Salon Retail Contest Ideas
that will Pump up Your Stylists
AND Your Sales!

It's time to get to the meat of Salon Retail Contest Ideas.

Remember that though your main objective is to increase your salon retail sales, it is also to develop your stylists into selling machines.

Contests are fun for everyone but not for the sole purpose of constantly rewarding your top salesperson. If this is all you are doing in the end it is a waste of your money. Your stylists will eventually opt out of future contests.

To have successful salon retail contests you need to keep the odds fair.  Whatever contest you run, make it a challenge for everyone.

How to Drive Salon Retail Sales Through Contests

It doesn't always have to be about who sells the most in a day or week.

Here is a list of different angles to push retail sales in a contest. Focus a contest on:

• One particular product line.
• One particular product.
• One particular "type" of product, like shampoo or hairspray.
• Number of products averaged per transaction.
• Number of individual items sold.
• Average retail dollar amount per client.
• Improvement % over last week or months sales.
• 2 person team sales.
• Whole team sales.
• 2 weak retail stylists vs. 1 strong retail stylist.
• Use specific products to grow a client base, like a men's product contest.
  

Salon Retail Contest Ideas

Salon Retail Contest #1

A Day at the Track:  Cut out paper horses. (Laminate them to use over and over) Put a finish line on the break room wall for the end of the day, or week. Let the stylists keep a running total on their own horse and move their horse to the appropriate spot in the race. Highest sales for the contest wins!  This is a good visual to see their progress.

Tip:  Every year the Kentucky Derby, Belmont, and Preakness are held on Saturdays. Extravagant hats are part of the events. These Saturdays would be great days to run this contest and allow your stylists to wear fun hats to work. The hats will keep them invested in the contest for the day.

Salon Retail Contest #2

Color Wheel of Fortune:  Cut out a cardboard circle and section into pie slices with colored magic markers to match the color wheel. Get a spinner at Hobby Lobby or make one with a duck bill clip and paper clip.  On each section designate a small prize, like a $5 Starbucks card, extra 15 minute break, etc. Every time a stylist sells a color product they get a spin on the color wheel.

Tip:  Make it a Vanna White theme one Saturday for this game. Encourage your stylists to wear sequined attire!

Salon Retail Contest #3

Grab That Dough:  Take a $20 or $50 bill. (Amount is up to you. How important is this contest to you? Does it fit into your budget? Will your stylists work for a $20?) Whoever makes the first retail sale of the day takes the bill. The next stylist that beats that sale then takes the bill.  The next one to take it will have to beat her sale, and so on.  At the end of the day the stylist who made the largest retail sale to one client will be the one holding the bill!  This one is fun for a Saturday to keep them moving in sales.

Tip:  If you have a high end salon you will not want your clients knowing you are pushing sales that day. You could have the manager hold on to the bill and substitute something else in its place. A tiara, for example, would be a fun way to pump the contest.  Whoever is wearing the tiara is ahead in the game. On the break room board keep the sales total to beat up to date.

Salon Retail Contest #4

Poker Run: You need one full deck of cards. This is a week long contest.  For every $20 in retail sold, the stylist draws a card from the deck. You must have a full hand of 5 cards in order to play, which means you will have to sell at least $100 in retail for the week to participate. Make the best possible hand you can from all the cards you have drawn throughout the week.  The stylist with the best hand at the end wins!

Salon Retail Contest #5

Bingo:  Design a Bingo card with a different product in each square.  The center is a free space.  Give each stylist a sheet to hang in the break room.  The first one to fill a row wins. This is an easy one day contest.

Salon Retail Contest #6

I Love This! :  This is a good one to run for Valentines Day because you can use the "Love" theme, but is still good to use any other time as well.  Have your stylists choose one product that they absolutely love. They will all most likely have different ones, it doesn't matter. Run this for a week or month.  Post the stylist's names with their chosen product. The stylist that sells the most number of her "product" wins!  Let them keep putting marks under their name every time they sell one.  The really good thing about this contest is it shows the stylists how easy it is to sell when you are passionate about a product.

Salon Retail Contest #7

Roller Set, GO! :  Get a basket and fill with rollers. Inside the rollers fill with pieces of paper with a prize written on it.  Every time a stylist sells the product of the day she gets to pull a roller and get a prize! (Get creative, like extra long break, free coffee next door, a manicure, a Saturday off, Christmas Eve off, movie tickets, free product)

Salon Retail Contest #8

Most Improved Player:  Run your stylists' retail numbers for the previous month. Have a one on one meeting with them and show them how they are doing in retail. Tell them all about the contest for Most Improved Player of the month. Get a great prize like new shears and put a big pretty bow on them. At the end of the month, the stylist who improved the most according to percentage wins the shears!  This way the contest is not favored by the strongest salesperson.  Everyone has the same opportunity to up their game!  It will also show you who is invested and who is not.  A month is plenty of time to improve one's skills.  Is it a training issue or a commitment issue?

Salon Retail Contest #9

Bowling for Dollars:  Make a design on paper of pins and write a different product on each. Put the easy to sell products in the front and the more difficult to sell in the back. Give each stylist a sheet.  When she sells one she can black out that pin.  The most pins knocked down at the end of the day wins.

Salon Retail Contest #10

Team Effort:  Promise the team an outing or BBQ Pool Party if they achieve X amount in retail for the month.  Make it a prize they can all get behind and benefit the salon with teambuilding.