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10 The Colorist | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | thecoloristmag.com upgrade your income PHOTOGRAPHY (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): COURTESY OF L'ORÉAL PROFESSIONNEL; COURTESY OF LELAND; RYAN MCVAY Lotus Abrams EDITOR IN CHIEF labrams@creativeage.com I f you're making New Year's resolutions this year, here's one you should add to your list: Make more money in 2016. Feel like that's a challenging proposition? It's a lot easier than you may think—as easy as off ering to upgrade your guests' service—according to Jeff South, the founder of Intrigue Salon in Atlanta. I was lucky enough to hear South speak about this topic recently at Goldwell Global Zoom 2015. During his presentation, South told attendees that after experiencing an increasing number of upgrade off ers everywhere from hotels to airlines a few years ago, he wondered why upgrades weren't the norm at salons, and got to work creating an upgrade menu for his own salon. Intrigue Salon's upgrade menu, posted at eye level at each styling station, off ers eight to 10 services like low-lighting, color-balancing and SilkLift—Goldwell's premium lightener— priced from $20 to $30. T ese small menus have generated big profi ts for the salon. "Service upgrades now account for 10 to 14 percent of our gross revenues—that's more than $300,000 per year," South says. South keeps the language on his upgrade menus simple to encourage guests to ask questions, and he ensures stylists are fully trained on how to explain each service. "T ey should know at least one sentence about each item on the menu; I call that the elevator pitch," he says. T e menus are printed on high-quality cardstock and changed every few months to keep clients interested and engaged. Also key to getting the conversation started, according to South, is identifying which type of persona each client is. T e "controller" needs facts, stats and data; the "fashionista" is motivated by celebrity trends; the "experiencer" loves spending time at the salon; and the "essentialist" is a busy, on-the- go client "who wants to look like a million bucks in a short amount of time," South says. Beyond boosting profi ts—especially for junior stylists who have lower prices—upgrade services also provide salons with an eff ective means to diff erentiate themselves from the competition, according to South. Just make sure you don't call it an "add-on" menu, he says. "An upgrade gives you the feeling that you're doing something better for yourself; an add-on sounds like something that's just going to cost more," South says. "When you're creating your own upgrade menu, think about what can you can off er the client to make them feel better." upf ont i with the new The Colorist is ushering in the new year with two brand-new columns for 2016: ➻ Classroom answers colorists' burning questions, from def ning terminology and demystifying technology to deconstructing cutting-edge color techniques. And on the back page, you'll now f nd ➻ Color Story, a visual timeline charting leading colorists' rise to the top. 22 classroom 48 color story 2000