hires at Sephora or Ulta will come in contact with your brand for the very first time when they begin their cosmetics retailing job. Although the store itself will train incoming staff regarding best business practices and recommend using products and styles cohesive with the season’s trends, this training likely won’t include the ins and outs of your newest lip colors or expanded foundation availability.
Dior USA prioritizes this educational method and even includes the idea in their job description for the beauty education manager position. In addition to starting early with their behind-the-counter education, Dior focuses on a specific method of selling techniques branded by their D.I.O.R Art of Selling Techniques. These techniques outline the best practices for the way products should be sold by retailers.
Tip #2: Go Beyond the Product
Just like Dior demonstrates in their Art of Selling Techniques methodology, developing an arsenal of effective sales skills is just as important as a staff member’s knowledge of the products. Beauty stylists must have both artistry and business skills as they move your goods into the hands of consumers.
Balance in this way demands that everyone involved in the equation remains up to date in both relevant business practices and your seasonal offers. Stay educated in your own brand throughout everything-- if you aren’t putting out training materials relating to your most relevant and emerging products, then what’s the point?
NARS embodies this effort for education in every aspect of business in its post seeking a new regional education manager. By encouraging these initiatives to boost sales, NARS employs a business plan in which everyone can learn.
Tip #3: Use Data to Your Advantage
Don’t just trust the process-- collect relevant data such as the percentage of monthly sales increases and ROI over the time of your education plans to help you evaluate your progress in terms of campaign value and success.
It is important to monitor the success of specific campaigns even more than it is important to monitor store sales. If certain campaigns generate more sales than others, you’ll know they’re definitely worth pushing through the ringer a second time.
Newly acquired awards are an important way to measure the success of your education campaigns over the course of a longer period of time. Shiseido uses their recent Best of Beauty award as a bragging point on social media, and they can also rest assured that their methods of cosmetic staff education continue to benefit the entire brand.
In addition to monitoring programs to test their effectiveness in Shiseido’s job description for an education manager, the same job description reinforces the importance of Tip 2.
If you do not provide training materials and a clear methodology for cosmetics staff that will explain the best sales practices for your brand, in-store personnel will be unable to translate their interactions with customers into purchases. Avoid this inefficiency from the very beginning by beginning new campaigns the moment your retailers hire new cosmetics staff members. If you keep an eye on the success of your campaigns by performing routine tests and maximize these strategies, your education initiative will help keep you in the green.
Check out this post to see how these education tips can drive retailer compliance.
